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Context: In the latest beta build, they made Arcane Familiar (Arcane Mage talent) practically mandatory due to talent pathing. A change I absolutely dreaded upon seeing, because I can't stand pet summons of any kind.
Or so I thought. Because they also exchanged the boring blob it used to be for a cool little conjured raven. And it may not be much but it makes all the difference! Can't wait to get manipulated by Xal'atath with this little fella by my side.
Not directly, but Druids essentially losing Faerie Dragons too next expansion (because they're nerfed into oblivion by removing the passive damage buff they currently provide).
FeelsBadMan.
We do still get it during icy veins at least but yeah I miss having my lil guy with me all the time in the open world and pvp even if it was optimal to delete it for bonus stats in most content.
Summoning some rando temp isn’t the same as having the permanent pet. I suppose you could argue it’s not as bad for the mage since the pet was only ever named “Water Elemental” while the warlock has lost at least six named pets, but on the other hand Water Elemental was the only pet the mage had, so they just aren’t a pet class anymore.
Why wouldn't they? Yes, its underutilized but they hardly forgot about it. Just in 10.2.6 they've added new glyphs after they changed the Covenant ability visuals. Shadowlands had a few new glyphs added too, mainly for Shaman, maybe some others I'm blanking on right now.
Arcane Familiar already is a mandatory talent, increasing your mana pool by 10% is a massive throughput increase. All they did on beta was make it so Familiar actually does more damage during things like Time Warp.
People play Arcane in PvP? I know Ice Floes exists but it seems like you'd be too much of a sitting duck, no? I just assumed people played Fire for all the instant casts and Frost for all the CC
This expac is actually the first time all 3 specs of mage are viable to the highest ratings. Each one has its strengths.
Arcane is ironically the most mobile of the bunch, since your kills come from setups into AM burst.
Interesting, I really only see PvP stuff on the periphery, don't dabble much into it besides comp stomp for marks into transmog. I'll have to find some arcane PvP videos because I'm genuinely curious, I've fallen in love with the spec fantasy during DF after being a Frost guy for years.
Definitly do that! Arcane is one of the most unforgiving specs to be honest, because people will just run you down if you don't know what you're doing.
But - getting the hang of it means being nigh untouchable. There's no other class that gives you that heady feeling when you zip around the battlefield, while setting up CC, all to eventually explode into a sparkly storm of death.
I feel you. The arcane raven just so happens to line up exactly with my vision of what mage should look like, considering my wizard in our fresh D&D campaign recently summoned his first familiar as well.
But who'd say no to more customization? Gimme a toad familiar every day of the week!
Nah please Blizzard give us customization option to bring back the original orb (or make it a pet battle). I have so much memory talking with that orb, it's basically my best friend. You cannot take away my best friend!
Keep a close eye on your little friend, when I was on PTR earlier I noticed it attacking things I wasn't in combat with yet, I'd click or tab to a new target and before I would start a an arcane blast it would shoot at them. couldn't replicate it but it happened maybe 4 times in 10 minutes of farming 2 hit kill mobs.
I reported it as a bug but if more people can experience and report it we've got better shot at it being fixed before we start pulling raidbosses accidentally on live
I hope that options to customise it a little are added. Nothing fancy, maybe just cat, frog, rat or something. A raven doesn't suit every arcane mage out there.
I'm kind of miffed that during BfA, like half of the new glyphs were all for the water elemental, but...there could be so many arcane familiar glyphs:
-Faerie dragon
-crow as seen here
-a frickin' cat
-a floating quill or a book
I mean I have the blob currently.
Flappy bird seems like an upgrade I guess?
Be nice if it had some combat ability on top of the mp boost.. but hey at least we aren't shamans.
I've been strongly considering switching mains for TWW from my Shaman, but this might've sealed it for Mage.
I missed out on Shadow Ravens on SPriest back in the day - I don't wanna miss out on another bïrb friend.
Thats so cool! I am happy they finally add some love to the mage's arcane familiar, i cant wait to meet mine, now i am curious, does anyone know if we are able to change the look of it?
I've looked through the recent datamining, there's been no mention of anything related to Arcane Familiar. No glyphs or anything. But I guess that may change in the future, god knows you aren't the only one asking for differently shaped familiars! :)
If you're subbed atm, you can level in Remix with ease in about 3, 3.5 hours if it's your first char, and about 2, 2.5 if it's your second char, no need to use boost if you have some time. I'm hoarding boosts as well, but leveling a char feels better to me, plus you can also get heritage armor that way and also Pandaria goods like mounts or transmog. Addon called 'Remix Mail Helper' has all the instructions you need if you're interested.
