A Tweet, A Thought

[Jaylol]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Zilotu, US-Stormrage, 543(?)

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
All at least once, was mostly frost for 5.0 and arcane for 5.1 though.

3) Tier 15?
Frost for every fight besides the one Ra-Den kill I've been in.

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
Frost. It's the most satisfying for me. Fire just brings out all the rage in me with the crit shenanigans and arcane is just a sloppy spec in it's current state with level 90 talents.

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?
Not really, I feel we need more spec diversity.

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?
Depends. If I have to put up with fires RNG or arcanes sloppiness, probably not. They need to change fire so it's not so reliant on crit (which would remove the insane scaling) and just revamp arcane again because the penalty of being a 100% immobile spec just doesn't work in this day and age. If they fixed that, I would be happy to switch on a fight-by-fight basis.

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?
Since Level 90 talents is an obvious one, I'd say scaling (fire too good, frost absolute garbage). Hard to decide which one is a bigger issue.

[Deleted]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Cycobi, The Maelstrom - EU, 543.

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
All 3.

3) Tier 15?
All 3.

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
Arcane.

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?
No, spec identity/diversity keeps the specs different and enables you to say you can play a class, not just a spec in a class. Define "temporary". Probably not.

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?
Assuming gear secondary stats weren't an issue, would be fine.

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?
Bring back more spec-specific spells within schools; one thing that's made all 3 Mage specs feel very homogenous is the fact that all 3 specs have access to a large majority of spells from all 3 schools, while I get this is "Mage-like", it doesn't give the class as a whole a very diverse feeling as you can roll a spec and still cast some of the spells which, in Cata, were specific to the other specs - Deep Freeze is a good example of this. Why should a Fire Mage (or an Arcane Mage, for that matter) be able to cast something that used to be part of the core spec as Frost?


My thoughts are PVE based, if I'm referencing PVP it's due to the impact it has on PVE. I don't PVP seriously so PVPers please don't take what I'm saying too hard, it's just my thoughts from a PVE perspective.

Broad Class Concerns

• A mix of talent options available and allowing all 3 specs access to non-spec specific schools has made Mages feel incredibly homogenous. Basic rotation from all 3 specs is the same, the only "variable" is the talents which each spec gets pigeon-holed into and even then it's not exactly that different between the 3.
• PVE suffers too much from PVP imbalance - while this is the case for a lot of classes, I feel Frost's advantages in PVE reflect not just on it as a spec, but to the class as a whole. I'm sure Hunters and Retridins who don't PVP feel the same - the strength of a spec in PVP has such a detrimental effect in PVE it's frustrating, especially when it leads to talent nerfs (IW, FG, etc.) which affect all specs not just the "desired" target spec.
• While I don't agree that 90 talents "need to go" as some suggest, I do think they need heavy work. While I can understand that without the buffs to maintain all 3 Mages specs would be incredibly simplistic for how much raw output they have (read: very low skillcap), forcing people to maintain them in the way they do is wrong, especially when they either: require a channel to maintain, limit movement beyond normal levels or can't be kept up at 100% uptime making it pointless.

Fire

• Poor AoE outside of cleave for a class that's traditionally meant to be able to "spread" DoTs. Even just having Combustion limited with Ignite/Pyro unlimited would be an improvement.
• Over-reliance on lining up "perfect" Combustions to do decent DPS.
• Over-reliance on Crit/Crit RNG.
• Pigeon-holed into certain talent and glyph choices (PoM, GoCombustion).
• Constant gear-scaling issues gets frustrating.

Arcane

• Over-reliance on RoP limiting movement further on an already movement-limited spec is dumb.
• AoE positioning-based. Squishiest class having to stand in melee range to do AoE is a no-no.

Frost

• Constant gear-scaling issues gets frustrating.
• Inability for spec to ever shine properly in PVE due to PVP ties.
• Pet spec doesn't use pet in PVE outside of passive damage.
• "Ramp-up" debuff is dumb.

[xChurch]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Morimasa, Misha (US), 522ish.

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
Fire/Frost/Arcane

3) Tier 15?
Fire,Frost

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
Fire


5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?
No, I would rather get the problem solved as soon has possible, we've had to many bandaids already (90 talents anyone?)

