The truth about mages

[Sarkol]

What spell does fire have that is a self heal?

They have a trait in their Artifact weapon that heals for 18% total health after every Blink. I personally think that's pretty substantial. Out in the world, you can probably survive indefinitely unless you decide to pull some un cc-able mobs or something. Add this to the fact you'll probably always be using Shimmer apart from niche situations where Cold Snap may be of benefit, and you have a 36% maximum health heal at the get go, then 18% every 15 seconds. 2 charges is also flexible.

[Deleted]

They have a trait in their Artifact weapon that heals for 18% total health after every Blink. I personally think that's pretty substantial. Out in the world, you can probably survive indefinitely unless you decide to pull some un cc-able mobs or something. Add this to the fact you'll probably always be using Shimmer apart from niche situations where Cold Snap may be of benefit, and you have a 36% maximum health heal at the get go, then 18% every 15 seconds. 2 charges is also flexible.

That's only for Fire though, the other specs are gutted. And the 5 minute cooldown heal from Ice Block might as well not exist. Bandages would do far more healing per 5 mins.

[Nitros14]

That's only for Fire though, the other specs are gutted. And the 5 minute cooldown heal from Ice Block might as well not exist. Bandages would do far more healing per 5 mins.

For frost and arcane ice barrier absorbs double vis a vis fire. It'll absorb 40% of your hp bar.

[SteveRocks]

Mages are absolutely a safe pick for raiding. However, they're kind of a pain in the ass for levelling and general solo content. They don't have any heals and they die pretty easily. Fun to play though.

[fearist]

Fire is looking strong in Legion.

And honestly, it's about time Mages had a good expansion. :^)

agreed, i don't remember the last time mages were considered S tier. the last time was probably 10 years ago in 2012 when frost was really good.

[Statix]

agreed, i don't remember the last time mages were considered S tier. the last time was probably 10 years ago in 2012 when frost was really good.

10 years ago in 2012? What?

I remember Fire being pretty bad in Firelands. Everyone went Arcane back then. I didn't like Arcane, so I benched my Mage and leveled a Hunter instead.

My favorite time being Mage will always be during Icecrown Citadel. Mages did not need all the current guaranteed crit abilities to proc Pyroblast, and Fireball's stacking critical strike chance when it fails to crit; Fire back then was good because you crit a lot without all that shit. It was fun, because you could not force a Pyroblast out, it was solely based on RNG.

That was the best experience I have ever had raiding on any class. It was such a rush to get 3 or 4, sometimes even more Pyroblast procs in a row. Spreading Ignite and Combustion to any number of targets, for example on the whelps before Sindragosa, or the spawning of whelps at Onyxia; holy shit, how awesome was that. Doing half of the damage that an entire raid of 25 players was dealing. It required planning, it required luck, but man oh man, did it feel good to get an insane Ignite which resulted in the perfect Combustion.

By the looks of it, Fire will be awesome again in Legion, but it will never have the same feel to it as it did in WotLK, nor will it be as much fun due to its limitations.

[Hwangson]

They have a trait in their Artifact weapon that heals for 18% total health after every Blink. I personally think that's pretty substantial. Out in the world, you can probably survive indefinitely unless you decide to pull some un cc-able mobs or something. Add this to the fact you'll probably always be using Shimmer apart from niche situations where Cold Snap may be of benefit, and you have a 36% maximum health heal at the get go, then 18% every 15 seconds. 2 charges is also flexible.

Don't forget you can get this up to about 24% if you use x2 relics! I managed to pick up x2 CB relics whilst leveling and had some pretty cool self healing.

[Deleted]

I remember Fire being pretty bad in Firelands. Everyone went Arcane back then.

Alysrazor was glorious. But yeah, Arcane was the best on all the rest fights. But men, that fight was so beatutiful and it was most probably based on a quirk/unintented behavior Blizzard did not anticipate but it was so great that I bet Blizzard at HQ went "screw it, this is so fun, it stays in".

[Wenoxar]

But men, that fight was so beatutiful and it was most probably based on a quirk/unintented behavior Blizzard did not anticipate but it was so great that I bet Blizzard at HQ went "screw it, this is so fun, it stays in".

What unintented behaviour? What Blizzard didn't anticipate? Just asking cuz I didn't progress Firelands so no clue :P

[Deleted]

What unintented behaviour? What Blizzard didn't anticipate? Just asking cuz I didn't progress Firelands so no clue :P

If you took fire in there and picked up the feathers that make you fly, you could build up the rings buffs which in turn would give 100% crit (and haste too?) and in turn give enormous Ignites, which in turn could make a mage almost single-handingly down Alysrazor in hard mode

[Nitros14]

You know what was awesome, getting five druids to chain innervate you on Teron Gorefiend at 70 and spam arcane blast and do 2600 dps when everyone else was sitting around 1400.

