Battle For Azeroth: Mage Megathread (Alpha/Beta)

[Obelisk Kai]

Ye. Took them a couple of builds after the fire one was datamined, but it's up and running. Neat heat effect coming off of it. I remember checking the build of, and it wasn't hooked up, although earth was, which was previously datamined.



Still no sign of Poly:Bee/Hex:Wicker Beast though.

That looks great. And our new Water Elemental looks amazing. With water jet being purged, thereby making our pet a water bolt spammer which I can live with, it means big blue will be far from an eyesore if bone chilling sims as the top dps option on live.

Now I have to determine whether I will go fire or frost this expansion. I love both so much...even when they have massive design issues...I find it hard to choose between them. I guess whichever one sims higher.

[Deleted]

~19% flat nerf to Arcane on beta and a 2% mana buff to Arcane Explosion. Feels like Blizzard are throwing lazy band-aids to beta numbers at the moment.

[Deleted]

~19% flat nerf to Arcane on beta and a 2% mana buff to Arcane Explosion. Feels like Blizzard are throwing lazy band-aids to beta numbers at the moment.

Or maybe they're nerfing it so nobody attempts to play the mess of a spec they created before they try to fix it in 8.1 or 8.2.
One can hope.

[Swizzle]

Or maybe they're nerfing it so nobody attempts to play the mess of a spec they created before they try to fix it in 8.1 or 8.2.
One can hope.

I tested Arcane for hours and had no idea what it was supposed to be about. It's like they threw everything they had already with stuff from Diablo 3, took away perks and legendaries, dumbed down the Mastery and hoped everyone would love it.

[BlueRemedy]

After tinkering around for a couple weeks in the beta, I feel like class design in BfA on the whole is stunningly mediocre. Like there is no inspiration or passion coming across at all. Feels like it was designed by robots, no other way I can put it.

Shame because I really enjoy a lot of the other content I've seen. There are people at Blizzard who are clearly working their assess off but it is all held back by whomever is in charge of this. It feels so... disjointed. This is the first expansion I've been lukewarm on outside of Cataclysm and it is 90% due to class design. (even WoD was good, it just didn't have enough content).

This is all coming from someone who wanted pruning, the button bloat in the genre was out of control for awhile. Thing is my idea of pruning would be more like a good MOBA or Guild Wars 2 (which I dislike, but I respect its ideas on class design). Something where you have a lot more builds, all of your abilities are multi-faceted and have stances/states, etc. Didn't expect them to interpret the remedy for button bloat as keeping the game design the same and just boiling classes down to a handful of generic filler spells.

Just making this post here because while I haven't seriously played a Mage since MoP, the version on the BfA beta might be the single worst class I've ever seen in an MMO. I usually hate people who say shit like this but someone needs to lose their job. Like, this kind of design out of a studio like Blizzard isn't ok. Game has had its ups and downs but never anything like this.

[Deleted]

After tinkering around for a couple weeks in the beta, I feel like class design in BfA on the whole is stunningly mediocre. Like there is no inspiration or passion coming across at all. Feels like it was designed by robots, no other way I can put it.

Shame because I really enjoy a lot of the other content I've seen. There are people at Blizzard who are clearly working their assess off but it is all held back by whomever is in charge of this. It feels so... disjointed. This is the first expansion I've been lukewarm on outside of Cataclysm and it is 90% due to class design. (even WoD was good, it just didn't have enough content).

This is all coming from someone who wanted pruning, the button bloat in the genre was out of control for awhile. Thing is my idea of pruning would be more like a good MOBA or Guild Wars 2 (which I dislike, but I respect its ideas on class design). Something where you have a lot more builds, all of your abilities are multi-faceted and have stances/states, etc. Didn't expect them to interpret the remedy for button bloat as keeping the game design the same and just boiling classes down to a handful of generic filler spells.

Just making this post here because while I haven't seriously played a Mage since MoP, the version on the BfA beta might be the single worst class I've ever seen in an MMO. I usually hate people who say shit like this but someone needs to lose their job. Like, this kind of design out of a studio like Blizzard isn't ok. Game has had its ups and downs but never anything like this.

