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Comment by Pinga

Like any other shield, spellcasting will not be delayed while taking damage if this spell absorbs it.

Comment by 178220

This is a self-only shield and cannot be cast on other people, including group/raid/battleground members

Comment by 258919

Which is unfortunate, because usually they need it more.

Comment by 243284

This is something I wanted to see: a spell that covered a wide range of damage, instead of a spell for 1 type of damage.
Plus, this means more keybinding space!

Comment by 78918

Looks good. I like how Blizz is trying to de-bloat our action bars :)

Comment by 568236

This is genius thing i've been waiting for whole time i play mage, thanks for something useful after all blizz. :)

Comment by 617932

wow , a much better spell that it used to be ^^

now also absorbs arcane, and can absorb frost , fire and arcane at the same time, alot better than just space save.

Comment by 560322

Now the tooltip says it absorbs one of the 3 at a time does that mean that it will only absorb the first of the 3 spell damage that hit it. Like say ur dueling another mage u pop this they are fire spec they shoot you with ice lance then fireball do you get hit with fireball or will mage ward block it?

Comment by LoKHor

Well, this sure makes Incanter's Absorption a much more attractive talent to take in the Arcane tree! Mana Shield is getting a 10 second cooldown, but anything to boost spell power is good. This spell will be used a lot more frequently than Fire and Frost ward ever were in PvE.

Comment by Darkomicron

Too bad they made this.
Just destroys a bit of tactical PvP-ing. A mage is trying to survive, and pops a fireward. Then it's just a smart and tactical decision to start firing frost spells or any other spell school. However, since I am a mage, I don't mind the buff.
Just... I would've liked to see a different sollution.

Edit:
Different sollutions like... Adding Arcane Ward and the like. And make an internal cooldown of 10 sec between the ward spells. Would keep some tactical gameplay in place.

Comment by 24111

The new ward spell brings alot of utility versus Druids and Hunters, i love the change.

Comment by 6296

This should be the icon for Mage Armor in all honesty.

Comment by 11715

It's great, but I really hope it will be changed for "absorbs X magic damage", warlocks are our nemesis and it's not useful against affliction, the build that put us mages really in trouble.

A great improvement on the old wards anyway.

Comment by 609288

Think blizzard is running out of new ideas warlock mage ward

Comment by Derren

"Effect #2 Apply Aura: Reflect Spells (Fire)"?

Comment by todiwan

This was previously "Fire Ward", which absorbed only Fire spells (there was a Frost ward as well) now changed to Mage Ward, which absorbs Fire/Frost and Arcane damage.

Comment by seahen

The tooltip is a little misleading: this can absorb a mix of all three types of damage with one cast. It should really say "Absorbs Fire, Frost and Arcane damage."

Comment by 565823

Technical Question: Does this absorb the ShadowFlame damage from Nefarion?

I'm under the assumption that ShadowFlame is both Shadow AND Fire damage. I should have tested it in my last raid /sigh.

Anyone know for sure?

Comment by 749936

On Shadowflame and similar effects:

These type of mechanics (either or) will almost always choose A) Whichever you have lower resistances to or B) Whatever you can't absorb. So, if there's damage that can be Shadow or Fire, Nature or Shadow, etc etc, don't expect Mage Ward to work unless it covers both types. That said, this spell has many uses in the lastest raids, as there are many instances where you will take fire/frost/arcane damage if you're not careful/on the ball.

Also:

At lower leveling (70 twinks especially), this spell along with Mana Shiled and the Incanter's Absortion talent can be completely insane.

With a fully Brutal geared toon w/ a few PVE pieces, the total absorb shield self buffed hits around 4.7k. If you take that amount of damage in Fire/Frost/Arcane magic you gain an extra ~900 spell power.

Totals @ 70:
Incanter's full xfer: 20% of ~4700 = 940 SP
Imp MG w/ 18k mana: 360 SP
Arcane Power: 20% more spell damage
AB 4x: 50% more spell damage
SP Trinket: 320 SP (Naaru Silver)

That's a total of 1620 Spell Power & 70% more spell damage, more or less doubling your SP + the damage modifiers.

I haven't actually had a situation where I lined up all of these in a row for maximum damage, or if I have I didn't note it. That said, I'm sure you can get ABs in the range of 20k+ on PVE targets w/ all those buffs.

Comment by Kanariya

In Classic, Fire Ward does not gain bonus absorption from spell power or any other stat. It was changed to scale in Patch 2.3.0.

Links

Mage Ward

Mage Ward	Level 85

16% of base mana

Instant	30 sec cooldown

Absorbs (2236 + 0.807 * Spell power) Fire, Frost or Arcane damage. Lasts 30 sec.

Buff

Mage Ward	Level 85

Absorbs 2236 Fire, Frost or Arcane damage.
30 seconds remaining

Spell Details

Duration

30 seconds

School

Arcane

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

Magic

GCD category

Normal

Cost

16% of base mana

Range

0 yards (Self)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

30 seconds

GCD

1.5 seconds

Effect #1

Apply Aura: Absorb Damage (Arcane, Fire, Frost)
Value: 166
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #2

Apply Aura: Reflect Spells (Fire)
Value: 1
PVP Multiplier: 1

Flags

Mage Ward

Buff

Spell Details

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