Mage since Vanilla... thinking about going over to the melee side of wow - do or dont

[Deleted]

Hello fellow mages... and hi to all the lurkers and trollz too that might be passing by

So, as the title says I've been a mage-main since vanilla start all through BC and Wrath. I love the mage class and have a lot of achievements and stuff as all of us do when it comes to an old-time main. I've been doing mostly pvp on me mage over the years but I've seen a fair amount of raiding as well during my time and I like both aspects of the game. During these 5-6 years I've always been messing about with alts, almost always casters. I spent a lot of time on my priest during wrath and liked the healing aspect of the game, but my mage always drew me back. Felt like I enjoyed playing my mage a lot more in a pvp environment and my priest as healer in raids and such.

After having played around on the beta with premades (Mage, Priest, Lock, Warrior, Dk and Sha), I actually think it's time to start meleeing things down come Cata. The class that caught my attention the most was, believe it or not... Warrior, specifically as a tank. And this new insight got me thinking... should I reroll a melee class after having been a caster at heart for so... ooh so very long or should I stick with what I know and do well.

One thing I've noticed while levelling a warrior alt post-shattering (decked in BoA), is that Im having fun in dungeons, alot of fun... as a tank even! But pvp is a hassel, especially as I have developed a natural instinct to always run AWAY from my foes, kiting and whatnot. Now that I have to chase ppl around I find myself abit noobish tbh. I understand the learning curve needed to finetune my skillz but I'm worried about endgame pvp as a warrior. My minimal pvp testing from the beta isn't enough to base a decision on.

Anywho... would love to hear what u fine ladies and gentz, yes trolls and lurkers too, as to what your experience have been when changing from one type of class to another (e.g. caster to melee or the other way around).

/startdiscussion!

[ichigoisking]

Mages are hands down my favorite class, and i have played a mage since vanilla (two different mages). When Wrath came out, i was one of the thousands of people to roll a DK. That was my first melee class and i have to say i really did not understand any one the attributes of a melee dps. As of now, i understand melee dps better, but i still prefer a caster with stats that make sense to me. I plan to use my DK just for his 450 mining come cata xD

[Ershiin]

Having played pretty much everything, my recommendation would be to not go melee unless you want to tank.
While stunlocking and hitting stuff in the face with a giant mallet has its merits, I find its just not worth the hassle in the long run.
There are a ton of things hidden in the contract when you sign up for the front lines that you wont know about till you're actually there.
I'll try to name a few for ya.

1. Cleaves and Tailswipes. While these are commonly known and generally easily avoided, its just something you dont have to worry about when you're at range and more often than not they only exist either for purposes of challenging the tank (and if it challenges the tank, it kills you) or purely to be an inconvenience to the melee.

2. Running. As a front line soldier, you can expect you feet to be in a whole new world of hurt from constant retreating and charging. Always running away when something bad is about to happen only to be forced to run all the way back when its over. If you thought having to move around to get off a shot was frustrating, try never getting to stand still at all.

3. The View. Ever been to the big screen, and in pure annoyance of that giant sitting right in front of you, you decided to head to the front seats instead, only to find now you really cant follow whats going on anymore? Thats the life awaiting you on the front row. Ragnaros and Gruul are some mighty impressive beasts, their ankles arent. And you can just forget about spectating the awesome sight of Malchazaar's legions descending from the sky, you wont see them before they're already there.

4. First in, first to get shot. It may be glorious to be the first to run into battle, shouting from the top of your lungs how you long for the glorious bloodshed. But in reality you're the guy who everyone will be aiming for untill the healer finally gets picked out. You're a meatshield, a distraction at best. Your purpose is to go in first and die so the rest can get into position and secure the target.

5. No glory. Despite all of the above mentioned hardships, being on the front lines is a thankless job. You may have executed your job with perfect precision, but dont expect anyone to commend you for it. You're but one of many, you can and will be replaced at the whim of your peers if you ever fail to live up to expectations. The only time someone will notice your efforts is when they're lacking.

