Mages still squishy?

[Avikur]

I really want to play my Mage in BfA but am put off by how squishy they have historically been, is this still the same? I hate the thought of getting to 120 and finding a rare and not being able to solo it and having to wait for help, maybe I've been spoiled on my Lock where things like that aren't a concern.

How do Mages play at 120 for solo stuff (WQ's, rares etc)?

[fhate]

Mages have always been squishy, we are the glass canon. But we have some of, if not the best, kiting tools in the game. We can actually solo a lot of things. And I assume this would not change for BFA.

[CptEgo]

Yes, still the worst solo class by far.

[Enclave]

glass cannon is part of mage's class fantasy

[heinz0r]

Arcane with barrier made mages kinda tanky up to now. But the recent change to barrier already pushed it back into squishy town again, which is fine since it was broken in terms of balancing. Sadly though, they will most likely not do a damn thing about melee glue, so it will eventually be back to having a few seconds window to deal damage, at best, vs then running with them on your ass for a few seconds until you either block or die.

And while arcane barrier will certainly see more nerfs, disc priest can keep on spamming shields, which is a way bigger issue tbh

[Deleted]

Don't know what you are talking about, frosts are amazing for solo content. Other specs are more glass cannon stuff, but still, don't really understand why you can't solo rares. Maybe just play green gear?

[The Archmage]

Everything "Bosslike" is extremely hard as a Mage. Elite commanders like we have seen on Argus are solo killable only when you have seriously outgeared the content. As a 983 ilvl (now 254) i can solo most of them, but some are still really hard to pull out and some still borderline impossibile unless RNGesus is heavily on my side.

That's just how it is: we are hard nukers. If anything takes too long to kill, we will die before him.

[Dakara]

Mages are the squishiest class, no debate there, but they do have the toolkit to avoid getting hit in the first place.

If the boss can't be slowed (Frost/Arcane), then we can kite via speed boosts & Blink. Fire and Arcane in BFA both have speed boosting abilities on talents.

Mage Armors are now percentage HP based, similar to Prydaz. Frost you can get 200% Armor boost from shield, Arcane you remove the CD at the expense of Mana.

Blink heal will be back through Azerite and I think there might be a few generic Leech ones in there aswell.

Argus was horrible (IMO) to solo most Elites as a Mage due to mob density. Was very difficult to kite in certain areas.

If you want to Facetank, then Mage is the wrong class, but they aren't completely terrible at soloing in the world. And Rares that can only be solo'd by Tanks are usually easier to find groups for.

[Polarthief]

Don't know what you are talking about, frosts are amazing for solo content...

... assuming the targets are slowable. That's a very important distinction. Not all solo content is created equally. Elites/bosses aren't going to be kite-able like mobs you can snare and root.

As for OP's question, almost everything outside is kite-able/snareable, so very very easy, don't worry about it. It's made to be easy.

[Tinary]

... assuming the targets are slowable. That's a very important distinction. Not all solo content is created equally. Elites/bosses aren't going to be kite-able like mobs you can snare and root.

Kiting means hit and run not hit and slow. You can very easily kite as a mage without being able to slow a target. Fire mage is tbh best in this with his scorch speed talent. It depends on the area tho where you face it and how much time are you willing to invest into this.

[Deleted]

If your taget can be slowed and frozen (most rares, most elites during quests...) you'll be great at soloing stuff. I burn down rares before they even hit me without ever taking a step backwards. The PvP talents makes builds possible that completely destroys rares and elites. I've had no trouble whatsoever with single target or AoE this far, and I run a non-legendary build with about zero downtime unless you're chain killing elites and rares quicker than 45 seconds apart from eachother. Of course you're no fury warrior who can spin-2-win pack after pack after pack, but frost mage will do just fine if you're willing to plan out your kill for a sec or two before pulling.

[Efioanaes]

Im finding fire a real chore to play in open world content, i love the spec but mobs are allover me.

[taishar68]

Just my personal experience: started with KJBW & Sephuz for Leggos, gear level was around 940 pre squish, and I’ve been Fire all the way, currently 119 starting Vol’dun.

I have not died once, but there were a few close calls. It has gotten harder as I leveled; at 112-113 I could easily handle 3-4 mobs with just my normal rotation and not even burn through my shield, but I attribute more of that to the traits that add defense/heals than to any personal skill. I can solo most of the Star rares, and I even soloed a couple of the quest mobs that recommended 3; this was a first for me, and it left me feeling they’d undertuned these mobs a great deal.

I also got the feeling that some mobs are bugged; as if some of their attacks just didn’t do the damage they were supposed to.

Since hitting 117 and not having the help of the leg powers, ive been more careful, pulling one or two at most. Dragons Breath is a great way to reset for a second if you need it, while waiting for Fire Blast to come off CD or reactivitate your Barrier. I also found ditching Pyroclasm to help because although it is strong, it just forces you to tank/soak a lot more damage. The reduced cd on combustion helps for faster leveling, in my opinion.

[Champagne Supernova]

Seems a better levelling experience for mages this expansion, most rares are slowable. Barring a few, like a certain Raptor rare in Nazmir that can appear to be slowed but the slow effect doesn't work on it, at least as arcane. That rare hits like a truck too. Arcane was pretty decent to level with, had no real problems. Time Anomaly was useful, occasionally speeding things up from mob to mob without much downtime, though i wouldn't take it for dungeons / raids over overpowered. Charged up was also nice.