Quick note: inserted some "..."'s in the quote above to save space.

1. Initially it was a balance protection against the potential "shotgun" feel of POM/Combustion. However, since combustion isn't really a true burst damage ability anymore we'll remove the shared cooldown.

2. Dragon's Breath and CoC share a cooldown as we were worried about adding another instant cast burst damage spell that stacked with the others, especially when both spells have a cc component. We feel that replacing CoC for a fire mage can be a viable talent since it gives the mage a new cc option, better synergizes with the talents of a fire build, and has more damage potential.

3. There's no disputing that Invisibility has quite a few limitations built in. However, as the ability was game-breakingly good at one point in our original beta test, we've been very conservative about its reintroduction. As it is now, it's intended to be used for a handful of scenarios, but all of them having a tradeoff. It's a proactive aggro dump, but not a "free" one as it costs you 8 seconds of dps (depending on the fight, this can be anywhere from no big deal, to a significant hit). It's a content bypass mechanic, but not without limits (the duration). It can be used to surprise an enemy, or increase your chance to not be the first one targted in pvp, but it requires some co-ordination with others to do so (ie: somebody telling you where to position yourself, or just some intelligent anticipation). Finally, under some circumstances it can be used as an escape tool (although this part isn't as meaningful in my opinion, as mages already have fairly impressive escape tools).

I definitely believe that there is some potential to relax some of the limitations (right now I can't commit to any in particular, but a shorter fade time is a possibility). However, from a philisophical standpoint we're trying to make sure that if anything, we start off with this ability being a bit too restrictive and loosen up on the restrictions rather than the opposite.

4. There's certainly no question that counterspell being on the GCD doesn't improve the ability in any way. For us, it's more of a question of consistency. Other classes have their interrupts on the GCD (other than cases where the pet is casting it), and even though there is some variation regarding how impactful that is, other classes are often caught in the global cooldown when they want to interrupt a spell yet they deal with it, and spells still get inetrrupted by things like earth shock, pummel, and kick. None of those abilities had their duration vs cooldown ratio extended to "compensate" since when we determined the duration/cooldown for CS we assumed it was on the GCD, it was simply an oversight that it wasn't.

If we were to undo this, why wouldn't we undo it for the other classes? What's the philosophical disntinction? I'd say that it's common sentiment among casters that it's already pretty hard to get a spell off in group pvp that has a cast time (witness the QQ'ing about unstable affliction having a cast time... yes, I just called it QQ'ing), so would we really want cast time spells getting interrupted more often in pvp than they are now?

I totally get that mages feel at a disadvantage in a 1v1 versus other casters (particularly warlocks), and that getting beaten consistently in a 1v1 by warlocks can give you the impression that a mage is an inferior warlock. However, that sentiment isn't necessarily reflected among your other opponents. Personally, I can definitely see an argument for strenthening some of the anti-caster capabilities mages have in PvP, but I don't currently believe that maintaining an inconsistency in CS is a good way to do it (for the reasons stated above). Of note, one of the core reasons for adding the spellsteal spell in the expansion was to give mages a new tool in caster vs caster combat. Also (on an unrelated note I suppose), I think it'll give mages some pretty cool new ways to shine in some of our new raid encounters. =]

5. I don't really have a lot to say on this one. Rolling ignites were a bit off the hook (not to mentiono that they were a side-effect of the way they were originally implemented due to some technical limitations). At the same time, even though the debuff slots have been increased, I'm very leary of making each ignite have its own debuff (in fact, in this case I'm not even sure we technically could right now), as it's quite possible that raids will still have issues bumping up against the new debuff limit depending on class composition and strategy.

6. First, it's important to note that we've recently increased the spell damage coefficients on the affected AE spells (although this might not be in the version on the test realms yet). So, this change explicitly gave us the ability to improve those coefficients for the "normal" AE case, yet protect the spells against infinitely scaling against more and more opponents. Our desire is to tune the AE spells so that the damage doesn't cap out until you exceed about 10 targets, as our AE encounters are actually designed around an assumption of players AE'ing around 10 mobs. Any more than that, we consider unintended and/or exploitive. So, we're probably going to be bumping up the damage caps a bit to account for the now stronger effects of +damage gear and our desire for players to be able to AE around 10 targets without really feeling the effect of the damage caps.

7. Spellsteal operating on a random buff is one of the tradeoffs I feel is pretty important for the fact that the spell has no cooldown. As much as possible, we prefer not to give powerful spells cooldowns, so you feel like you're the one making the decision about what to cast and when, not the game. However, that implies that we have to balance it against other elements such as mana cost. On some level, I think the unending breath is more of a theorycraft example (and perhaps relevant to dueling or arenas, yet at the same time something you can overcome in the arena case with teammates that can dispel), but not something that will be meaningful in battleground or world pvp.

8. Ok, there isn't a #8, so I'll just insert my own note. I know that many of you are feeling like mages will be a "nerfed" class in the expansion. However, I think it's worth pointing out that in all of the testing we've done so far, the mage has been the clear-cut top damage class in the expansion at level 70, even against single targets (hopefully not too much so). In test after test, our jaws are consistently dropping at the sheer damage output we've seen from the mage at level 70, so I do think that some of the panic here is unwarranted. These results are directly what have led to some of the changes such as the one to elemental precision. Damage = zomg.

8. Ok, there isn't a #8, so I'll just insert my own note. I know that many of you are feeling like mages will be a "nerfed" class in the expansion. However, I think it's worth pointing out that in all of the testing we've done so far, the mage has been the clear-cut top damage class in the expansion at level 70, even against single targets (hopefully not too much so). In test after test, our jaws are consistently dropping at the sheer damage output we've seen from the mage at level 70, so I do think that some of the panic here is unwarranted. These results are directly what have led to some of the changes such as the one to elemental precision. Damage = zomg.

Why would you have rogues if mages outdamages them even on single target encounters? Sounds like bs to me.

Hm just saw he refered it to "the mage" at level 70. Guess there isnt much testing done, seeing as its only one char.

Why would you have rogues if mages outdamages them even on single target encounters? Sounds like bs to me.

Hmm, i dont know, maybe because single target damage is the only thing rogues can do? Unlike mages who allso have a good cc-skill and the best area damage in the game.

Gah, im too used to Fenris claiming rogues are overpowered and mages are gimped. Sorry all!

On a more serious note, I think that people are exaggerating, it's still balancing and spell steal still has no cool down, so that it steals a random buff isn't that bad.

I'm quite sure that most of the mages who now are going "ogm skyfalling /reroll" will think "Hmm, I guess it wasn't that bad" a few weeks after BC has gone live...

The abilities given to other classes in comparison to mages, and Im not only speaking PVE-wise here, is not on par.

At least mages are getting a few new abilities, unlike warriors, who get a bit more of what they already had, but then different.

It doesnt seem like any of you has taken into consideration that the blood elves are being able to play mages as well, and that they can insta silence people with a two minute cooldown.

I think this may have something to do with the CS nerf, or as blizzard calls it, correction.