Caster QQ

[Nixphire]

So I've been a little biffed at casting while in BGs. I have to say, before at least WotLK came out, I really enjoyed pvp. Some times you win. Some times you loose. But it seems as a caster any more, any kind of melee, rogues and DKs in particular just destroy me. I've talked to a few people and did a little searching and it seems a lot of others agree. After doing some reading probably the best thread I've found that has encompassed the whole of the issues is the following.

Caster PvP in wolk

Mage viability against other casters has seen major improvement. This however does not hold true against melee classes.
In this thread I am in no way "QQing". I am merely pointing out things I have found. If in future patches we see no changes, so be it.

Damage has increased tremendously in the recent expansion. Every class has had major improvements in damage dealing be it through talents or trained spells. Classes with low health pools will always get the short end of the stick, as in ages past. Mages have always been at the bottom of this hierarchy.

It seems with the expansion also came a lot of anti caster spells designated for each class. Many classes have been given abilities that absorb, reflect, negate, dispel, reduce or even become immune to magic or certain forms of magic. Be it cloak of shadows, paladin/priest bubbles, enrage spells that shields snare vulnerability to the plethora of anti caster spells that have been given to the death knight, much of these abilities have a much higher effect against mages than any other caster class.

For casters range is the best weapon. Melee and non casting ranged classes have much at their disposal to reduce the gap that is needed to effectively make a cast.
Kiting is what mages do. However today it is no longer easy as it once were for mages to "work their mojo". Many classes today have movement impairing effects in their arsenal so even if blink is used, you can expect that gap to shrink in an eyes blink.

If you were to be attacked first in a PvP melee encounter, as a cloth wearer much of your hit points would have been trimmed off in the initial assault from those explosions of damage we see today. Up to 50% if not more, of our health bar will drop. We will then spend a lot of resources available to us to stay alive whilst trying to flee.
If we counter attack, at such a close range we are limited to mana heavy instants that deal rather weak damage in comparison to the opponents health pool.

For mages to effectively deal damage, it requires a 2.5 to 3.0 second cast. In that time the opponent could have closed the gap and with the interruption, pushback and silence spells they hold, if ever they were to get close enough, it will render your cast time wasted. And with the range given to those cast killing abilities, they will get close, you can count on it.

Arcane barrage was a spell designed to overcome the Line of Sight issues that were experienced by the mage in TBC. It inadvertently freed the mage from dangerous exposure to damage whilst casting and I feel that is why it was such a popular spell.
However in the upcoming patch we will be pushed back into the realm of casting.
Arcane will lose its attractiveness as it will differentiate little with respect to arcane-frost.
In some patches the mage class were given very effective spells. However at many later dates they were withdrawn or changed to produce lesser functions. Does this not suggest that it isn't the damage or the utility of the spell that is causing the problem for casters? Putting together a collage of spells with similar faults doesn't change a flawed battle system.

The mage class is now very much a character who is always on the run and pecks away at the opponent's health. If they are ever caught, it will spell doom.

I have PvP'ed with a lvl 80 rogue, warlock, druid, hunter and paladin. In my opinion, the threshold for success is much higher for the mage in comparison to the classes given.
The reason for this may be that the caster PvP system is fundamentally flawed. It is at a heavy disadvantage against the melee PvP system. Anything that requires a substantial cast time is very much a disadvantage. For, as all good PvPer's will tell you, time is everything. Make the right decision in the least amount of time and it will decide your victory. The average reaction time of a sober player will be around 0.25 -0.3 seconds. A 2 or 3 second cast gives the opponent a huge window to react. Each block of time adds up and if you review yourself in a battle lost, you will see it will be because you were not able to get casts off due to interrupts, pushbacks or line of sight issues.
Casters can only do one thing at a time, they either deal substantial damage, or they take substantial damage. Where as a melee class need not worry about such things they can do both simultaneously but against casters they will take less damage whilst dealing no less. This was why we didn't see many caster dps in the top arena charts in TBC and it's the same reason why we wont see many in wotlk.
Glass canon concepts are very much flawed now that damage has increased considerably less than health. Our ability to take damage remains but our ability to deal it has dwindled and ever more hurdles are being put in the way

Some of you will say that mages are fine. And they are. But what I'm primarily addressing isn't that of the mage viability in PvP. I am pointing out that any caster that requires long cast times is at a major disadvantage to the melee PvP system hence my claims that it is flawed. I am merely projecting my view on this matter in the perspective of a mage.

There will no doubt be players saying that if you were skilled enough you can turn the situation around. True as that may be, it is irrelevant.
If you were to look back at classic wow and TBC and compare it to what it is today, casters in general ( but mages in particular ) have had an ever increasingly steep slope to climb. For instance, mages will find it much harder kiting a player today than if they were doing it in classic wow or even TBC whilst melee classes are beginning to gain forms of abilities to counter casters and close distance between the opponents.

Another one that comes up often is that PvP is not based around 1v1 situations. And you are very right.
However I feel there shouldn't be any tremendous gaps between classes so that one can obliterate the other unconditionally. We have seen this in the past with mages vs warriors, rogues vs warlocks, warlocks vs mages. And today we still see such things.
I appreciate the fact that the developers have to weigh impacts of implementations for both PvE and PvP. Hard as It will be based on the existing battle system, PvP would be a lot more enjoyable if gaps (chasms rather) were shrunk.

Thanks for reading