I was a fire mage since day 1. Spec'd frost for the first rag kill, but then switched back to fire.
I am now a frost mage, and got damn I rock the charts hard. On patchwerk I didnt flask, and still came in 4th with 6%. 2/0/49. Got beaten by a hunter (6.9%) and 2 warlocks. Warlocks/hunters are now main DPS if they arent retards.
Water Elemental is hitting harder than it did on beta, and Im def hoping that they keep it the way it is, but after all the nerfs the mage class has gotten, its really just a matter of time.
But my god Im having some fun atm, and pvp is funny as hell as I sit in thier GY Iceblocked while my WE whittles away thier health, and my friends arrive.
It looks good for PVE. With Mage Armor (standard buff I use during raids) I'll have 45% of my mana regen working while casting.
My only gripe is that I feel a bit lacking in the +damage department. Right now I have +240 frost damage, but only +148 overall spell damage (after swapping some +frost for +damage). I'll get that up to +250 spell damage once I have my Spellblade with Spell Power on it, though.
That's before the boost from the talents. Doing some math: I have 272 self-buffed Int. +15% from Arcane Mind = 312. Mind Mastery gives me 25% of my int in extra spell damage = +78. That adds up to +328 spell damage.
...OK, not too shabby anyway.
I don't know how the spell damage calculation works for Arcane Missiles, but I get +475 spell damage before calculation from talents to Arcane Missiles.
Being a terribly undergeared, newly 60 mage and pvping all day sure is frustrating. Yuck.
The Blue PvP set with enchants will change that around quite a bit. And dependent on your playtime, you can get the whole blue set really quickly.
Of course getting the blue set means that you will still be undergeared compared to most everyone . . .
And on a completely unrelated topic, I dropped Fire for Frost last night. Meh, I cast alot of Frostbolt. The Elemental is nifty. I have my lovely iceblock back again. I didn't die as often in PvP.
But . . . I miss seeing my opponents stand ablaze, momentarily stunned, as their ignited flesh crumples.
Oscreth on
Old man, family, works too hard, locked into a routine, but still plays with army men and video games.
If you want to play League of Legends, here is my refer a friend: So I get points
Hey guys, thought I would venture into the Mage topic to get your opinions on some stuff, any advice is appreciated:
Come expansion I'm rerolling Horde with the "Sexy Beasts". To date I have played a Rogue for about 2 years now, have a 60 Warrior I hardly play, and have never really played a casting class. (Got a priest to 30 and got bored). I've always been drawn to melee classes due to my love of swords, but I think it's time for a change.
I thought about rolling a Pally, and I asked about BE Pally's but the general consensus is that there will be a fuckton of them, so that's kind of out the window. I don't feel like bringing a Rogue from 0 > 60 all over again especially after all the time invested.
So after playing a pure damage-dishing sword wielding rogue for about 2 years now, do you think I would enjoy the Mage class? What are some of the strengths/weaknesses that draw people to and push people from this class?
I know there are three tree's for Mages to consider: Arcane, Fire, and Ice and am completely un-educated on which is good for what scenarios, and why I would like one over the other. So if any of you have any advice, I am seriously considering going Mage in BC and appreciate any tips.
One problem I could see you having with the mage class is that you really cannot let people get close to you- we are made of paper. Frost has more survivability than the other trees, but it is still not as hefty as most melee-types. It might take some getting used to.
One problem I have with casters vs. melee is that our base stats (int/sta/etc) have almost no bearing on our damage output (unless you spec for it, which means an arcane build.) So you give up on int and sta if you want good +damage. which then lowers your survivability..
But mages are fun, and neat for just dealing damage, along with some neat tricks with sheep. Raids can be tedious if there are curses involved, but otherwise I like them.
Right now, arcane builds and fire builds are fun for damage, with arcane being the more 3-minute mage type and frost does good damage with a bit more survivability.
MulysaSempronius on
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Mage is great. It's right up there with DPS-ability for a rogue, and we also have the best area effect capability, bar none. Add to that portals, conjured food and water, and polymorph. It's also pretty easy to gear up, just look for stuff with spell damage on it. I love playing mage, easily my favorite class.
Most people pick up Arcane+Fire or Frost still. Arcane has lots of talents that benefit all your spells, while Fire and Frost are mostly focused on themselves.
