State of the Mage Feb 2009

[Nixphire]

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14697593270&pageNo=1&sid=1#4

Hoping GC will be able to comment on the status of mages and where we go from here. There are many issues still of concern to mages with all three trees.

1- Arcane: In PvE, the spec is finally something we can look forward to playing with, thanks much, but since it's playable now, and generally on top, many raids are going to be without the Improved Scorch debuff as more mages spec Arcane for the better damage and different playstyle (will address later). Additionally, It seems it's once again getting to the point where spamming Arcane Blast as long as your mana will allow is the best way to play, and Missile Barrage and Arcane Barrage may even start being ignored altogether at times, and that's just boring. Is a possible solution making the mana cost of the third stack be increased, but the mana cost of the first and even second stacks lower? The penalty for multiple stacks doesn't seem to be there, and will only lessen as people's mana pools grow in higher content.

2- Arcane: In PvP, the class has good mobility when needed, and can also product good damage while standing still with Arcane Blasts. However, other classes complain about the big numbers capable of being put up. Arcane Barrage is a spell that was desparately needed so that pvp mages aren't perma-rooted to the ground, however has caused much QQ, whether unfounded or not. Is there any way to balance this burst, which is needed for the spec to succeed in PvE, with the need for fairness, or at least the perception of fairness, in PvP, while still not nuking the spec entirely? It's also worth noting that others have posted numbers saying most of the highest ranked mages are Frost, not Arcane, so much of the complaining isn't totally warranted, but to be fair, some of it is. Also, with the stupid damage that melee puts out in PvP right now, it feels too much like a "kill them before they kill you" scenario in every arena and every battleground, and the fun is being lost somewhere in the shuffle. is there actually a feasible solution to smoothing out damage without turning Arcane Mages into Warlocks (meaning zero burst, not that they're not good)? It's also important to note that as fights go longer, mages had major problems not being able to kill healers in the past, so anything that makes a fight longer is a nerf to mages in general.

3- Fire: Every raid has to have a fire or frostfire mage putting up the Improved Scorch debuff. Nobody wants to be the only fire based mage in a raid because of this. Has there been any thought of giving this debuff to Arcane as well, or in the alternative, to another class? If so, can you make it something that can be applied passively like Winter's Chill? It doesn't seem fair or fun to require that one mage in every raid be the "Scorch B--ch." If that happens, where does the Scorch spell and talent go from here? Also, the max damage spec requires we go Arcane for 18 points but then we can't get any spell hit talents at all, meaning we have to gear excessively for it and nerf our own damage. Has there been any thought to adding a fire spell hit talent deep in the fire tree (for all fire spells except frostfire bolt, maybe, to keep it fair)? What about changing Arcane Focus to provide 3% spell hit to all spells, an additional 3% to Arcane spells, and just remove the frost Precision talent entirely? As long as all mages have to spec into early arcane,early arcane should at least provide something useful for all mages. This penalizes Frostfire spec which will have to get more hit, but elemental builds should come with a penalty. and choose between the spell hit and the super large crits. If FFB's damage has to be buffed to make up for the nerf of spell hit in order to keep it balanced, that's an easy fix.

4- Frostfire: The playstyle and spec are exactly the same as the Icy Veins fire spec except for the 5 points in the first tier of the fire tree. Is there any hope to adding Frostfire Bolt to the "Empowered Frostbolt" talent much like you did for the Empowered Fire talent. This would hopefully open up a Frost-based Frostfire spec for raiding mages if it could be competitive with the other specs. Many mages want to raid as Frost, but the damage is just subpar right now. A frost-based Frostfire spec would be great for many, plus the Winter's Chill debuff is applied passively to help raids.

5- Frost: still not a very good raiding spec because the damage is low and spamming Frostbolt isn't fun. There hasn't been any progress on making shatter combos useful in raids (until the Arcane Missiles/Barrage thing last week, which was rightfully removed). You previously said that Frost DPS was compettive with the other specs back in Beta. Do you still feel that way? Are there any changes in store to help Frost in raiding? Frost can be a lot like rogues - buffing the PvE damage would buff PvP if not careful, so it's important that the right talents are tweaked the right way.


[blizzard]1) We like that Arcane is starting to feel like a viable alternative to FFB in PvE.
2) We think Arcane has too much burst potential in PvP. We want to fix it without undoing the progress we've made on #1, or sending all Arena mages to Frost.
3) We agree that the Scorch debuff is too much of a unique snowflake.
4) This is definitely a concern, but lower priority than these other issues.
5) Definitely a concern. We would love to get the "Shatter combo" vibe in PvE, but we haven't figured out a way to do it yet that doesn't involve buffing Cone of Cold, which would be bad for PvP reasons.

EDIT: Ice Lance, not CoC. [/blizzard]

[Arcdelad]

what the hell is a mage?

i think i saw one once named carysa....

[Nixphire]

what the hell is a mage?

i think i saw one once named carysa....

I'm pretty sure I saw a mage beat you in a dual the other day mister "I have almost 30k HP in cat form."