[Mage] Improved Counterspell: All you might want to know

[Air*]

This is a guide regarding the mage talent "Improved Counterspell"

It can be found in the fourth tier of the arcane tree, which basically means that you need a minimum of 17 points invested in it.

Description of the talent: Gives your Counterspell a 50%/100% chance to silence the target for 4 sec.

(What this means is that you do need to spend the 2 points since only 1 point would render it almost useless by just giving it a random rng effect)

The basics: Counterspell itself is a 24 second cooldown spell, off the gcd (global cooldown) that interrupts enemy spellcasting. It basically blocks any spells from the school that got blocked from being cast for 8 seconds. But it also requires it to be cast while the opponent is casting, not later nor earlier. This makes it very easy for the opponent to just fake cast (suddenly cancel the cast before you counterspell), making you blow the cooldown with no effect. Also only 1 magic school gets locked (read: the opponent can just start casting a spell of another school right after the interrupt).

This is where Improved CS comes into the play. It also adds a 4 second silence effect to the spell, which basically means that it can also be extremely useful even when cast on a player not casting anything.

Talent speccs: Basically it is such an effective talent in PvP combat that many PvP mages have it implemented into their specc. Some examples include:

• 17/0/44 Frost
• 33/28/0 Arcane/Fire (also known as Ap/PoM/Pyro specc)
• 17/44/0 Dragon's Breath Deep Fire
• Arcane/Frost hybrids
• Deep Arcane

Of course with the exception of the first two examples, the other speccs aren't too widely used but they still are talent speccs that utilize Imp CS and gain a big part of their power from it. Also 17/0/44 deep frost is propably the most common PvP specc and the reason most mages give up the extra longevity ,snares ,damage , efficiency, etc in the frost tree solely because of the effectiveness of this talent. (Just according to SK-Gaming 63,6% of all mages over 2000 rating in all brackets use this specc which shows its power.) Granted some mages prefer the extra advantages of deeper frost(2/0/59, 0/0/61, 0/6/54, etc.) or deep fire (0/50/11) depending on their setup, but Imp cs is still a huge gadget and it is a really tough choice to leave it out of any PvP mage specc.

The Uses: I've been talking all this time about *how great* it is without even mentioning exactly what uses it can offer! Let's get started then :

• It is a silence! The one affected can't cast anything. The priest that just had his holy school locked wants to AoE fear right now, but guess what? Yep he has been silenced! Or that evil other mage who just had his frost school locked could just start casting polymorph or scorch or whatever, but he can't.
• It does not require it to be cast while the target is casting something. Getting fake casted is not such a huge problem, since the CD still has a partial use (4sec silence, but not the 8 sec lockout). Also it allows to prevent instants..CSing a shaman or druid preemtively can mean the death of their team-mate before they get to use their nature swiftness!
• Get creative. The creative possibilities are endless. PMR mirror fight. Pain Suppression on cd and want to avoid instantly having the ice block mass dispelled? Just CS the priest before iceblocking. Duelling vs a warrior and are positioned badly, near your elemental, which basically means that the warrior can intimidating shout both bringing you into a fairly bad position? Just CS him! (yes it works, it also works on piercing howl, although am not 100% sure on that one)

Disadvantages: Of course everything has a negative aspect as well. In this case those disadvantages include (as has already been mentioned) the need to spend 17 points into the arcane talent tree, which basically has almost only crap/filler talents in its bottom (except clearcasting). This means that you have to give other talents in the other trees. Futhermore Imp Counterspell with its powerful effect can make the mage too lazy and not fully utilize the spell when he should or could. (read: not really bothering to ever interrupt an actual cast, not even bothering to try to avoid being fake casted, etc)

Conclusion: All in all, Improved Counterspell is a very potent talent that every PvP mage should consider, since it allows for many and especially creative uses.