Poll: What's the most exciting / your favorite spec?

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  1. #1

    Mage in Legion pretty... boring?

    Good evening!

    I just recently leveled my Mage to 110 (today) and started equipping him. He's on ILVL 865 now (I played as Fire Mage 99% of the time), did some LFR and dungeons with him and tomorrow usual raiding. I already have 6 other 110 characters (Monk, Shaman, Paladin, Priest, Warlock, Druid) with most of them having ILVL 900 or higher and having raided with nearly all of them in Legion.

    So here's the question: don't you find all of the Mage specs to be pretty boring, flat and bland? This is no flame thread or something like that, just want to know what you guys think about it.

    As I said most time I played Fire and out off all three specs I think it's the most exciting one. Tried Frost and Arcane but I found both of them to be pretty boring and Arcane even worse than Frost. Am I just burnt out of classes because I got 7 with level 110? Or what exactly is my problem with how Mages play in Legion? There are other pretty boring DPS specs I already played (Balance Druid or Affliction Warlock in my case) but Mage left me pretty bored after playing it. And the thing is I only played it yesterday and today and am already burnt out by their playstyle. Maybe I am just annoyed because my Mage dropped Norgannon's Foresight two hours ago in his Fire spec and I am super angry that my first Legendary slot is wasted for the worst Legendary ever...

    How do you experience Mage specs nowadays? Do you like them? Which do you like the most playstyle-wise? I open a survey, would be nice if you'd answer it!
    Last edited by Nyel; 2017-07-10 at 11:13 PM.

  2. #2
    I'm pretty engaged by the fire rotation, particularly with appropriate legendaries (helm makes dragon breath super fun and hard to control like hunters' barrage; the bracers are a whole new mechanic that super rewards being able to sit still for ~4 sec, belo'vir's makes blink a huge on-demand shield, etc.) I think it's cool that the class fantasy is reflected in the playstyle - I have to be very careful not to set things on fire that I don't intend to kill, for example.

    I would probably play something different if I didn't have so much accomplished on her, but that has more to do with not having a tank/heal spec and therefore very slow queues.

    I really enjoy being able to efficiently port around, blink is awesome, the class hall is like a messy scholar's library and feels very "I'm earning my Ph.D", we have awesome iconic class followers like Kalecgos ffs... there's a lot to love here IMHO.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Nyel View Post
    Am I just burnt out of classes because I got 7 with level 110? Or what exactly is my problem with how Mages play in Legion?
    its a legion class problem, not a mage problem

  4. #4
    I think the mage specs are far more engaging than other ranged dps options. Comparing fire to MM hunter or aff lock, no ty ill stay with fire

    Find mages very reactive because a lot of it is proc based and fire and frosts rotation feels pretty smooth. Plus you can spec shimmer which is great for being a pve lord in raids

  5. #5
    Playing Frost Mage since classic, so no, I don't think it's boring.

  6. #6
    Fire's always been one of my favorite specs in the game, and despite not maining mage in a while, I've always come back to it with a fondness. Its iterations have just always managed to be interesting. Arcane's never been interesting in the slightest to me, and frost mage was fun until they butchered it in 7.2.5.

  7. #7
    High Overlord Ambereldus's Avatar
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    I've been a mage this whole expansion, but have only played one alt so far (Priest, shadow/disc). Overall, each of the specs has their own subtle flavour that isn't obvious when you first pick them up. I really only noticed after I got good with Fire and Frost, and I'm getting hints from Arcane (which I'm practicing now). For me, it feels like the complexity and fun in each spec isn't in the rotation per-say, but the theory behind them and the eternal pursuit of padding.


    Fire feels very reactionary, and yet relatively predictable (with high enough crit). I liked that I could anticipate getting a crit, and get rewarded for it more often than not. Stringing all my abilities together into a perfect Combustion has always felt rewarding. Overall, I haven't been bored by Fire, but it just wasn't satisfying a certain itch.

    Frost is my favourite right now, and GS smashes that itch away. Because of the reliance on shatter windows, I'm always accounting for travel speed of my spells in addition to reacting to a steady stream of procs and cooldowns. That adds a satisfying amount of difficulty to the spec without being over punishing when I mess up. Played perfectly, yes its a simple spec, but I haven't been bored of it yet since raids are anything but perfect scenarios.

    Arcane is still a bit of an enigma to me, but I'm starting to understand the timings on burn/conserve phases, and I'm getting better at managing mana. I'm not accustomed to thinking quite as far ahead as I need to for Arcane, but I think that adds to the charm for most people. The difficulty isn't in the rotation, but the timing and decision-making.


    TL: DR I have fun with each of the three specs because they require foresight and a bit of anticipation to get maximum returns. Open to recommendations for alts.