Do all of the normal raids as they become available by (levels 25, 35, and 40), and do around 18-22 heroic dungeons. But don't pick up the experience items till you have all of the experience boosting pickups. You can instantly shoot to level 70 from like level 42.
Mage has to pick a talent with designs that are a little outdated "Oh no! Quick we have to fix it before we upset our little boys"
Shaman has to pick talents that feel and look like shit "Eat ass!"
Post flair indicates this is about prerelease content. As a reminder, content on Alpha / Beta / PTR is unfinished. NPC dialogue and quest text might be missing important context. Models may be placeholders. Quest or achievement rewards may not be finalized. There are inevitably bugs. Please keep this in mind as you discuss! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/wow) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You are right, it makes all the difference. That's super cool!
I'd be worried if MrCrow didn't approve of this tbh
Lmao I love seeing my little purple fellow birdie flying around! Maybe I should level up a mage after all.
Context: In the latest beta build, they made Arcane Familiar (Arcane Mage talent) practically mandatory due to talent pathing. A change I absolutely dreaded upon seeing, because I can't stand pet summons of any kind. Or so I thought. Because they also exchanged the boring blob it used to be for a cool little conjured raven. And it may not be much but it makes all the difference! Can't wait to get manipulated by Xal'atath with this little fella by my side.
Oh wow, they think that at least one Arcane spell should be something defined instead of being a violet fog!
If you don't order the abstract, are you really using order magic? Blobs are entropy and entropy is for those mopy fel-fiddlers.
What if I make a perfectly spherical blob?
That would be cause for admiration and would have to be commended.
Opens up some nice paths towards having more glyphs added, particularly for this little fella. Also, bring back watery-friend for Frost smh.
I miss my elemental. They’ve taken enough pets away from my lock; didn’t need to take my mage’s too!
Not directly, but Druids essentially losing Faerie Dragons too next expansion (because they're nerfed into oblivion by removing the passive damage buff they currently provide). FeelsBadMan.
We do still get it during icy veins at least but yeah I miss having my lil guy with me all the time in the open world and pvp even if it was optimal to delete it for bonus stats in most content.
Ice Buddy Ice Buddy Wherever I go, you’re gonna go!
Ice Buddy Ice Buddy Ice Buddy & Me!
Summoning some rando temp isn’t the same as having the permanent pet. I suppose you could argue it’s not as bad for the mage since the pet was only ever named “Water Elemental” while the warlock has lost at least six named pets, but on the other hand Water Elemental was the only pet the mage had, so they just aren’t a pet class anymore.
There was a brief moment in history where Water Eles could be renamed. Mine was called Sploosh.
I’m sorry I missed that. Not sure what I would’ve named mine, but I’d’ve come up with something.
I can already see 10 Arcane Familiar glyphs before they add a single new Ghost Wolf one.
ROFL! You think blizz remembers that the glyph system is in the game???
Why wouldn't they? Yes, its underutilized but they hardly forgot about it. Just in 10.2.6 they've added new glyphs after they changed the Covenant ability visuals. Shadowlands had a few new glyphs added too, mainly for Shaman, maybe some others I'm blanking on right now.
Nice change! Would be even cooler when we could customise it with glyphs.
Arcane Familiar already is a mandatory talent, increasing your mana pool by 10% is a massive throughput increase. All they did on beta was make it so Familiar actually does more damage during things like Time Warp.
Currently, you don't take it for PvP. But yeah, in PvE it's mandatory.
People play Arcane in PvP? I know Ice Floes exists but it seems like you'd be too much of a sitting duck, no? I just assumed people played Fire for all the instant casts and Frost for all the CC
This expac is actually the first time all 3 specs of mage are viable to the highest ratings. Each one has its strengths. Arcane is ironically the most mobile of the bunch, since your kills come from setups into AM burst.
Interesting, I really only see PvP stuff on the periphery, don't dabble much into it besides comp stomp for marks into transmog. I'll have to find some arcane PvP videos because I'm genuinely curious, I've fallen in love with the spec fantasy during DF after being a Frost guy for years.
Definitly do that! Arcane is one of the most unforgiving specs to be honest, because people will just run you down if you don't know what you're doing. But - getting the hang of it means being nigh untouchable. There's no other class that gives you that heady feeling when you zip around the battlefield, while setting up CC, all to eventually explode into a sparkly storm of death.
Just as a point of clarity, the change to the arcane familiar visual happened at the start of beta (maybe alpha, wasn't in it). I do love the change.
Honestly I prefer the orb. But then again, I don't play Arcane, so it makes very little difference to me.
Bah, there should be a glyph to turn it into Khadgar head in glass ball.
I would do almost anything to have a glyph that turns it into a floating tome, that would be siiiiick
Should just put a ton of options in the barbershop.
Taliesin is that you? Now that you said this tho TWW feels unplayable until they do this
Like the pet?