Now innervate specifies healer only, spoil sports.

[Deleted]

If you took fire in there and picked up the feathers that make you fly, you could build up the rings buffs which in turn would give 100% crit (and haste too?) and in turn give enormous Ignites, which in turn could make a mage almost single-handingly down Alysrazor in hard mode

Or those who used it to down Baleroc back when he was still unsoloable.

[Jeezy911]

Well you were probably the elemental build which I frankly forget exactly what it was. When somebody says they were raiding as fire in Mc and were 2nd I am assuming the guy meant he was specced mostly into fire and using fire spells. Not elemental specced and spamming frostbolt. I caught the guy in a lie plain and simple

Well believe what you want, but it was true. Playing fire didn't mean using only fire then and there were only a few mobs that were immune and you would just cast different spells. It's not that complicated.

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Oh you mean you did it in gear that wasn't even available for quite some time after the game launched? You raided as Fire in MC well after it was long since progression content. No one who wasn't complete dead weight raided MC as a Fire mage when it mattered at all.

That is not true at all.

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Oh yeah lol? Fire in Mc huh? Someone's a liar

Absolutely true, that didnt mean only fire spells like now. You could use AE and Frostbolt for immune mobs and still spec into fire.

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Well you were probably the elemental build which I frankly forget exactly what it was. When somebody says they were raiding as fire in Mc and were 2nd I am assuming the guy meant he was specced mostly into fire and using fire spells. Not elemental specced and spamming frostbolt. I caught the guy in a lie plain and simple

I honestly don't remember exactly how it worked it's been so long but I know my talents were into fire and remember being relatively good damage when recount came out. Im guessing frostbolt spam on immunes and AE for AOE.

[Deleted]

I mean, I'm pretty sure Recount wasn't released in Vanilla at all. I've played since BWL release. And the only damage meter used was Some shitty one, called Damage Meter (I think), it wasn't very accurate. Then SW Stats was released and used by most serious raider. Recount wasn't available until TBC.

So....it does kind of sound like you didn't even play back then.

[Synadrasa]

I mean, I'm pretty sure Recount wasn't released in Vanilla at all. I've played since BWL release. And the only damage meter used was Some shitty one, called Damage Meter (I think), it wasn't very accurate. Then SW Stats was released and used by most serious raider. Recount wasn't available until TBC.

So....it does kind of sound like you didn't even play back then.

Recount was released in vanilla(2005) you moron. So who's the one that didn't play back then?

[fearist]

people getting heated over when recount was released LUL, some things never change on this forum.

[Deleted]

Recount was released in vanilla(2005) you moron. So who's the one that didn't play back then?

Well.....no one I knew or raided with used recount in Vanilla, was always Damage Meter or SW Stats. Only ever saw it used, or used it myself in TBC. Says it was "Created Aug 17, 2007" on Curse. Not saying you're wrong, feel free to show me some footage of it being used in Vanilla or an official release date. No need to get so worked up over it though rofl.

[Skul]

Never heard of recount in Vanilla. If it existed, it was very very small / niche.

[Malfecto]

To comment on solo ability in the world, I will just leave this here:

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=221335/...cane-intellect

[Xires]

Hello, I'm fairly new to WoW, that's why I'm asking.


Is it true that Mages since always had at least one very-strong PvE spec? Was there any time in WoW history that all of Mage specs were mediocre? Is Mage a quite safe-pick for raiding @ Legion?

TBC. Warlocks were better then Mages to the point where the running joke was the only reason to bring a Mage was for food and water. lol

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To answer your question, yes, Mage is a very safe pick. You'll always do competitive damage, there's uniqueness between the specs, and personally, i think they actually have more 'cool' things than other classes at this point. I started playing mage late in WoD, and i think i've wasted a few years on WoW not testing Mage earlier. Maining Mage come Legion, and it should be a fun ride. We'll almost certainly have at least 1 strong PVP spec as well, if you're into that.

Mages are viable in all aspects of the game as well. Solo, Raids, Dungeons, they have the toolkit for them all. Fire looks the all round best numbers wise right now, but it only takes a few adjustments to change that, and they'll probably bring up Frost and Arcane, while lowering Fire a bit.

No reason to lower fire at all unless you simply don't want Mages to ever be competitive against other classes. They need to bring Frost/Arcane up but Arcane will likely fix itself with gear and time where as Frost will just fall further behind.

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They're not, they're by far the worst class for all solo content. The only class with zero selfheals. Mages are a group-only class.

You couldn't be more wrong then you are. lol