Mages: The Untapped Most Powerful Class in WoW? But Not So Much In Lore?

[Orby]

For gameplay reasons you can understand why mages have all the powers they do. But there is still so much about mages that have been missed out of forgotten in lore that seems to make them less powerful than they should be.

For starters we can assume mages are a grand term of a mix of classes that exist in warcraft lore, like sorcerer, sorceress', conjurers, wizards, hedge mages and of course mages. LEst we not forget all the 'mancer' classes, Aquamancers and tidesages.

But there are many abilities and spells you don't see in WoW either for gameplay reasons or because they clash with other classes.

In Warcraft 1 for instance mages could not only cast fireballs and Blizzard and water elementals, but they could also summon scorpions
In Warcraft 2 you pretty much see the WoW version of Mages we see today, with their abilities to cast, slow, polymorph, invisibility and fireball, but they also uses a basic lighting attack which is now commonly seen in shamans spell set in WoW. And then there's flame Shield a spell we haven't yet seen in WoW but kind of works like immolation aura.
In Warcraft 3 we had two mage type of units, the sorceress and the Archmage. The sorceress worked very similar to the Warcraft 2 mage unit, casting polymorph, slow and invisibility. The Archmage on the other hand also worked very similar to the mage class in Warcrat 2. Aside from two spells like Brilliance Aura and Mass Teleport (which could just be a portal spell)

Outside of games, in books we have had Rhonin a guy who could very well communicate with animals and also form a raptor army (see Night of the Dragon). A comment alot of people joked about at the time but there's no reason why that could not happen, after all in Warcraft: Orcs and Humans Conjurers even summoned scorpions to help fight beside them, so you could also say Mages have some druidic abilities too.

This leads well into Medivh speaking of druidic abilities who was able to turn into a crow/raven an ability shared by druids in some way.

Mages have such a wide skill set I can see why Blizzard neutered them,

I think there's no reason mages cannot summon fire elementals, summon, commune or turn into animals, use lighting spells, or cast lightening storms.

And we havent even got into the topic of Blood Mages, which is a while new different type of mage as well. In todays WoW we have flamestrike a blood mage ability from Warcraft 3. And while our artefact weapon Felo'melorn in Legion did bring in Blood Mage abilities and appearances (which was awesome by the way), even going as far as to hint at the Phoenix ability with Phoenix Flames it just adds more fuel to a class that seems like is way more powerful
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It seems mages are probably one of the most powerful classes in game, or at least should be, but it's mostly due to the fact that they are actually 10 classes in one.

I am not sure if there is a discussion here, but is this something you agree with, especially as this is certainly something we can argue about with other classes like Hunters, Shamans, and especially Druids who seen to share every druid school in game.

[iamthedevil]

Mages ruin the economy. Kill all mages.

[zlygork]

Keep in mind that while all you said is true, lorewise a mage specializes in a specific area of study. So yes, you could have a thunder mage technically, which gameplay wise would translate into a shaman, just like sunwalkers are "paladins" instead of druids. However, no normal mage would be a Thunder, Fire, Water, Earth, Summon, teleportation, etc. specialist at the same time.

[iamthedevil]

Keep in mind that while all you said is true, lorewise a mage specializes in a specific area of study. So yes, you could have a thunder mage technically, which gameplay wise would translate into a shaman, just like sunwalkers are "paladins" instead of druids. However, no normal mage would be a Thunder, Fire, Water, Earth, Summon, teleportation, etc. specialist at the same time.

They can all make their own food and transport people. Their goes the food and transportation industry.

[Syegfryed]

every other class is also "nerfed"in the game, not just mages, they just have a better set of "useful" tricks, like outside battle things

[Zandalariprelate]

Mages needs a lot of power source to get shit done, that is why they can do great things but at great cost of mana/stamina, that is why we only see few mages doing something powerful because of plot.

[zlygork]

They can all make their own food and transport people. Their goes the food and transportation industry.

Heh, gameplay spells are a mess if you stop and think about it. Every druid is also able of taking onto so many different animals, too.

[iamthedevil]

Heh, gameplay spells are a mess if you stop and think about it. Every druid is also able of taking onto so many different animals, too.

Druids are the best prostitutes. They focus on many different markets. Hunters love them.

[derpkitteh]

the elemental abilities a mage uses are NOT true elemental magic. they're arcane simulacra of those things. the water elemental isn't an actual elemental, frost and fire are arcane shaped into those things, etc.

we see the ultimate capabilities of arcane power through aman'thul and the titans though, that is the limit of mages. there is no limit. arcane power is infinite, you just have to have the mana capable of sustaining your power use.

similarly, there's no limit for fel either, and it's more powerful in smaller doses than arcane magic.

