Wrath Of The Litch King: A Magey Perspective

Well. Now that we have all this leaked alpha information, and the confirmed stuff thanks to WWI, I guess I can’t really ignore it anymore. So. Let’s talk about Wrath of the Itch Kind, shall we?

First off, let’s discuss the Evocation changes.

As it stands now, Evocation is a nice mana restorative ability for the mage. 60% of total mana every 8 minutes isn’t much, but more often than not, it can make all the difference in the world when it comes to lengthy fights.

I, for one, actually like the direction Blizzard is taking with Evocation. Essentially copying Innervate from druids, Evocate will now restore 60% of the mana pool of anyone within the raid, and it no longer has to be channeled by the mage. So natch, mages will be in high demand by healers. Hazzah! I’ve always wanted to be loved by healers, instead of looked at with confusion when I’m fighting the tank for aggro.

The only downside I can see is that mages will never be allowed to use Evocate on themselves. Except maybe Brutallus style fights.

The addition of Arcane Rejuvination is… odd, I suppose is the best way to describe it. A near end tree Arcane talent, it restores mana equal to 25% of the damage dealt on any critical hit, by an arcane spell. I mean, yeah, this is fantastic, to be sure, mana troubles was the biggest issue arcane mages had this side of Mortal Strike, and this will definitely fiz that… but. It feels too much like they’re just ripping off Master of Elements from the fire tree. Is it really so much to ask that we solve class issues without rampantly stealing from elsewhere?

And the proposed changes to Counterspell? Are you out of your mind? I mean, yeah, the idea of a passive counterspell is really cool as an idea, but in reality, all it would do is destroy PvP. The whole point of having a spell that counters is to actively interrupt an enemy, not have a chance of interrupting an enemy whenever they cast a spell.

I’m sorry, but a parry mechanic, except in reverse, just doesn’t suit mages.

And speaking of stuff not suiting stuff, what the hell is up with this ecologically senstive bull excrement?

The reign of Arthas threatened by… global warming? Are you serious? You cannot be serious about this. And yet they ARE.

It does have a somewhat compelling aspect to it. Melting the frozen north of Northrend would have the desired effect of practically ruining Arthas’ kingdom, but it would also ruin Azeroth as we know it…

Blah blah environment political dung.

And they’re going to have two different factions to it too! You can side with the environmentalist night elf type faction, going around saving the environment. Once you hit exalted, you get access to their epic mounts, that come in both ground and flying types. The ground one is a small hybrid vehicle, the best that gnomish engineering can provide, running off both solar power, small quantities of gunpowder, and pretentious thoughts. The flying mount is actually a rather spiffy looking air balloon, powered by Tauren farts.

Of course, if that sounds far to sissified for your tastes, you can always side with the “bad guys”, so to speak. This faction is called the “Beefmongers”, and they sure do act like it. You can gain rep with them by killing helpless animals and desecrating their corpses in various fashions. Hit exalted, and you can ride in style in a massive Humvee decorated with the skulls of kittens, or fly in the sky in a massive zeppelin made from solid iron strip mined from beautiful landscapes.

Both use baby seals for fuel.

Ok. Seriously. Wrath of the Itch King is in ALPHA, people.

CALM DOWN.

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