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Arcane Mage: First Impression of the New Mage Talent Trees in Dragonflight
巨龙时代
由
Porom
发表于
2022/08/04，10:00
With the reveal of the Dragonflight Mage talent trees, our Arcane Mage writer Porom provides initial reactions and thoughts on this revamped system. We break down the Arcane Mage talent trees, discussing the new talents and providing some sample builds. Join us as we predict how this class could play in Dragonflight!
To learn about the best PvE talent builds in Dragonflight for this class, and export these builds into the game, please check out our Arcane, Fire, and Frost Mage class guides:
Arcane Mage Talent BuildsFire Mage Talent BuildsFrost Mage Talent Builds
Mage Dragonflight Class Tree
Class Dragonflight Talents - What’s New?
Dragonflight is bringing a new take on talents, instead of 7 rows of 3 options to choose from we will have trees that include many Arcane Mage spells and abilities as well as previous borrowed powers. The goal of these is to enable competing playstyles while providing a foundation for abandoning the heavy borrowed power model for class development. We will receive two talent trees, a class tree which is shared between all Mage specs, and an Arcane specific tree.
The Mage class tree enables some interesting utility pickups we previously did not have access to. The most notable entries are
浮冰
,
寒冰新星
,
冰锥术
,
碎冰
,
冲击波
, and
龙息术
. There are a lot of returning conduit powers from Shadowlands as well as some new talents which are definitely welcome, most notably
积聚护盾
.
While throughput options are all very familiar, there is yet another rework on
时间紊乱
providing a
节能施法
proc now instead of 4
奥术充能
s and giving the new
奥术涌动
buff in place of the old
奥术强化
buff (more on that in the spec tree discussion).
变易幻能
makes a return from Shadowlands and
流星
has migrated its way from the Fire talent tree into being a capstone talent.
Everything else will be immediately recognizable as basic Mage utility or some minor defensive conduits from Shadowlands.
Mage Dragonflight Talent Tree - First Impressions
My first impression of things was rightfully pessimistic, the class tree has some serious issues for Arcane Mages. To focus first on the positive points here:
冲击波
and
龙息术
are of particular noteworthiness for both mythic+ and PvP. I don't know if these options will enable Arcane to become more relevant in PvP, but it is definitely a welcome start. Being able to pair
浮冰
with
气定神闲
can enable some builds to perform their burst while being fully mobile. There are some interesting uses for
流星
, even though it is really off-theme for Arcane. These are the kind of tools that have been seriously lacking for Arcane over recent expansions.
Now for the negative points. The biggest issue in my mind is the heavy expenditure of talents at the bottom of the tree; because of this positioning and cost of talents, you can get 2 capstones and both stat boost talents (
安东尼达斯的魔典
and
罗宁的魔典
) by sacrificing our strongest mobility talent node (
闪光术
/
浮冰
). On top of creating issues like this, where a build is almost certainly going to be the best simply by having more throughput talents, the bottom talent branches having both a strong utility spell and strong capstone spell locked behind 3-point nodes reduces the freedom players have to choose utility options overall.
It is also strange that Arcane has had it's spec-unique defensive,
强化隐形术
made available via the talent tree to Frost and Fire, however
急速冷却
and
灸灼
are locked in their respective spec talent trees. There is a real likelihood that Arcane plays a build next expansion that does not offer it it's iconic defensive ability and this would also leave Arcane lacking heavily on defensive power. Additionally, there are a number of talents in the tree that are focused on defensive power but require 2-3 points and compete with a utility spell in some way or another and as a result you end up avoiding a lot of them. Compounded together, these issues leave me wondering if Arcane will end up being the weakest Mage spec defensively.
Overall, I think this tree was decently thought out for PvP but not as well for PvE, there are a lot of utility and defensive nodes that have some thoughtful choice making; however, the throughput options enforce extremely restrictive builds with how the tree is structured, particularly due to the 3-point node placements; I would love it if many of the 2 and 3-point talents were changed to 1 and 2-point talents and had more options spread out in a way that encouraged a bit more diversification. It is clear though that Arcane has gained quite a lot of utility and mobility options but perhaps lost out when it comes to defensives compared to Frost and Fire.