[rogoth]

the elemental abilities a mage uses are NOT true elemental magic. they're arcane simulacra of those things. the water elemental isn't an actual elemental, frost and fire are arcane shaped into those things, etc.

we see the ultimate capabilities of arcane power through aman'thul and the titans though, that is the limit of mages. there is no limit. arcane power is infinite, you just have to have the mana capable of sustaining your power use.

similarly, there's no limit for fel either, and it's more powerful in smaller doses than arcane magic.

both right and wrong, the biggest issue is that while frost or ice mages cool down the arcane energy around them and fire mages heat it up, the elementals summoned are true elementals, the same as a mana wyrm is an elemental made of pure mana, it's just a different kind of elemental to the traditional one born in the elemental planes.

in regards to the manipulation of the arcane, blizz took out 'alter time' because players used it as a dps cooldown when blizz made it exclusively as a defensive ability, so because of that they took it away using some weak asinine reasoning to do so.

furthermore with the extreme focus on class fantasy in legion i was very surprised not to get blue fire for fire mages similar to how warlocks got fel flame back in MoP, it's long overdue and honestly would make the class and spec feel more like lore than just another in game device.

[Maljinwo]

Druids are the best prostitutes. They focus on many different markets. Hunters love them.

Worgen Druids are the expensier variant

[matrix123mko]

every other class is also "nerfed"in the game, not just mages, they just have a better set of "useful" tricks, like outside battle things

Warriors, hunters and presumably rogues are buffed.

[Syegfryed]

Warriors, hunters and presumably rogues are buffed.

not rly, a warrior alone, could one shot the most powerful pit lord, 2 times, many killed a dragon like it was kidding, one killed a giant demon machine and the other make a mountain of dead demons before hurting sargears itself

They are just inconsistent in showing their powers because warrior powers are not rly visually like mages and warlocks

[laplacedemon]

It seems mages are probably one of the most powerful classes in game, or at least should be, but it's mostly due to the fact that they are actually 10 classes in one.

And that's the thing. It doesn't matter if a mage could do what other "classes" could do outside WoW, they have to stay in their own lines of "class identity" in WoW. They can't summon a fire elemental because that's what shamans do, in the same way a demonology warlock can't turn into a demon because that's what demon hunters do. Only "special characters" can break through those boundaries, like Khadgar turning into a raven.

[etheldald]

mages and warlocks have more destructive power overall, but they SHOULD be glass cannons, low defense apart from some ice/arcane/fire barriers. or summoned creatures that help them to keep the distance.

in lore, anyone could beat be anyone depending on the fight,strategy and combat skills. or how smart in combat you are.

hell, maybe mages can die if they get hit in the head with a rock,but that would be anticlimatic.

[DemonHunter18]

nerf Resto druids, ASAP.

fuckers cannot die.

[Orby]

"Mages" lore-wise, not class-wise, have a lot to them that is pretty deep.

Archmages used to master at least five schools of magic before being declared an archmage. I believe this was retconned.

Did you know there's lore to how the portals work? It is against Kirin Tor law to leave a portal open without their consent, and has one of the harshest penalties.

Nature Mages were retconned, but there's still signs of them.

Arcane represents raw potential. It is literally how the Titans made stuff. In theory, it can literally do anything. Fel is a corrupted version of Arcane, according to a tome in the Dalaran Library.

Indeed, Rhonin and Medivh had traits of a nature mage. Hedge wizards are often associated with them too. And Hedge Wizards are commonly seen in the Defias in game, these are wizards who took their training away from the Kiron Tor. So as you said they do exist in some extent. Just that in WoW the lines of what a mage is seems very blurred.

The main thing I wanted to highlight about the topic was of all the classes mages seem to be the most powerful considering how much is combined into them in game. Druids are another class, where as in lore you have Druids of the Talon, Claw, Fang, Wild, the druid represented in game is all of them but at the same time only aspects of them.

[Allarius]

Keep in mind that while all you said is true, lorewise a mage specializes in a specific area of study. So yes, you could have a thunder mage technically, which gameplay wise would translate into a shaman, just like sunwalkers are "paladins" instead of druids. However, no normal mage would be a Thunder, Fire, Water, Earth, Summon, teleportation, etc. specialist at the same time.

Think of "mage" as a broad term like "scientist". If anything mages are the WoW equivalent of scientists. They're constantly researching and trying to push the boundaries of their respective fields.

You can have a "scientist" in MANY different fields, but they tend to specialize because of the amount of training/education involved. At that point people stop referring to them as "scientist" and go with the more specialized field. Chemist, Biologist, Physicist, etc.

[mickybrighteyes]

magic empowerment is always going to be powerful. Warlocks are treated like mages who run around with the safety off and push their limits even farther but really the only limits on any class are whatever the writers choose to showcase. Like portals or teleportation arrays seem to have limitless range and pop up at our every convenience but at times are non-functional for reasons seemingly just to prolong a story or have a carrying capacity of sorts.

[Dartz1979]

Mages ruin the economy. Kill all mages.

Hell no you leave my jaina alone she's a very sexy sexy waifu