To mages who also play other classes

[PPN]

Hey,

i have a few alts but i didnt bother so far to log in on those...and i hope ill be smart enough not to level them...anyway:

When you play other classes, are they also so easy/simple to play as a mage now that the talents changed for WoD?

Example:

Mage gameplay now, basicly--> Use 1 button all fight long, use something that procs and use major CD

I used to play feral in Cata and it was really tough to execute rotation and cds correct especially with target switching...


So how are the rotations and the amount of abilities for the other classes now?

[Deleted]

I spam holy nova in PvE and Power word: shield in PvP, now that's quite fun. Thanks Blizz!

[nLord]

Mage gameplay now, basicly--> Use 1 button all fight long, use something that procs and use major CD

That button is called "filler" and any class have them.

But unlike some other classes / specs, mage is now far less straightforward. Most of them don't have variable talents to fit different bosses, valuable procs, dynamic talents (such as Incanters Flow), good CDs.

And mage is in good place in terms of interesting playstyles. Arcane is about proper mana management, Fire is about generating and spreading DoTs, Frost is about maximized CD stacking. Compare it to hunter or DK and you'll see the difference

[Imnick]

My chief alts are a Warrior (Prot/Fury) and a Shaman (though I only play Enhancement), the Warrior Fury rotation got significantly easier and the other two seem largely the same (just as my Mage seems largely the same, people are really overblowing their complaints about simplicity or button removal).
I've barely noticed much of a change on any of my other alts either, though I don't play them to quite the same level.

[Deleted]

To be honest, mages are to reactionary, like heating Up -> Pyroblast. I've been playing with Shaman, Warlock, Priest and Mage. Warlock>Shaman>Priest>Mage by difficult.

Even the spec that should be the hardest, that's Fire, is only about the combustion ->alter time trick, and then it becomes too easy. I don't really know how it's gonna be in WoD. Incanter's Flow looks good, the end of multidoting is making it even easier, but that's the change I like anyway.

I'm not very pro in playing Mage, but in my opinion there are specs more insteresting/harder to play than Mage. That's why after few months I'm gonna reroll back to enhancement.

[haiyken]

What I like about my mage is that specs are all different and offer interesting gameplay. As a pure DPS class, I think it's really great. I have a lot of alts and I don't find the same diversity in Hunters or Warlocks. The specs might be different and some add gameplay mecanics that differ from one spec to the next, but it's always kind of the same. Mages are almost 3 different classes, with close to no attack spells in common in all 3 specs. I hope that the changes in gearing in WoD will mean that it will be easier to change from one spec to the other, unlike MoP where switching from fire to frost was painful for the wallet.

I think Blizzard is going the right way with the changes with the Mage and I'd like other classes to have clear distinctions between specs. I think the themes of each specs need to be more visible and reflect in gameplay the way the mage or the druid does it. It gives the illusion of more classes and the feeling that you can play different than your mage friends. Hybrid classes don't have the same problem. For example, I like that my paladin have a really different gameplay as tank or dps. The fact that everything is yellow with holy power is fine because every spec have a different role. That's not the same with the mage.

OT, I think that by removing some spells and making spells available only to certain specs, fights are more clear. I used to have some spells I didn't know when to use because they weren't adding anything to my gameplay. Yet, I was confused that I was able to use them. This way, everything is more clear. I don't feel the mage changed much with the patch and it's still played as it was before. This mean Blizzard finaly choose where to go with the class and that's nice !

[Imnick]

Even the spec that should be the hardest, that's Fire, is only about the combustion ->alter time trick, and then it becomes too easy.

Why would you say Fire should be the hardest? Historically I feel like apart from Combustion it's always been the easiest. Fire's general single target action priority list has not changed a lot since Wrath, until WoD where they are adding a few optional extra buttons in talents.

[Deleted]

Compared to DK mage is much busier, playing blood use 2 skills and then spam an AOE and a ranged, seems wrong as a tank.
And hearing a lot of complaints from hunters who do not like the lack of a fulfilled rotation.