Below is a Class talent tree I put together for a build which is intended to be paired with the current Shadowlands meta of
璀璨火花
/
奥术祥和
. Note that
流星
is used as one of the later spells in your
璀璨火花
rotation.
寒冰新星
is primarily taken as a means to proc shatter outside of cooldowns, this would not work on bosses though; you would likely take
积聚护盾
for raiding or
冲击波
over
浮冰
for Mythic + perhaps.
View on Dragonflight Talent Tree
Arcane Mage Dragonflight Spec Tree
Arcane Dragonflight Talents - What’s New?
The largest item in this category, and the one I am most excited for, is the rework of our primary cooldown spell,
奥术强化
into a giant nuke that then buffs us with increased damage and mana regen. Along with these changes the spell has been rebranded to
奥术涌动
, from the small amount of alpha time I have spent using this it is extremely fun to use and actually feels like a cooldown that fits Arcane's theme much better. Another new addition is the choice talent underneath
奥术宝珠
, which contains the option of either
充能宝珠
or
宝珠弹幕
.
Making a return from Shadowlands are
璀璨火花
,
风暴虹吸
,
奥术祥和
,
奥术轰炸
,
虚空精准
, and
专注
. From other expansions prior to that,
奥术迅疾
is returning based on our Antorus set bonus,
预见
from the Legion legendary. Lastly, there are the semi-new
倾泻之力
and
强化奥术飞弹
which have appeared in many iterations of the game at this point.
Tuning will determine all things, but as it stands now it seems unlikely that many builds will be able to pass up the center part of the tree which contains our major cooldowns,
奥术涌动
and
大法师之触
, and the covenant ability which added some much needed spice in Shadowlands, I am of course talking about
璀璨火花
. Outside of this column in the talent tree there are a few notable powers that are strong but were inaccessible in previous iterations of talents or borrowed powers, this includes
启发
,
奥术魔宠
, and being able to have both
奥能回响
and
共鸣
.
There are also, however, some extremely weak talents, some of which are impossible to avoid. The biggest standout in this category is
三之准则
which is actually a dps loss in many situations due to it preventing
节能施法
from proccing. Preferably this would just get removed entirely as it no longer fits Arcane's kit unless we are just meant to have a /cancelaura macro in half our keybinds. The new
超凡专家
talent is unclear on how effective it will be at-a-glance, however some quick napkin math shows that it will likely be incredibly weak for a tier 3 talent that blocks one of our most satisfying spells to cast,
奥术宝珠
. Likewise,
虚空风暴
continues to appear in our talent tree despite it never being tuned or reworked to be a useful part of our toolkit, even if it somehow manages to be picked up and used, it is very disheartening to see it here, unchanged, again.
Choice Nodes
Currently we can choose either
风暴虹吸
, which adds a large int buff for fully channeling
唤醒
, or
强化唤醒
, which reduces
唤醒
's cooldown by half. Our second choice is
充能宝珠
, which gives
奥术宝珠
an additional charge, or
宝珠弹幕
, which causes you to fire off an
奥术宝珠
after casting
奥术飞弹
15 times. I would like to contextualize these effects a bit here, but first I want to draw attention to the fact that this is it, 2 choice nodes for Arcane Mages, for comparison: Frost has 4, Fire 5. We get 2, and they're hardly meaningful choices.
强化唤醒
is, in my opinion, probably dead on arrival with the rest of Arcane's toolkit giving more than enough mana - it is my expectation that we will have
唤醒
-less builds and that seems to be intentional based on the spell
唤醒
being so low in the talent tree. I cannot think of a current situation where you would require this much mana, even in an infinite burn build that seeks to minimize any casting of
奥术弹幕
, you will still have a full mana bar for 12 seconds every 90 seconds from
奥术涌动
and a mana refill from
唤醒
for 6 seconds every 120 seconds; combine this with the Class talent tree capstones and running out of mana is no easy feat.
风暴虹吸
is probably the clear winner here and that is despite the fact that it is a 2-minute cooldown and our other cooldowns are 45-seconds and 1:30 respectively. Overall this choice is likely only going to be taken as a talent if nothing else is available after your build is complete and the sims favor it over other options. In a general sense,
唤醒
at a baseline level should be a 1:30 cooldown, there's little reason to desync this by 30s when the end result is it being a 3-minute cooldown to match with every other
奥术涌动
.
