Class deep dive: Mage and Shaman in WoW: Forever

Blizzard continued its class deep dive series with two more classes: Mages and Shamans. For Mages it is all about choosing the right spell at the right moment, with more room for builds that mix the schools of magic. For Shamans the goal is to make totems and weapon imbues far less of a chore in the middle of a fight. Here is every change.

For every class

Talents start at level 10.
The familiar one-point milestone talents at 11, 21 and 31 points get company: a new milestone at 16 points.
You change your talents, Legacy talents included, at a class trainer in one of the major cities.
Dual Specialization unlocks at level 40.
Everything can still change during the beta.

Mage

Baseline abilities

Comprehension (new): a minor tradeskill only Mages have. You read and decipher scrolls that creatures drop, with all kinds of benefits you discover while playing. You use it with Comprehend Scroll, in the General tab of your spellbook.
Cone of Cold: shorter duration. Part of a fix against gold farmers and boosters who kite huge packs of mobs for easy gold and experience.
Frostfire Bolt (new, level 40): counts as both a Fire and a Frost spell, so most talents for either school make it stronger. A 3 second cast that hits hard like Fireball and leaves a debuff with damage over time and a slow. It uses your higher bonus of Fire or Frost spell damage and the target's lower resistance of the two. This opens up hybrid builds: with Ignite and Ice Shards, a critical Frostfire Bolt deals 200% damage plus another 40% of that as Ignite, 280% in total.
Mage Armor: more mana regeneration from Spirit.

Arcane talents

Wand Specialization: full effect with only 2 points.
Arcane Focus (redesigned): more chance to hit with Arcane spells.
Improved Channeling (was Improved Arcane Missiles): now also protects Arcane Blast against being interrupted by damage.
Arcane Subtlety: moved down to row 2. Ignores a bit more resistance, but reduces the threat of Arcane spells a bit less.
Magic Absorption: a 1 second cooldown on its effect, to stop abuse.
Arcane Concentration: much lower chance to proc when you cast spells of a far lower rank. Gold farmers used to "fish" for free procs with cheap low ranks. Blizzard applies the same penalty to similar free-effect talents of many classes.
Arcane Resilience: moved up to row 2, no longer a gold medal talent, and full effect with 2 points.
Arcane Geometry (new, row 3): more range for Arcane spells.
Arcane Impact (was Improved Arcane Explosion): now raises the critical strike chance of all Arcane spells.
Arcane Blast (new 11-point gold medal talent): a new take on the spell from early expansions. A 2.5 second cast that hits, then raises the damage of all your other Mage spells and its own mana cost, stacking up to 4 times for 8 seconds or until you cast something else. The old version made Mages spam one spell; this one makes you build stacks and then use the rest of your toolkit.
Arcane Shielding (was Improved Mana Shield): Mana Shield gets cheaper, and Mage Armor now gives more resistances.
Improved Counterspell: with just 1 point you now always get a short silence, instead of a 50% chance at a silence.
Arcane Meditation: more mana regeneration from Spirit while casting. Now requires Arcane Concentration.
Missile Barrage (new 16-point gold medal talent): Arcane Blast, Fireball, Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt can make your next Arcane Missiles channel twice as fast and cost no mana. Arcane Blast has double the chance.
Arcane Mind (redesigned): raises Intellect instead of maximum mana, and the critical strike damage of Arcane spells. No longer requires Arcane Resilience.
Arcane Instability: no longer requires Presence of Mind.
Arcane Power: now requires Presence of Mind.
Magic Attunement is now baseline.

Fire talents

Wake of Fire (was Improved Fire Blast): moved up to row 1. Lowers the cooldown of Fire Blast even more, and every time you kill a worthwhile target your next Fire Blast gets a big boost to its critical strike chance.
Incineration (was Incinerate): moved up to row 1. Now also raises the critical strike chance of Ice Lance and Arcane Blast, next to Fire Blast and Scorch.
Improved Fireball: also shortens the cast time of Frostfire Bolt.
Ignite: every Mage now has their own Ignite debuff, instead of all Mages sharing one like in Classic Era. That fixes threat and damage credit. Crits that land very close together no longer lose damage, just like in Season of Discovery.
Impact: lower chance to proc with low rank spells.
Burning Soul: full effect with 3 points.
Improved Scorch: the debuff now only helps the Mage who applied it.
Heating Up (new, row 4, requires Pyroblast): critical hits with Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Fire Blast and Scorch make your next Pyroblast cast 25% faster, stacking up to 3 times. At 3 stacks Pyroblast is a 1.5 second cast. This is Forever's version of Hot Streak.
Blast Wave: no longer requires Pyroblast.

