Returning from (another) break; considering mage but hesitating

[coffebreak]

So, for IRL-reasons I’ve been on-off with wow for a while now, spending around 5-6 months per expac since like wotlk.

Now I am back from a break since just after bfa released but life is more stable and I will be able to play more consistently.

Anyways, I hoped on to a couple of old chars trying to figure out what I wanted, my mage is created on vanilla-launch and I always favour him. But when I ran in to do some random content (questing, WQ’s etc) it felt like I expected, throwing a spell or two, perhaps kite or do some disorient/cc manouver etc, nothing special.
After around 2-3 hours I notice melee classes seem to just faceroll massively compared to me, and I had to quit for the evening anyways.
Given DK, warrior and DH a test afterwards and jesus christ, either the mage requires a completely different skill-set or there is a real unbalance in play here, as most classes now it feels you just faceroll and hulk-smash everything without effort while mage really really has to work for it.

I am not saying I want it easy, I dont mind if there is a say more difficult rotation, higher skill-cap to maximize dps or such, but I also know myself and I will always feel like a village idiot if I spent 3 hours to achieve ”10 tasks” and then the ”other guy” does the same 10 tasks in 45m and then runs 2 dungeons as well in the samt time. It drives me mad to be inefficient ”by choice” even if that is not really what it is all about.

Am I completely off here? Only been back for a week or so but damn I was looking forward to some epic adventures with the mage and now it feels a bit.. ”meh”.

[ZazuuPriest]

Ill never understand why people treat these forums as their own personal blog

[coffebreak]

Ill never understand why people treat these forums as their own personal blog

Guess because a forum is a good place to discuss topics?

It’s not just about dps-log optimization

[Sageless]

For outdoor content mages are kinda in the same boat as a lot of other casters.
This is because mage damage is either proc based (FoF/Brainfreeze - Frost), dot based (ignite - Fire) or ramped (arcane charges, Arcane).

As a result you can't frontload your damage like a lot of melee classes can.
Combined with having to facetank mobs (with spell pushback) outdoor/solo content sucks compared to melee classes.

The reason to play mage is that you enjoy a ranged playstyle in group settings. If you will be mostly doing outdoor world content or solo instanced content than melee is way better suited for you. One benefit in regards to inefficiency is that most of your time in outdoor content is travel time or finding the required mobs/items, so how efficient you can kill them only has a minor impact.

[gallamann]

World of Melee Craft is what they should rename WoW

Personally play Frost mage and you just learn how to kite. Right now you are probably at lower gear levels and attempting Uldum/Vale where the mobs are scaled for people above ~460 iLevel (rough guess). This means they don't die as fast and you are forced to kite or die. Mob density can be an issue so you also need to plan your kill area before pulling.

Any caster is punished by movement, melee is only punished if they are totally forced off the mob which is very rare.

Since 8.2 and essences, this expansion is very alt unfriendly in terms of having multiple toons at the high end as each toon has to do same grind for essences. So choose well.

Mage is also the squishiest class in the game and has no self heal baseline. You can make food, so you can eat once out of combat. You can get cauterizing blink on azerite armor, blink then gives you a small heal. Don't think there is any other class in wow that doesn't have a heal baseline. Forgot to mention, all specs have a shield.

Also if playing Alliance, you can play as a Void Elf and one of their racials Preternatural Calm which prevent spells from being delayed when you are hit. You mage shield does the same thing while active.

[clevin]

Agreed about the advantages for melee, but also remember the melee you're running into outdoors are almost certainly better geared than you. Hell, I've not played my rogue for months and he's 418. If you bailed a few months into BfA you're likely around 350 or so.

[Specialka]

Fire Mage is far from being the squishiest and Mage in general as well (Mage Armor, Azerite defensive traits a.k.a cauterazing blink + shimmer, nova, temporal shield if you are a man and playing with wm on, etc...).

The squishiest would be Shaman imo.

The casters have the highest skill ceiling, especially in a mm+ or raid settings. So outdoor content is far easier for melees, and mostly for DHs who can faceroll everything, even vision. One of my guild just did all the areas of Orgrimmar's vision alone.

[callipygoustp]

You're definitely not "completely off here". I have one of each class at 120 atm, all of which are at 435 or higher ilvl. My main is a resto druid and the rest I just mess around with. However, I have too have noticed, and there are various posts on the official forums and other fan sites, that comment on the ease and power of melee dps. My DH is ridiculous. He just tears things up. The DH is followed closely by my rogue which is then followed by my paladin dk and warrior. Melee dps is pretty powerful and, imo, ridiculously easy.

Regardless though, I still enjoy, greatly enjoy, playing my aff lock, frost mage, shadow priest, and ele shaman. They just require a bit more attention in the open world, both pve and pvp.

[Yhcti]

Melee are more faceroll in open world but get extremely boring quick. Nothing looks like it beats the satisfaction of absolutely obliterating a rare/elite on a fire mage.. that single target burst is just incredible...

[facefist]

World of Melee Craft is what they should rename WoW

Unless you raid, then its World of Ranged Craft.

I think the problem with mage and solo content is that out of all classes, it's the only class that is consistently in the top 3 DPS classes in raid environment (and often it's #1). If you want to pick a class that is more often a top-tier dps than bottom-tier dps, then mage is the safest choice based on the history. Even now it is the best DPS class in raids and arguably overpowered, and there are several tiers where mages were simply broken. I've been playing mage for a long long time in a semi-hc guild (top 50), and I cannot recall many tiers where mage was bad.

This punishes solo players because they cannot buff mage even though it is very unoptimal for solo play, because otherwise it would be just.. more op in raid content. They would have to change the way mage works (reduce the ramp-up time) if they want to buff it for solo content. This would change the core of the class though so I'm not sure if people would like that or not.

[Celestraza]

Strange. I recall warlocks being undisputed number 1 on every tier (as ranged dps) for multiple expansions now.

Top 3 yes though. Mages are always quite competitive in raid environments.

[Soon-TM]

They would have to change the way mage works (reduce the ramp-up time) if they want to buff it for solo content.

Nah, it would just bring it back to what it was during early WoW (Vanilla to WotLK).

[Wheeler]

Unless you raid, then its World of Ranged Craft..

Many guilds have been recruiting ranged DPS since Uldir, and have been able to field a consistent ranged DPS corps. All while they've been (without a doubt) the best DPS in a raid environment for what, the entire expansion? Warlocks/Mages/SPriest/Hunter have dominated at least 1 if not every tier (Especially Warlock).

That's not because no one's figured out that Hunter/Mage/Lock are incredibly strong in PvE and PvP - it's because they're significantly harder to play optimally than almost every single Melee DPS is.