The mage has some of the deepest talent trees in Forever (18/17/19 rows across the three specs): 25 ability stubs awaiting porting, 41 TBC implementations preserved as comments, and the arcane spec already has the site's first output baseline. Talent provenance is judged by spell ID bands (classic <30k / SoD 390k–470k / Forever's own 1.22M–1.31M).
One, the core changes (generated-table ID evidence)
1. The only brand-new active: Frostfire Bolt
- IDs 401502 (SoD shell) + 1237312/13 (Forever data), 3 ranks
- Neither vanilla 60 nor WotLK 80 has this spell — it is Forever's own fire-frost fusion bolt
- The data also carries a
FrostfireOrbfield — a companion "Frostfire Orb" derivative design exists
2. Four core abilities get "re-issued" (all with new Forever IDs)
| Spell | Forever ID | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Arcane Blast | 1239696-700 (4 ranks) | Values re-tuned; keeps the TBC stacking mechanic (+75% cost per stack, -334ms cast time) — not the later charge-resource version |
| Ice Lance | 1240044-47 + 1312002 (5 ranks) | Positioned as a frost talent (registered in the Frost tree) |
| Blizzard | 1279949-80 + Triggered family | Shadow sub-spell structure: an independent tick sub-spell per rank |
| Flamestrike | 1279983-90 + Triggered family | Same |
3. A Forever original talent: Wake of Fire (Fire T1)
- Trigger WakeOfFireTriggered = 1312934 (Forever band), in the fire tree's first tier — "the fire spec gets reworked from the very start"
4. An easter egg: Teleport Dalaran (1297659)
A custom Dalaran teleport — even non-combat spells went through the generation pipeline.
Two, the cut TBC spells
| Spell | Former role | Forever |
|---|---|---|
| Dragon's Breath | TBC fire 41-pointer | Cut |
| Icy Veins | TBC frost 41-pointer | Cut |
| Summon Water Elemental | TBC frost 41-pointer | Cut |
| Slow | TBC arcane | Cut |
Three, the WotLK trigger talents adopted wholesale (the mage's biggest design signal)
Among the 24 "new in Forever" additions, the three heaviest:
| Talent | Spec | Identity |
|---|---|---|
| Hot Streak | Fire | The WotLK signature proc (two crits → instant Pyroblast) |
| Fingers of Frost | Frost | The WotLK signature proc (freeze treatment) |
| Missile Barrage | Arcane | The WotLK signature proc (Arcane Blast can trigger an instant Barrage) |
Plus classic/WotLK names like Ice Barrier, Ice Block, Frost Warding, Arctic Reach, Magic Absorption, Arcane Resilience, Impact, Permafrost, Shatter, Frostbite, Improved Blizzard, Improved Channeling and Wand Specialization.
The design philosophy: adopt WotLK's playable mechanics (the proc-driven rhythm) while rejecting its ability expression (no Deep Freeze/Living Bomb/Arcane Barrage style new actives — the latter two being exactly the stubs deleted after the SoD-contamination miscount).
Four, the three-era comparison
| Dimension | Vanilla 60 | WotLK 80 | Forever 60 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active spell list | Full vanilla | +Dragon's Breath/Icy Veins/Water Elemental/Slow/Living Bomb/Deep Freeze/Arcane Barrage | vanilla + Frostfire Bolt, with four core spells re-issued |
| TBC 41-pointers | None | All present | all cut |
| WotLK 51-point capstones | None | Barrage/Living Bomb/Deep Freeze | none |
| Proc talents | None | Hot Streak/Fingers of Frost/Missile Barrage | adopted wholesale ("new in Forever") |
| Ice Lance | None (TBC introduction) | Trainable | Remade as a frost talent (5 ranks) |
| Arcane Blast stacking | None (TBC introduction) | Kept + charge rework | Keeps the TBC stacking mechanic (values re-tuned) |
| Original content | — | — | Frostfire Bolt, Wake of Fire, Frostfire Orb (field), Dalaran teleport |
| Tree depth | Shallower | 20 rows | 18/17/19 rows |
Five, design reading
- The mage's "new" is not more buttons — it is re-laid mechanics: the active list is nearly frozen at vanilla (only +Frostfire Bolt), but the four workhorses — Arcane Blast, Ice Lance, Blizzard, Flamestrike — are all re-issued with Forever IDs, meaning values and mechanics were redesigned and need fresh ports rather than TBC copies.
- Proc modernization: the three WotLK trigger talents (Hot Streak/Fingers of Frost/Missile Barrage) give all three specs a "proc-burst" rhythm — Forever's Classic+ compensation for the mage's playstyle.
- 41-pointers all cut, no 51-pointers to replace them: the mage's capstone gap is filled by deep trees + procs rather than new big buttons — a clear inter-class contrast with the paladin (three original capstones) and the rogue (the finishing theme).
- The port workload is on the heavy side: 25 stubs + 4 re-issued cores + a whole new proc set — heavier than the rogue (skeleton untouched), lighter than the paladin (already done).