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?
It would depend on how far we're talking here. If you had to switch specs based on fights because you're trying to clear Heroics, then yes. Other classes sometimes have to (eg. Rogues with their old Blade Flurry), so we can to. However if we're talking changing on N fights then no, like how it was back in Firelands if you were the flyer for Alysrazor, though of course that one just one fight for a very specific job, so that was acceptable.

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?
90 Talents since that seems like the easiest thing to hope for at this point. Not really holding my breath for 6.0 changes.

[Mastamage]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Mastamagee, Turalyon - US, 537

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
All
3) Tier 15?
All but the majority of early kills were Frost, the past month have been Arcane. Fire for testing purposes.

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
Arcane

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?
No. I think all specs should have diversity (i.e. warlock demonic fury, embers)

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?
I wouldn't be against being able to change specs based on the fight and have gear not be a limiting factor (but we'll need tri-spec for that). Using Armors to compensate for scaling is meh but it does add something. Honestly, our scaling lies deep within and it's going to take a miracle for Blizz to come close to fixing it.

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?
Remember that spec diversity we USED to have? I'd get rid of the new talent system and bring back a form of the old one. Back then you could actually tell who was serious about playing and who just tossed in points wherever they pleased.

[jtmzac]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Jtmzac, US-Stormrage, 540.

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
Frost with a little Arcane

3) Tier 15?
Frost

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
Frost (I'm lucky to have the option to play it anyway)

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?
Absolutely not. As a pure dps class all we have is spec diversity and without it I think the class would be very dull.

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?
I've thought about this quite a bit and I think needing to change specs for each fight would only make things worse because with attitudes the way they are you would be expected to swap for each fight.

I think the specs should be less reliant on gear then they currently are but you should never be able to max the spec without specific gear (e.g. crit shouldn't be so bad for frost so that fire geared mages could actually play the spec if they wanted to without needing different gear but they won't do as well as a haste geared frost mage).

If the specs were ever all even and you swapped on a per fight basis gems would become a serious problem. I already don't like changing specs because of the absurd cost of regemming but if you had to do it frequently it would inevitably be put on guilds to provide the gems. Guilds already struggle to keep up with all the farming for flasks, pots and food and having to provide large amounts of gems would cause serious problems.

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?
I really can't answer this. There's lots of smaller problems that contribute to the overall state of the class that all need to be resolved. Just removing the level 90 talents would only make us pick something else to call the root of all mage problems.


I'd like to mention again I think there's problems with the community that can never be fixed with class balance. People need to get over the idea that unless your doing the most dps no matter the cost of swapping specs that you don't care about your team or raiding. I think the game has changed a lot faster then people attitudes and some people are just stuck in the past.

[Huevos]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Stressball, US-Turalyon, 535.

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
---Played a lock T14---

3) Tier 15?
All 3

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
Fire/Arcane

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?
No, it's needed. Without diversity, what's the point of having options? They need to have different practical applications, situations where each shines. As a temporary solution, fine, because diversity is really meaningless if the toolkits that make the specs diverse aren't enough to put them over the top when the toolkits come into play. This is true right now, there's no reason to ever go frost over fire, and arcane only wins on a relative standstill fight, which we don't seem to be getting.

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?
True spec diversity enables you to change specs and adapt to any encounter specific mechanics to gain an advantage - that's a good thing. Being able to do this makes you more valuable, and who doesn't want that? Is it a burden that locks are viable in all three specs, but they are "forced" to play certain specs on certain fights? No, it's a blessing that demonology is so strong on Lei Shen, not a burden that it makes affliction or destruction less desirable.

Gear being universally beneficial is important to this. If our three spec options were equal to locks' in terms of diversity and value, it'd be a pain to switch between them. You could go haste arcane and frost, but who wants crit in arcane or frost? It doesn't need to be perfect, just close, and it's one of the reasons mastery is valued so much by locks.


7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?
Viability of the three specs, which really means scaling. Frost is great at the start, but sucks relative to fire with gear. Fire has exactly the opposite problem. Arcane requires RoP or an incredible clunky haste playstyle that makes it tedious to play.

[Akraen]

I've had countless mages speak to me in-game and on mumble as well.

I am loving the overwhelming productivity so far and hope it continues. Check the OP frequently, it's being updated as constantly as I can!

[Deleted]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Pete, EU-Anetheron, 551.

