Are you really that scared for your mage?

[Frost1129]

Nobody forces anyone to play any spec >.>

[Polarthief]

Nobody forces anyone to play any spec >.>

Firelands says hi.

Also, when one spec is a good 20%+ DPS ahead of the others, I'd say if you give a shit about your performance, then yeah, that's kinda forced on you, especially when the content (Firelands again) caters to the bursty style of Arcane (most notable through Shannox's Rageface dog and Ragnaros's transition minions).

PS: Yes, I know Alysrazor is there, but Fire was only good on that fight and nothing else.

[Racthoh]

as long as it's fun to play honestly couldn't give a shit how much damage it does.

[Polarthief]

as long as it's fun to play honestly couldn't give a shit how much damage it does.

Well it depends on the player's goals and mindset. If you're planning on doing Mythic Raiding, your guild will say otherwise. If you're not, then yeah, damage doesn't matter as much.

[purebalance]

Inacceptable, we shouldn't have to put up with THEIR incompetence in balancing specs.

I can't agree more. Hybrids raise hell if Resto is overpowered while enhancement is on par and ele is slightly below par(not a real scenario just for instance). Meanwhile as long a pures have 1 dps spec that is on par they're satisfied. I could slightly see if that one spec was blowing the other classes out of the water, but if hybrids get 3 working specs pures need it too.

[voltaa]

Well it depends on the player's goals and mindset. If you're planning on doing high end Mythic Raiding, your guild will say otherwise. If you're not, then yeah, damage doesn't matter as much.

Really outside of the first few weeks, it doesn't matter. People will act like it does but if you aren't clearing in 2 months it's not going to matter what spec you play, it's an issue with how people are playing.

The real issue is player perception, world first spec is best spec.

[Elegiac]

don't you guys belive that the mage will always be dominating? Arcane is shit? Go fire/frost. Oh, fire just got nerfed? Frost it is then! etc. etc.

If you had ONE dps spec, I could understand why people are so scared. But you got three choices. Among one of those, is a top-3 spec.

Seriously, piss off. One spec may be viable, but I happen not to enjoy playing that spec in the slightest.

[LocNess]

I really don't care how much damage my Mage does, I play it due to the fact of I enjoy the theme of the class. Yeah it sucks if I have to play Arcane over Fire (for me personally) for raiding and such, but as long as all three specs are not bottom of the charts and we have utility, I will continue playing my Mage.

[Elegiac]

I really don't care how much damage my Mage does, I play it due to the fact of I enjoy the theme of the class. Yeah it sucks if I have to play Arcane over Fire (for me personally) for raiding and such, but as long as all three specs are not bottom of the charts and we have utility, I will continue playing my Mage.

Mages have utility?

[LocNess]

Mages have utility?

Time Warp, Greater Invis Shenanigans, Amplify Magic, Blink shenanigans, Ice Block to absorb things. We have plenty of utility.

If you consider damage utility, in the sense a Raid Leader likes Ele Shamans for high AoE requirements, we have consistently high damage overall.

[Elegiac]

Time Warp, Greater Invis Shenanigans, Amplify Magic, Blink shenanigans, Ice Block to absorb things. We have plenty of utility.

If you consider damage utility, in the sense a Raid Leader likes Ele Shamans for high AoE requirements, we have consistently high damage overall.

If you're Frost, maybe.

[voltaa]

If you're Frost, maybe.

I wasn't aware that going fire/Arc removed Amp magic, Ginv, IB and blink

[mrgreenthump]

Really outside of the first few weeks, it doesn't matter. People will act like it does but if you aren't clearing in 2 months it's not going to matter what spec you play, it's an issue with how people are playing.

In theory it doesn't matter as long as you can clear the enrage, but mostly it comes down to reducing the time possible for someone to make a huge mistake and wipe the raid.

On max skill levels.. yeah after ~2 weeks from first kills it doesn't really matter, granted you need to be at a higher gear level. And for most guilds that takes quite some time, not so much in first tiers though.

In the end it comes down to your guild, if they say you have to max out, you max out. If it doesn't matter, then it doesn't.