  8. #8
    Never liked Arcane much due to mana management (drinking in M+) and melee AoE.
    Stopped liking fire after combustion was destroyed.
    Stopped liking frost after TV and double IL was destroyed (and high IV uptime).

    The class as a whole is a lot more boring then where it started off in Legion.
    It's still good, but Blizzard did their best to make it less then what it was.

  9. #9
    Well, Fire is growing on me but nevertheless it's pretty pointless. I'm still having fun but I'm not sure I could play that spec for months and months. Why did they remove the old Combustion? I loved that, getting a super strong DoT every two minutes while perfectly chaining Pyros. Now it's a super boring skill (with a fantastic animation though).

  10. #10
    High Overlord Ambereldus's Avatar
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    I think the change to fire was to tone down its reliance on burst windows. It caused certain trinkets and talents to be overvalued for their burst. I know the Blues made a statement at one point, but I can't clearly remember the post itself.

  11. #11
    Fire is fun. Fire with decent crit gear + legendary bracers + helm is the most fun!

    The helm turns DB into a kick-ass instant aoe, and the bracers add another proc to manage . Whenever I switch to frost, which although might be the superior spec on paper, I find myself getting bored with the rotation pretty fast, and wanting to change back to fire.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Dizzeeyooo View Post
    its a legion class problem, not a mage problem
    It's a class problem, unfortunately many classes have this problem, doesn't mean it's a legion problem.

    On topic:
    Ever since the instant pyro procs fire has been the more exciting spec. Frost is now more fun than it used to be, still not as cool as fire.
    Arcane has been known for being one of the most boring spec in the entire game since it actually became a spec. (back in the days, it was just some talents that helped fire or frost, arcane was not a usable spec).

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Swalload View Post
    It's a class problem, unfortunately many classes have this problem, doesn't mean it's a legion problem
    legion class design being boring as hell is not a problem with legion?

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Dizzeeyooo View Post
    legion class design being boring as hell is not a problem with legion?
    It's not all classes, that's the thing, some classes (okay not a lot of them) have improved.

  15. #15
    Mage is ok. I still think they are a 3-4 buttons base rotation class (then add talents, new spell from Artifact weapon), its pretty straight forward and not "hard" to master at its core. The fun comes with talents synergy and Artifact Weapon spell. I like proc-based ranged (I played Elem as a main caster as an Alt) and mage is all about that. IMO they're not too bad. Just very boring (frustrating) when nothing procs...

  16. #16
    Mhm...

    The entire gameplay of my Fire Mage is spamming Fireball, using Pyro procs and using Phoenix Flames / Flame Burst to get that instant Pyro. I mean it's nice to fire 10, 15 Pyros in a row but that's it? I mean that's just incredibly boring. I really want to like it, maybe I just need a good Legendary that changes the playstyle, but it feels very very flat. I mean if Combustion would add something interesting to the playstyle but it's just giving you 100% Crit chance what makes the spec even more flat because you're only using two skills.

  17. #17
    Arcane is, personally, the best designed and most enjoyable DPS spec I've ever played. It all makes sense to me on an intuitive level, and I find myself able to play it very well without anything other than a WeakAura to remind me to use my Shard of the Exodar Time Warp. I spent a lot of the last two expansions healing, however, so maybe the mana management gameplay speaks to me on that level.

  18. #18
    The rotation is pretty simple but shimmer and ice block make the class fun to me. You can pull of a lot of clutch saves on mechanics in tos!

  19. #19
    I don't know it's a bit weird for me, Played fire from wrath, majority of the time it was enjoyable, now though it's lost that flare for me, pun intended. I'm much happier playing a Destruction Warlock these days for some reason over a Fire mage now. Frost is a different story though, feels more engaging to me and a lot more fun than the other two specs in Legion. Mainly i think Glacial Spike is probably the reason, such a cool animation.

  20. #20
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    I really like Fire in Legion, it's very satisfying to hurl fireballs and pyroblasts, and conjure meteors and pillars of flame. The spell effects make it satisfying, and the procs make it fun.

    I haven't tried Frost because I think throwing snowballs and popsicles is kind of boring.

    When it comes to Arcane I wish I liked it, because I think it's the coolest of the three, conserving and burning mana seems fun but I just cannot get into it for some reason and I think it has something to do with the spell effects.

    Arcane blast doesn't have a projectile which is a big issue for me, an arcane projectile that grows in size as you build up arcane charges would be amazing, and more importantly it would feel satisfying, all of the arcane animations have up until 7.3 felt very dated and lackluster which was a big issue for me and I think it is the lack of satisfying visuals that are really making the spec uninteresting for a lot of people.

    Also, a lot of its gameplay consists of casting arcane blast, which I reckon is also a turn of for a lot of people, myself included.

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