Neither
充能宝珠
or
宝珠弹幕
seem like particularly strong effects in PvE, however in PvP I believe
充能宝珠
will be a welcome addition.
宝珠弹幕
seems like a half-baked attempt to give Arcane some ranged AoE tool but the issue is that 15
奥术飞弹
will take an incredible long time to bear fruit, even more so if you're not just spamming
奥术飞弹
over and over.
宝珠弹幕
has an additional concern in that the player has to keep an eye on the stack count for it as launching an
奥术宝珠
unexpectedly can reduce the value from
奥术充能
generation The other issue with this choice is that it is incredible deep in the tree for what it is and I do not think we will see this talent choice get much play in PvE at all.
View on Dragonflight Talent Tree
Arcane Mage Dragonflight Talent Tree - First Impressions
Overall, I am not happy with some things in the spec tree for Arcane. There are several over-arching issues with the tree's structure; there is an inherent lack of decision making, specifically with regards to utility, in how you construct builds due to how spread out the talent points are that are related to one another. There are several capstone and required talents that pose problems for the spec when it comes to function as well as fun. But it isn't all doom and gloom, there are some redeemable qualities, the playstyles people have enjoyed over the years seem to have some representation here, the
奥术涌动
rework is amazing and solves many issues that the old
奥术强化
/
超强能量
combo had, and many of the individual talent nodes are desirable in some build or another.
Contradiction Talents and Utility
To elaborate further on the problem of how talents are situated in the tree; many of the defining utility and damage talents directly require you to go through another talent which emphasizes a completely different area of gameplay to get them.
预见
, a mobility tool that is designed around single target, requires that you go through
弧光顺劈
, an AoE talent, to get it.
回响
, an okay AoE talent, is locked behind a talent that makes
节能施法
stack, when using
魔爆术
itself prevents that from ever happening and as well as
奥术迅疾
, a potent AoE talent, is locked behind multiple single target talents.
Some other utility spells end up competing with throughput options, this creates a special problem for PvE content where throughput is almost always selected at a higher priority than utility.
时空转移
, a mobility tool primarily used in AoE, is situated to compete with throughput options and thus never get picked up despite this being a core talent through most of the last 6 years. This is also true for
超级新星
, which hasn't seen real gameplay since Warlords of Draenor.
Compounding the issue of utility spells being unavailable through intuitive talent selection, there is the issue that many of our throughput options are spread through the tree in such a way that taking them all leaves us with few points leftover to grab those wanted utility points. These conflicts all together lead to us ending up with significantly less utility that feels like something interacting with our spec toolkit and while we have gained
浮冰
in the class tree for mobility, we have lost several Arcane-specific tools that have not been compensated for in the class tree. To expand on this, currently on live servers we have
气定神闲
baseline,
时空转移
on a talent row that competes with nothing useful, and we get a choice of
闪光术
or
气流
; with these new talents, we would get a choice from our class tree of
闪光术
or
浮冰
and a choice from a spec tree between
气流
,
气定神闲
,
时空转移
, or
预见
. Getting more requires a loss in throughput in some form or another.
Bad Talents
三之准则
is unavoidable as a talent in our first tier, but it is a damage loss in most situations.
How this talent made it in here I am not sure, it has negative synergy for us as mana is plentiful with how
奥术涌动
works now and removing the mana cost makes it impossible to proc
节能施法
. This effect really needs to be replaced with something new, entirely.
法力宝石
and
倾泻之力
are incredibly uninspired talents and the functionality issues that have plagued
制造法力宝石
have not been resolved in 2 years. We have to use an add-on and a macro in order to delete our
法力宝石
and conjure a new one; the item does not refresh with new charges like
治疗石
s do. This has been annoying to deal with at best for all of Shadowlands and the only saving grace for this talent is that it is in a position in the tree where we can completely ignore it's existence. Adding a buff to it with
倾泻之力
only means that we will have to macro it to
奥术涌动
, which also nullifies its incredible lackluster utility. I am not really sure how
法力宝石
made it's way into being a talent much less not just being pruned entirely - this spell is not fun and you could make
倾泻之力
give it 30% power and people will use it and it will
still not be fun
. Either change this to be something interesting or just get rid of it.
