In World of Warcraft: Legion, much revolves around artifact weapons. These are given to players early on and grow alongside their wielders throughout the duration of the expansion. Each talent specialization receives its own weapon, which means mages have a total of 3 artifacts available. Let’s take a look at the individual weapons.
Arcane – Aluneth, Staff of the Magna (Artifact Weapon for Arcane Mages)
Background story: Only one woman has ever attained the rank of Guardian of Tirisfal: Aegwynn, the mother of Medivh and one of the most powerful female mages to have ever lived. She is the most known bearer of Aluneth, and the staff has since carried the nickname “Staff of the Magna”. Before Aegwynn relinquished her title as Guardian, she laid down the staff – but no one knows where it has rested since.
Properties of Aluneth, Staff of the Magna: Arcane mages specialize in slowing down enemies and causing massive damage spikes. Since mages are pure damage machines, many of the properties are simply blunt enhancements of existing spells.
All Arcane mages start with the Mark of Aluneth: In the target area, a magical prison is created that slows all affected enemies by 70% for 6 seconds and deals damage over time. After the effect ends, the prison explodes, dealing damage equal to 15% of the Arcane mage’s maximum mana.
The Touch of the Magi gives the Arcane spell a 10% chance to mark the struck enemy. For 6 seconds, the damage dealt by the mage is stored, before 10% of that damage then explodes in a small area around the target.
The Rule of Three gives your Arcane Missiles a 33.3% chance to fire a total of 3 additional Arcane Missiles.
Finally, Arcane Rebound improves the Arcane Barrage ability: If more than 2 targets are hit by Arcane Barrage, the primary target explodes for additional damage in a small area effect.
Fire – Felo’melorn (Artifact Weapon for Fire Mages)
Background story: Felo’melorn, the elvish term for “Flame Strike”, is a magical blade that has gathered fame for many millennia. It was already used by the high elf Dath’Remar during the War of the Ancients to combat the Burning Legion. Later, in Quel’thalas, it was the weapon of the Sunstrider family and served well in the Troll Wars. The last time the weapon was seen was in the hands of Kael’thas Sunstrider, when he crossed swords with Arthas in Northrend – but the blood elf prince had to retreat and the weapon was lost in the process.
Properties of Felo’melorn: Fire mages also embody the essence of a damage dealer, and this is reflected in the properties of the artifact weapon. Almost all standard properties increase the damage of abilities, however, “Blink” can also be improved to heal the mage for 60% of their health. Let’s look at the more exciting properties:
As befits Kael’thas’ weapon, Phoenix’s Flames hurls a burning phoenix at an enemy, causing damage and then dealing additional damage to all nearby enemies. Has up to 3 charges with a 30-second cooldown each.
Phoenix Reborn ensures that targets affected by “Ignite” suffer a bit more damage. Each time this happens, the remaining cooldown of Phoenix’s Flames is reduced by 2 seconds.
Those who love critical hits will adore Pyretic Incantation. Each time you cause consecutive critical hits, the damage of critical hits increases by 5%. This stacks until a non-critical hit occurs.
The property Blast Furnace ensures that each “Inferno Blast” additionally applies a DoT to the target, causing a small amount of damage over 9 seconds.
Frost – Ebonchill (Artifact Weapon for Frost Mages)
Background story: Alodi, the first Guardian of Tirisfal, wielded the weapon Ebonchill. For nearly a century, the staff served its bearer in this position, before Alodi retired from this office. However, he kept Ebonchill with him until his death. Only afterwards was the staff recovered by the Kirin Tor and safely stored, for if a mage with less experience than Alodi were to use the staff, it could have devastating consequences…
Properties of Ebonchill: For Frost mages, the standard properties of the artifacts are rather unremarkable. Critical damage takes center stage here, which can significantly be increased for almost all frost spells.
All Frost mages begin with Ebonbolt, a powerful spell that causes massive shadow frost damage, but it also has a cooldown of 45 seconds.
It’s Cold Outside is an upgrade of the Water Elemental. This now shoots frost shards instead of water bolts, causing a bit more damage and has a chance to grant the mage a stack of Frost Fingers.
With Black Ice, the weapon has a chance to temporarily increase the damage of Icicles by 100%.
Finally, Chilled to the Core enhances the spell Icy Veins. While it is active, all frost damage from the mage is increased by a whopping 20%.
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