Can anyone get me up to speed? What happend to all mages?!

[Kimpan]

Hello

So I havent been playing since December 2012 / Januari 2013 something and alot has changed. Like a billion more raids etc


However, I started to do all the LFR raids and I noticed that I am almost solo mage? What has happend to all the mages?
What spec is the "go to" spec atm at lower gear? Seems like frost but does fire work?


Could someone help me catch up so I do not have to spend ages reading every post?

[Nightfall]

Frost is best with low gear, Fire gets good at higher crit values (35-40% selfbuffed). Our lvl90 talents suck, so take Invocation, don't forget to recast Evocation every 60 seconds and pray for its redesign. Or take Incanter's Ward, never use it and try not to think that you lose some dps that way.

[Smigel]

Only one new raid has been added since Jan. 2013. Throne of Thunder is the "current" raid.

[zeNNoN]

What happened? Lvl 90 talents happened. But blizz has only one developer/programmer working every first monday in the month so you have to wait year and a half to fix it. It's only reasonable.

[Csnyder]

Hello

So I havent been playing since December 2012 / Januari 2013 something and alot has changed. Like a billion more raids etc


However, I started to do all the LFR raids and I noticed that I am almost solo mage? What has happend to all the mages?
What spec is the "go to" spec atm at lower gear? Seems like frost but does fire work?


Could someone help me catch up so I do not have to spend ages reading every post?

i was in lfr today and there were 5 mages total
some go frost, some go fire, some go arcane, play whichever you like best

[Polarthief]

Hello

So I havent been playing since December 2012 / Januari 2013 something and alot has changed. Like a billion more raids etc

If by a billion you mean ONE XD

- Scorch no longer a talent; Fire only
- New talent Flameglow sucks donkey balls
- Living Bomb for ST, Nether Tempest otherwise
- Besides Arcane losing Scorchweaving, little to nothing has changed among the three specs' rotations
- L90 talents are still here and just as shitty; Invocation slightly less shitty

That's pretty much all of 5.1-5.3 in a wrap.

"Lower Gear" spec = Frost. 530+ iLevel = Fire (Needs Crit) or Arcane (Needs Mastery ==> Haste)

[Deleted]

Mages are no longer kings of 1v1 pvp, which is a major, MAJOR, incentive for people to play one class or another. With mages pretty average at pvp, people are considering other options.

[Bluesftw]

Mages are no longer kings of 1v1 pvp, which is a major, MAJOR, incentive for people to play one class or another. With mages pretty average at pvp, people are considering other options.

we must be playing different games... in 5.4 after mastery nerf, maybe

[announced]

enter 5.3 .. arcane sucks till 530+.. frost is the only option before then... fire works decently but it really shines in heroic gear.... and as its been explained LB for single target nt for multiple.

[KnightTrent]

As someone coming back from WOTLK, this is unfathomable.

[Kenbud]

we must be playing different games... in 5.4 after mastery nerf, maybe

We are still very good in pvp but 1v1 there are multiple specs that wreck us and generally everyone. These being Demo, Unholy, Feral, Enhance, Huntets and Rogues, honorable mention to WW Monks, Destro/Affliction and Rets. Mages are in a very good place but definitely do not deserve the "OMG I died in a deep NERF MAGES!!" outcry that is standard. I believe that GC said a while back sometime along the lines of "at low skill lvl mages are hard to counter but at high lvl they are fine" no statement has ever been more true when it comes to mages.

[Deleted]

LFR representations don't really amount to much. Sometimes you're the only Mage, the other time there's 6 of you. Mages are, all in all, still a well represented class, especially since we traditionally have at least one spec that performs (extremely) well.