I’ve been maining mage for years but switched to druid some three years ago. It still baffles me how the druid is way more powerful than a mage in the sense of utility/versatility. I’m not speaking about damage output or some micro balancing issues. Playing mage in group content can be fun.
It’s just that druids can do it all: cast spells to burst and to DoT or to heal. Resurrect allies, even in combat. Sneak around for questing or skips in M+. Or take high amounts of physical damage and taunt enemies.
I was hoping for a raven form in Legion as mage class mount (Medivh, Khadgar), but we got a flying gully cover. Recently, druids got the raven form too.
Mage has some nice spells like Blink, Teleportation/Portals, or Spellsteal. But what is comes down to is slinging same colored spells around all day which plenty of other classes can do too. You can prevent damage, but as a master of magic your sure cannot use a little healing spell because… I don’t know.
Think you’re comparing apples to oranges here. One is a hybrid class while the other is a more specialized one. Mages do, in fact, bring a lot of very useful utility that druids don’t have: arcane intellect (which is UNIQUE to mages, druids don’t have anything unique), time warp, mage food (might seem miniscule until you play a mage and everyone asks for it), immunity (something that druids again don’t have), dispell.
Your other examples: kinda whatever. The healing is not that big of a deal. In what content are you going to be using that anyway? Doing world quests? Who cares! Although I will admit that sometimes off-healing can be useful in group content but typically it is a very last resort.
“Sneaking around” again, in which context is this useful? M+? Sure, but mages have invisibility, which is actually an even better version of stealth. And if your group requires more stealthing than that, then it has to be a complete stealth comp or have a rogue in which case, pointless again. World quests? Well, thank you, but my invisibility is plenty enough for resetting mobs, or even occasionally sneaking past them. And well, druids don’t actually even have a reset tool like that unless they play a night elf (which is race specific then).
In summary, while druids have a lot of “utility” a lot of it is unimportant for the majority of content. On the other hand, mages are a mandatory class to bring to a raid. Druids are not, since there is nothing they can do that others can’t. Their two biggest pieces of utility are roar and cr. And let’s not even get started on the mage mobility which is superior to druids in an encounter context.
I’m not saying that mages don’t bring anything to the table. It’s just that they feel like a stunted version of a mage/wizard trope.
Invisibility is on a 5 minute timer and it’s only for 20 seconds and unless your Arcane you better hope nothing happens in those long three seconds. Prowling around in (R)BGs or simply ignore annoying mobs before flight patch for faster currency farming or to get a mount in Plaguefall. Prowl feels far superior to those measly 20 seconds every 5 minutes.
Immunity is cool and I’m glad they have that. But off-healing, especially with Swiftmend, can turn the tides in a fight (PvP- or PvE-wise). And in many movement situations it costs you very little unless you want to tweak that damage with spamming Sunfire/Moonfire.
Druid’s Remove Corruption not only removes curses but poisons too (and magic if Restoration). Spellsteal is one of my favorite abilities ingame but it sucks as Arcane (21% base mana) and uses are mostly reduced to M+. Soothe is only a GCD and even as Restoration you can spare those 5.6% base mana. (But of course you don’t steal the effect.)
I wouldn’t say that the druid’s utility is unimportant for the majority of the content. Unless you’re in a PvE dungeon/raid setting its utility is quite important. Of course, dungeons and raids are the bread and butter of the game so I can understand why many don’t feel the lack of versatility (or even want it).
My class fantasy of the mage is it being the spellcaster. WoW being an MMO you can’t of course let everybody play an DnD uber mage. Yet I see what Khadgar and Jaina or Kael’thas can do and playing a mage feels just like another spell slinger to me.
Druid are op with utilty, its well known. No class can live with druid group utility… but immunity, arcane intellect, invis dropping combat, blink (severely underated spell), mirror images threat, shields all things mages can do that druids cant.
Versatility is part of druid’s class fantasy, but it is not one of mages. Arcane magic (which is lorewise all mages use, the fire and ice are both created using arcane) has not been made for healing. Tossing spells at your foes is what being a mage is all about. If it’s not a fantasy that appeals to you? I feel like mage might simply not be the class for you.