I agree with this completely. I think at this point with their total lack of a design philosophy they've either a) run out of time, or b) they've decided to not fix that which isn't broken.

The issue I have with this is that I believe most people just tolerate the current iterations of the mage specs - some aspects are cool such as the pyro bracers, brain freeze procs spam and arcane burst (sometimes). But they are all made very sour by the rest of the spec and it's (lack of) synergy.

[m2k]

After having played all the specs in mythic and mythic+ dungeons i dont even know what to play anymore. Arcane will probably not work out well in m+. I dont enjoy frost that much... and fire is just in a awful place. Sure the dps as fire is ok but it feels so clunky to play. Frost feels most complete of the specs.

[pkm]

Ion has mentioned that the class changes have been finalised. If azerite gear is not going to help then I might be changing mains.

[Deleted]

Is to our mage developer to give us some feedback? or he had many things to change in that class that he dont have any time .. U are a just pathetic who should jut give up your job

[Cracked]

Is to our mage developer to give us some feedback? or he had many things to change in that class that he dont have any time .. U are a just pathetic who should jut give up your job

Each spec is done by a different guy. Arcane dev apparently really dislikes listening to player feedback. And compared to Fire/Frost, it shows.

[Osiris]

I might be in the minority here but I'm really not having any issues with fire. Sure we don't get anything flashy or new, but mechanically seems fine to me, and will likely be my focus for the 1st tier. I guess it's important to note my only focus is end-game raiding though, so it's the only way I'm looking at the spec.

[Cyanu]

well imo frost is fine just as it was for most of legion

fire is in a great place mechanically (and no 1 less charge of fire blast does not change that,while we still have Phoenix Flames) but it remains to be seen whether the numbers will be there, i wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't make it on single target

arcane is awkward and i'm afraid it might even lose it's pvp viability (which lasted for a fair amount of legion), while what they're doing with arcane explosion risks it's place in M+ too

regardless i don't think the class overall is in a bad place for PvE (unless you're hellbent in playing arcane no matter what)

i'm much more afraid for PvP though: Shimmer is getting nerfed and other than remove curse for locks (which we won't be able to beat no matter what imo) we get nothing, while locks are believed to be the 8.0 fotm and DH's are being turned into mage killers while DKs seem to be getting more dangerous as well (against mages that is)

the only good news is that our barriers seem to get alot better now that they scale with our HP

[BlueRemedy]

I might be in the minority here but I'm really not having any issues with fire. Sure we don't get anything flashy or new, but mechanically seems fine to me, and will likely be my focus for the 1st tier. I guess it's important to note my only focus is end-game raiding though, so it's the only way I'm looking at the spec.

Fire isn't as bad as the other two, it's still a little underwhelming and lacks QoL but it at least works and feels finished. There are changes I would make and I wouldn't say it is good class design but its not in that awful BfA pitfall like a lot of specs are.

Frost needs changes to prevent it from getting stuck spamming Frost Bolt. They've tried to fix this already, and it is becoming clear that it needs a real rotational change that doesn't put the entire spec on RNG. You could go on a lot about that, and that is just the core single target. AoE, talents, etc, there are a lot of small problems that pile up and make you really question things.

Arcane was simple in Legion but it was pretty dang fun. It needed some tuning changes and other mild touch ups but they somehow ignored all of that instead side swiped it with, hands down, some of the worst changes I've ever seen to a live game. Changes to Missiles alone just baffles me, like WHY would you ever fucking do that?

[Cosmic Janitor]

Frost needs changes to prevent it from getting stuck spamming Frost Bolt. They've tried to fix this already, and it is becoming clear that it needs a real rotational change that doesn't put the entire spec on RNG. You could go on a lot about that, and that is just the core single target. AoE, talents, etc, there are a lot of small problems that pile up and make you really question things.