Frost is less damage and more freezing and surviving. Fire is all burning and damage, pretty much.
Mage is great. It's right up there with DPS-ability for a rogue, and we also have the best area effect capability, bar none. Add to that portals, conjured food and water, and polymorph. It's also pretty easy to gear up, just look for stuff with spell damage on it. I love playing mage, easily my favorite class.
Most people pick up Arcane+Fire or Frost still. Arcane has lots of talents that benefit all your spells, while Fire and Frost are mostly focused on themselves.
Frost is less damage and more freezing and surviving. Fire is all burning and damage, pretty much.
So from a levelling standpoint, you think frost is the way to go for survival purposes? I still remember seeing mages in WPL freezing like 8 mobs and then killing them from afar. Very cool stuff.
Being a terribly undergeared, newly 60 mage and pvping all day sure is frustrating. Yuck.
The Blue PvP set with enchants will change that around quite a bit. And dependent on your playtime, you can get the whole blue set really quickly.
Of course getting the blue set means that you will still be undergeared compared to most everyone . . .
And on a completely unrelated topic, I dropped Fire for Frost last night. Meh, I cast alot of Frostbolt. The Elemental is nifty. I have my lovely iceblock back again. I didn't die as often in PvP.
But . . . I miss seeing my opponents stand ablaze, momentarily stunned, as their ignited flesh crumples.
Yeah, I've gotten two pieces of blue PVP stuff today... considering going for High Warlord's chest and General's gloves now. I also need a weapon, thinking Whiteout Staff for something quick... 25 stam is pretty nice.
Mage is great. It's right up there with DPS-ability for a rogue, and we also have the best area effect capability, bar none. Add to that portals, conjured food and water, and polymorph. It's also pretty easy to gear up, just look for stuff with spell damage on it. I love playing mage, easily my favorite class.
Most people pick up Arcane+Fire or Frost still. Arcane has lots of talents that benefit all your spells, while Fire and Frost are mostly focused on themselves.
Frost is less damage and more freezing and surviving. Fire is all burning and damage, pretty much.
So from a levelling standpoint, you think frost is the way to go for survival purposes? I still remember seeing mages in WPL freezing like 8 mobs and then killing them from afar. Very cool stuff.
Levelling early levels used to be Arcane for Clearcasting, Evocation and Improved Arcane Explosion. Now . . . Fire for quick killing and more drinking time. Frost for slower killing, more control, and less drinking time (but not by much).
One thing you will hate is sitting down to drink so often. But hey, it's free refills all day.
You really can't pull off that WPL AE kiting type stuff until you get quite a few levels and talents. The earliest I did the whole AE thing was in Hillsbrad on all those alliance farmer types. Even then, it was using potions waaaay too often. It really starts becoming second nature (due to talents and spells) to AE when you can AE the Dabrie Farm area in Arathi.
Mage is fun. Big dmg, lots of control, but seriously fragile.
The portals make life so easy sometimes.
Oscreth on
Old man, family, works too hard, locked into a routine, but still plays with army men and video games.
If you want to play League of Legends, here is my refer a friend: So I get points
Mage is great. It's right up there with DPS-ability for a rogue, and we also have the best area effect capability, bar none. Add to that portals, conjured food and water, and polymorph. It's also pretty easy to gear up, just look for stuff with spell damage on it. I love playing mage, easily my favorite class.
Most people pick up Arcane+Fire or Frost still. Arcane has lots of talents that benefit all your spells, while Fire and Frost are mostly focused on themselves.
Frost is less damage and more freezing and surviving. Fire is all burning and damage, pretty much.
So from a levelling standpoint, you think frost is the way to go for survival purposes? I still remember seeing mages in WPL freezing like 8 mobs and then killing them from afar. Very cool stuff.
Levelling early levels used to be Arcane for Clearcasting, Evocation and Improved Arcane Explosion. Now . . . Fire for quick killing and more drinking time. Frost for slower killing, more control, and less drinking time (but not by much).
One thing you will hate is sitting down to drink so often. But hey, it's free refills all day.
You really can't pull off that WPL AE kiting type stuff until you get quite a few levels and talents. The earliest I did the whole AE thing was in Hillsbrad on all those alliance farmer types. Even then, it was using potions waaaay too often. It really starts becoming second nature (due to talents and spells) to AE when you can AE the Dabrie Farm area in Arathi.