[Eijnar]

I firmly believe that it makes you a better player to have alts from which you can cover other aspects than e.g. just ranged dps. This is due to you get an understanding of how the other classes work, but it does also make it more clear to you e.g. why ppl die from "random" stuff and as a dps after you level a healer (That is my own personal experience) you tend to focus more on avoiding as much damage as you can just to make the healers job easier.
My main experience is from PVE since I do not find any pleasure in PVP.
I've leveled a prot warrior and tanked with him, which I must admit gave me a deeper understanding of tank threatmechanics in TBC to WOLTK.
I've played resto druid, resto shaman and holy pala which believe has given me a deeper understanding the classes and the opportunity to see the game easier from another POV, and it is also quite entertaining to play a "react class" instead of a x y z xxx y z xxx class from time to time .
I've played DK during a month during my guilds progress on LK HC and it did give me quite a good understanding of how the melee was to play and why they from time to time did things which seemed idiotic from a caster PoV.

But play whatever you find the most entertaining and there is a difference from "This is a fun character" to e.g. raid or I would imagine it is the same with PVP for a longer period of time with that character.

[Mordoran]

Ive tried myself to reroll other classes. Sharman, Warrior, Rogue and even a Paladin... Nothing have kept my intrest for long tho, and to this day my mage is still my all time favorite.

Ive played a mage since vanilla just like you and yes it can be trivial at some point, but from my own experience, its a temporary thing

[Satyne]

Ive tried myself to reroll other classes. Sharman, Warrior, Rogue and even a Paladin... Nothing have kept my intrest for long tho, and to this day my mage is still my all time favorite.

Ive played a mage since vanilla just like you and yes it can be trivial at some point, but from my own experience, its a temporary thing

Mordoran said it all, this goes for me as well

[Deleted]

Great replys so far guys, I really appreciate the input... please keep em coming, I have to admit that somewhere in the back if my mind I like the idea of having a dps, a healer and a tank to choose from. But working 40-50h/week doesn't allow me to have 3 mains :-P

My mage will always be my first highschool-crush, but a fling with a warrior might be what makes me luv my old mage even more maybe?

So... the question still remains; flirt or stay faithfull?

[5648945621]

When i get bored of my caster, i switch to my DK. Having a melee and ranged to switch between is a must

[Joobieo]

Stick with the mage ! But its always nice to have a alt on the side.

[Neotokyo]

Imo, go for a class that has it all I personally recomend a druid, you can melee, range, heal or tank. Its great fun to level aswell, especially with all the new zones and the reworked way you get your forms and at what levels. If you get bored of one play style its easy enough to switch to another and keep the same toon.

[Deleted]

Yeh, personally I would never change my main Mage to a melee class. One of biggest argument is that I would hate hack/slash a big boss' his lowerleg while my screen is a mess.... cuz that's what you get if you're melee and fight big bosses...

No, much more prefer distance shooting, to have a nice overview of what's happening. Plus the fact that you can have your distance for fighting, so not much running around, just stand still: inhale, kill, exhale

[Deleted]

I really, really can't let my mage go. It's also been my main for raiding, and I think it'll always be. Every time I log my paladin or druid, I constantly look for that conjure food, those teleports, that blink, that iceblock (okay I have bubble on the paladin, but..) - All the fun utility the mage class brings, is what I miss every time I log my alts.

In specific areas such as raiding and PvP I have mixed feelings. I got a little bores through WLK with mages, basically because Fire wasn't reeeally viable until ICC, so I was arcane through 3 tiers of raiding, which was boring in the end, I know I could just have switched to Fire, but the loss was too great, and my guild needed that extra bit to make up for all the mediocre talent we had, yes I'm pro! Joke aside, it was just arcane, arcane, arcane - You had no choice.
- Had I been another class, for instance on my druid, I had 4 choices (Theoretically) I could switch between. I could be the tank one day, the healer the next, giving me more excitement because of the variety in jobs.

Still though, there's something weird about the thought of dumping my mage - I did have thoughts about switching to my paladin for cata as my main, but decided to stick to my mage, I can always play the other chars as alts, which I did plenty in WLK where I got to play them all 3 through all of ToC and ICC.

