Thoughts on the PTR Changes to T21?

[speshulk1207]

Currently I'm playing TV Frost, but had planned to switch back to Fire in Antorus with the original lackluster Tier21 bonus for Frost. However, a change has recently been made to the bonus for both specs. The 4pc for Frost now buffs the next Frostbolt OR Ice Lance (which seems much more powerful potentially), and the crit damage bonus for Fire has been dropped considerably. I'm interested to hear thoughts from others about how much this will affect the competitiveness of both specs.

[Jezrien]

Fire already suffered from a huge nerf from 50% to 12% lol. 75% more damage fore lance is a OP thing. I bet it will be nerfed too.

[Katsumi]

(copy from mmo)

For Frost it depends on how the mechanic is actually working.

Suppose it's consumed on a succesful cast. In that case only the ice lance would get buffed, but nothing would change about the rotation. It would be a fairly simple buff to the shatter combo, but nothing else. In that case 75% is probably a bit much.

Suppose, however, that it's consumed on impact. Now some interesting possibilities arise. Shooting out a Flurry after a Frostbolt consumes the Brain Freeze proc immediately. This should then trigger the T21 bonus while both the Frostbolt and the Flurry are still in the air but before you cast your IL. Your IL is cast on the next GCD, which is long after both spells hit the target. This means that technically the flying Frostbolt will be the next "Frostbolt or Ice Lance" to hit the target and thus your IL won't get buffed. The only way this set bonus will apply to the IL is if you cast a Flurry without a Frostbolt before, which currently should only happen when you absolutely have to gtfo of something and are out of shimmer stacks.

The interesting question then becomes whether this would make it worth skipping the Frostbolt and instead use the Brain Freeze proc directly. The answer to that question is probably determined by the dps value of the IV reset time and the Chain Reaction stacks that you miss out on by casting fewer guaranteed critical frostbolts, because the immediate 75% dmg buff to a shattered IL clearly surpasses a 75% dmg buff to a Frostbolt.

It might also be that choosing to spend your bonus on buffing Frostbolts via the classic shatter combo will be beneficial for GS while switching to the new instant flurry > IL combo will be beneficial for TV, who knows. Only the sims will tell.

[LightsSL]

Katsumi you are definately mistaken. You probably need to re-read the tier 21 4 set buff. It says clearly that "After consuming brain freeze, the damage of your NEXT frostbolt/ice lance is increased by 75 %". So technically you need to consume brainfreeze to apply that buff to yourself. It doesnt say anything about increasing the damage of your next shattered spell and i doubt the "Buff" is applied as a "Debuff" on your target. What you shatter next is up to you. Even if you throw a FB before launching that flurry it wont really matter. The FB ofc will be shattered but the buff initiates when the BF is consumed. The question is what happens to splitting ice and frost spec's cleave potential. Will the buff apply to the extra IL as well or are we talking only about ST potential? As long as the buff applies to the mage and not mage's target, i believe the cleave potential is also viable. Maybe more viable than ever before.

[Xinder]

Katsumi you are definately mistaken. You probably need to re-read the tier 21 4 set buff. It says clearly that "After consuming brain freeze, the damage of your NEXT frostbolt/ice lance is increased by 75 %". So technically you need to consume brainfreeze to apply that buff to yourself. It doesnt say anything about increasing the damage of your next shattered spell and i doubt the "Buff" is applied as a "Debuff" on your target. What you shatter next is up to you. Even if you throw a FB before launching that flurry it wont really matter. The FB ofc will be shattered but the buff initiates when the BF is consumed. The question is what happens to splitting ice and frost spec's cleave potential. Will the buff apply to the extra IL as well or are we talking only about ST potential? As long as the buff applies to the mage and not mage's target, i believe the cleave potential is also viable. Maybe more viable than ever before.

It's all a moot point. The most recent build only buffs Ice Lance and it's only by 25% and not 75%. Source: http://ptr.wowdb.com/spells/251860-item ... 4920-25079

[jamesalberte]

At this point I have to wonder if the tier set is going to make any difference if you have gear that is at 15 or 20 ilvls higher with good secondary stats.