Developers' notes: After listening to feedback and more playtesting, we are returning both charges of
Shimmer at a slightly higher cooldown cost. Our goal with the change was to bring more it inline with the other talents on the row, but in doing so,
Shimmer lost a lot of its identity. If the other talents on the tier continue to underperform, we'll look at ways we can enhance them to be more attractive options while up against
Shimmer.
Developers' notes: Compared to some of the other abilities, these two landed a little flat and overlapped a bit too much with each of the Barriers.
Radiant Spark (Kyrian)
This is a flat damage increase, and is probably the one most players will end up taking as it just works in all situations (which makes it unfortunate that the Kyrian Signature Ability is by far the weakest compared to the shields, movement speed increases and teleports of the other Covenants). The low cooldown is great and the damage increase is of course useful. My biggest recommendation for
Radiant Spark is to make the debuff a longer duration, so that the spell can feel less rushed when utilizing
Rune of Power and
Pyroclasm. Another concern is that different travel times on spells make it awkward to play ‘correctly’ and line up your biggest damage spell with the fourth stack.
Mirrors of Torment (Venthyr)
This spell will almost never get its full value in PvE, as NPCs rarely cast frequently enough to consume all three stacks, plus you generally want to be interrupting their spells anyway. The cast speed slow effect, while useful, makes proccing the root + silence at the end even less likely. In addition it appears to just simply not work on most PvE bosses, and in PvP begs to be dispelled.
Deathborne (Necrolord)
Another contender for the default option, this ability has the advantage of having a use in cleave situations, although the cooldown is much longer than
Radiant Spark. In addition,
Fireball and
Frostbolt don’t deal a huge amount of damage anyway, so the Necrolord Covenant will be less attractive for these specs than it is for Arcane - which, again, pushes all Mages towards Kyrian.
It really confuses me that this spell affects
Fireball,
Frostbolt, and
Arcane Blast when one of these is clearly not like the others (historically Fireball and Frostbolt are both used as "builders" to gain procs and contribute very little to your overall damage). Unless the spell is changed to make
Pyroblast cleave, it won't provide much more than just 10% spell damage which is hardly worth it given the cooldown.
Shifting Power (Night Fae)
Aesthetically this is by far the best-looking Covenant ability, but that’s where the attraction ends. Being forced into melee range is traditionally unhealthy for casters (we’re treated as valid targets for ranged mechanics no matter where we stand), and standing still for six seconds while the spell channels is even worse. Coupled with the fact that it only ticks every 1.5 seconds (so four instances of damage/cooldown reduction), and the cost of interrupting the spell becomes even worse. On top of all that, it’s only three seconds of Cool Down Reduction (CDR) with each tick, so just 12 seconds per full channel. With a 45-second base cooldown, that is a lot of channelling to make
Shifting Power worthwhile.
Summon Steward (Kyrian)
On its own, getting another consumable that removes harmful effects (Curse, Disease, Poison, and Bleed) can definitely be useful, but the issue with this spell is the opportunity cost of picking it. This is by far the weakest and least useful of the signature abilities. I can see fringe cases where removing certain harmful effects will be extremely useful in raids, but I still think having a movement ability or 20% absorb shield will be more useful overall.
Door of Shadows (Venthyr)
A one minute cooldown to teleport 35 yards is a pretty big gamechanger, especially in Mythic+ as it allows you to skip packs (similar to
Awakened or
Shroud of Concealment). Unfortunately for Mythic+ players, this ability is linked with
Mirrors of Torment which means the cost to getting access to skips comes at a steep price. For Mages in raid, this ability functions as an additional gap closer, which is especially useful due to the increased cooldown of
Shimmer.
Fleshcraft (Necrolord)
From a high end raiding perspective, an absorb shield for 20 to 50% of your maximum health is by far the most exciting ability to imagine on encounters with extremely high damage on a timer. This ability is essentially a self
Life Cocoon and I can't wait to see it in action. Unfortunately, unless
Deathborne is changed, we will likely never run this covenant as Fire mages.
Soulshape (Night Fae)
By far the coolest and most visually interesting of the signature Abilities, this shapeshifts you increasing your movement speed and provides a small
Blink with
Flicker. Hopefully I don't need to explain to Mages why
Blink is useful. We will likely never run this covenant as Fire mages due to its pairing with
Shifting Power.
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