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
All 3 specs - I "enjoyed" the roller coaster ride because of buffs and nerfs of each spec and I wanted to establish myself in a 4 - 5 days/week progress guild.

3) Tier 15?
Frost except for 2 bosses (fire)

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
Cataclysm Frost with Tier 12 4 piece bonus

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?
Nope, diversity is important to me!

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?
I don´t want to switch every boss, but there should always be a boss in a tier, where a spec is way better than the other two, regardless of stats on current gear. So if you want to the play this certain boss properly, you have to deal with the appropriate spec. A kind of challenge with your class during progression.

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?
The obvious (Lvl90) is listed often enough... so I say: "give Alter Time a trinket proc protection and/or get rid of RPPM trinkets and bring back Cataclysm Frost!!!"


8) Many thanks to Akraen for his dedication and effort!!

[awildpidgeyappears]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Trolflcopter, US-Cho'gall, 549

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
Fire/Arcane

3) Tier 15?
Frost/Fire

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
Fire or Arcane (Don't make me pick just one! I can't do it!)

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?
I would not want to sacrifice diversity for equal scaling.

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?
I like the idea of at least being able to switch between two specs depending on the demands of a fight (like many Warlocks do now between Demo/Destro). However, it's unfortunate that the three mage specs, while playing almost identically (maintain stupid 90talent/refresh bomb/cast filler/use procs/rinse & repeat), are so pigeon-holed into overwhelmingly preferring one secondary stat and forsaking the other two that switching like this is pretty much impossible without spending an inordinate amount of money (or having a pocket Jewelcrafter).

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?
Arcane's lack of movement (as it gets doubly f****d by RoP AND no cast-on-the-move spells).

[Bowserkills7]

1. Erraneous, Khazgoroth US and ilvl515.
2. All three.
3. As above.
4. Fire.
5. Whats the point of having no spec diversity? Thats the point of offspecs, to give a break from the main spec.
6. Yes, that is my main issue at the moment. I main frost, but when I need to go fire (ala Council), my gear kills my DPS due to lack of crit. Each spec is dependant on a different stat, which makes changing specs absolutly painful (reforging, regemming, re enchanting).
7. I would overhaul the last tiers talents. I don't understand why mana managment is our last tier, that isn't fun at all. I want a cool ability like Paladins or Priests do.

[pyrostorm9001]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Pyrõstorm, caelestrasz US, 536

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
All

3) Tier 15?
Frost and Fire

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
Frost

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution? No! Not even temporarily.
Diversity keeps the class interesting and fresh after many years of playing the same class. Partly why I gave Frost a good go in ToT (and loved it) something other than Fire!

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?
True spec diversity would make me a very happy mage. If armor could somehow compensate for scaling then I suppose thats fine. Im more interested in being able to do my in the same spec from the start to the end of the tier. Im ok if some specs are slightly better than others on a encounter by encounter basis, I should never feel like im in the wrong spec and letting my guild down.

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?
Lvl 90 talents. Only because they demand so much time and effort from the devs. The time spent on balancing 9 play styles (3 talents by 3 specs) could be better spent on improving game play and mage diversity.

[Delath]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?

Lavok, EU-Xavius (http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...Lavok/advanced) , ~538

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?

Arcane

3) Tier 15?

Arcane, fire, frost

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?

Arcane

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?

Hopefully spec diversity and balance are not entirely mutually exclusive. At the level I'm playing (9/13H at the moment) I'm fine with the difference between arcane and fire, which may change once we get to Lei Shen H. I think a change in thematics between the specs is not enough, but the difference must also be visible in the gameplay so that spec identity is not entirely lost. In other words I'm not ok with sacrificing spec diversity for a fully identical scaling, but think there must be a way to keep the specs separate but maintain some degree of output equality.

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?

I could consider swapping specs on a fight-to-fight basis if itemization worked the same for all specs. Currently swapping from arcane to fire is practically impossible between fights.

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?

Lvl90 talents, AT eating procs. sorry, 2 things .


Broad Class Concerns

- Mages feel pretty squishy outside of big reduction cooldowns, so having some more low cooldown and high uptime personal damage mitigation wouldn't be very wrong.

Fire

- Reliance on big combustions and AT macro to build this feels very gimmicky and is the main reason I don't like the spec.
- As many others have noted, the scaling just doesn't work.

