Page 1 of 3
1
2
3
LastLast
  1. #1

    Leveling as mage in Legion

    Hey everyone,

    I have leveled a few classes to 110 on the Beta (important note: all of them premade chars starting at 660), and the disparity between leveling as another class (DH havoc, Feral druid, Outlaw rogue) and mage (fire/arcane) is just rediculous.

    As a DH, you can easily pull 3-4 mobs, kill one, a soul spawns and you heal back to full (same for feral druid with resetting tiger's fury).
    As a mage, if I accidently pull 3 mobs, I need to blow all cd's (Combustion/dragons breath etc) or I'm dead.
    Moreover, if I pull more than 1 mob at a time, i'll have to stop and drink in between mobs.
    Admittedly it got a bit better at the higher levels when I got more gear (108+), but it was still not even comparable to the melee classes I've levelled.
    As a mage, I need to be carefull of what i pull, as another class, I pull as much as I can.

    This is especially annoying because it slows down the levelling so much compared to other classes. I have not levelled a mage starting at 730 or so, but even then I can imagine it being slower.

    Playing a mage in a group is fun, but solo questing is just an absolute pain. Is this way better for frost compared to fire?

  2. #2
    Deleted
    Interessting. Thank you for sharing.

    I am a person who sees leveling as a one time thing that I have to endure for the duration it lasts. I generally hate leveling, but I would rather not play melee in LEGION.

    Quite funny I watched a twitch streamer yesterday who played as arcane and had problems with level 110 mobs (His mage was also level 110). He pulled 3 of them an died when it tried to test if Arcane Rebound was bugged (hint : it is bugged and only deals 1 damage).

    What exactly do you think is the biggest problems of mages when leveling? Did you test other ranged dps classes so far? I'd really love to know what you have to say.

    Greetings

  3. #3
    just leveled a mage from 90-100 as arcane over the last few months and this actually sounds to be quite on par with my experience in that leveling bracket as arcane. one or maybe two mobs at a time otherwise your dead. maybe if you blow all your CDs you'll live but otherwise i was popping invis. especially at 100 trying to do the daily in tanaan was slow going at first until you get some gear. i imagine its more of the same here.

  4. #4
    Well the loss of the ignite glyph hurts fire, so it can't pull everything at once anymore which is rather annoying. Kinda feels they've taken away our kiting and mobility abilities but replaced it with nothing. While selective other classes gain in that department.

  5. #5
    I don't know for sure because I am currently not in beta, but I imagine hunters and locks are solid when it comes to soloing and leveling due to tank pets. So far every expansion I have played in, mages were hands down the hardest class to solo level with, that's been my experience at least.

  6. #6
    You know that mage was always about careful pulling, polymorphing and kiting, right?

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Rathoric View Post
    Well the loss of the ignite glyph hurts fire, so it can't pull everything at once anymore which is rather annoying. Kinda feels they've taken away our kiting and mobility abilities but replaced it with nothing. While selective other classes gain in that department.
    Flamestrike slows now, but yeah it's not as good as the old glyph.


    Leveling a premade char can be a pain in the ass, especially as arcane. Frost in kinda fine for leveling, but fire is where it's at atm. Just avoid big groups if you have no gear.
    With my mythic geared mage I had no problems while leveling (as fire). Everything died within a precast and 1-2 instants till 105. After that I had to be careful, because mobs actually hurt while leveling. I had the Blink-Heal talent skilled in my weapon, combined with the Shimmer talent it was good enough self heal. Also use the guardian follower, he slows and freezes alot, helps a ton.

  8. #8
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Neoxx View Post
    Leveling a premade char can be a pain in the ass, especially as arcane.
    I found it to be the easiest spec undergeared. But I didn't go with raiding talents. Charged up, Presence of Mind, Rune of Power and everything was dead fast, and the cooldowns were coming up relatively fast because levelling has 10 to 30sec downtimes all the time.

    - - - Updated - - -

    The main misunderstanding here is that people think fire is the panacea for everything. Today it seems convenient for 5mans and early raiding (potentially), it does not mean it's amazing in levelling.

    I expect frost to be the best for levelling overgeared (if levelling is important to someone, I don't think it is).
    Last edited by mmocdc260e8e2a; 2016-07-10 at 12:03 PM.

  9. #9
    its supposed to be that way? 660 ilevel is incredibly low.

    leveled as fire, it was incredibly easy depending on how you choose to develop your artifact and whether or not you are used to play fire as leveling.

  10. #10
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Mahcake View Post
    You know that mage was always about careful pulling, polymorphing and kiting, right?
    It is. Had my mage since start of vanilla, as a main untill wotlk end / cata start. Still a toon I play a lot, just as a high ranked alt.
    Mages are about playing smart and using different buttons , beside just hitting damage spells.
    Frost nova -> blink is a great source for survivability. Same is using polymorph.
    As a mage you just need to pay attention to your surroundings and use your brain a little more

  11. #11
    Deleted
    You can clearly avoid the kiting depended on style. The double bubbles of frost and arcane are extremely potent (I expect them to be some of the most powerful personal defenses during the expansion) and arcane can do very high burst depended on talents and frost can "abuse" shatter and fingers of frost quite frequently. We have a lot of misunderstandings stemming from people thinking fire is a panacea or that raiding talents are for levelling.

  12. #12
    Deleted
    Oh god, this thread was my worst nightmare... I really HATE the fact that the mage is the only class to not have a SINGLE heal and long casting time, especially in solo, and this confirms that it's going to be a pain again in Legion.

