Only thing left is to make frost nova fire nova etc lol

[dreaderus]

I know roleplayers might cry but its absurd pushing out frost spells as a fire mage still even blizzard agrees.

[Amaterasu65]

Blast Wave and Supernova are adequate.

[TheWorkingTitle]

I know roleplayers might cry but its absurd pushing out frost spells as a fire mage still even blizzard agrees.

Roleplayers? How about Mage players from Classic-->MoP (you know, the vast majority of the game).

I've said this so many times but I'll say it again.

Mages are "masters of the Arcane", able to draw from all three trees in battle at the same time. They specialized in one tree to become more proficient at that type of arcane, but used the other two trees as well. That is what the entire idea of being a Mage meant.

Now? We aren't Mages anymore (unless you want to devil's advocate that Fire can still use Frost Nova/Ring of Frost/Counterspell etc. (lol) )

We are now Pyromaniacs, Icecallers, and Arcanomancers. This entire idea of Mages only being one sect of the Arcane is frankly misguided and ignorant. You don't know what a Mage is if you think what OP thinks.

[Dizzeeyooo]

How about Mage players from Classic-->MoP (you know, the vast majority of the game)

it's a shame that people who have played x class from Vanilla > MoP are not higher on the dev priority list vs wod/legion babies that play for a week, quit for a week, then return for another week and reroll to something else

[Gungnir]

Roleplayers? How about Mage players from Classic-->MoP (you know, the vast majority of the game).

I've said this so many times but I'll say it again.

Mages are "masters of the Arcane", able to draw from all three trees in battle at the same time. They specialized in one tree to become more proficient at that type of arcane, but used the other two trees as well. That is what the entire idea of being a Mage meant.

Now? We aren't Mages anymore (unless you want to devil's advocate that Fire can still use Frost Nova/Ring of Frost/Counterspell etc. (lol) )

We are now Pyromaniacs, Icecallers, and Arcanomancers. This entire idea of Mages only being one sect of the Arcane is frankly misguided and ignorant. You don't know what a Mage is if you think what OP thinks.

This is pretty much exactly how I feel.
In the pursuit of "spec identity", we've lost class identity.

[Trumpcat]

Roleplayers? How about Mage players from Classic-->MoP (you know, the vast majority of the game).

I've said this so many times but I'll say it again.

Mages are "masters of the Arcane", able to draw from all three trees in battle at the same time. They specialized in one tree to become more proficient at that type of arcane, but used the other two trees as well. That is what the entire idea of being a Mage meant.

Now? We aren't Mages anymore (unless you want to devil's advocate that Fire can still use Frost Nova/Ring of Frost/Counterspell etc. (lol) )

We are now Pyromaniacs, Icecallers, and Arcanomancers. This entire idea of Mages only being one sect of the Arcane is frankly misguided and ignorant. You don't know what a Mage is if you think what OP thinks.

This is pretty much exactly how I feel.
In the pursuit of "spec identity", we've lost class identity.

Very true.

But there won't be a reversal on the design philosophy at this point. So to add more whining: I'd be much happier with the specializations if they reworked and improved the spell effects to not look and sound like they belong 12 years in the past. Some spells have seen improvement, but others are the same since launch. Especially now with Legion and Suramar in particular, there are many new wonderful effects.

[Sithalos]

We are now Pyromaniacs, Icecallers, and Arcanomancers. This entire idea of Mages only being one sect of the Arcane is frankly misguided and ignorant. You don't know what a Mage is if you think what OP thinks.

I prefer "Cryomancer" thank you very much.

[Uriel]

I prefer "Cryomancer" thank you very much.

Cause Mages are known for they crying right?







Ah just kidding ;-)

[Feril]

This game just needs some kind of Diablo 3-esque rune system where you can choose different flavors of a given spell (no mechanical change, as that would be kind of a hell to balance, I guess). That way a fire player might want to use all fire spells all the time, and some other fire mage might choose to cast a variety of spells from different schools except for rotational ones, since a fire mage should still do his damage through fire spells (or maybe NOT? imagine using frost's "playstyle" but with fire spells, and instead of shattering there is exploding, and fire's arsenal with frost spells could just be deep deep cold that radiates... well, cold).

Maybe the glyph system can step up for that, right?

Of course, there are some classes (spellcasters mainly) that would better benefit from this kind of system. I don't see warriors, for example, with that varied visual theme.

[dreaderus]

lol at some of these replies been playing a mage for 10+ years.

I am at the point in my wow career that now i have 3 mages, each themed for each spec. If some of us want to be a "wizard of the arcane" u should have that option, as I should be able to run around as a full blown fire mage, considering 90% of my spells as fire, are fire, not withstanding some typical utility spells that are spec agnostic.

I personally respect anyone who wants to be the "wizard" I prefer my mages themed to their specs, but I won't insult you or create nonsense about vanilla etc to try to bring some non existent logic around for it, its personal choices here not anything that is, or was or should be.

The ones i see as having options are:

Frost Nova
Fire Nova
Arcane Nova

Ice Floes
Arcane Floes
Fire Floes

ice block
arcane crystal
magma block

[Shangalar]

I have to say that as Arcane I miss having Fire Blast, Blizzard and Frostbolt just for the sake of having them there. However, I'm looking forward to not having Ice Barrier and having Prismatic Barrier instead, that seems totally cool.

At the same time I really hated having to play with Living Bomb for the entirety of MoP. That was sort of annoying so I'm glad that's gone, but I liked having the fluff extra spells. So I don't know... it's ok for me this way. Can't explain.

