Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Improved Scorch Nerf

So, here's a little guilty secret of mine. Ever since I respec'ed to Frostfire for raids, I haven't taken the Improved Scorch talent. We usually ran with 2-4 other mages, most of them spec'ed Frostfire as well. So, why waste perfectly good talent points on Improved Scorch when I didn't need to cast that "inferior" spell anyway?

Instead, I got to use my extra talent points on other stuff. Dragon's Breath, Blastwave, and Fire Starter were the three that made things particularly fun for me. They increased my Aoe Damage and since I never cast Scorch, even my single target DPS was higher. I simply did not think about Scorch; and frankly, I was glad to be rid of that spell.

Now with 3.1 going live today, Improved Scorch has been changed a bit. Instead of 2% increased spell crit stacking up to 5 times (total of 10%), it's now 1% increased spell crit stacking up to 5 times (total of 5%) PLUS 3% crit for Scorch, Fireball, and Frostfire Bolt. So, while it was in part kind of a selfless talent, it now has both a selfish and selfless component. Which means, that I pretty much have to spec into it now. *sigh*

So, as a raiding mage, I get 8% crit on Frostfire Bolt and 5% on everything else. Meanwhile, our arch nemesis, the Warlock, gets Improved Shadow Bolt (a staple for Destro Locks), and they only have to cast it once. And yet, we still have to cast an inferior spell 5 times in order to get the same buff as a main nuke from a Warlock. I don't get it. I guess it simply boils down to "Life isn't fair." lol

I guess the only question left is, do those two effects stack? It's almost as if Warlocks and Mages will be forced to work together. *shudder*

3 comments:

Nibuca said...

Since destruction warlocks are all about the fire.. and Shadow bolt is all shadowy.. and since dest warlocks are spamming conflag as much as possible... I doubt that destruction will be riding the ISB talent. Instead I see it as must-have for Affliction (destruction's shadow-y cousins).

Just sayin'
Nibuca
http://chicanery.fibergeek.com/

Nibuca said...

Oh, forgot to mention, no, afaik, they don't stack.

Anonymous said...

I'm a Demonology warlock, and I'd just like to point out that imp shadow bolt affects -all- spell crits, so even Destruct warlocks will likely work it into their rotation if scorch or another lock isn't already up.