[Deleted]

Amp magic

That would be the only reason why someone would take a Mage over a proper dps class. And outside of raid content it doesn't even do anything at all, that spell is an insult for Mages.

[Frost1129]

Firelands says hi.

Also, when one spec is a good 20%+ DPS ahead of the others, I'd say if you give a shit about your performance, then yeah, that's kinda forced on you, especially when the content (Firelands again) caters to the bursty style of Arcane (most notable through Shannox's Rageface dog and Ragnaros's transition minions).

PS: Yes, I know Alysrazor is there, but Fire was only good on that fight and nothing else.

Oh, you mean when you make a conscious decision to enter into an environment where it is expected you are focused more on team success than personal preferences that you tend to have to make a choice between optimal and sub-optimal more on what the team needs than what you want?

No shit - that's what it means to be part of a team.

[Jademist]

I still find it weird how Frost is the now de-facto DPS spec for mages...

[LocNess]

That would be the only reason why someone would take a Mage over a proper dps class. And outside of raid content it doesn't even do anything at all, that spell is an insult for Mages.

What do you mean by "proper DPS class"? Is there some unknown problem with Mages that makes them non optimal for a raiding environment, and thus no point to bringing us? And how many classes have abilities that fall under a "raid requirement" then if Amplify Magic is the only reason to bring us? Aspect of the Fox is great, Health stones were very helpful, but are now useless. Warlock Portals were nerfed. I cannot think of any other major DPS utility that would be considered a requirement besides Bloodlust which Mages bring.

[Jademist]

Seriously, piss off. One spec may be viable, but I happen not to enjoy playing that spec in the slightest.

I am with you on that friend. I have always enjoyed Arcane and Fire since the beginning of WoW -- why I made a mage in the first place, the concept of wielding the arcane!

[roahn the warlock]

This is why I stopped playing my mage. I was tired of having to play a particular spec just to be useful. Fire is where my heart is. I can tolerate Arcane. But I hate Frost with a passion. In seven years, I have never been able to get comfortable playing Frost. There is just something about that spec that isn't comfortable to me. Fire, on the other hand, just seemed to come as naturally to me as breathing. And then they had to go and eff it up to where Fire feels way too clunky.

So, I'm excited to see if the changes in WoD will make me like my mage again. Don't know if it'll be enough to make me main my mage again, though.

Well people bitched that every spec in every class needed to bring all the same buffs. This is how blizzard used to "balance" the pure classes. So you'd need a frost arcane and frost in your 25 man, or at least, two of them, to get the buffs you needed

Blizzard as a long history of making changes to please people, without realizing the negatives of those changes.

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Nobody forces anyone to play any spec >.>

art thou serious?

- - - Updated - - -

Well it depends on the player's goals and mindset. If you're planning on doing Mythic Raiding, your guild will say otherwise. If you're not, then yeah, damage doesn't matter as much.

I think the trick to finally making pure classes viable, is to make sure all three specs excel at something. The warlock specs pull this off very well. You have your single target spec, your multi target spec, and your AOE spec. and each can be top on certain fights.

For mages? Eh... you don't really get that, fire is okay at AOE, but it isn't amazing enough to warrant switching. And rarely does Arcane dominate on little movement fights, simply because there arent any anymore.

[Polarthief]

Really outside of the first few weeks, it doesn't matter. People will act like it does but if you aren't clearing in 2 months it's not going to matter what spec you play, it's an issue with how people are playing.

Good luck telling guilds you're applying to that you're playing a spec that does 10-15% less damage than your other specs

Oh, you mean when you make a conscious decision to enter into an environment where it is expected you are focused more on team success than personal preferences that you tend to have to make a choice between optimal and sub-optimal more on what the team needs than what you want?

No shit - that's what it means to be part of a team.

And what else are you expected to do at max level? Just sit around doing dailies and LFR all day? Hence why all forms of end-game content (previously) forced you to go with a specific spec.

Regardless though, that's all in the past because WoD's actually balancing them fairly decently (well, Fire could use a buff but it's not far behind with tier AFAIK)