[Patty]

You should sit down and really think it over..

It is so important to play what you honestly want to play! It what keeps the game fun still.. It is not as easy as it seems to figure out for some people though!..

[undethknight]

Well I support your warrior for one. The learning curve for warriors is very high. There are usually very good and very bad warriors with few being just ok.

[serif]

1. Cleaves and Tailswipes. While these are commonly known and generally easily avoided, its just something you dont have to worry about when you're at range and more often than not they only exist either for purposes of challenging the tank (and if it challenges the tank, it kills you) or purely to be an inconvenience to the melee.

Oh no, something new and interesting to challenge yourself with!

2. Running. As a front line soldier, you can expect you feet to be in a whole new world of hurt from constant retreating and charging. Always running away when something bad is about to happen only to be forced to run all the way back when its over. If you thought having to move around to get off a shot was frustrating, try never getting to stand still at all.

at least its something to do beyond being a turret

3. The View. Ever been to the big screen, and in pure annoyance of that giant sitting right in front of you, you decided to head to the front seats instead, only to find now you really cant follow whats going on anymore? Thats the life awaiting you on the front row. Ragnaros and Gruul are some mighty impressive beasts, their ankles arent. And you can just forget about spectating the awesome sight of Malchazaar's legions descending from the sky, you wont see them before they're already there.

never learned how to zoom out the camera? You know you can set the max range to pretty much whatever you want, right? Besides, when's the last time a range dps got to look up the skirt of someone like say freya?

4. First in, first to get shot. It may be glorious to be the first to run into battle, shouting from the top of your lungs how you long for the glorious bloodshed. But in reality you're the guy who everyone will be aiming for untill the healer finally gets picked out. You're a meatshield, a distraction at best. Your purpose is to go in first and die so the rest can get into position and secure the target.

I haven't been on many raids where a melee dps is the first to run in... it's usually the tank. And I've definitely never been in a raid where the melee was relegated to 'meat shield' duty... usually the goal is for all of the raiders to survive... maybe i'm doing it wrong.

5. No glory. Despite all of the above mentioned hardships, being on the front lines is a thankless job. You may have executed your job with perfect precision, but dont expect anyone to commend you for it. You're but one of many, you can and will be replaced at the whim of your peers if you ever fail to live up to expectations. The only time someone will notice your efforts is when they're lacking.

I don't see how you can argue range dps experiences more glory than melee. In my experience dps in general (melee and range) is last on the list to be praised when it comes to a successful kill... then again all of that depends on the group of people you are with and how well they recognize each others' contributions.


----


my advice, yes melee will be quite different than range. you will be moving around a lot more, and often times the raid encounters seem to be more focused at hassling the melee - but none of that diminishes the fun as long as you know what you're getting into and like seeing things from a different angle.

[Deleted]

Hello fellow mages... and hi to all the lurkers and trollz too that might be passing by

So, as the title says I've been a mage-main since vanilla start all through BC and Wrath. I love the mage class and have a lot of achievements and stuff as all of us do when it comes to an old-time main. I've been doing mostly pvp on me mage over the years but I've seen a fair amount of raiding as well during my time and I like both aspects of the game. During these 5-6 years I've always been messing about with alts, almost always casters. I spent a lot of time on my priest during wrath and liked the healing aspect of the game, but my mage always drew me back. Felt like I enjoyed playing my mage a lot more in a pvp environment and my priest as healer in raids and such.

After having played around on the beta with premades (Mage, Priest, Lock, Warrior, Dk and Sha), I actually think it's time to start meleeing things down come Cata. The class that caught my attention the most was, believe it or not... Warrior, specifically as a tank. And this new insight got me thinking... should I reroll a melee class after having been a caster at heart for so... ooh so very long or should I stick with what I know and do well.

One thing I've noticed while levelling a warrior alt post-shattering (decked in BoA), is that Im having fun in dungeons, alot of fun... as a tank even! But pvp is a hassel, especially as I have developed a natural instinct to always run AWAY from my foes, kiting and whatnot. Now that I have to chase ppl around I find myself abit noobish tbh. I understand the learning curve needed to finetune my skillz but I'm worried about endgame pvp as a warrior. My minimal pvp testing from the beta isn't enough to base a decision on.