[Crispin]

My shadowpriest and Sub Rogue do have more things to do for sure, frost mage is a tad weird, I always feel like I'm slacking bigtime but apparently not lol.

That beeing said, I've always been a tad annoyed at how wow slowly went from watching the game and into watching the cooldowns on the actionbar, I'm all for a involved gameplay, but I often end up feeling like I'm reading subtitles on a foreign movie and not really watching wtf is going on.

[Charge me Doctor]

I remember tanking in WotLK on my warrior with only one cast sequence macro. Now in got better. I click on everything that's off CD

[Jademist]

Mistweaver monks are pretty fun in my opinion when it comes to button-pressing.

[Deleted]

Even the spec that should be the hardest, that's Fire, is only about the combustion ->alter time trick, and then it becomes too easy. I don't really know how it's gonna be in WoD. Incanter's Flow looks good, the end of multidoting is making it even easier, but that's the change I like anyway.

It hasn't been the hardest since at least BC.

Difficulty in WotLK and Cata has been Frost >> Fire > Arcane, in Mists and beyond it's Arcane > Frost >>>> Fire.

[Deleted]

idk bout u guys but there's more than rotation to become a good dps, know bosses, positon well, react fast, 1 second can make a difference

class is boring if players are boring

[Relapses]

I have every caster in the game at 580 or above.

Each class and spec has its strengths and weaknesses. Mage, imo, is the most rewarding class to play in terms of effort for damage. None of the specs are particularly difficult to play, the mechanics for each spec are fairly straight-forward and there's very little to worry about while doing your rotation. (WoD has further simplified things in this manner.) Warlock is generally better for AoE and multidotting (especially not that multidotting for Mage is essentially gone), but a lot of what made Warlocks so ridiculously OP is going away for WoD, so they will likely be about even with the rest of the DPS classes. I don't have as much fun playing my Warlock as any other ranged so I likely won't be playing it much. Shaman and Druid are more niche playstyles, each with their own unique perks. Shamans (Elemental) are fun to play on spammy AE encounters and run the gamut between OP and mediocre depending on how well the encounters' mechanics fair for the spec. I don't particularly care for the direction the class seems to be going in WoD, but if you enjoyed it before, chances are you'll still enjoy it in WoD. Druid, on the other hand, is probably the most fun ranged DPS to play in the game right now. There's something ridiculously OP feeling about pressing a single button to do AE damage to everything in your sight. The rotation is very straight forward and though less dynamic than it was before the WoD-rework, still a lot of fun and has a lot of room for min/max'ing your damage.

Finally, there's Shadow. Now this is a deeply personal opinion for me as I had main-swapped from my Shadow Priest to a Mage mid-SoO because the former spec was performing so poorly in comparison. There's a lot of really cool things about the Shadow spec which make it a lot of fun for me. (Huge variance in talents, which made knowing the right talents to take for every specific encounter the difference between a decent parse and a God tier parse.) However, it's always been on the lower end of the damage meters and as much fun as I had playing the class, I've always played the game to clear content first and foremost. Playing my Priest, I felt like I wasn't contributing as much damage to the raid as I would be if I were playing literally any other ranged DPS. Come WoD, the spec is looking to perform exceptionally well (despite still being garbage now, at level 90). As a result, I'm going to be returning to main my Priest in WoD not because I feel like it's superior to Mage (and it most likely won't be), but because it's the spec I like the most.

(tl,dr) At the end of the day, that's what this game is about... playing what you enjoy. If that's Mage, then continue playing a Mage. If it's something else, there's no amount of convincing anybody on a forum can do unless you go out and try it on your own.

[Deleted]

That beeing said, I've always been a tad annoyed at how wow slowly went from watching the game and into watching the cooldowns on the actionbar, I'm all for a involved gameplay, but I often end up feeling like I'm reading subtitles on a foreign movie and not really watching wtf is going on.

