Mage pro's and cons

[Slykz]

So i've decided that my main class in WoD will either be a mage, or a hunter.

I've played a hunter for a long long time, so at the moment im tipping over at the mage side.

I hate arcane mage, but i enjoy playing both fire and frost, so i can only hope arcane wont be top in WoD.

Whats some pro's and cons to the mage class? Anything that can help me in my decision.

[mrgreenthump]

Pro's: Teleport/portal, no pet for 2 specs, direct damage, superior movement compared to most casters, generally at least 1 spec works pretty good in PvE and PvP, at times even OP.

cons: no real selfhealing, no survival outside of superior movement, pet for frost, simple priority system as a rotation, no real flavor outside of being the only direct damage caster, different stat priorities for each spec and each spec have their own strenghts, which means you got to gear each spec up if you plan to spec switch for specific fights.

[Romeo83x]

From a PvP point of view, hunter is superior to mage in every way except one. Spammable polymorph is slightly better than the 30 (15 for survival) sec cd freezing traps.

Hunters eat mages for breakfast, it's far worse in Draenor. Mages no longer have stun (deep freeze instabreaks on damage), mages no longer have -16% physical dmg reduction (because the armor glyph was removed and armor spells were removed) and mages have to hardcast even more which is a nightmare against a decent hunter (casting frostbolt #1, hunters feigns death, cast interrupted because target lost, casting frostbolt #2, hunter shadowmelds, cast interrupted because target lost, casting frostbolt #3, counter shot interrupted and locked out of frost, casting frostbolt #4, hunter jumps out of line of sight, casting frostbolt #5, whoops you're already dead).

[KoolKidKaos]

From an overall point of view, mages have always been superior to hunters in pve and pvp. Since the release of wotlk mages have been blizzard's favorite love child. From a WoD perspective mages look horrible for pvp, from a survival point of view. Not too great in the pve department as well, if I were to give my opinion on WoD, I'd say go hunter, they look real strong right now.

[LocNess]

Not too great in the pve department as well, if I were to give my opinion on WoD, I'd say go hunter, they look real strong right now.

Why are we not too great in the PvE department? Just curious of your opinion.

[Slykz]

Why are we not too great in the PvE department? Just curious of your opinion.

Was wondering about this too, as i see mages on top of PvE in terms of dps almost every tier lol.

Anyway, i wanted something fresh so i decided to make mage my main. Hello fellow mage friends ^_^

[Thelxi]

I was planning on maining my mage for WoD as well, but decided against it.

My biggest con was absolutely no self healing outside of ice block and barrier, making soloing challenging stuff not fun and often impossible. Another con for me was the removal of shatter and deep freeze from fire which really removed a lot of depth and power from fire mage pvp which I loved.

A big pro is nova scaling, it is ridiculous instant cast burst damage on 2 charges. Also mages get some of the coolest transmogs.

[Thelxi]

Everyone got CC nerfed and some aspects removed, this is no Mage nerf.

What does fire shattering for crits have to do with cc?