Originally Posted by
zomgDPS
I don't think you will find even a single person who thinks homogenization of specs is a good thing.
What makes it worse for mages, is that they are a "pure" class.
They cannot serve any role outside of DPS, that even ranged DPS. Because of this, it is of extreme importance that the pure specs be the ones that must have different playstyles and mechanics, to make the class as a whole interesting.
Take a look at druids for example. A druid player has access to 4 completely unique playstyles and mechanics within a single class. If a balance druid ever gets bored of balance, he can easily switch to feral and get a whole new DPS experience. (the experience is a key point)
Mages cannot do this. Currently, at best, they can only pick what color their spells will be. This is an unacceptable state of affairs, and actually a step backwards from Cataclysm (where at least the specs had some gameplay identity). Now its like everyone (except Frostmages, who have not only their elemental but frost orb) are playing nerfed versions of Frost's "proc based" gameplay.
What makes matters worse, is when you look deeper into relative spec design.
Again, just as an example, lets compare the entire mage class to balance druids (another ranged caster DPS). The sheer number of interesting mechanics, toys and abilities that the single balance spec has outweighs what the entire mage class. Balance druids are amazingly more 'fun' and varied than all 3 mage specs. This is what makes the situation that much harder to swallow for mages.
Now sure, you can say "well if you love spec/class X so much just reroll". And sure, many many will, but that is beside the point.
The goal of good game design is not to just abandon the parts of the game that do not work, but instead, find out why they aren't working and fix them. Unfortunately, many people (including mages themselves) do not care about that bigger picture (just take a look at the "Has Arcane been abandoned in MoP" thread in this very forum). The rest of the mages on the beta (and the blizzard appointed mage community MVP in particular) just do not care about the gameplay or mechanics of all the mage specs, but instead, just care about the mechanics and playstyle of their particular spec of choice (in this case, frost), and because of this, don't even bother to give feedback on the other specs.
Whats worse, is that when someone does come along to give feedback on the other specs, the frost mages just 'shout them down' since they wish to lobby for more buffs to their spec.
Its a sad sad state of affairs, and no one seems to know how to break the cycle. Some hypothesize that it just cannot be fixed.
I, for one, have absolutely no doubt that Arcane, as an entire spec, in both PvE and PvP is going to end up in the toilet throughout the entire MoP expansion. You can bookmark this post, screenshot it if you wish, but you will see that that statement of mine will stand the test of time.
No one will play it (its totally broken and boring in the beta, which is why no one is actually playing it there). But instead of helping fix the issue, mages (like the MVP) will just shove simulationcraft numbers down the throats of everyone who bring up the point that its not because of the "numbers" that no one likes/plays Arcane, but its because the spec itself is just so effing one-dimensional and boring.