Truth has been spoken! I's say it is worst for arcane. (not only proccs but aslo mana and stacks to observate)

My alts are all Tank/Heal one dd is enough ^^ so I get another gameplay experience.... As far as I can see mages are not that bad when it comes to gameplay.... it has always been a: Spam 1/2 casts, sue proc, use CD for a lot of classes.
Atm as just mentioned, blood DK is.... "strange" also the tanking druid..... I liked the old way better... but... mehr....
Discipline priest.... yes lol holy nova 1 button heal ^^
heal druid stayed quite close to MoP...

[Deleted]

Yeah most rotations seem somewhat simplified or "streamlined", but it's important to keep in mind that lvl 100 talents will have quite an influence for most classes.
But on some classes I've really felt like my bars were half empty when I logged on after the patch (hello hunter alt!), but mostly it's just that odd 1 or 2 abilities that you're used to having that suddenly aren't there anymore. I think it's only a very few cases where there's changes to the basic rotation, which is pretty well in line with the purpose of the ability pruning (remove obsolete or superfluous abilities/skills/talents).

[siaro]

Mage gameplay now, basicly--> Use 1 button all fight long, use something that procs and use major CD

If that's how you play mage, then yes it's easy. Not what you should be doing, but yes.

That being said, with that playstyle, it's not hard to tell you're not good @ it.
All mage specs are relatively easy to play once you got the hang of it, howver, to be a "good"/"top of the line"; you don't just press 1 button. You do a WHOLE lot more than that. You can get by and be a low-to-mid class mage, or you can learn the class properly, track your shit and be a good mage.

And your "i used to play feral in cata and it was hard hurrdurr", please, feral was and never has been any harder than anything else. What's hard is tracking & combining your shit.. You know.. Like everyone good has to do.

[Romeo83x]

Mage in PvE = extremely easy
Mage in PvP = extremely hard (not underpowered, just a lot harder to play successfully than other classes. Mainly because other classes won't let you perform that "1-button rotation" and getting your damage out there becomes incredibly more complicated)

[Drutt]

howver, to be a "good"/"top of the line"; you don't just press 1 button. You do a WHOLE lot more than that. You can get by and be a low-to-mid class mage, or you can learn the class properly, track your shit and be a good mage.

There is virtually nothing you need to track outside of insta-casts and when your cooldowns are coming back up. There is not a "WHOLE lot more" to do; with Alter Time, DOT snapshotting and various buff procs removed PPN pretty much summed it up. In comparison to MOP, mage mechanics are very straightforward.

[nLord]

There is virtually nothing you need to track outside of insta-casts and when your cooldowns are coming back up. There is not a "WHOLE lot more" to do; with Alter Time, DOT snapshotting and various buff procs removed PPN pretty much summed it up. In comparison to MOP, mage mechanics are very straightforward.

1. RPPM trinkets are still in use and will be in WoD. In Arcane, you should track them to know whether you should reset your rotation or keep casting some additional AB/AM with slightly lower amount of mana (while the proc lasts).
2. Tracking mana is not so simple in Arcane if you want to maximize dps. You should not waste mana regen, not waste last AM proc, not stay too low on mana at the beginning of the cycle etc.
3. Incanter's Flow is a way to go when you don't like stationary gameplay style with RoP and have no good trinkets to align at the start or when you play Arcane (since its mastery doesn't affect MI). It is your choice - whether to track your positioning and recast RoP or to track IF buff value and align fillers with low buff and procs/cds with highest buff.
4. Mage has variety of CDs, not only to be tracked while on CD, but also to be aligned with different phases of encounter.
5. If you choose passive or "push and forget" talents - it is your choice, not design failure. This is also true for specs with Frost being the dumbest of them.
6. Most of the other classes' rotations are fake - they seem more complex but, in fact, are straightforward. It's like Unholy DK with 5 resources (4 runes + rp) but simple "push what is ready" principle. Or MM hunter with "gain ability - spend ability" pendulum.