Does solo content / open world as mage get better?

[SaneyBoo]

Been leveling my mage, its 115 now, and my lord I feel so damn soft. Even with kiting and lots of dragons breath and frost nova. Ive tried frost and fire spec.

I've been cuddled by playing classes with decent selfheals and survivability.

Im in big trouble if i pull 3 mobs, while on other classes i can just pull whatever is in reach.

So my question is does it get easier at 120 with lets say ~410 gear to do the new assaults or is always gonna be careful pulling and drinking often?

I have seen raid geared mages destroy things before the mob barely has time to turn around , but i can't get to that gear level.

[Miyagie]

Once you hit 120 you are in 2 weeks on item lvl 440+ without raids, pvp or dungeons.
You get 410 Tokens in the new Zones and 2 425 Items and 1 445 each week + Worldboss then you do LFR and then you get with luck the daily 4 World Quests give you 445 items.

[FreeHongKong]

You are a glass canon..

And wear cloth...

[Bildega]

yes it absolutely does. also be frost.

[Throwme]

So my question is does it get easier at 120 with lets say ~410 gear to do the new assaults or is always gonna be careful pulling and drinking often?

I have seen raid geared mages destroy things before the mob barely has time to turn around , but i can't get to that gear level.

There is, and always has been, a huge difference between being in the level process and being decked out in endgame gear. I don't see how that can come as a surprise to anyone.

Yes, once you hit 120 and go do the first few things to get better gear, it will absolutely destroy you, your soul and your patience. Yes, it gets easier as you gain the gear. No, it doesn't matter which spec or class you are playing, everyone has pretty much the same experience.

[Video Games]

I havent died in world content since heroic uldir besides trying to solo the 10+ mil hp rares or i pull like 30 mobs

[Biomega]

Gearing is VERY fast these days. You'll be 410 in literally days, if not hours (if you have Black Empire BoA tokens lying around). If you PvP, you can be 440 within the week (and it is STRONGLY recommended you PvP as Fire Mage, because the on-use primary stat trinket from PvP is better than anything you can get in raids or dungeons).

As soon as your gear picks up, Fire will have very little trouble in the open world. With Firestarter talented, you can do a one-two punch opener that will bring most trash mobs to <20% HP instantly, allowing you to quickly and efficiently clear stuff. A single Combustion cycle will often be enough to kill bigger elites, and with gear (especially the Mechagon wrists and an on-use trinket) you can even get rare elites down to very low HP in one cycle. AoE doesn't work quite as well since it takes time for Ignite to tick and things move out of Flame Strike when you're solo, but your clearing speed is usually efficient enough with priority damage for that not to be a huge deal. Yes you can't pull like a tank or a tanky melee like DH, but few classes can. That's just how World of Meleecraft works - your strength as a cloth caster is in raiding, small-group content is dominated by melee.

[oplawlz]

There is, and always has been, a huge difference between being in the level process and being decked out in endgame gear. I don't see how that can come as a surprise to anyone.

Yes, once you hit 120 and go do the first few things to get better gear, it will absolutely destroy you, your soul and your patience. Yes, it gets easier as you gain the gear. No, it doesn't matter which spec or class you are playing, everyone has pretty much the same experience.

This is completely untrue. Anyone with even a mild level of competence on a plate or pet class is going to roflstomp content compared to a mage or a rogue.

[FreeHongKong]

This is completely untrue. Anyone with even a mild level of competence on a plate or pet class is going to roflstomp content compared to a mage or a rogue.

https://www.wowprogress.com/simdps/

And that was a lie

[lollerlaban]

Biggest downside is if you use Heirlooms at 110-120. They scale awful compared to Azerite pieces without giving the benefits of the traits

[Marrilaife]

Mage is the worst class to solo, some people would say priest is worse, but imo mage is the worst. Yes, if you have top gear you can burst a mob before it even blinks, but I wouldn't pick mage for an alt that I play mostly to solo with and don't take it into endgame (if you plan to raid / m+ on it, then atm fire is really good).