Arcane

- Arcane gets way too screwed over by movement. A bigger penalty than other specs is fine, but getting doubly screwed by having no cast-on-the-move single target and RoP is just too much.
- Maybe time to make missiles castable on the move. This could open up more possibilities to make arcane more of a channeling spec to diversify it from other mage specs in some other way than just getting super gimped by movement.
- No NT multidotting, please. We are not warlocks.

Frost

- Scaling obviously sucks.
- Biggest problem for me was how clunky the spec becomes when you stack haste past the point of constantly going under the GCD with frostbolts, which messes with spell queueing.
- Give water elemental a purpose or get rid of it.

[Deleted]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Mspyropanda, EU-Darksorrow - EU, 535.

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
Arcane, Frost. None as current content though.

3) Tier 15?
All 3. Currently progressing as arcane, frost is too weak and I'm not a fan of fire.

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
Frost.

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?

The diversity of the specs appeals.

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?

I quite enjoy the different flavours of the mage class actually.

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?

See below

PvE Concerns:


Fire

Too little margin for error/Excessive luck & skill dependence on ONE spell, combustion. When I tried the spec on Lei Shen I felt I wasn't great at it so really its a no go. Personally I don't like the way the spec feels, but some people do.
It suffers the same scaling issues that my warrior did way back when when Rage lead to more rage (The quadratic/exponential scaling is not good)

Reliance on combustion and crit to the degree thy are are the main problems.

Arcane
Rune of Power is a massive quality of life issue. Having to recast that rune gets old real quick. A switch to make it like sniper training would be the ideal solution.
Lacks a proc, arcane missiles should be able to be cast on movement.

The spec is fine numbers wise, but RoP needs to change.

Frost
Mastery scales poorly in PvE.
Crit scales fine till ~ 23%, then doesn't.
Haste hits scaling issues due to Frostbolt. Suggestion - Glyph to increase the damage and increase the cast time of frostbolt.
Debuff dps penalty must go completely.

It is a nice spec mechanically though and the 'flavour' should not be changed, just the numbers (More scaling - too strong at low level, too weak at high level)
V Strong at low gear levels, very weak at high. Opposite way round to fire.

In summary:

Fire - Combustion, crit over-reliance.
Arcane - Rune of Power should be changed.
Frost - Fix the scaling.

[Abraxis]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?

Abraxis - EU - Anetheron - 549

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?

Fire, Arcane

3) Tier 15?

Fire (Raden as Arcane once)

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?

Fire

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?

I think diversity and different playstyle is an important thing. I've no problem with one spec being stronger for special fights. But switching between them should be made more comfortable. Maybe something similar to dualspec -> "dualgem or enchant" So you have to pay and set it once and u're allowed to switch without 24 people have to wait for complete regemming etc.

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?

See at #5

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?

make Rune of Power an Instantcast

[Deleted]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Why is this necessary?

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
Frost (did 3 as arcane but never mind that)

3) Tier 15?
Frost

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
Frost

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?
No

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?
Depends on the margin. If we speak about 5% i would not change. If we speak about 20% i would change. Armors should be revamped: Scaling baseline for the spec and armors only for the secondary effect (rebalance ofc)

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?
Change the lvl90s back to 5.0

[Deleted]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Thanje, EU-Ner'Zhul, 546


2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
Fire, Arcane and went back as frost at the beginning of T15

3) Tier 15?
Frost till 9/13hm, then fire till 12 and arcane since then.


4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
Arcane or frost.

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?
No, there is almost no spec diversity, thus I wouldn't sacrifice it even more...

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?
I think mages need spec diversity, each spec is just T90 > Bomb (t75) > procs (AM-HU-HS-IL-BF) > filler. Furthermore, it's a pain in the ass to even think about respec because we have to change every gem/enchant. Therefore, as for now, it's impossible to think about respec-ing for every fight. That's one of the reason I'm playing Arcane since we killed Raden.


7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?
Proc protection during Alter Time, it makes me so angry when I wait something like 8-10s to press AT and then every single thing decides to proc during that 6s window. Really awesome.

