WoW Forever gives every Mage Frostfire Bolt at level 40, adds Arcane Blast, Hot Streak and Ice Lance to the talent trees, and gives Alliance Mages a teleport to Dalaran at level 50. Orc Mage is one of the six new race and class combinations, and the new High Order Skyborne can be Mages too, alongside Humans, Gnomes, Undead and Trolls. Here is what changes, with the numbers and talent positions from the beta client (build 1.60.1.70009) and Blizzard's beta notes of September 24.
What every Mage gets
- Frostfire Bolt, which Classic Era Mages never learned, comes from the trainer at level 40. At rank 1 it deals 92 to 108 Frostfire damage, slows movement speed by 40% and adds 27 Frostfire damage over 9 sec (205 Mana, 3 sec cast); rank 3, at level 60, deals 270 to 314 plus 57 over 9 sec. It counts as both Frost and Fire damage and can trigger Hot Streak and Missile Barrage.
- Teleport: Dalaran is new at level 50 (120 Mana, a Rune of Teleportation, 10 sec cast), but in the beta client only Human, Gnome and High Order Skyborne Mages learn it. The other teleports and portals follow the faction: Stormwind, Ironforge and Darnassus for those three races, Orgrimmar, Undercity and Thunder Bluff for Orc, Undead and Troll Mages. Blizzard's September 24 notes mention the city only for faction adjustments, with spawns now just outside its entrance.
- Arcane Missiles checks line of sight only once, when the channel starts, so a target that steps out of sight mid-channel still takes the missiles, the same notes say.
- Wands no longer gain damage from your spell damage, the notes add.
Arcane: Arcane Blast and Missile Barrage
- Improved Channeling (0 points in the tree, 5 ranks): Gives you a 100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channeling Arcane Missiles and a 70% chance while casting Arcane Blast.
- Arcane Geometry (10 points in the tree, 2 ranks): Increases the range of your Arcane spells by 6 yards.
- Arcane Impact (10 points in the tree, 3 ranks): Increases the critical strike chance of your Arcane spells by 6%.
- Arcane Blast (10 points in the tree, 1 rank): a 2.5-second cast for 15% of base mana, dealing 50 to 58 Arcane damage at rank 1 and 364 to 424 at rank 5, level 60, with the later ranks from the trainer. Each cast increases the damage of all your other spells by 10% and the mana cost of Arcane Blast by 175%, stacking up to 4 times, for 8 sec or until any other damage spell is cast.
- Arcane Shielding (15 points in the tree, 2 ranks): Decreases the Mana lost per point of damage taken when your Mana Shield spell is active by 33% and increases the resistances granted by your Mage Armor spell by 50%.
- Missile Barrage (15 points in the tree, 1 rank), the Arcane 16-point talent: Gives your Arcane Blast spell a 40% chance, and your Fireball, Frostbolt, and Frostfire Bolt spells a 20% chance to reduce the channeled duration of your next Arcane Missiles spell by 50%, reduce the Mana cost by 100%, and missiles fire every 0.5 sec.
Arcane Resilience moves from 10 to 5 points and gains a second rank (Armor equal to 50% of your Intellect), Magic Absorption drops from 5 ranks to 2, and Arcane Power stays the 31-point talent.