New Mage Covenant Legendaries in Patch 9.1 PTR Build 38312 - Mage Guide Writers Review Effects

PTR Posted 2021/04/19 at 4:42 AM by Jaydaa

New Covenant-Specific Class Legendaries9.1 PTR build 38312

Our Guide Writers have given their thoughts on the new Covenant Specific Legendaries Soulbinds on the Patch 9.1 PTR for Build 38312. Check out their opinions below!

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Mage Covenant Specific Legendaries in Patch 9.1

Kyrian: Harmonic Echo - Damage dealt to enemies affected by Radiant Spark's vulnerability echo to 4 nearby enemies for 25% of the damage dealt.
Necrolord: Death's Fathom - Your Fireball, Frostbolt, and Arcane Blast have a chance to grant Deathbornefor 8 sec. While in the form of a skeletal mage the spell damage granted is increased by 1% for each enemy hit by Fireball, Frostbolt, and Arcane Blast.
Venthyr: Sinful Delight - Consuming Brain Freeze, a Fire Blast charge, Clearcasting reduces Mirrors of Torment cooldown by 3 sec. If Mirrors of Torment is dispelled the cooldown is reduced by 45 sec.

Arcane Mage Opinion & Feedback

Kyrian - Harmonic Echo

Of the three new legendaries that have currently been datamined, one immediately stands out: the Kyrian power, Harmonic Echo, which makes 25% of the damage we deal to a target affected by Radiant Spark cleave onto four nearby enemies. Obviously, this isn't a single-target legendary, but it has huge potential in AoE and Mythic+ content, especially when combined with Forgelite Mikanikos' new trait, Effusive Anima Accelerator, which deals AoE damage when we use Radiant Spark and reduces Spark's cooldown. It looks a little weaker than Arcane Harmony for Kyrian Arcane Mages for now, but time and tuning could change that.

Necrolord - Death's Fathom

Death's Fathom is the new Necrolord legendary, which is semi-okay but suffers from the same problem as Time Anomaly: that is, it could proc at an inconvenient moment (i.e. you're about to move, you're low on mana, you have 0 stacks Arcane Charge) and the effect would be wasted. It also has an odd interaction with Emeni's Lead by Example: if Deathborne is already active, the proc will extend its duration by 8 seconds, but won't extend Lead by Example. However, if the legendary effect triggers without Deathborne being active, you (currently) gain 30 seconds of Lead by Example as if you had used Deathborne. This is probably unintended behaviour and will likely be fixed before 9.1 goes live. In the same vein, it's currently stacking the 1% damage increase for continually hitting the same target, which the wording would suggest is not the way it's intended to function.

Venthyr - Sinful Delight

The Venthyr legendary, Sinful Delight, is very unlikely to enable an extra use of Mirrors of Torment between Arcane Power windows, so on early impressions is practically worthless as we always want to align those two spells, and never want to delay Arcane Power.

None of the new legendaries - at current tuning levels - look like they'll change our existing Covenant choices.
Fire Mage Opinion & FeedbackIn patch 9.1 many new covenant-specific legendary items are being added to the game. The idea of tying covenant to legendaries isn’t something I’m particularly a fan of, but today we are going to go over scenarios where having one of the new legendaries would be valuable while comparing them against existing legendaries. So far we have information for Kyrian, Necrolord, and Venthyr.

Kyrian - Harmonic Echo

This legendary enables cleave for nearby targets during the Radiant Spark vulnerability, which lasts for 4 spells. Keep in mind that it only affects 4 targets for 25%. This means that your damage is effectively doubled for the four spells you cast after Radiant Spark so long as there are 4 targets. It's unlikely this legendary will get much use, especially since running it requires being Kyrian. Disciplinary Command is what Fire Mages run in cleave and I don't see this legendary increasing overall damage by enough to beat it.

Necrolord - Death's Fathom

This legendary has two parts: First there is a 1.25 rppm chance to grant the Deathborne buff for 8 seconds. Second, each hit from Fireball grants 1% spell damage with no cap. Because Deathborne causes Fireball to cleave this legendary has potential to be very overpowered in cleave, where it is possible to reach >100 stacks and pop cooldowns as you reach the very end of your Deathborne buff. Although this legendary requires going Necrolord, I believe if it goes live in its current state it might be well worth swapping. Definitely keep an eye on this one.

Venthyr - Sinful Delight

Understanding this legendary requires some quick math: if a Fire Blast charge reduces Mirrors of Torment cooldown by 3 seconds and on average you cast Fire Blast about 10 times a minute this means we end up with Mirrors of Torment coming in at around a one minute cooldown. Since this legendary only affects the cooldown of Mirrors of Torment, its strength depends entirely on how strong gaining 30 seconds of cooldown reduction on Mirrors of Torment really is. Although having cooldown reduction on Mirrors of Torment feels really good, it is very unlikely to beat out Disciplinary Command in any metric.

