How has each class changed since vanilla

[Kintner]

Ret paladins used to be cast seal of command (30 second self buff), auto-attack, time about to run out on the seal? Judgement, rebuff. Occasionally if you could stun the mob would cast hammer of justice followed by judgement, then rebuff seal of command. And that was it. Was incredibly boring.

Tank paladins didn't really shine until Hyjal in BC. I think they got buffed that patch, because that's when they started shining. Some heroics could then start to be AOE'd down, especially heroic Shattered Halls. All the trash + Holy Shield (reflects damage), shield spike, and reckoning would be huge reflect damage. Paladin tanks would go tank gear + spell weapon for spellpower to increase threat. Pally tanks in classic were pretty worthless, as they would run out of mana, not do much threat (back when threat was much more important and had to be managed), and their tier didn't have defense skill on it (which needed to be capped so you didn't get crit by the boss), meaning non-tier gear would be required, and several of the instances still didn't have enough for them to cap it.

Warlocks -- used to be a limit on debuffs, so it made affliction worthless. In classic it was shadowbolt spam until I think 1.8 when they did a warlock class review when they increased the limit of debuffs (used to be 4). In BC, it was sacrifice a succubus to up the shadow damage, then shadowbolt spam (0/21/40 spec) once you got haste + crit high enough (mostly T5 gear). Before your gear was high enough, affliction was the way to go. No void ray though -- you would cast shadowbolts in that window.

I played a shaman when I first started in 1.4. WF + 2 hander with frost shock was a beast in battlegrounds. I remember when I finally got to max level I had to switch to restoration to join groups and was disappointed. It was mostly just downranked chain heal spam and was incredibly boring.

[TheWorkingTitle]

I've been playing my mage (my only main and max level character) since 04' so let me see if I can make some distinctions between the expansions of the Mage and it's subsequent specs during each time period.

Classic:

Fire - A Max range spec (40 yd) with side talents that benefited supremely from the increase of gear. Very crit dependent and wasn't the best raid spec until after Molten Core. Really shined in AQ 40m and especially Naxxrammas 40m with what we called "Rolling Ignites". Basically your ignite crit could be fed and stacked by other mages. So - whoever was the first one to crit on the boss, every subsequent crit by you and the other mages (we had 8 in Naxx 40m) would reset the timer and increase the amount of ignite damage the boss would burn for. On DPS race fights such as Maexxna or Patchwerk, we were stacking 7-12k ignite ticks which was an INCREDIBLE amount of damage for the time. Also shined in PvP for it's range, crit damage/ignite burns and of course the '3 Minute Mage' 1 shotters who used Arcane Power/Spell Damage+ trinkets/Presence of Mind and generally 1 shot whoever they sent their Pyroblast to.

Frost - I'm sure there were some Frost mage PvP'ers out there at the time..but it was really just a leveling spec for AoE grinding mobs. It had some good kiting techniques and it's last tier talent was Iceblock so it could help you in certain raid situations to break mechanics but after Molten Core, Frost really fell off as a viable raiding spec. Mainly known for it's Iceblock end-tier talent.

Arcane - Arcane was black in white so-to-speak. It was either 'Alright you're going full Arcane for Presence of Mind/Arcane Power' or You're Full Frost or Fire with the rest in Arcane to increase your mana pool, mana regen, and Evocation (which was something that had to be specc'ed in to!) Mainly known for it's Arcane Power/Presence of Mind/Evocation talents.

IMHO The heyday of what mages were - Glass Cannons. They could dish out the top DPS while not being able to survive more than a few swings from any 2her class and could get stun-locked 100%-0 from Rogues unless you were good of course .

Burning Crusade

A lot of what Classic had carried over in to Burning Crusade with the exception of a few differences. For one, Elemental Mages sprouted up. These were Fire/Frost hybrids who brought a lot of different spells to the table rather than a deep singular tree with some side talents from other specs. It was by no means the best PvE spec but made for some generally fun/interesting PvP with being able to have some very useful spells from both specs (Impact,Blastwave,Ignite from Fire and Iceblock, Ice Barrier, Increased crit damage, and some effects/lowered CD times from Frost)

Frost shined in PvP with a some Arcane and a few Fire mages thrown in. And Fire shined in PvE with the exception of Arcane mages from Black Temple on to Sunwell (Espec. Kil'Jaedan).

