Mage and Lock at ~80+. Which is shaping up bette for 5.2?

[Booniehat]

Hey guys,

I'm bored with my class's in PVP right now (elesham... meh.). I have 2 other wizards at ~80+ that I can rush to 90 before 5.2

I'm a little behind on the many many patch notes. Can someone tell me which looks stronger for PVP in 5.2?

I have a variety of arena partners (warr, healers, spriest, rogue) so I'm fairly flexible comp wise.

Not looking for FOTMish stuff but I just don't wanna be an ele shaman in PVP anymore. I have to cry myself to sleep after capping each week lol

[Tya]

Mages are insanely strong right now, and the buff to Deep Freeze (4 -> 5 sec duration) is almost comical. If you want raw overpoweredness, grab a mage.

Warlocks are okay right now, just that they are eclipsed so badly by mages and spriests that most comps favour those classes. Warlocks get some buffs in 5.2 (10% damage reduction, slightly better dispel damage) but also some damage nerfs, and (rightly) losing blood fear is going to really harm what little reason you have to take a warlock over a mage or priest.

Spriests are still evading the nerfbat though, but failing that, I'd roll (and have) a mage.

[Straferight]

Mages are insanely strong right now, and the buff to Deep Freeze (4 -> 5 sec duration) is almost comical.

I must have missed the memo, all I saw was that if you took the glyph of deep freeze it lowered the stun from 4 sec --> 3 sec. Which is a large nerf from what was originally a 5 sec stun. Do you have a link?

Edit: Never mind I found it, I'd imagine most mages would stick with the glyph still.

[Tya]

I must have missed the memo, all I saw was that if you took the glyph of deep freeze it lowered the stun from 4 sec --> 3 sec. Which is a large nerf from what was originally a 5 sec stun. Do you have a link?

Edit: Never mind I found it, I'd imagine most mages would stick with the glyph still.

You're right, my mistake. It's 4 -> 3 if you have the glyph.

[Principe]

Mages if your more a casual player.
Locks don't have a casual learning curve unless you play demo or destro which is boring.

[Straferight]

You're right, my mistake. It's 4 -> 3 if you have the glyph.

haha no you were correct, they are buffing deep to 5 secs. If you have the glyph though it will reduce it to 4 seconds, as it is on live.

[Natixsphere]

I'd say go with what eer you prefer. Locks will still be good next season and affliction is going to start to shine again. Our survivabilty is getting a slight buff along with better dispell protection. Shadow cleave will be very strong for locks as well as rls or monkls

[Kalatica]

Im considering coming back, since ive heard affliction will be decent happy joy

[briggz]

Spriests are still evading the nerfbat though, but failing that, I'd roll (and have) a mage.

Spriests have definitely not avoided the nerf bat. Healing nerf, fade no longer makes you untargetable by ranged, dispersion is shadow, meaning if you get lo locked you can't use it. Can't remember off the top of my head if there was more. Another example of a spec that did need a nerf, but was done completely wrong

[Yvaelle]

@OP

Personally I'm leveling up my frost mage to 90 right now. In Cataclysm Beta Frost mages were so horrendously overpowered that nobody even bothered to whine about them because they were obviously broken - but then they went live, and were left mostly in that position for an entire expansion. So far this season we're seeing a repeat, mages have double the representation shadow does at gladiator-level right now - but they're getting buff/nerfed because of shatterplay / godcomp, while shadow is nerfed through the ground: buried.

Spriests have definitely not avoided the nerf bat. Healing nerf, fade no longer makes you untargetable by ranged, dispersion is shadow, meaning if you get lo locked you can't use it. Can't remember off the top of my head if there was more. Another example of a spec that did need a nerf, but was done completely wrong

Devouring Plague (our burst) no longer does burst damage, it's now just a DoT.

Psyfiend has 1/4th the health and is affected by AoE/cleave damage, it's cast time is 2 seconds up from 1.5, it's duration is 8 seconds down from 10, it can only have 1 target feared at a time.

Glyph of Mind Spike no longer makes our next Mind Blast instant.

Halo no longer knocks stealth classes out of stealth (even though it's easily avoidable).

There's still more that I'm forgetting, we're on like the 4th wave of massive Shadow nerfs now.

[Syh]

Devouring Plague (our burst) no longer does burst damage, it's now just a DoT.

Psyfiend has 1/4th the health and is affected by AoE/cleave damage, it's cast time is 2 seconds up from 1.5, it's duration is 8 seconds down from 10, it can only have 1 target feared at a time.

Glyph of Mind Spike no longer makes our next Mind Blast instant.

Halo no longer knocks stealth classes out of stealth (even though it's easily avoidable).

There's still more that I'm forgetting, we're on like the 4th wave of massive Shadow nerfs now.

Yeah, and this was Ghostcrawler's response:

Sorry you think Shadow is fine in PvP. We disagree and we are not alone.

Honestly, I would say that he would see their mistake by overnerfing when Shadow Priests are rarely played anymore but I'm sure he won't even give a fuck.

Instead of nerfing a bunch of shit at once, I would like to see them actually tweak things little by little unless the ability is blatantly overpowered, and if they make a core ability underpowered, it'd be nice to see them tweak it back up. But that's not logical, in their eyes.