[Sombrelune]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Sombrelûne Hyjal-EU, 550

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
Frost before 5.1, Arcane hast after, somes fight in Fire

3) Tier 15?
Frost before 40% crit, Fire After, Arcane for Raden, and Frost again since the first day of farm ( progress cleaned)

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
My character was created in the first days of Vanilla with Frost in mind. ( Like citizen pete I actually loved T12 with my frost mage)

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?
Thematic is not spell colour. Each spec have a soul and with must repect it. I don't believe in temporary announced solution anymore. They tend to install themseleves...

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?
I doesn't hurt me that some fights favor this or this spec. But all must be within 5-10% max range, and the leadership must be shared in differents fight. Stop the Fire first in all fight, and Frost last.
I 'd prefer all tied, but Fire a little ahead in movement fight, Arcane a little ahead in stationnary fight and frost in fast switching/burst in demand fight ( like in cata). And i said a little ahead. I dream of a raid with 3 mages with all specs represented.

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?
Disparity between the specs. Like I said above I don't want 3 same specs with 3 differents colours. I don't want 3 specs performing equally in each aspect of the game. All I want is no clear winner, at the end of the day.
Hybrids class say that they didn't respe because they choose to be healer OR tank OR range dps OR cac dps. I don' choose to be a mage when I created Sombrelune. I wanted a Frost Mage. Why do I need to be considerated a Fire mage who don't want to? Where is the egality?
And I speak for the Arcane/Fire mage in heart too. Why would they have to play frost in pvp if they want to be efficient?
No clear winner in all aspect of this game plz Blizzard ( and no waffle plz, like all spec are already well performing equally)

[Shadowsunder]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Ansrareth, US Tichondrius/ Criminal current ilvl 529

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
All specs, trying to find the one I can achieve the most through put with.

3) Tier 15?
Again all specs, trying to stay competitive with other dps.

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
Arcane, Fire and Frost are close second.

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?
Scaling and spec diversity I find are not really somethings we have, as I play a warlock, I feel very tied to my spec, as a mage I am using tools that rely on fire/frost/arcane and feel like a mage as a whole regardless of what I spec into. I don't think balance between specs is something easily achieved therefore I would not be in favor of a temporary fix.

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling?
I would personally like something akin to warlocks set up, where there is a diversity of each spec, and some shine on other fights but that most specs are manageable and playable and that I don't get a 20k increase for switching over to fire.

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?
make the lvl 90 talents feel like something across all specs and not just what flavor of mana regen you want.

[arizonapriest93]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl?
Flell US Kil'Jaden 527 (Stopped raiding after clearing this content due to irl, I do have a strong grasp on the content though)
2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in?
All, varying gear levels and due to the wonderful fire to arc "forced" swap in 5.1 -_- (I enjoyed scorch weave but it was dumb) Also got time as frost due to curious
3) Tier 15?
All, frost until "enough" crit for fire, still irregular go back to frost, bored of frost so try arc. That whole shindig.
4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play?
I would probably play arcane simply I find the mana management a very interesting mechanic, this alone is really the only difference in mage specs, they're all essentially the same, as many have pointed out, but arc has some very minor flair with making sure you do not dip too low on your mana. (As well as other dynamic aspects besides just procs.
5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution?
Not really, I find that even if they just look differently it isn't enough, sure it changes it up on the eye and the like, but if honestly they played almost identical it would suck. For example, as frost you get a "new" mech called shatter (different from current just the name fits best) where you must pump so much damage into the current target and then you use your 45sec cd to "shatter" the target for a % of the damage you just did is essentially exactly the same as fire. As arcane you gotta get to 4 stacks then pump large damage into the target to use Nether Collapse to make the target suffer, once again, a % of the damage you did, what real difference is that? That's poor design and honestly that would make me definitely reroll. (For the record I have played a rogue and a hunter at high levels I am familiar with their issues and the like and that this is pretty much their situation. Why do you think I no longer play those classes).
6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling? Potentially. It really depends on how this is handled. If that you have one fight that arcane is just off the wall balls deep insane for, and the other two specs absolutely lag behind and then arcane sucks for 80% of the rest of raid, does that really make it viable? Even if it was two fights or three out of say 12 (13 including Ra-den this tier I spose but 12 for ease of math) thats only 25% of the entire raid that arcane is amazing for, and if for the other fights it is incredibly weak then that doesn't work at all. Thats not fair to the arcane players and depending on how high arcane is, that isn't fair for the fire and frost players either. Additionally I think that most classes and players would be happy if they're specs were "middle of the pack" with upper pack potential if played appropiately, but their specs were mostly even. So they could play preference, which I think this is the goal and it is a hard one to do properly. If this was the case, all specs performed well in general, and some of them shone on other fights really well, as in the arcane mage on X fight does well to move up from "middle of the pack" average to upper pack on a select few fights, but fire and frost still do about middle of pack damage. Yes top tier players pushing content at record paces will probably need to switch but for everyone else, still heroic raiders included, they could justify doing their do while not crazily dropping their numbers.