New spells of note that were brought to the specs:
Fire - Blastwave, Blazing Speed, Dragon's Breath, Molten Armor
Frost - Water Elemental, Ice Lance
Arcane - Slow, Arcane Blast, Invisibility, Spell Steal

Mages were still topping charts for the most part in PvE, got even better in PvP with the exception of Warlocks (they were way OP) and got nice unique additions to their already fun specs.

Wrath of the Lich King

Wrath changed how the Mage specs were utilized and perceived. First, let's look at what new spells were brought to the table.

Fire- Living Bomb, Frostfire Bolt, Hot Streak(Vital talent)
Frost- Deep Freeze, Frostfire Bolt, Icy Veins
Arcane- Arcane Barrage, Mage Armor, Focus Magic, Mirror Image (Talents that made crit predicated on Spirit in addition to Intellect/+Crit items.)

Fire- became a much more AoE/Multiple Target-centric spec and was viable throughout all of WoTLK with it's crescendo during Heroic ICC/Ruby Sanctum where it was by far the best DPS out there.

Frost- was great in PvP as usual but was also a viable raid spec during WoTLK with Frostfire Bolt and it's debuff causing and subsequent Spell Power increasing talent Winter's Grasp.

Arcane- actually was the better PvE spec early on in Naxx 10/25 up until about Normal mode 10/25 ICC. It could be fed to incredible amounts by having 1 Arcane Mage being fed Innervates while the other mages (if there were any) being Fire. Spamming Arcane Blast was top shelf DPS with the Innervate strategy.

Mage was always a wanted class in raids, sustained top DPS throughout virtually every raid, and continued to be viable and at times overpowered PvP wise. Being fully Heroic ICC geared in BG's was like solo'ing Deadmines. The DPS with the increased AoE/Multi-Target Spec was so incredibly over-powered that to this day it still was some of the most fun I've ever had as a Mage.

Cataclysm

I was incredibly turned off by what Cataclysm did to the game, so I neither raided nor pvp'd at a high-end level during this time so my viewpoint may be a bit lacking and or skewed. As always take everything that is being said with a grain of salt.

Fire - Flame Orb
Frost- Ring of Frost, Frost Orb
Arcane-Time Warp, Ritual of Refreshment

Frost was glaringly over-powered throughout the whole expansion. With it's mobility, shatter combos, and numerous ways to bring stealthies out it was un-killable 1v1 and really shined in Arena/BGs.

Fire/Arcane/Frost were all very viable raid specs. Couldn't honestly say what was better during what time but they all seemed to have their place which made many mages happy across the board in that regard.

Mists of Pandaria

Mists of Pandaria. Not my favorite expansion by any stretch of the imagination, due to a few things. The removal of the older-style Talent Trees. It gave you less choice for what you wanted your character to be. Sure there was always "cookie-cutter" specs where theory-crafters had figured out what the best DPS spec was but you had options for flavor and uniqueness from other players of your class. That is still possible, albeit it's much more limited now-a-days.

The removal of Blast Wave. Blast wave was an incredibly awesome spell, not only for AoE'ing trash but also for PvP. It gave mages another avenue for kiting/pulling stealthed classes out and was an awesome mobility spell overall.

Taking Flame Orb away from Fire spec. See Blast wave reasons. ^^

Frost is as always over-powered in PvP and has really shined in AoE situations such as Challenge Modes.

Fire with high-end raid gear it's been fun to AoE farm, PvP in world situations due to the resilience change (lol), and just top meters in raids that Mages should be accustomed to by now.

Arcane I haven't played much of Arcane this expansion but from what I've seen it's quite over-powered in it's burst/sustained dps in Raids and it's Burst in PvP.

Overall Mages have been more fun to me than any other class hence why I've stuck with one main for the entire duration of this game. I sure wish some of the spells would be brought back and that Blizzard removes some of the bloat such as Alter Time, Ring of Frost, Time Warp. There was a time where every class was unique and brought something else to the table. Too much homogenization for my liking.

