Bear in mind i don’t raid with mage on top levels or anything but I do play one casually.
There are some problems imo…
Fire: While I do think Combustion is a cool ability, the spec revolves around it… it’s ALL about combustion phase, Pyroblast doesn’t even feel satisfying to press like it used to do.
Frost: Almost same but with Ice Lance, all I do is spamming ice lance when i play Frost Mage, while i do enjoy frost mage It’s a bit too much in the end. At least make ice lance look cool, how about the Frostfire ability? At least then it would feel satisfying to press, now it’s just a flying edited by moderation
Arcane: Haven’t played much of it, but theres a reason for it. It seems too complicated and there are way to many abilities to use. I know what ur saying that you might love it, and that’s fine! I personally find arcane overwhelming.
I also don’t like going melee in aoe as a range but that’s me.
All three are in dire need of bottom up reworks. The class tree itself is 3/4 full of useless bloat that you don’t even notice it if you skill some def traits vs others that are equally useless. It’s almost impossible to give feedback on it, as there is so much wrong that you don’t know where to start. But the devs seem to insist on the players doing their work for them and writing pages over pages about what the hell is wrong with that mess (instead of trying to play a boss/key on that class and find out).
Maybe its good on raids, but not on m+. Why should anyone invite arcane mage to high keys? When Fire and Frost better. Arcane can shine sometimes, but not always, then i ask again, why should i inv an arcane mage? When other speck can do better overall. I don’t need a dps who can do good damage on 2 out of 5 pulls. Simply arcane mage is a mame joke spec, sure its good on unchanged encounters, like raids, but some weekly affixes killing it on m+.
No i dont want full meta group. But i dont want to see an arcane mage on my keys who can preform well when he can stay in a place and cast, like he is testing on dummy. Obviously there are weeks when the affix does not make it impossible, but this is rare.
Because those who achieve 410+ gear are REALLY good. Arcane isn’t the bottom of the DPS barrel mate. Frost and Fire are easier, but not better. Those who learn to use their insanly hard rotation well and use their burns phases correctly do an insane amount of damage. INSANE. You don’t know what you are losing.
I’m mostly talking about fire when I say it really needs some work. The ridiculous requirements for your rotation to be perfect is antifun. People needing to use addons to play their class to the fullest is ridiculous.
The aoe spells being sadly undertuned and your base damage being so low you struggle to kill mobs without cd’s are another point not to mention you have a talent that increases crit chance during combust??
Dont make me laugh… Arcane mage is just useless, yes you are right in 1 point, arcane can do good damage on dummy fights, but not whiteout ignoring all the mechanincs. Arcane mages usually focus on their rotatin and they expect the team to solve everything else. Sure you can do well with arcane on low lvl keys where ignoring mechaincs does not cause wipe. I saw some high geared mages, they didn’t press ice block, rather they died, because they didn’t want to spoil the rotation.
PvP wise I wouldn’t say mage needs any spec rework.
All 3 specs got a lot in common gameplay wise but they differ enough to feel you play different spec.
As a class mage stands out as high mobility, high setup burst with a defensives evolving around mitigating damage. Gameplay is tough to learn, in current meta even frustrating but very rewarding and fun once you learn it.
However I agree that 10.1 set bonus for certain specs needs a rework.
mage is just getting worse and worse while other classes keep getting buffed. i mean who decided that mage is good enough while we can barely do half of the dps locks do
