Our guild has run out of mages. They either quit the game or rerolled. So, we use scrolls.
I myself rerolled to a rest druid after playing a mage since Molten Core.
We can recruit locks, SPs, Boomies, Ele Shamans just fine, but no mages among casters. We are 5/9M.
We used 2 shamans, 2 druids and a mage alt on Conclave for dispels.
Current state of mages is not tenable. It is not just the numbers (or the lack of it). The specs themselves are so slow and uninspiring compared to the other ranged DPS like Sps, Locks which are so much more fast paced.
pretty much, i mean at least once an expansion mage seems to get to be good lol
but rogues seem to stay good most expansions i'm sure you could find a couple of raids where they sucked but it doesn't stay that way for too long, they don't really have much else to do other than dps so blizzard must balance using them in a way.
Dragonflight Nerfs vs fun again show a Blizzard that hasn't learnt a lesson, Actions speak louder than words afterall watch what they do and do not do.
Those that do M+ heavily and follow the high-end/MDI scene, do you guys feel the 8.1 Frost slow changes were necessary in retrospective, several months later?
I was coming to say something along these lines. Nice analysis. Mage is outdated in every way, even open world utilities such as conjuring food, slow fall or teleport have lost meaning due to game design. Such as DH gliding which is light-years superior, goblin glider, which is also better and accessible to all. World transportation is easy with portals to every major location. Eating between pulls in the world is not a thing anymore.
All Mage specs have no advantage in any situation to compensate for their numerous disadvantages. They are not great on aoe, nor single, nor mobility, nor special raid utility. Arguably Frost on two target cleave is quite good (but not the best) and a specific Fire build is strong at 30% execute. Both are niche and don't make up for the rest of the mediocre performance in every other situation.
There are zero reasons to play Mage over another class other than liking the Mage theme. Which isn't a bad reason but pragmatically it is a disadvantage to a serious group.
Last edited by Makabreska; 2019-04-16 at 12:41 PM.
Sometimes, the light of the moon is a key to other spaces. I've found a place where, for a night or two, the streets curve in unfamiliar ways. If I walk here, I might find insight, or I might be touched by madness.
of course having characters who can negate damaging effects that have to be set off are helpful but other classes can in a way do similar though rogue can do it more often, its still considered as a class with not much else to do, hence why the mdi's have been using the tricks rogues have to somewhat play around with game mechanics, rogues are the last to still have really cool tools most players don't even use them in that way.
mythic raiders understand having 5-10 rogues who can jump into a fight is how you get realm firsts however, now days previously it wasn't so cutthroat.. in a way.
Hunters mage and warlocks have had more stuff designed around them as kind of tanks than rogues have so far, its more player thought that elevates rogues to a higher place, where as the other dps are considered by blizzard to be able to do slightly more "things" than rogues can, hence the high numbers everywhere.
Dragonflight Nerfs vs fun again show a Blizzard that hasn't learnt a lesson, Actions speak louder than words afterall watch what they do and do not do.
No matter how you look at it... Mage is nto a fun class to play anymore. It was best in Wrath... especially with tier 8 bonuses.
Ah yes.. I miss tier.
The problem is the 3 mage specs don't have enough diversity, they all do the same thing and frost does them all the best. There's the odd argument you can make for Fire, or Arcane, on the odd fight, but the majority it is frost. The only exception is Arcane, but it should do far more ST damage than it does, considering that is Arcane's niche, literal stand still, spam into the boss and do not move. Which is ironic because a SP/Aff warlocks niche specialization is multi-target, yet they do more/close to the same as an Arcane mage that specializes in ST.
I also take issue with minor things, like the fact that all 3 mage specs have no multi-dot/spread cleave, and their AOE in comparison to many other specs is not really the best in any spec. What really bothers me on Frost is the fact that the cleave range is so ridiculously low. Why is it? I have to talent into my cleave and it can't even hit the range of Grong adds? Or the minor distance the boss may be from a Rasta totem?
Don't get me wrong, overall we may be the worst casters in the game, but we're not super far behind by any means. It's just the fact that, again, all 3 specs just fall short in so many ways that I really hope that they get reworked like Warlocks and other casters did. Arcane has always been mind numbing. Fire hasn't been fun since it was changes ages ago. Frost has been what mages have played patch after patch that it feels like you're playing a slightly more engaging arcane. At least mages can feel special with their utility, aka bringing AI and their slow being useful for literally one fight!
Last edited by La; 2019-04-19 at 02:59 AM.
*Insert every single ridiculous PC parts detail here that no one cares about*
I would take a little fix for a frost RNG dependency, making BF procs more reliable. I really love GS build, but sometimes RNG gods hates you so much, they making you cast 24 Frost Bolts to get a proc, delivered by Ebonbolt coming off cooldown. Maybe making it similar to Enhanced Pyrotechnics, each non-BF cast adds 10% extra chance of getting BF.
For sure, fire spec would need some love too, but at least they can start with the small things. Baby steps.
Fire had that, but it was taken away, because Blizz felt Mages shouldn't multidot. They limited the range of our abilities to certain pool and after a few purges of abilities, we are left with these shells that play somewhat the same and nothing is too enjoyable at the same time.
Arcane would be the easiest to make wildly different due to it having another dimension in the gameplay, but Blizzard seems to be content to make it a spam a single(or two with AM procs) spell then evocate and conserve with 3 spells(which feels similar to how fire and frost plays) spec every expansion and you never have to really care about mana.
MMO-Champion Rules and Guidelines
For FIRE:
They should rework fire mage to be similar to how shadow priest played during WoD.
- Change living bomb to be a 16 second dot, remove the target limit, spreading and explosion.
- Have every crit from living bomb give a stack and at 5 crits trigger Hot Streak.
For FROST:
- They should increase the range on splitting ice and increase ice lance damage.
- Add talent that is a spell with 2 stacks and x sec cooldown that will trigger brainfreeze immediately (off the gcd) - could replace frozen touch for example
For ARCANE:
- Slipstream is baseline, new talent is the old legendary 'Belo'vir's Final Stand'
- Make one of the talent rows be the old legion legendaries to add some mana management options: 'Rhonin's Assaulting Armwraps' - 'Mystic Kilt of the Rune Master' - 'Gravity Spiral'
- Add a spell that places a debuff on the target that increases the damage it takes from the casting mage by 20%. 2 second cast, unlimited duration, decent mana cost.
This way all three specs can have an identity and excel in an area.
I've never been this bored before playing my mage it is so fucking bad right now I don't know how they managed to get it this wrong. It's like this is all intentionally done so people can forget retail and go to classic.
Ah yes, spamming Frostbolt until OOM so you can Evocate. Engaging gameplay.
The argument can be made for a number of expansions having interesting rotations, but not Classic. 3.0 Jesusbolt, Cata double DF/Orb/IV openers, any of MoP with AT openers, WoD Ignite compression/PC, they were at least interesting.