Imho they spec needs something like Glacial Spike baseline. While it isn't an enormous deviation it at least spices up the rotation from non-stop frostbolt spam and it also makes you actively interact with your mastery. While leveling you can usually get away with it, but when something as boring as thermal void turns into your go-to talent due to having the best performance it really stings gameplay where DPS matters.

[Swizzle]

Imho they spec needs something like Glacial Spike baseline. While it isn't an enormous deviation it at least spices up the rotation from non-stop frostbolt spam and it also makes you actively interact with your mastery. While leveling you can usually get away with it, but when something as boring as thermal void turns into your go-to talent due to having the best performance it really stings gameplay where DPS matters.

It would also be great for Thermal Void to just be made baseline with all the nerfs IV got with the loss of artifacts and give us an actually interesting talent in that row.

[Amaterasu65]

Guys are we getting A teleport spell for Boralus? Haven't found it and the portal from SW to Boralus seems weird. I always had my HS @ each patch/raid's main area. It would be great if I could have my HS anywhere else but Boralus.

[Montegomery]

Imho they spec needs something like Glacial Spike baseline. While it isn't an enormous deviation it at least spices up the rotation from non-stop frostbolt spam and it also makes you actively interact with your mastery. While leveling you can usually get away with it, but when something as boring as thermal void turns into your go-to talent due to having the best performance it really stings gameplay where DPS matters.

I personally think baseline Glacial Spike would be fantastic, but I know some longstanding Frost mains who don't like that playstyle. They really like managing procs, skillful use of Water jet, etc. BfA Frost doesn't really have what they want anymore.

[Obelisk Kai]

It would also be great for Thermal Void to just be made baseline with all the nerfs IV got with the loss of artifacts and give us an actually interesting talent in that row.

Just listening to a youtuber reviewing another class and spec complaining about how that spec has lost some critical pieces of the toolkit, either removed entirely or converted into talents.

I've also had a perusal of the azerite traits and in no way are they going to be a compensation for what we have lost.

I get what Blizzard is trying to do, they are trying to create base specs they can use as foundations for the systems they add in each expansion that allow for customization and development. Thing is, it's not going to work.

When BFA launches the shitshow of the expansion, as legendaries were for Legion, is going to be the broken specs that have been stripped of fun. And Blizzard will be compelled to react to that.

Interesting times ahead.

[The Archmage]

All i am sure of, as of now, is that if things stay the way they are and they are not fixed fast upon launch, i am not going to be a Mage in BfA. For the first time since TBC. There are limitations to what even i can endure: they stripped Arcane (one of my favourite specs) of all sinergies and left Frost and Fire completely RNG dependant, while doing nothing to address the issues that our abominable talents pose despite us being very vocal about it for years.

In addition, i am really curious to see how this War Mode will pan out, but as it stands it looks pretty grim for Mages (to say the least). Despite the system being introduced (and not considering Arcane's infinite Barrier spam, that will not make it to live as it is now), we are left with an immunity that prevents us to do damage and a CC that heals its victim to full health in seconds, while other classes have walls, stealth, CCs, Leech or other forms of self sustain. Mages were never strong in World PvP, so nothing new there, but at least before it was completely optional. I firmly disagree with Ian's statement that a 15% increase in all rewards granted from World Quests is small enough to pass up, expecially when it comes to reputations, that are usually quite important in the beginning of expansions.

This of course does not mean that Mage will suck or underperform in all departments, i actually expect quite the opposite (for various reasons that i will not elaborate here), but damage is meaningless to me; i've had my fair share of cutting edges in these years of WoW to quench my thirst for sweet, easy deeps. I'd rather play a class i can enjoy, regardless of it being top damage or not. From my experience, i can still make it work to satisfactory levels (at least to progress Mythic on it, as i did with my alts).

[Bombkirby]

Why do people say Frost is now entirely RNG reliant? RoF, Ebonbolt, and etc all guarantee FoF charges. It's not like the Wotlk days where you could only hope for FB to proc everything.

On another note, does the Water Elemental have a purpose now? I read that it's pet-specific abilities were removed and I see no reason why you'd want it without that utility/FoF generation.