Forum Front News: Mages
Now that patch 2.3 is live and running, players are already itching to hear what is on the horizon. One of the newest changes to be slated for the next patch involves a key talent for mages of the frost persuasion: iceblock. Eyonix, a community monitor for blizzard, gave us some more insight into the upcoming changes and how it will affect the class:
” There are a few nice improvements we’re making to the mage class in patch 2.3.2 (a small patch that will be on the public test realms soon) and we wanted to share them with you. First, we’ll start out with two changes affecting all mages. Ice block will become a core ability, trainable by all mages at level 30. Additionally, conjure mana (rank 6) will restore 1800-3000 mana and will now have three charges, meaning you can use it three times before having to create a new one.
To be sure we’re clear here, yes, the same cooldown will still apply between usages. 
Cold snap will be moved to Ice block’s position in the talent tree and its cooldown will be reduced. As a side note, it will no longer reset the cooldown on fire ward. Moving in to Cold snap’s spot will be a brand new ability called Icy Veins. This new ability will decrease casting time for all spells by 20% and increases the chance that chilling effects freeze the target by 25%. It’s an active ability, lasting 20 seconds and has a 3 minute cooldown. ”
Sounds pretty nice to me, and not just for frost mages! From what I’ve researched so far, fire mages that pick up icy veins will see a 2-3% increase in damage. Hardly gamebreaking, but a welcome change I’m sure.
-Xias
January 29th, 2010 at 1:49 am
Nice web site man, picked up a couple nuggets here…can’t wait for Cataclysm, I read a rumor that it is being coming out November 2010, though with Blizz you can never tell :/