Frost Mage Opinion & Feedback In patch 9.1 many new covenant-specific legendary items are being added to the game. The idea of tying covenant to legendaries isn’t something I’m particularly a fan of, but today we are going to go over scenarios where having one of the new legendaries would be valuable while comparing them against existing legendaries. So far we have information for Kyrian, Necrolord, and Venthyr.

Kyrian - Harmonic Echo

This legendary enables cleave for nearby targets during the Radiant Spark vulnerability, which lasts for 4 spells. Keep in mind that it only affects 4 targets for 25%. This means that your damage is effectively doubled for the four spells you cast after Radiant Spark so long as there are 4 targets. It's unlikely this legendary will get much use since Frost Mage since Glacial Fragments and Freezing Winds are both already so strong in cleave.

Necrolord - Death's Fathom

This legendary has two parts: First there is a 1.25 rppm chance to grant the Deathborne buff for 8 seconds. Second, each hit from Frostbolt grants 1% spell damage with no cap. Because Deathborne causes Frostbolt to cleave this legendary has potential to be very overpowered in cleave, where it is possible to reach >100 stacks and pop cooldowns as you reach the very end of your Deathborne buff. As mentioned before, Frost has very strong cleave legendaries with Glacial Fragments and Freezing Winds but this legendary allows you to set up and funnel huge amounts of damage into a primary target. This legendary very well might make Necrolord the go-to covenant if it goes live the way it is now.

Venthyr - Sinful Delight

Brain Freeze reduces Mirrors of Torment cooldown by 3 seconds but Mirrors of Torment is a bit random aside from the three guaranteed procs. Since this legendary only affects the cooldown of Mirrors of Torment, its strength depends entirely on how strong gaining cooldown reduction on Mirrors of Torment really is. I believe this legendary has potential to beat out Slick Ice in single target, but I doubt it will be competitive in cleave or AoE.

Comment by O4MinisterHarmonious echo and glacial spike builds will be lit and most of all fun!Comment by Paulnutzwhy are frost mages casting fireball? or did the guide writers just copy and paste the fire explanation for necrolord into the frost explanation and not copy edit?Comment by Ledarenwhy are frost mages casting fireball? or did the guide writers just copy and paste the fire explanation for necrolord into the frost explanation and not copy edit?Comment by RrariNo mention for arcane mages...soo fire bais in this writer's discussion lol.Comment by Sarthoriuswhy are frost mages casting fireball? or did the guide writers just copy and paste the fire explanation for necrolord into the frost explanation and not copy edit?Comment by Tremmont314why are frost mages casting fireball? or did the guide writers just copy and paste the fire explanation for necrolord into the frost explanation and not copy edit?Comment by MalonNo mention for arcane mages...soo fire bais in this writer's discussion lol.Comment by PreheatYes fireball being listed instead of frostbolt is a typo, thanks. Fixing it now.Comment by z01zthe night fae lego is gonna have to be absolute garbage for fire mages not to use it to try and recoup the lost cdr from the kindling nerf. because if they make it to work like the others and interact with shifting power's cdr then it'll probably be bis just because of that.
so either its bis because of the cdr or it's instant trash because they just do something dumb and give it a torghast power like casting sp while moving or sp roots targets.Comment by DarkvilsGreat insight on frost mage venthyr, if you read it, it just states the obvious.

Can we get an actual frost mage for some real insight pls.Comment by charlefinethe night fae lego is gonna have to be absolute garbage for fire mages not to use it to try and recoup the lost cdr from the kindling nerf. because if they make it to work like the others and interact with shifting power's cdr then it'll probably be bis just because of that.
so either its bis because of the cdr or it's instant trash because they just do something dumb and give it a torghast power like casting sp while moving or sp roots targets.Comment by Darkfire8008Great insight on frost mage venthyr, if you read it, it just states the obvious.

Can we get an actual frost mage for some real insight pls.the night fae lego is gonna have to be absolute garbage for fire mages not to use it to try and recoup the lost cdr from the kindling nerf. because if they make it to work like the others and interact with shifting power's cdr then it'll probably be bis just because of that.
so either its bis because of the cdr or it's instant trash because they just do something dumb and give it a torghast power like casting sp while moving or sp roots targets.Comment by charlefine
Not necessarily, conduits are getting stronger(even after the nerf), and with a little help from extra stats they may still be very capable compared to Frost and Arcane given the fights cater to them as they have.Comment by memostar91Considering that they will provide covenant legendaries in 9.1, its likely we get to wear 2 legendaries in 9.2. At the end of expansion they will probably give ultra-super-powerful soulbind based legendaries that we enjoy very much until the next expansion and then let it rot in the goblin vaults.

Come on Blizzard, you need to bring something creative to the game. Stop with all these repetitive stuff and unending attempts for perfect balancing which is impossible at the end of the day. Still waiting for modernization on profession system, rewarding logic, content variety...