This design, specs for specific fights, would create issues with dual spec and the distant tri spec that we would have to go and respec to be viable if we didn't have the proper spec in our two selections. I feel that is an issue that needs to be avoided.

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be?

I would redesign the 90 talents. There has to be a better way to handle them besides the current situation. I honestly love IW it's just not the most viable thing in the planet, and you should be rewarded for not breaking the damage somehow, not "brought up to standard" with the others (referring the 15% nerf from 30%). Rune honestly sounds like it could be an awesome raid cd or personal cd if done right. Make it 10-15 yard radius 3-5min cd and if its a personal make it tied to the character so it is mobile. (Granted if its a cd the being rooted in one place for 10 seconds isn't horrible but the range would have to be increased larger than live). (An idea to make it raidwide is have it return mana like a hymn does, that removes priests from being only class with that cd, but still keeps it unique and mage like feel. When I think of mage and the concept of mana I feel that a mage is a master of mana, so being able to do something to return it sounds about right to me). Make invocation make your evocation instant and instead of only being able to be cast on yourself make it so 10% or X% or something is applied to your raid group. They need tuned and adjusted. They are great concepts and can be reworked to be CD's or something along those lines, but for a factor of consistent gameplay they suck ass. I hate them. I truly do. I do not like having to do one thing, one spell every X seconds, to be even with my raidmates. Make them hard to achieve bonus or something like that, bonus is rewarding, current design is punishing.

Just my 2 cents, There are obviously more solutions than what we are going to come up but hopefully we can raise awareness to make GC realize that we may not need a total rehaul but we could definitely use some direct attention.

[Frost1129]

1) What's your mage's name, realm(US/EU/etc), and current ilvl? Frostedmages, US, 534

2) What specs have you completed at least one fight in Tier 14 in? Frost

3) Tier 15? Frost / Fire

4) If numbers were not an issue, what spec would you play? Depends on fight mechanics. But assuming no Dire Call add and having requisite crit rating to not just be spamming FireBall? Fire.

5) If you could sacrifice spec diversity to have the same scaling across all 3 specs to allow for true choice in thematics, would you be okay with that? If not, would you be okay with it as a temporary solution? No. That would just make every spec a set of change color glyphs instead of actually being a different spec.

6) If you were against the idea presented in #5 (or if you were for it, give any opinion): Would you rather true spec diversity, but the requirement that you change specs for appropriate fights? Would this be more appealing if all gear worked for all specs, but your mage/frost/molten armor compensated for the scaling? Again, no on both fronts. Changing specs on a per-fight basis is kind of ridiculous, so is the idea of every spec scaling with the same stats. It'd hurt spec diversity I think if every spec needed to be haste > mastery > crit. The values of what is good and bad should come from the design of how damage is dealt. The spec damage style shouldn't be dictated by a pre-determined value of secondary stats. I don't believe that all specs should function on the same level all the time in every situation. The design of the specs should definitely take into account the current state of the game though. I'm 100% fine with PvE Raids being super mechanic heavy, punishing for mistakes, movement heavy, and add/switch target heavy at the same time. It's why I raid and do heroics - I want to be challenged. Just make sure the specs that are decided to be PvE specs can handle this. Preferably with doing more than just laying down fucking "bombs."

7) If you could change only one thing about the mage class overall, what would it be? Remove how homogenized the specs feel. Why does each spec need a bomb, and why are the bombs not bombs, but DoTs? Last I checked, bombs did nothing and then went boom, they didn't tickle you to death. Why is each spec filler, bomb uptime, evo uptime, and procs? Pretty boring and uninspired. I could deal with the shitty level 90 talents if at least the class design felt like some work was put into it.