    I guess I'll finally move from mage as my main character, because really, when I compare it to any of my other characters, it's really the most tedious one.

  13. #13
    The Unstoppable Force Super Kami Dende's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    The Lookout
    Posts
    20,979
    I find it strange that people on MMO-C consistently complain the game is too easy and that they can constant pull and never need to rest.
    But then once Blizzard makes it slightly harder to level you get the other side saying it is becoming difficult to do so.

    damned if you do, damned if you don't.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by tobindax View Post
    The main misunderstanding here is that people think fire is the panacea for everything. Today it seems convenient for 5mans and early raiding (potentially), it does not mean it's amazing in levelling.

    I expect frost to be the best for levelling overgeared (if levelling is important to someone, I don't think it is).
    Fire is by far the best spec for leveling IMO, espacially overgeared. You almost have no downtime, mostly instant casts, low CDs, great burst, great AE dmg, you survive group pulls, Dragon's Breath stun, blink selfheal if you choose the talent. Also with the archimonde trinket you have perma slow and free AE dmg 24/7.

    Arcane suffers from long cast times when Charge Up and Orb is on cooldown and the mob is not dead. Group pulls are a pain since AE and Resonance got nerfed so you take too much dmg. Also no self heal, no stun.

    I tried frost, but it was meh as far as I remember. Can't say too much about it, fire was just better so I switched back.


    Dispite of all that, you kinda have to level as the spec you will play in raids/dungeons later. So it's most likely a choice between fire, fire, fire and maybe arcane.

  15. #15
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by xzeve View Post
    It is. Had my mage since start of vanilla, as a main untill wotlk end / cata start. Still a toon I play a lot, just as a high ranked alt.
    Mages are about playing smart and using different buttons , beside just hitting damage spells.
    Frost nova -> blink is a great source for survivability. Same is using polymorph.
    As a mage you just need to pay attention to your surroundings and use your brain a little more
    Other classes have utility as well and yet an Outlaw Rogue doesn't need to Sap and will instead just AoE 3-5 mobs at once.

    Holding mages to their classic-WoW-standards like poly and kiting is idiotic considering how much the game has evolved and how every other class can just aoe the shit out of everything.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Colonel SnackyCakes View Post
    I find it strange that people on MMO-C consistently complain the game is too easy and that they can constant pull and never need to rest.
    But then once Blizzard makes it slightly harder to level you get the other side saying it is becoming difficult to do so.

    damned if you do, damned if you don't.
    It'd be totally fine that I can only fight one mob at a time if the fury warrior next to me wasn't AoE farming the quest spot so hard that I constantly need to wait for mobs to respawn.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Neoxx View Post
    Also with the archimonde trinket you have perma slow and free AE dmg 24/7.
    Any idea how the trinket scales while leveling?

  16. #16
    Herald of the Titans Northem's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Dismantling Blizzard
    Posts
    2,614
    That confirms what everyone knows (although some people don't want to admit it): we, the mages, are the most squishy class of all, especially the Arcane ones... And that is a big problem at soloing in particular.

    But OK, let's admit that our main weak point is precisely that, being squishy, however, what is our strong point then? Our output-damage cannot be, taking into account that all classes have to do the same damage... so what else? Any idea?

    The reality is that the mages are currently in a situation of comparative grievance regarding the other classes, and that has to be solved somehow.
    Last edited by Northem; 2016-07-10 at 02:59 PM.

  17. #17
    I like how people are acting surprised at this.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by klaps_05 View Post
    its supposed to be that way? 660 ilevel is incredibly low.

    leveled as fire, it was incredibly easy depending on how you choose to develop your artifact and whether or not you are used to play fire as leveling.
    The premades are actually in 680 gear. It was tedious the first few levels but then got easier as you geared. It is true though, 3+ mobs take time while most melee classes are grouping 5+ and easily wiping them out.

    Fire mage AoE is weak, weak, weak... until you actually get your weapon leveld.. but by then you are already 110 and not needing AoE as much.

    Another problem with ignite is it is constantly spreading to neutral yellow mobs and bogging down the leveling process.

    At level 110, in 848 gear, and with 3 golden dragons... I am smoking in Heroics.... crits are very frequent allowing me to force the instant Pyros... regular mobs in the world are now pop, pop, dead.. I often round up 3-4 mobs and the splash damage alone makes it easy to finish off the later mobs.

    Still... melee are going to be able to AoE farm us into the ground. I miss the days of Frost AoE farming...


  19. #19
    fire mage is good for pve ?

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by throwaway-o View Post
    Any idea how the trinket scales while leveling?
    If I remember correctly it was something like 94% at 100 and 59% at 109, so pretty good.

    Quote Originally Posted by Northem View Post
    That confirms what everyone knows (although some people don't want to admit it): we, the mages, are the most squishy class of all, especially the Arcane ones... And that is a big problem at soloing in particular.
    Nothing is confirmed here. There are other classes/specs that are squishy as hell and level equally bad, e.g. elemental shaman.

    Quote Originally Posted by Northem View Post
    But OK, let's admit that our main weak point is precisely that, being squishy, however, what is our strong point then? Our output-damage cannot be
    Our dmg output is exactly our strongpoint atm, at least for fire. Arcane and Frost will get buffs, don't worry.
    Last edited by Neoxx; 2016-07-10 at 03:37 PM.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •