Brilliant!

There are two version of Brilliance Aura. The WWIII version restored a flat mp5 value to all friendly mana users around the mage. The WoW version (the one Jaina uses) doubles their spirit value.

Both would need to be reworked significantly for use in WoW. The spirit doubling version only severely exacerbates the issue that needs to be fixed in the first place. (Your house is on fire? Here’s a bucket full of gasoline) and severely restricts the classes it would be useful for.

The mp5 version is a little more interesting.

First off, mages have traditionally not been a utility raid class, and you can bet there will be plenty who complain about becoming one.

Mages don’t particularly want to be a utility class in the same vein that, say, shaman and paladins are. Yes, we bring things to a raid other than raw damage (CC, biscuits, portals, an intellect buff, raid wide spell crit), though it’s not nearly to the same level that other classes bring.

Before LK, for instance, a shaman, regardless of spec, would benefit any group they were put into, no matter what the other classes in that group were. Traditionally, say, a resto shaman would be put with caster types to benefit from Mana Tide, but it wasn’t limited to that. That same shaman could greatly benefit a group made up entirely of rogues. Or hunters. Or tanks.

That’s what a utility class is. They can benefit everyone around them, regardless of what they are. It may have been more efficient to put an enhancement shaman into a group with hunters and melee DPS types, but that didn’t mean they offered nothing to a caster group.

Blah, I’m off topic.

Something like Brilliance Aura would not violate the mages integrity as a purist class. Yes, it’s a utility ability, but it wouldn’t benefit everyone. Mp5, for instance, would provide nothing to a group of rogues and warriors.

It would help offensive casters and healers, however. Which mages already do and always have.

This is just holiday “spirits” talking here. From a raiding perspective, mages are in excellent shape. The class is even strong under unideal circumstances. There is no need for a Brilliance Aura or anything like it. But it is something neat!

And it’s nearly Christmas! Who wants to read serious stuff this time of year?

Anyway.

From a practical perspective, there are a few slots where a Brilliance Aura could fit in. There are four types of mana regeneration that are currently alone in their respective categories.

Blessing of Wisdom, Mana Totem, Improved Water Elemental, and Judgement of Wisdom are all alone in their respective category.

Following the multiple classes bring the same buff idea, Brilliance Aura could simply fall into one of those categories. Of those four, either Improved Water Elemental or the Mana Totem make the most sense.

The real question, then. Where would Brilliance Aura fit into the mage arsenal? Would it be baseline for all mages? Require a talent deep in the arcane tree?

Running with the latter option for now. Both fire and frost offer a raid wide buff, in the form of an extra 10% critical strike chance for all offensive casters. Arcane offers an extra 3% critical strike chance to one offensive caster. And Slow, I guess, though technically that would only benefit other mages.

It would actually make sense to give the arcane tree something it could offer on a raid wide scale, something it just doesn’t do right now. It could be a flat mp5 buff, or restore mana based on intellect, similar to how the water elemental does.

The exact number could be basically anything. About the same strength as the water elemental, maybe a little weaker, would be fine.

Or better yet, make it stronger than the WE mana return, and then buff Imp. WE. Is 1% REALLY so much to ask for?

Going with the copy-paste shaman idea.

Assuming Mana Spring ever gets around to being raid wide, having an arcane mage in the raid could free the shaman from Mana Spring duty so he could use… I dunno, Poison Cleansing or something.

Or, if they stack, that’s just more mana all around. Yay!

Something similar would be adding a “Brilliance Aura” effect to Evocate.

Consider. When an arcane mage uses Evocate, it restores 60% of his mana and 40% of the closest ten people with mana bars. Or something.

That would be ridiculously overpowered, though. With Evocate on a two minute cooldown, that would give a raid infinite mana without much effort.

It could be a smaller effect, say 10% to the 10 closest. Still very useful, but not game cripplingly powerful.

Another random idea would be to attach the effect to Focus Magic. Whenever the mage uses Evocate, whoever they have buffed via Focus Magic gets 60% of their mana pool restored as well.

You could have two arcane mages chain casting Arcane Blast, and every sixty seconds one of them uses Evocate…

The arcane mage could attach himself to a holy priest, giving the holy priest the relief knowing that there’s an “Innervate” with their name on it every two minutes.

Still not a full on raid buff/debuff, but still plenty useful enough to warrant a raid slot.

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I’ve been sick the past few days, hence the lack of updates. I can’t even play WoW right now, I get terribly dizzy and throw up if I try. The medical professional types think it might be an ear infection of some sort. Which would explain why clear fluid leaks from my left ear when I tip my head to the left, I guess?

Walking is pretty much totally impossible.

Normally, I don’t like to make posts about “RL”, as y’all come here for mage stuff and silly stuff, not what orifice of mine is expelling odd liquids.

But, with several days from my last post, I figured an explanation was necessary. So there you go.