虚空精准
needs to buff
魔爆术
as well to be an effective talent, in it's current place in the tree you have to take it as a purely single target talent that blocks access to one of our most powerful utility spells in any content,
气流
. This would also be a welcome quality of life change, as accidentally consuming a
节能施法
with
魔爆术
is painful and very easy to do.
虚空精准
also has a significant bug that has prevented anyone from wanting to use it for as a Shadowlands conduit for the past 2 years; when you queue a
节能施法
buffed
奥术飞弹
immediately after
奥术冲击
, it will munch one charge of
虚空精准
and not buff the
奥术冲击
.
The Worst of It
Lastly, I want to talk about fun and how important
奥术宝珠
is to Arcane Mages. While
大法师之触
is the spell that made Arcane a relevant powerhouse at times in Shadowlands (most notably in Sanctum of Domination and in Mists of Tirna Scythe/Spires of Ascension),
奥术宝珠
is what made the rotation overall enjoyable; there's more to do than just burst, the time in-between mattered. But more than just being relevant damage-wise, the time in-between felt good,
奥术宝珠
is possibly our most satisfying single cast spell and any Arcane Mage in the community would argue that this should be more-or-less a baseline ability. It being a capstone guarded by the lackluster, 2-point talent
超凡专家
is awful; I would argue there is no reason to gate
奥术宝珠
that far down into the tree, it makes the spec less fun and it's bad enough we still do not have
闪回
back.
Arcane Mage Dragonflight Talents for Raiding - How Strong is It?
If I had to build a raid spec now, I would likely go with the Shadowlands favorite of Spark-Harmony build:
View on Dragonflight Talent Tree
This build would play exactly like live but with a couple of twists, with
流星
available, we will opt to use that as our third
璀璨火花
charge and use
奥术涌动
with
奥术弹幕
queued to double dip on the final stack, this means that instead of our opener using
能量符文
to stack
奥术祥和
, we'll instead stack
奥术祥和
unbuffed, then
能量符文
with
璀璨火花
to stack with and
大法师之触
before our
奥术涌动
cast. A big reason why I believe this will be the way to go is that
奥术涌动
does not benefit from the
能量符文
it drops so this ensures that we not only get an absolute massive
奥术涌动
off but also our
流星
should land inside of
大法师之触
. With this much cleave and funnel stuffed into a single window, Arcane should find a niche in some raids with this build anytime adds are near a priority target.
变易幻能
provides some faster pacing for every minute and
浮冰
ensures that the most key spells in our burst window are covered for mobility.
Alternatively, you might swap
奥能回响
for
风暴虹吸
if tuning favors it more, and you can also sacrifice
奥术轰炸
if there is no reasonable execute opportunity. For utility you just take what you can use for the encounter, the choices are all pretty direct, the only oddity is that you can trade
冲击波
for
寒冰新星
but you also trade crit for haste doing so.
The biggest difference here between this and live is, unfortunately, as we discussed before; this build leaves
奥术宝珠
out of range to be attainable. However it is worth noting that the faster cd recharge provided by
变易幻能
could be quite the buff in some Mythic + situations as
变易幻能
provides quite a decent dose of AoE damage when combined with
流星
. The utility trade off we're forced to make is also pretty unfavorable, we have had to forgo
强化隐形术
,
时空转移
, and
气定神闲
to get
浮冰
,
冲击波
, and
龙息术
. This leaves us being a lot less defensive and mobile overall, but gives us a large boost in utility over the live game.
Conclusion
I think Arcane has a long way to go, but the base ideas are definitely there and can be molded into something terrific, the biggest points of weakness are how inflexible talents are after you've got your necessary throughput due to how the tree is structured,
奥术宝珠
being inaccessible to many builds, and a few talents that do not really belong in our toolkit. Hopefully as Blizzard iterates on Arcane Mage we get something a bit more forgiving on what you need versus what you want.
Interested in playing Mage now? Check our out live guide for Arcane Mage!
Arcane Mage Guide
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