Mage is fun. Big dmg, lots of control, but seriously fragile.
The portals make life so easy sometimes.
If your really good you can start AoE grinding at around 30 and do it all the way to 60. It takes a lot of skill though to make a fast way to level though as every time you die your xp/hour is pretty much screwed. Also AoE grinding pretty much requires a specific frost build, especially at lower levels. If you want to go single target dps and just quest your way to 60 then fire is the way to go. I'd stay away from arcane while leveling or at least until you can get the empowered arcane missles and mind mastery and even with those I'm not sure you'd get better DPS or DPM compared to fire.
I started aoe grinding at 24ish in Hillsbrad on the farmhands, and I wasn't frost. I would round up the mobs, frost nova, flamestrike them, then CoC and kite them around the flamestrike's post-burst dmg area.
Sometimes, I'm really glad I picked mage over warlock. Those times are when I create a portal at the AV gates before the game starts and say 'help summon' and watch as like 8 people leave the BG.
Other times, when two instant-cast DoTs kill me (and nothing else), I wish I was a warlock.
There was this mage in full PvP epics except for a few pieces from Naxx (which I assume he only had because they were better than the PvP stuff) outside Undercity going on about how great he was. Me, in my 59 levels and green/blue quest gear including the staff that Arcanist Doan drops in SM gear decided to duel him for the hell of it.
Run in, silence, dot up, blah blah, blah blah, silence breaks, he starts casting sheep, I just get the fear off in time, mind flay, blah blah, blah blah. I've got 20 percent mana left, he's got 20 percent health left, fear breaks, he starts casting sheep, I get one last mind blast in and cast SW:P the moment I switch into sheep, he's on 3 percent... starts casting fireballh, SW:P ticks, 1 percent....
He pots and preceeds to crit me for 3/4 of my health.
Water Elementals rip shadow priests a new one, cos if they are focusing on me I Iceblock and come out ready to CS, if they focus on it, well 2200+ frostbolt coming your way.
Still a uphill battle to kill a blue geared shadow priest with a naxx geared mage, CS hurt me (Im in australia) pretty bad.
PvE damage is damn good though, 4th on patchwerk with 6.2%, beaten by 2 locks and top was a hunter. Between the 4 of us we did about 20% of the damage.
Frost now WTFPWNS fire, both in raw damage to targets and survivability. Fire tree is all set up for crits, but with ignite in its current state, critting with fire isnt all that awesome anymore, whereas with frost, you know exactly what damage you are going to get, and with the elemental scaling, poping TOEP and it at the same time Im getting 1020 water bolt crits.
Arcane is awesome if you want to kill it NOW. You lose so much mana effiency but damn you can put out the damage quick. Still on a fight like patchwerk, its scorch until you clearcast for Arcane Missiles.
Frost just seems to be the strongest tree now, and fire in serious need of some love, I have suggestions but no-one cares to hear so....
Yeah no, fire still outdamages frost in PvE. Empowered fireballs in naxx are hitting so hard. You need gear to make it work, but at 620+spelldamage, it's nice.
Yeah no, fire still outdamages frost in PvE. Empowered fireballs in naxx are hitting so hard. You need gear to make it work, but at 620+spelldamage, it's nice.
Dunno who you're playing with. I have outdamaged multiple deep fire PVE mages with over 100 more spell damage than me. With Emp frostbolt, the crit is now reliably obscene enough to justify real PVE usage.
*edit*
Also, frost mages are like Voltron, the more you hook up, the better it gets.
I've played with equally geared frost mages, doing naxx. No one came close to matching me on damage, and they were equally-geared. If you run the math on it, frost still won't outdamage fire, in any scenario. It's good, yes; and the water elemental is nice. But frost doesn't / shouldn't outdamage fire, with equal gear, and equal PvE specs.
the only thing that's a real pain in the ass is, for me, lack of any points in arcane. My mana regen sucks dick. But it's not too bad, considering the damage i put out, i just have to beg for moar innervatez.