Frost talents

Elemental Precision: now gives more chance to hit with Fire and Frost spells, instead of lowering the target's chance to resist.
Permafrost (small redesign): Chill effects now last 11/22/33% longer instead of 1/2/3 seconds, so Improved Blizzard doesn't get stretched too far.
Frost Channeling: moved up to row 3.
Ice Lance (new 11-point gold medal talent): instant, low damage, but 300% more damage against Frozen targets (or targets treated as Frozen through Fingers of Frost).
Improved Blizzard: the slow now tops out at 40% instead of 65%. Frost Mages AoE farming dungeons was a favourite trick of gold farmers and boosters.
Ice Block: moved up to row 4 and is now the 16-point gold medal talent.
Shatter: no longer requires Improved Frost Nova.
Cold Snap: moved down to row 5, now the 21-point gold medal talent, and its cooldown goes from 5 to 10 minutes.
Fingers of Frost (new, row 5, required for Ice Lance): your Chill effects can give you 1 or 2 charges. While you have them, your spells treat the target as Frozen.
Winter's Chill: only helps the Mage who applied it, and the extra critical strike chance now only works for Frostbolt and Ice Lance.

Blizzard's view of the class: Mages stay one of the strongest damage dealers, with Polymorph as top crowd control and the best and most varied ranged area damage. In melee they fold quickly. Arcane spends mana for more damage, Fire hits hard with big crits, Frost brings control no one else can match. And of course they bring buffs, food and water to every group.

Shaman

Baseline abilities

Totems: global cooldown of 1.0 second instead of 1.5.
Buff totems last 5 minutes instead of 2. Totems with a short duration stay the same.
Totem tracker: a new display shows which totems are active and how long they last. Right click one to dismiss it right away.
Resistance totems now work for your whole raid group.
Weapon imbues (Frostbrand, Flametongue, Rockbiter and Windfury Weapon) last 60 minutes instead of 5, and can now be active together with sharpening stones, weightstones and wizard oils.
Fire Nova: the Fire Nova Totem is gone. The new Fire Nova spell explodes at the spot of your current Fire totem, so you can place one Fire totem and blast its area again and again.
Windfury Totem: no longer a weapon enchant, but a buff for your party. A Shaman with Windfury Weapon on their own weapon doesn't benefit, and it doesn't stack with Grace of Air or Flametongue Totem.
Flametongue Totem: also a party buff now instead of a weapon enchant. A Shaman with Flametongue Weapon doesn't benefit, and it doesn't stack with Windfury Totem.
Tranquil Air Totem: removed.
Totemic Projection (new, level 22): teleports all your totems to a new spot within 30 yards. 1 minute cooldown, costs 25% of your base mana.
Totemic Recall (new, level 20): instantly destroys all your totems and refunds 25% of their mana. On the beta the refund doesn't work yet (bug).
Call of the Elements (level 20): unlocks the totem bar. Set up 4 totems, one of each element, and summon them all with one 3 second cast, for their combined mana cost.
Call of the Spirits (level 30) and Call of the Ancestors (level 40): a second and a third set of 4 totems.
Lightning Bolt: rank 4 and up now cast in 2.5 seconds instead of 3, with a lower spell power coefficient to match.
Chain Lightning: every rank now casts in 2 seconds instead of 2.5, also with a lower coefficient.

Elemental Combat talents

Convection: also makes Lava Burst cheaper.
Concussion: no longer affects Frost Shock and Flame Shock.
Reverberation: moved up to row 2.
Call of Flame: also raises the damage of Flame Shock, Fire Nova and Lava Burst.
Elemental Devastation: moved up from row 4 to row 2, mainly to tempt Enhancement Shamans into putting points in Elemental.
Elemental Focus: lower chance to proc with low rank spells.
Elemental Alacrity (was Lightning Mastery): moved up to row 3, full effect with 3 points. At max rank it makes Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning only 0.5 seconds faster, but it also speeds up Lava Burst. It used to sit deep in the tree and was twice as strong as similar talents of other classes.
Improved Fire Nova (was Improved Fire Totems): more damage and a lower cooldown for Fire Nova.
Eye of the Storm (redesigned): now always protects Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Lava Burst against pushback from damage, not only after you take a critical hit. Useful everywhere now instead of only in PvP.
Call of Thunder: moved down to row 4 and now requires Elemental Alacrity. It is the 16-point gold medal talent: 3% more critical strike chance for Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning.
Elemental Reach: also up to 6 yards more range for Fire Nova and Lava Burst, and up to 15 yards more for Flame Shock.
Lightning Overload (new, row 5): every Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning has a chance to instantly cast a second copy for free, at half damage and without threat.
Earthbound (new 21-point gold medal talent): Earthbind Totem roots nearby enemies for 5 seconds the moment you drop it.
Elemental Fury: moved down to row 6 and now requires Call of Thunder.
Lava Burst (new 31-point gold medal talent): a 2.5 second cast that deals Fire damage, 20% more if your Flame Shock is on the target. 10 second cooldown.
Removed: Elemental Mastery. A classic, especially in PvP, but Blizzard says it held the class back: they could not raise Elemental damage in PvE without making it far too strong in PvP with this talent around.