Versatility (based on magic) is IMHO very much the core of a mage class fantasy. And I’m not talking about D&D mages or mages from other CRPGs but the mages in the WarCraft lore.
I’m not advocating that mages should get tank or melee specs or capabilities (or healing spells like the ones priests or druids have for that matter). Mages are mainly glass cannons with regard to combat.
But Mages in WoW feel much more like elementalists than “true” wizards (and even more so with progressing expansions). Tossing spells at your foes is what shadow priests, discipline priests, all three warlock specs, balance druids, and elemental shamans do too. They only look somewhat differently themed – if you can spot the difference in a raid or AoE situation.
I dont get your point… if you want to heal as a caster play balance druid.
Mage is a mage druid is a druid. As said before you’re comparing apples to oranges. Theres nothing wrong about mages. If you dont like it anymore, that’s that.
I played holy paladin for years as first char. I havent touched it for many years and its changed and so did I. Move on, doing get yourself stuck
Learn this game. Mages in warcraft have nothing to do with your trope. It’s about being deluisionists; they explictly took arcane magic and manipulated it; in effect: we’re kinda evil in part.
Umm, what? Just because the Legion gravitates to arcane magic doesn’t make it bad. I would think that’s fel or death magic – if any magic at all is inherently bad.
But that’s besides the point IMHO as it has nothing to do with player/class power.
Maybe you’re right, but I kind of like (love?) mages. It’s just after playing a while they feel so terribly boring. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
For me, who hates playing alts, I guess that’s a problem. As druid you can switch specs if you want to dabble in a different role without all the fuss of playing through the story (which I like doing once) and grinds.
Maybe it’s all about alt-friendliness or class first vs. character first.
I understand. I personally agree. I liked mages back In vanilla and tbc but I find them pretty stale to play atm.
If you like druid, its nice they have all and currently they’re pretty good at a lot too. Druid is like a swiss knife.
You age, the game age. Just play what ever you like is what I always say. If you want something new, play something you’ve never before. I personally like that a lot. To main something you’ve never played before. Feels like a breath of fresh air
Wat you. The very first lines of the wiki on the lore is for years “Arcane magic is a volatile and inebriating drug, pure power distilled and channeled through the body to create arcane effects. Many races wield arcane power carelessly, disregarding the lessons of the past.”
Get over your non-Warcraft meme of mages being generic wizards; they specifically use arcane magic which is at least potentially questionable; we are definitely not “good magic” (in affect mages can be the most evil class depended on the person).
Balance druids use plenty of Arcane magic too. Doesn’t seem to hurt them. But this discussion of Arcane magic being good/bad is wholly besides the point.
This discussion is about the versatility of mages. And Arcane magic seems pretty versatile in WoW lore as it allows to Blink, Teleportation, Polymorphing, Food Conjuration, Invisibility, Spellstealing and Decursing, various ice and fire spells and whatnot. Shifting the shape of others is of course totally viable with Arcane magic but not ones own for some reason.
While I kind of get where you are coming from you need to keep in mind that it is the utility of each class that determines their usefulness, and if that utility is useful in current content.
Druid utility kit is extremely bloated, that is true, and I personally do not mind that. Other than Ursol’s vortex they do not really have any unique form of utility other, specialized specs cannot bring to the table (including combat Res, since everyone can have a Cres if you pick engineering as a profession.)
A mage’s utility primarily comes of its ability to handle mechanics extremely well due to our mobility and iceblock, on top of the class being relatively tanky as well (alter time lets you circumvent so many damage patterns and mechanics it is insane, basically anything that doesn’t oneshot you you can outright ignore.)
As one who mainly raids and does M+ I feel mages, atleast fire, have a good level of versatility. I do miss being able to shift over to tanking or healing role from my paladin though.
Memes. There is an objective and systemic reason this happens. When they develop priest: the probability they suck at healing on all specs is low; when they develop rogue: the probability it sucks on all melee specs is extremely low; that’s why it’s suspicious that balance druid is unlike most other mixed classes specs.