I've played with equally geared frost mages, doing naxx. No one came close to matching me on damage, and they were equally-geared. If you run the math on it, frost still won't outdamage fire, in any scenario. It's good, yes; and the water elemental is nice. But frost doesn't / shouldn't outdamage fire, with equal gear, and equal PvE specs.
the only thing that's a real pain in the ass is, for me, lack of any points in arcane. My mana regen sucks dick. But it's not too bad, considering the damage i put out, i just have to beg for moar innervatez.
Well, that's the disparity, you may do 50-70 more DPS but you eat mana twice as fast or harder...
Unstable Affliction is not instant cast. It also is a magic effect so it won't be dispellable by a mage. So even if they did get CoA and Corruption and UA on you the CoA would be removable without worrying about the UA.
Sorry, yeah, I do dispell CoA whenever I see it show up on myself, it was just a bit of exaggeration on my part. I guess 2.5 seconds worth of casting, one for corruption and one for unstable affliction or whatever it is. And until yesterday, I had 2500HP. I've got about 2800 or so now and when I get my epic PvP gloves, I'll be gaining around 43 stamina, so it won't be as bad.
Posts
53 frost mage.
I am now a frost mage, and got damn I rock the charts hard. On patchwerk I didnt flask, and still came in 4th with 6%. 2/0/49. Got beaten by a hunter (6.9%) and 2 warlocks. Warlocks/hunters are now main DPS if they arent retards.
Water Elemental is hitting harder than it did on beta, and Im def hoping that they keep it the way it is, but after all the nerfs the mage class has gotten, its really just a matter of time.
But my god Im having some fun atm, and pvp is funny as hell as I sit in thier GY Iceblocked while my WE whittles away thier health, and my friends arrive.
It gets 140% of your +Damage over the 5 second duration.
It looks good for PVE. With Mage Armor (standard buff I use during raids) I'll have 45% of my mana regen working while casting.
My only gripe is that I feel a bit lacking in the +damage department. Right now I have +240 frost damage, but only +148 overall spell damage (after swapping some +frost for +damage). I'll get that up to +250 spell damage once I have my Spellblade with Spell Power on it, though.
That's before the boost from the talents. Doing some math: I have 272 self-buffed Int. +15% from Arcane Mind = 312. Mind Mastery gives me 25% of my int in extra spell damage = +78. That adds up to +328 spell damage.
...OK, not too shabby anyway.
I don't know how the spell damage calculation works for Arcane Missiles, but I get +475 spell damage before calculation from talents to Arcane Missiles.
Hmm. OK, that gives me about 374 damage per tick from Arcane Missiles.
Signed, Hunter Mc.Hunt, Beast mastery spec.
Of course getting the blue set means that you will still be undergeared compared to most everyone . . .
And on a completely unrelated topic, I dropped Fire for Frost last night. Meh, I cast alot of Frostbolt. The Elemental is nifty. I have my lovely iceblock back again. I didn't die as often in PvP.
But . . . I miss seeing my opponents stand ablaze, momentarily stunned, as their ignited flesh crumples.
If you want to play League of Legends, here is my refer a friend: So I get points
Come expansion I'm rerolling Horde with the "Sexy Beasts". To date I have played a Rogue for about 2 years now, have a 60 Warrior I hardly play, and have never really played a casting class. (Got a priest to 30 and got bored). I've always been drawn to melee classes due to my love of swords, but I think it's time for a change.
I thought about rolling a Pally, and I asked about BE Pally's but the general consensus is that there will be a fuckton of them, so that's kind of out the window. I don't feel like bringing a Rogue from 0 > 60 all over again especially after all the time invested.
So after playing a pure damage-dishing sword wielding rogue for about 2 years now, do you think I would enjoy the Mage class? What are some of the strengths/weaknesses that draw people to and push people from this class?
I know there are three tree's for Mages to consider: Arcane, Fire, and Ice and am completely un-educated on which is good for what scenarios, and why I would like one over the other. So if any of you have any advice, I am seriously considering going Mage in BC and appreciate any tips.
One problem I have with casters vs. melee is that our base stats (int/sta/etc) have almost no bearing on our damage output (unless you spec for it, which means an arcane build.) So you give up on int and sta if you want good +damage. which then lowers your survivability..
But mages are fun, and neat for just dealing damage, along with some neat tricks with sheep. Raids can be tedious if there are curses involved, but otherwise I like them.
