Forever Beta: Mage redesigns, Paladin threat and an unclear Frost note

A new Frost spell in the official beta

This is part 3 of Blizzard's beta package labelled October 15 and posted October 16 at 00:15 UTC, 03:15 in Kyiv. Frost Blast is learned at level 24: a 1.5-second cast dealing Frost damage and slowing movement by 40%, with Frostbolt talents applying to it. Blizzard describes it as a replacement for low-rank Frostbolt utility under downranking penalties, with somewhat higher Mana cost and damage. The spell is mentioned twice in the notes, not announced as two separate abilities.

Arcane changes the length of its damage window

Presence of Mind is correctly consumed by spell casts. Missile Barrage no longer incorrectly discounts and shortens a second Arcane Missiles cast. The talent moves to the first row, takes two points and can also trigger from Arcane Missiles hits.

Arcane Blast becomes a 1.5-second cast. Each use grants Spell Damage equal to 15% of Intellect, still stacking four times and increasing Arcane Blast's cost. The effect lasts 15 seconds from its first application instead of ending at the next spell cast. Base Mana cost is unchanged; damage and Spell Damage coefficients both fall by 40%.

Arcane Wrath is a new 16-point gold medal talent with a 3.5-second cast and 6-second cooldown. Its base damage is comparable to Fireball; its calculation also treats the Mage as having extra Spell Power equal to 5% of maximum Mana. That is a Spell Power contribution, not a promise to deal 5% of your Mana as direct damage.

Fire talents and shared spell corrections

Heating Up is not consumed by Pyroblast when Presence of Mind is also active. Fire Blast always adds a Heating Up charge, so a critical Fire Blast produces two. Wake of Fire returns to Improved Fire Blast, loses the kill-triggered bonus and adds 8/15 yards of Fire Blast range. Critical Mass accepts five points for 10% total critical strike chance.

Fire Power now costs three talent points. It adds 1/2/3% Fire damage per qualifying effect you have on the target, capped at 12%. The qualifying effects are Ignite, Improved Scorch, Fireball, Pyroblast and Impact. Mixed-school spells do not build the bonus; Frostfire Bolt can benefit without contributing an effect.

Frost Channeling reduces threat correctly, and Ice Block is no longer excessively transparent. Clearcasting no longer makes a separate activation roll for every target hit by one spell, does not trigger from Dampen Magic or Amplify Magic, and does not trigger from abilities used outside combat.

Frost changes, with one unresolved source conflict

Ice Armor and Frost Armor can correctly trigger Frostbite and Fingers of Frost. Ice Lance's bonus against Frozen targets becomes +200% rather than +300%. The first four Cone of Cold targets receive an additional 10% movement slow lasting three seconds longer; Blizzard frames this as control for smaller groups. The spell's visual position is also adjusted.

Winter's Chill has two unstruck descriptions in the same official post. One removes the critical chance effect and says each stack increases the next Cone of Cold's damage by 40%, with stacks consumed by that cast. The later description gives Frostbolt, Frost Blast and Fingers-of-Frost-empowered Ice Lance a 20/40/60/80/100% application chance; each stack adds 5% damage taken from the next Cone of Cold and an additional 7% Spell Damage contribution, up to five stacks. These are not one consistent formula. We report both and do not choose an undocumented final value.

Paladin baseline and Salvation control

Power Word: Shield no longer overwrites Seal of Fury. Blessing of Salvation and Greater Blessing of Salvation become Salvation and Mass Salvation, applied in the same way but able to coexist with blessings. Learning Salvation also teaches Revoke, which removes either Salvation effect from a chosen party or raid member. This restores individual control instead of forcing one arrangement on the group.

Judgement of Righteousness and Judgement of Fury receive the proper instant-spell coefficients; the notes separately repeat the Judgement of Righteousness correction. Seal of Righteousness loses its unintended near-double Spell Damage scaling. Consecration's coefficient per tick falls from 0.095 to 0.042. Righteous Fury's Holy-damage threat bonus rises from 60% to 90%, and Seal of Fury rank 3 moves to its intended training level 26 instead of 25.

Holy, Protection and Retribution

Holy's Light's Vigil reaches the intended target when used through a focus macro. Infusion of Light no longer incorrectly gives Holy Shock 50% extra damage against enemies. This is the removal of a mistaken bonus, not a statement that every use of Holy Shock loses half its damage.

Protection's Shield Specialization restores 4% Mana instead of 6%, retaining its 3-second internal cooldown. Reckoning stores a charge each time it triggers, up to four. The next melee auto-attack releases all stored charges as one additional attack each. Blizzard says this restores the Classic Era storage behavior and avoids instant attacks resetting the swing timer.

Retribution's Champion of the Light grants Spell Damage equal to 10/20/30% of Intellect instead of 20/40/60%. Mana restored by Sanctified Judgement stops generating threat. The changes therefore affect both output coefficients and the sources of threat, which should be assessed separately.

What to practise on our free realm

Our free TWOW.PARTY / Forever realm can help you practise planned cast windows, selecting a support target and reading threat-related tooltips, subject to the local class and version being available. Start at https://twow.party/?lang=en#play and compare actual talents before testing. We do not claim these Blizzard beta redesigns are installed locally. For a damage comparison, keep gear and target consistent and distinguish a tooltip change from a measured combat result.