[Krazzorx]

Personally I like this direction

[Xirrohon]

Well, it used to be that you were just a Mage and could cast all spells but were a master in one of the disciplines. IMO it was much more fun to play Mage in this way. Now, its a Fire Mage, Frost Mage, Arcane Mage when it just used to be Mage. I liked when I could get my Frost tree locked but still cast Arcane Missiles. Thats when you actually felt like a Mage and not just a Frost Mage, but we have gone so far from that. That I guess it does feel weird now when a Fire Mage has something like Ice Nova.

[The Archmage]

I agree with my partner: even if it's true that choice to use spells from all schools have been trimmed over the years, i now feel as the "Archmage" kind more than before... and as Arcane at the moment i can still use Ice Block and Frost Nova as toolkit abilities and i am spitting out fire like crazy thanks to Aran's trinket in AoE scenarios... i feel like a true master of arcane magic

[Orrin]

I prefer "Cryomancer" thank you very much.

Yes, you would prefer to be failed Shaman apprentice who can only speak to elementals of one kind instead of being master magic?

[TheWorkingTitle]

I agree with my partner: even if it's true that choice to use spells from all schools have been trimmed over the years, i now feel as the "Archmage" kind more than before... and as Arcane at the moment i can still use Ice Block and Frost Nova as toolkit abilities and i am spitting out fire like crazy thanks to Aran's trinket in AoE scenarios... i feel like a true master of arcane magic

It's a sad state of affairs when we have devil's advocates championing the antithesis of being a Mage. Also, a trinket makes you feel like an Archmage? Just lol.

[Northem]

I insist, the ones who control several elements of the nature (fire and frost for instance) are the shamans, not the mages.

From my point of view, the mages are specialized into only one element, so they are divided into three categories: Arcanists, Cryomancers and Pyromancers.

In my case, I'm an Arcane mage and I do not find myself comfortable using fire or frost spells simply because they are not my speciality.

Yes, Arcanists, Cryomancers and Pyromancers should only use arcane, frost and fire spells respectively, however, there are some arcane spells (because the arcane magic is the primary essence of all other spells) that are "basic" to every mage. I would call these spells as "Primal Spells", and some of they are: the Portals/Teleports, Counterspell, Polymorph, Spellsteal, Blink, Time Warp, Slow Fall, Invisibility or even Conjure Refreshment.

Some people say that would be stupid having spells like: Magma Block (Fire version of Ice Block), Fire Floes (Fire version of Ice Floes) or Arcane Nova (Arcane version of Frost Nova) and I absolutely agree with them. The concept of having different specializations is so that each specialization faces the problems in different ways, not in the same way but with different colors!

Reskinning existing spells would be a waste of time/resources. The solution does not consist in changing colors, but changing the effects in order each spec feels different! That's the key! Examples:

• Be protected against damage received
  
  
  Frost Mages solution: Using an ice barrier that absorbs damage => [Ice Barrier]
  Fire Mages solution: Cauterize the most recent wounds => [Cauterize wounds]
  Arcane Mages solution: Use the own mana for damping the damage received => [Mana Ward]
  
  
• Get rid of melee attackers momentarily
  
  
  Frost Mages solution: Freeze to the floor the nearby enemies' feet => [Frost Nova]
  Fire Mages solution: Slow and knockback all nearby enemies => [Blast Wave]
  Arcane Mages solution: Make gravity no longer affects nearby enemies => [Gravity Lapse]
  
  
• Survive to a deadly attack
  
  
  Frost Mages solution: Encase oneself inside a solid block of ice => [Ice Block]
  Fire Mages solution: Die, but have the opportunity to return to life => [Out of the Ashes]
  Arcane Mages solution: Roll back the time until a safe moment and place => [Alter Time]

[Kanariya]

Roleplayers? How about Mage players from Classic-->MoP (you know, the vast majority of the game).

I've said this so many times but I'll say it again.

Mages are "masters of the Arcane", able to draw from all three trees in battle at the same time. They specialized in one tree to become more proficient at that type of arcane, but used the other two trees as well. That is what the entire idea of being a Mage meant.

Now? We aren't Mages anymore (unless you want to devil's advocate that Fire can still use Frost Nova/Ring of Frost/Counterspell etc. (lol) )

We are now Pyromaniacs, Icecallers, and Arcanomancers. This entire idea of Mages only being one sect of the Arcane is frankly misguided and ignorant. You don't know what a Mage is if you think what OP thinks.

Fully agree. We had this set perfectly in Cataclysm - strong core spells based on spec, but access to all non-talent spells (I could cast Arcane Blast as Fire/Frost if I wanted to). The only reason I can think of them fully spec-locking spells in MoP is to deter new players from using the wrong spells for their spec's rotation, which is stupid.

[Shangalar]

Fully agree. We had this set perfectly in Cataclysm - strong core spells based on spec, but access to all non-talent spells (I could cast Arcane Blast as Fire/Frost if I wanted to). The only reason I can think of them fully spec-locking spells in MoP is to deter new players from using the wrong spells for their spec's rotation, which is stupid.

It serves other purposes as well. For example Fire Blast was removed from Arcane and Frost so the two specs wouldn't have an extra spell to cast while moving or getting into position. Frostbolt was removed from Arcane and Fire so they wouldn't have access to a damage+slow spell because that's what we used to use in PvP. Blizzard - so Arcane wouldn't have long distance aoe and so Fire wouldn't have an extra long distance aoe spell. Cone of Cold - so Arcane and Fire wouldn't have extra aoe and slows.

From a gameplay point of view it makes sense, but losing flavor spells in the process was a bit meh. I don't mind it though.

I did mind losing some other ''flavor'' spells like the old Dampen/Amplify Magic spells and the Draenor Amplify Magic. That sort of utility is sometimes cool, but makes their balancing process infinitely more difficult when dps specs have access to those spells. Sometimes development and balancing have to trump flavor and feeling. Sometimes it's good for the class, sometimes it kind of sucks.