Right now, arcane builds and fire builds are fun for damage, with arcane being the more 3-minute mage type and frost does good damage with a bit more survivability.
Most people pick up Arcane+Fire or Frost still. Arcane has lots of talents that benefit all your spells, while Fire and Frost are mostly focused on themselves.
Frost is less damage and more freezing and surviving. Fire is all burning and damage, pretty much.
So from a levelling standpoint, you think frost is the way to go for survival purposes? I still remember seeing mages in WPL freezing like 8 mobs and then killing them from afar. Very cool stuff.
One thing you will hate is sitting down to drink so often. But hey, it's free refills all day.
You really can't pull off that WPL AE kiting type stuff until you get quite a few levels and talents. The earliest I did the whole AE thing was in Hillsbrad on all those alliance farmer types. Even then, it was using potions waaaay too often. It really starts becoming second nature (due to talents and spells) to AE when you can AE the Dabrie Farm area in Arathi.
Mage is fun. Big dmg, lots of control, but seriously fragile.
The portals make life so easy sometimes.
If you want to play League of Legends, here is my refer a friend: So I get points
If your really good you can start AoE grinding at around 30 and do it all the way to 60. It takes a lot of skill though to make a fast way to level though as every time you die your xp/hour is pretty much screwed. Also AoE grinding pretty much requires a specific frost build, especially at lower levels. If you want to go single target dps and just quest your way to 60 then fire is the way to go. I'd stay away from arcane while leveling or at least until you can get the empowered arcane missles and mind mastery and even with those I'm not sure you'd get better DPS or DPM compared to fire.
They're moody. You have to feed it gnomes every now and again, or they refuse to comply.
Seriously though, yeah. Every now and again mine's been non-responsive, usually at an inopportune time. Hopefully Blizz gets on this.
Nice, slap 30 damage on that and nuke the first rogue you see.
Grats man, I'm looking to pick one up myself.
Though the staff looks so cool, its not worth the effort.
Other times, when two instant-cast DoTs kill me (and nothing else), I wish I was a warlock.
350-400 tick shadow word pains ftl.
Run in, silence, dot up, blah blah, blah blah, silence breaks, he starts casting sheep, I just get the fear off in time, mind flay, blah blah, blah blah. I've got 20 percent mana left, he's got 20 percent health left, fear breaks, he starts casting sheep, I get one last mind blast in and cast SW:P the moment I switch into sheep, he's on 3 percent... starts casting fireballh, SW:P ticks, 1 percent....
He pots and preceeds to crit me for 3/4 of my health.
Silly mage.
Water Elementals rip shadow priests a new one, cos if they are focusing on me I Iceblock and come out ready to CS, if they focus on it, well 2200+ frostbolt coming your way.
Still a uphill battle to kill a blue geared shadow priest with a naxx geared mage, CS hurt me (Im in australia) pretty bad.
PvE damage is damn good though, 4th on patchwerk with 6.2%, beaten by 2 locks and top was a hunter. Between the 4 of us we did about 20% of the damage.
Frost now WTFPWNS fire, both in raw damage to targets and survivability. Fire tree is all set up for crits, but with ignite in its current state, critting with fire isnt all that awesome anymore, whereas with frost, you know exactly what damage you are going to get, and with the elemental scaling, poping TOEP and it at the same time Im getting 1020 water bolt crits.
Arcane is awesome if you want to kill it NOW. You lose so much mana effiency but damn you can put out the damage quick. Still on a fight like patchwerk, its scorch until you clearcast for Arcane Missiles.
Frost just seems to be the strongest tree now, and fire in serious need of some love, I have suggestions but no-one cares to hear so....
Dunno who you're playing with. I have outdamaged multiple deep fire PVE mages with over 100 more spell damage than me. With Emp frostbolt, the crit is now reliably obscene enough to justify real PVE usage.
*edit*
Also, frost mages are like Voltron, the more you hook up, the better it gets.
the only thing that's a real pain in the ass is, for me, lack of any points in arcane. My mana regen sucks dick. But it's not too bad, considering the damage i put out, i just have to beg for moar innervatez.
Er... Remove Curse?
Or do you really have so few HP that Corruption kills you?
Well, that's the disparity, you may do 50-70 more DPS but you eat mana twice as fast or harder...
the tortoise and the hare IMO