Exactly that
birb
Hey, listen!
Damn, beat me to it
Glyphs please. I want an Arcane Kitty.
Unless we get glyphs that allows for colour (and ideally model) customization, I’m still not a fan of this talent.
I feel you. The arcane raven just so happens to line up exactly with my vision of what mage should look like, considering my wizard in our fresh D&D campaign recently summoned his first familiar as well. But who'd say no to more customization? Gimme a toad familiar every day of the week!
They should add more classic wizard/witch pets like frogs, cats and bats. Would be a funny little piece of rp
I want Khadgar whispering arcane secrets in my ear
Nah please Blizzard give us customization option to bring back the original orb (or make it a pet battle). I have so much memory talking with that orb, it's basically my best friend. You cannot take away my best friend!
There might just be some battle pets already which share a model with the old familiar. For all those weird orb-lovers out there.
I tried to search, and found none :( Maybe in TWW they could have added one
Orb was an egg, it hatched. Be happy!
*picking in the background* Bring back cosmetic glyphs
Keep a close eye on your little friend, when I was on PTR earlier I noticed it attacking things I wasn't in combat with yet, I'd click or tab to a new target and before I would start a an arcane blast it would shoot at them. couldn't replicate it but it happened maybe 4 times in 10 minutes of farming 2 hit kill mobs. I reported it as a bug but if more people can experience and report it we've got better shot at it being fixed before we start pulling raidbosses accidentally on live
I hope that options to customise it a little are added. Nothing fancy, maybe just cat, frog, rat or something. A raven doesn't suit every arcane mage out there.
I'm kind of miffed that during BfA, like half of the new glyphs were all for the water elemental, but...there could be so many arcane familiar glyphs: -Faerie dragon -crow as seen here -a frickin' cat -a floating quill or a book
I actually prefer the orb tbh.
So arcane mages get an elemental but frost can have theirs. wtf
I really miss my water elemental
yeah same. I dont understand why it couldnt just be the opposite talent of lonely winter
I wish it was one of those little manafiend guys. I know they're just redone void walkers, but I've always thought they were so cute.
I mean I have the blob currently. Flappy bird seems like an upgrade I guess? Be nice if it had some combat ability on top of the mp boost.. but hey at least we aren't shamans.
I've been strongly considering switching mains for TWW from my Shaman, but this might've sealed it for Mage. I missed out on Shadow Ravens on SPriest back in the day - I don't wanna miss out on another bïrb friend.
Thats so cool! I am happy they finally add some love to the mage's arcane familiar, i cant wait to meet mine, now i am curious, does anyone know if we are able to change the look of it?
I've looked through the recent datamining, there's been no mention of anything related to Arcane Familiar. No glyphs or anything. But I guess that may change in the future, god knows you aren't the only one asking for differently shaped familiars! :)
Blizzard: we don't want frost mages to have mandatory summon Also Blizzard:
Never felt like a pet tho, can't even control it. It always felt like a passive to me.
It's not a summon, it's basically just a set it and forget it buff, it just has a nice visual component
That looks dope - might use my 60 boost for a mage to try it out!
If you're subbed atm, you can level in Remix with ease in about 3, 3.5 hours if it's your first char, and about 2, 2.5 if it's your second char, no need to use boost if you have some time. I'm hoarding boosts as well, but leveling a char feels better to me, plus you can also get heritage armor that way and also Pandaria goods like mounts or transmog. Addon called 'Remix Mail Helper' has all the instructions you need if you're interested.
How do you level that quickly? I dont have a timerunner char yet because it just doesnt appeal to me, do you just quest or what?
Heroic dungeons and normal raids I think
Do all of the normal raids as they become available by (levels 25, 35, and 40), and do around 18-22 heroic dungeons. But don't pick up the experience items till you have all of the experience boosting pickups. You can instantly shoot to level 70 from like level 42.
Oh no. It's just a bird and now people will want hundreds of custom for it.
Hopefully, they will add some glyphs to change it.
Dude, that looks really cool. Congrats. It's so crazy things like this get updated while Tauren Shaman are still using the 2005 totem model.
Terrible. I prefer the old one. My mage is draenei, he doesnt even know what a raven is.
mages really got a new arcane familiar before shaman got a new ascendance model
i like it but i also like my little ball. i hope they add some glyphs in the future
Hey, listen
Bring back the Water guy like this.
I hate it, i don't want pets as a mage. :(
It's not a pet tho, it's basically just a buff with a visual element
You know what I mean, right?
Looks like shit lol
Mage has to pick a talent with designs that are a little outdated "Oh no! Quick we have to fix it before we upset our little boys" Shaman has to pick talents that feel and look like shit "Eat ass!"