If you'd like to see my character: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...s/Lufft/simple

[Silas Emile]

I've been playing my mage (my only main and max level character) since 04' so let me see if I can make some distinctions between the expansions of the Mage and it's subsequent specs during each time period.

Classic:

Fire - A Max range spec (40 yd) with side talents that benefited supremely from the increase of gear. Very crit dependent and wasn't the best raid spec until after Molten Core. Really shined in AQ 40m and especially Naxxrammas 40m with what we called "Rolling Ignites". Basically your ignite crit could be fed and stacked by other mages. So - whoever was the first one to crit on the boss, every subsequent crit by you and the other mages (we had 8 in Naxx 40m) would reset the timer and increase the amount of ignite damage the boss would burn for. On DPS race fights such as Maexxna or Patchwerk, we were stacking 7-12k ignite ticks which was an INCREDIBLE amount of damage for the time. Also shined in PvP for it's range, crit damage/ignite burns and of course the '3 Minute Mage' 1 shotters who used Arcane Power/Spell Damage+ trinkets/Presence of Mind and generally 1 shot whoever they sent their Pyroblast to.

Frost - I'm sure there were some Frost mage PvP'ers out there at the time..but it was really just a leveling spec for AoE grinding mobs. It had some good kiting techniques and it's last tier talent was Iceblock so it could help you in certain raid situations to break mechanics but after Molten Core, Frost really fell off as a viable raiding spec. Mainly known for it's Iceblock end-tier talent.

Arcane - Arcane was black in white so-to-speak. It was either 'Alright you're going full Arcane for Presence of Mind/Arcane Power' or You're Full Frost or Fire with the rest in Arcane to increase your mana pool, mana regen, and Evocation (which was something that had to be specc'ed in to!) Mainly known for it's Arcane Power/Presence of Mind/Evocation talents.

IMHO The heyday of what mages were - Glass Cannons. They could dish out the top DPS while not being able to survive more than a few swings from any 2her class and could get stun-locked 100%-0 from Rogues unless you were good of course .

Burning Crusade

A lot of what Classic had carried over in to Burning Crusade with the exception of a few differences. For one, Elemental Mages sprouted up. These were Fire/Frost hybrids who brought a lot of different spells to the table rather than a deep singular tree with some side talents from other specs. It was by no means the best PvE spec but made for some generally fun/interesting PvP with being able to have some very useful spells from both specs (Impact,Blastwave,Ignite from Fire and Iceblock, Ice Barrier, Increased crit damage, and some effects/lowered CD times from Frost)

Frost shined in PvP with a some Arcane and a few Fire mages thrown in. And Fire shined in PvE with the exception of Arcane mages from Black Temple on to Sunwell (Espec. Kil'Jaedan).

New spells of note that were brought to the specs:
Fire - Blastwave, Blazing Speed, Dragon's Breath, Molten Armor
Frost - Water Elemental, Ice Lance
Arcane - Slow, Arcane Blast, Invisibility, Spell Steal

Mages were still topping charts for the most part in PvE, got even better in PvP with the exception of Warlocks (they were way OP) and got nice unique additions to their already fun specs.

Wrath of the Lich King

Wrath changed how the Mage specs were utilized and perceived. First, let's look at what new spells were brought to the table.

Fire- Living Bomb, Frostfire Bolt, Hot Streak(Vital talent)
Frost- Deep Freeze, Frostfire Bolt, Icy Veins
Arcane- Arcane Barrage, Mage Armor, Focus Magic, Mirror Image (Talents that made crit predicated on Spirit in addition to Intellect/+Crit items.)

Fire- became a much more AoE/Multiple Target-centric spec and was viable throughout all of WoTLK with it's crescendo during Heroic ICC/Ruby Sanctum where it was by far the best DPS out there.

Frost- was great in PvP as usual but was also a viable raid spec during WoTLK with Frostfire Bolt and it's debuff causing and subsequent Spell Power increasing talent Winter's Grasp.