If you played before one of the ez-mode solo classes (dh, hunter, dk, druid, pala, lock) you will definitely notice difference when swapping to mage.

[Shinrael]

Been leveling my mage, its 115 now, and my lord I feel so damn soft. Even with kiting and lots of dragons breath and frost nova. Ive tried frost and fire spec.

I've been cuddled by playing classes with decent selfheals and survivability.

Im in big trouble if i pull 3 mobs, while on other classes i can just pull whatever is in reach.

So my question is does it get easier at 120 with lets say ~410 gear to do the new assaults or is always gonna be careful pulling and drinking often?

I have seen raid geared mages destroy things before the mob barely has time to turn around , but i can't get to that gear level.

You are a glass canon..

And wear cloth...

Leveling as Frost felt really easy to me. Pop Frozen Orb, Blizzard and Frost Nova and mobs shatter away in seconds. You can 1-shot 2 mobs at a time mobs with Glacial Spike and Freeze/Ice Flurry procs. Fire is a bit weaker 110-120 as you don't have any spammable big hitters like Frost and Arcane. Arcane was fine too. While leveling you don't really have mana issues so you can go all out.

As to endgame - yes, it gets much better. I can pull a shit ton of mobs and AoE them down and I can 2-3 shot rare elites of current content (the 2m ones) critting for like 500k at times. You need to get used to kiting and to your rotation though.

[oplawlz]

https://www.wowprogress.com/simdps/

And that was a lie

What? We're talking about the ability to quest at low levels of gear.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Most of my alts that use heirlooms as they level, start to feel very squishy around the 115-mark. Especially if I only level them via Incursions, meaning they're not even getting gear to fill the slots not occupied by heirlooms. <.<

I can't solo 122 rares with my 422 mage (can only do with main hunter and my highest geared tanks) but she handles most other things in the world with ease.

[Ladey Gags]

Yes. Mages are very good for soloing things if you know what you’re doing. You have to have the right talents and traits and essences but with those you are unstoppable provided you don’t suck. But yeah it will never be as roflstomp facetankey as hunters/locks/dh/etc

[SaneyBoo]

Thanks guys, i'll give it a whirl.

I really do like the playstyle of the mage, especially Fire, but it scared me a little off being so fragile.

[BeepBoo]

For solo/open world content to get better as a mage it would have to be good at some point in the first place. It's not. Open world wow is bottom tier video games.

[HCLM]

Open word content does not matter. With average gear you can pull everything and nuke it.

Btw. Arcane is the best spec for open word.

[Amaterasu65]

At 120 with proper gear you are able to solo almost everything. Big rares like Ishak might be impossible for the time being though.

[Omedon]

I'm sorry but for those talking about "oh yeah I rock in the open world as a mage, it's easy" you've clearly never played a tank or pet class (warlock or hunter. Shaman doesn't count unless you wanna wait a couple minutes between... doing anything).

OP, I'm sorry, but yes WoW does bake in "difficulty levels" for classes in the open world or soloing, and mages are among the hardest. Yes, they're all doable depending on skill, but you will NEED that skill far more for some classes than others.

As someone who hates unnecessary difficulty, I lead every expansion with a tank or pet class. Their lives are just objectively, unquestionably easier for anything where you're on your own or in role agnostic groupings.

It gets better, soloing as a "harder solo class," but with the same effort, time and gear saturation, where the mage becomes "closer to sane," tanks and pet classes are running the open world over.

Anyone telling you that mage is ideal or effortless in the open world a) are taking their own skill for granted/humblebragging or b) have never applied their skills to an "overworld intended" class like a tank or pet class.




Edit, To be clear, as the above rant is pretty harsh and reflects what I feel about this disparity that I strongly dislike: It absolutely gets easier with gear and skill to solo as a mage, but don't let anyone fool you into some idea that you will catch up to tanks and pet classes. By their very nature, they will always be better at this sort of thing. That doesn't mean you can't stick to your guns in this regard and play the class you like!