Enhancement talents

Earth's Grasp: moved from Elemental to row 1 of Enhancement.
Thundering Strikes: moved up to row 1, and now raises the critical strike chance of all spells and attacks instead of only weapon attacks.
Ancestral Knowledge: raises Intellect instead of maximum mana.
Mental Dexterity (new, row 2): gives Attack Power equal to a percentage of your Intellect.
Improved Ghost Wolf: rank 1 lets you use Ghost Wolf indoors and casts it 1 second faster, rank 2 makes it instant.
Elemental Weapons: moved up to row 3.
Shamanistic Focus (new 11-point gold medal talent): Shocks and Lightning Shield cost a lot less mana.
Anticipation: twice as much dodge chance.
Toughness: raises Stamina by a percentage instead of armor.
Flurry: 5% attack speed per point, up to 25% (was 30%). Now requires Mental Dexterity instead of Thundering Strikes.
Stormstrike: now the 16-point gold medal talent instead of the 31-point one. Cooldown 8 seconds instead of 20. It now makes your next Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning or Earth Shock deal 20% more damage, instead of buffing the next 2 Nature attacks from anyone.
Spirit Weapons (was Parry): lowers your threat when you don't use Rockbiter Weapon and raises it when you do. Enhancement deals competitive damage now, and can still step in as an emergency tank in small groups.
Mental Quickness (new, row 5): raises your spell damage and healing by a percentage of your Intellect.
Improved Stormstrike (new, row 5, requires Stormstrike): Stormstrike can let you regenerate mana while casting, and dodging or parrying can reset its cooldown.
Maelstrom Weapon (new, row 6): melee attacks can stack Maelstrom charges that shorten the cast time of Lightning Bolt. With enough ranks and charges, Lightning Bolt becomes instant.
Rage of the Farseer (new 31-point gold medal talent): a 3 minute cooldown that gives you 30% attack speed for 25 seconds. Inspired by Heroism and Bloodlust, but just for the Shaman.
Removed: Shield Specialization.
Now baseline: Enhancing Totems, Two-Handed Axes and Maces, Weapon Mastery and Improved Weapon Totems.

Restoration talents

Totemic Focus: moved up to row 1, and also makes Totemic Projection and the Call spells cheaper.
Mindfulness (new, row 2): lets you regenerate mana from Spirit while casting. Placed early on purpose, so Elemental Shamans can reach it too.
Natural Grace (was Healing Grace): moved up to row 2, and now lowers the threat of all your spells.
Tidal Focus: also more chance to hit with all spells and attacks.
Improved Reincarnation: also raises your maximum health by a percentage.
Ancestral Healing: moved down to row 3.
Healing Focus: full effect with 3 points instead of 5.
Water Shield (new 11-point gold medal talent): a new shield (only one shield can be active). Its 3 globes give you mana when you get hit or when one of your heals crits.
Tidal Mastery: no longer affects Lightning spells.
Restorative Totems: the bonus to Healing Stream Totem is doubled.
Mana Tide Totem: now the 16-point gold medal talent instead of the 31-point one.
Healing Way (redesigned): Healing Wave heals for a percentage more.
Riptide (new 31-point gold medal talent, requires Healing Way): an instant heal plus a heal over time for 15 seconds. Chain Heal is 25% stronger on targets with your Riptide. 6 second cooldown.
Removed: Nature's Guidance.

Blizzard's view of the class: Shamans are the masters of totems, and choosing and placing the right totems stays what sets a good Shaman apart. They can deal melee or spell damage or heal a raid, wear mail and a shield and are among the sturdiest classes, but they have no real crowd control and need their group for that.

What this means for Legends of Azeroth

Great news for our Shamans: 5-minute totems, a totem bar with three sets and Totemic Projection make raiding a lot smoother, and Windfury is now a party buff. Mages get real Fire and Frost hybrid builds through Frostfire Bolt. Share your builds in the Mage and Shaman class forums!

Source: Blizzard Entertainment at https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-gb/news/24302097
Images: Blizzard Entertainment.