Arcane- actually was the better PvE spec early on in Naxx 10/25 up until about Normal mode 10/25 ICC. It could be fed to incredible amounts by having 1 Arcane Mage being fed Innervates while the other mages (if there were any) being Fire. Spamming Arcane Blast was top shelf DPS with the Innervate strategy.

Mage was always a wanted class in raids, sustained top DPS throughout virtually every raid, and continued to be viable and at times overpowered PvP wise. Being fully Heroic ICC geared in BG's was like solo'ing Deadmines. The DPS with the increased AoE/Multi-Target Spec was so incredibly over-powered that to this day it still was some of the most fun I've ever had as a Mage.

Cataclysm

I was incredibly turned off by what Cataclysm did to the game, so I neither raided nor pvp'd at a high-end level during this time so my viewpoint may be a bit lacking and or skewed. As always take everything that is being said with a grain of salt.

Fire - Flame Orb
Frost- Ring of Frost, Frost Orb
Arcane-Time Warp, Ritual of Refreshment

Frost was glaringly over-powered throughout the whole expansion. With it's mobility, shatter combos, and numerous ways to bring stealthies out it was un-killable 1v1 and really shined in Arena/BGs.

Fire/Arcane/Frost were all very viable raid specs. Couldn't honestly say what was better during what time but they all seemed to have their place which made many mages happy across the board in that regard.

Mists of Pandaria

Mists of Pandaria. Not my favorite expansion by any stretch of the imagination, due to a few things. The removal of the older-style Talent Trees. It gave you less choice for what you wanted your character to be. Sure there was always "cookie-cutter" specs where theory-crafters had figured out what the best DPS spec was but you had options for flavor and uniqueness from other players of your class. That is still possible, albeit it's much more limited now-a-days.

The removal of Blast Wave. Blast wave was an incredibly awesome spell, not only for AoE'ing trash but also for PvP. It gave mages another avenue for kiting/pulling stealthed classes out and was an awesome mobility spell overall.

Taking Flame Orb away from Fire spec. See Blast wave reasons. ^^

Frost is as always over-powered in PvP and has really shined in AoE situations such as Challenge Modes.

Fire with high-end raid gear it's been fun to AoE farm, PvP in world situations due to the resilience change (lol), and just top meters in raids that Mages should be accustomed to by now.

Arcane I haven't played much of Arcane this expansion but from what I've seen it's quite over-powered in it's burst/sustained dps in Raids and it's Burst in PvP.

Overall Mages have been more fun to me than any other class hence why I've stuck with one main for the entire duration of this game. I sure wish some of the spells would be brought back and that Blizzard removes some of the bloat such as Alter Time, Ring of Frost, Time Warp. There was a time where every class was unique and brought something else to the table. Too much homogenization for my liking.

^this is what i'm looking for for each class. Thank you good sir!

- - - Updated - - -

you my good sir get a cookie.

[TheWorkingTitle]

^this is what i'm looking for for each class. Thank you good sir!

- - - Updated - - -

you my good sir get a cookie.

Haha, glad I could help! Hopefully other Mages add on to my blurb. Would be nice to have a compendium or sorts for the progression/digression/evolution of each class.

[Jimson]

Warlocks and Mages had mechanics that benefitted spirit.

The only time locks ever used spirit as a useful stat was in Wrath, when it boosted SP. And even then it was not exactly a prime stat.

Any other time it has been useless.

[PetersenIII]

Paladins:

Vanilla -> BC Ooh yeah.
BC -> WotLK FUCK YEAH! PALADINS!
WotLK -> Cata Holy Power what-the-huh? Ugh.
Cata -> MoP Meh to Meh. Meh.

[Deleted]

Nice read, Mr. Theworkingtitle

[MoanaLisa]

As a practical thing, you should simply go and collect all the patch and expansion notes from the beginning. All of that for as many classes and specs as there are in the game isn't a blurb, it's an encyclopedia. Speaking of which, you may want to wander over to WoWPedia and see if they have some info.

I'm not knocking the good responses here at all. Just making an observation.

[TheWorkingTitle]

Nice read, Mr. Theworkingtitle

Much appreciated, Cyclom. I see you have many characters - I bet you'd have some good input in this discussion as well!