Norrinir
6 years ago
Frost Mage feedback (7.2.5/7.3)
Gameplay

Travel time and impact timing

The recent changes to Flurry have been great. Frostbolt, Ebonbolt and even Glacial Spike can be Shattered much more reliably, and there’s no need to dance around the 10 yd threshold anymore. However, a few problems still remain.

Ice Lance’s travel speed should be 50 yd/s according to the spell data, but it’s still 38 yd/s in game. This leads to various issues. The most prominent one is that the Flurry/Ice Lance combo ceases to work at certain ranges and Haste values. Here’s a quick calculation:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%7B0.8+%2F+h+%2B+d+%2F+50+%2B+1+%3E+max(1.5+%2F+h,+0.75)+%2B+d+%2F+38,+h+%3E%3D+1,+d+%3E%3D+0%7D
The combo is reliable only if the distance is shorter than roughly 39 yd. After that point, you need to have Haste values at certain intervals for the combo to work. At 102 yd or above, it’s impossible to pull off. For example, spells can travel up to 90 yd on Immerseus and at that point, your Haste needs to be between 62% and 151%. Fallen Avatar is another boss with this problem.

Changing Ice Lance’s travel speed to 50 yd/s should solve all these issues:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%7B0.8+%2F+h+%2B+d+%2F+50+%2B+1+%3E+max(1.5+%2F+h,+0.75)+%2B+d+%2F+50,+h+%3E%3D+1,+d+%3E%3D+0%7D
The fix to double Ice Lance was largely successful. While it is still possible via Shimmer, it’s only rarely done in practice. If the Shimmer combo is still unwanted, the changes should happen to Flurry/Winter’s Chill/Ice Lance; not to Shimmer.

Glacial Eruption is also missing the Shatter window at certain Haste values. This could be solved with a shorter delay.

Finally, Water Jet is another source of travel time troubles; more on that below.

Ideally, these interactions shouldn’t rely on actual travel times, but that’s something that would better be addressed in the next expansion, not in a class balance patch.
Sigma
Game Designer
6 years ago
Frost Mage feedback (7.2.5/7.3)
Few quick fixes:
--Frozen Orb should be affected by Shatter
--Ice Time should be included in the spec passive (0% anyway).
--Ebonbolt damage can proc procs (rarely matters much since most procs are RPPM)
--Ebonbolt and Flurry damage no longer log a second cast entry
edit: --Freezing Rain last 12 seconds, unmodified by haste. This didn't match its tooltip anyway, so I changed the tooltip, and I don't see any reason it needed to be affected by haste.

Quick comment:
It's generally right that Frost's mastery is very narrow (scaling-wise, essentially a % buff to Frostbolt with a few quirks). The narrower a mastery is, the more potential problems with needing to attach very high numbers to it for stat balance, that risk interfering with the rotation priority somehow. It's become more of an issue in Legion, since the large number of added effects on the class (as with every class) means that Frostbolt is a much lower % of damage done as it used to be. I'm not sure there's a short-term fix, but ideally Frostbolt would be a more substantial portion of damage in the future in the first place.
Edited by Sigma 18/07/2017 19:24
Currently Ranked: Fluff