Anywho... would love to hear what u fine ladies and gentz, yes trolls and lurkers too, as to what your experience have been when changing from one type of class to another (e.g. caster to melee or the other way around).

/startdiscussion!

Well not that I play mage or anything, but I've played all tanking classes, and tanking should be fun!
Its the big resposibility, and the mighty feeling of tanking a bigass boss that are always present, being the tank. You're the leader of the group somewhat ( not that you are the boss of the group, more of a guide maybe? Guardian? no? .. what ever ) anyway,

Tanking, and being melee is alot of fun, I suggest you make a couple of class/race combos that you desire. and just try out what is most fun, eventually you'll end up, with the urge to play the one you like best.

Have fun meleeing around !

[817]

roll a druid, they do everything and they do it WELL

[serif]

I firmly believe that it makes you a better player to have alts from which you can cover other aspects than e.g. just ranged dps. This is due to you get an understanding of how the other classes work, but it does also make it more clear to you e.g. why ppl die from "random" stuff and as a dps after you level a healer (That is my own personal experience) you tend to focus more on avoiding as much damage as you can just to make the healers job easier.
My main experience is from PVE since I do not find any pleasure in PVP.
I've leveled a prot warrior and tanked with him, which I must admit gave me a deeper understanding of tank threatmechanics in TBC to WOLTK.
I've played resto druid, resto shaman and holy pala which believe has given me a deeper understanding the classes and the opportunity to see the game easier from another POV, and it is also quite entertaining to play a "react class" instead of a x y z xxx y z xxx class from time to time .
I've played DK during a month during my guilds progress on LK HC and it did give me quite a good understanding of how the melee was to play and why they from time to time did things which seemed idiotic from a caster PoV.

But play whatever you find the most entertaining and there is a difference from "This is a fun character" to e.g. raid or I would imagine it is the same with PVP for a longer period of time with that character.

I think every dps should at least try and level a healer. My main is an enhancement shaman, but I leveled a holy/disc priest and raided ICC a couple times with it. After knowing what healers have to go through I trashed my dps mindset of 'oh i can stand in this fire for a couple seconds to get a few more hits off, the healer won't mind'... as well as generally stopped taking healers for granted. Once you suffer through dozens and dozens of idiot pug groups, you'll start to be ashamed of how you played as a dps in the past and really become a lot better at avoiding damage.

[Nanastreak]

Great replys so far guys, I really appreciate the input... please keep em coming, I have to admit that somewhere in the back if my mind I like the idea of having a dps, a healer and a tank to choose from. But working 40-50h/week doesn't allow me to have 3 mains :-P

My mage will always be my first highschool-crush, but a fling with a warrior might be what makes me luv my old mage even more maybe?

So... the question still remains; flirt or stay faithfull?

I play a Mage, started as a Hunter, wow still love my Hunter, however when I went Mage It was on, DPS and everyone's friend, ports, Nom noms, the buffs, and the side line view of the attacks and helping keep the healers alive, thats how I roll and love it that way. I do have one of every class and faction and race spread around and yet I still come home to my Mage, if that helps,

[Deleted]

Number 1, dresses were made for battle - in the heat of bloodshed, tempers can flare, things can get downright dirty but *things* will always stay breezy.

Would you swap this for heavy, rust prone plate? Think of the time and gold costs for repair - its not pretty.

Number 2, i think casters will be relied upon much more for their CC's, sure rogues are good for their sap but most pulls you want to CC the mobs at a distance. And lets face it, it feels good to be relied upon right?

Number 3, if you suffer for any lag, which i find i do, melee's get it 10x worse. You're in the thick of it with all the spell effects from your caster friends and the cleave *kapows* from your melee team mates. I too am a mage man and i played a DK for a bit but i found myself out of my comfort zone when i was a) too close to the boss and b) had no cast bars!

Theres a few thoughts for you

/PandaZ - He Lives