Mage vs. Balance?

PVP Battlegrounds
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Hi everyone!

I’m deciding between Mage vs Balance, and would love to know what the pros and cons are.

From what I can tell, Balance is more DoTs and healing, where as Mage is more “instant cast” and “damage prevention”… But it doesn’t make sense to me, that Balance has amazing damage comparable to a Mage, when it has so much other utility like healing, Cyclone (which doesn’t heal the enemy, so better than Polymorph), and perma stealth.

It seems VERY unbalanced…? :man_shrugging: Do people just pick Mage because it is safer since it has 3 DPS specs? Or because it feels more “satisfying” to deal damage with?

I don’t understand what makes Mage so popular in PvP, when on paper Balance looks better than Mage. Am I missing something here, or is Balance just the better spec/class when it is in the same place meta wise as Mage?

Thanks!

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If you’re talking about bgs, then yes, boomy is much better in every way.

In arena mage (fire) is better. Moonkin can work in a few comps, but overall mage is far superior.

The strengths of the specs shine in different areas. Mage has good st burst dmg + good cc and survivability. However their cc breaks from dmg, which is a big drawback in bgs. Due to the nature of the fights and the amount of ppl, having good st burst dmg on a “long” cd isnt that good compared to just having crazy dmg on everyone all the time, which moonkin has. Moonkin also has good cc, but unlike mages cc it doesnt break on dmg. The fact they can heal, run fast, give innervate etc also help a lot in bgs.

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well i would also add that balance is better in rbgs but playing balance in solo rng bgs cam be also frustrating. against more than 1 melee you can end up as a sitting duck and arent able to do anything.
mages with all instants and crazy burst can easy delete an important target and can survive and run quite easy.

if you stay 24/7 with your team, balance is better for rot dmg

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I havent played mage in bgs, so I cant say for sure. But it wouldnt surprise me if moonkins were doing better in 1vXmelee situations. The combination of thorns, disarm and selfhealing make you quite sturdy. Not to mention that you can also run and escape quite easily.

Ive been doing a lot of bgs over the years and have tried almost every spec at some point. In my experience moonkin is by far the least frustrating dps spec to play solo in random bgs.

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for me moonkins always felt like a push over that do no dmg if they are not protected by the team. 2 melees roll over a moonkin like no tomorrow. once you are in beqr you also do absolutely nothing anymore and just stall your death. 1v1 against melee is fine with roots etc. you also never play disarm i guess as well. star burst, aura and owlkin frenzy are usually too good to pass.

mages on the other hand are super annoying in bgs. 36637373747 shields and cannot be stunned basically, instant roots etc. super annoying

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i also played almost all and i guess it depends on your playstyle whether you stay with team, making solo plays etc.

for me fun in bgs goes like:
MM hunter
ret pala
any healer
ele shaman (only in epics)
Shadow priest can be hit or miss… really depends how many people like to train you into the ground lol. the short cds on def is quite nice though.

dh, warri, dk feels bad when you just die to dots. anything without ahields and heals seem not fun to me, besides hunter, but only because you can remove dots

i hate to play rogue and mage but even my ilvl 180 mage felt bette than most other stuff with better gear xD

all others didnt feel all thay good and had no survivabiliry or dmg to take stuff down by yourself.
probably changes in absolute max gear though.

i am enhance main but the dmg in bg is just terrible and the defensive while stunned is awful. generally a terrible experience :smiley:

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I usually play star burst, thorns and disarm in bgs. Along with guardian, mass root, and necro covenant. Tanking kicks with spells and then going bear to fleshcraft does wonders. The swarm is also 50% for moonkin, so it buffs your healing and dmg quite a lot and helps massively in 1vX situations.

Ofc, it differs from person to person. For me the criteria usually boils down to:

  • Is it easy to lock down? How susceptible are you to cc and interrupts? I hate myself everytime I try to do a bg as a shadow priest for instance
  • How much dmg do you have? Can you carry team fights?
  • How capable are you in 1v1 situations? Self-sufficiency?
  • Range vs melee? Do you have to expose yourself in order to do dmg? And if so, are you a likely target in the melee crowd? For instance people seem to hate to attack hero classes, as they’re very passively tanky and have a lot of selfhealing. While specs like arms simply melt away as they’re forced to overextend.

For me balance is the spec that fits best, as they’re very hard to lock down. You mostly spam instants, and if you end up getting locked on both schools, you can still go bear form and use regen, fleshcraft or swarm. You have insane overall dmg, and also decent st burst. Very easy access to potent cc. A simple root+beam on the enemy healer can quickly turn the tables. While far from the best, you’re reasonably good 1v1 and quite self-sufficient. You have long range (longer than most), which makes it easy to avoid dmg and to make yourself a difficult target. When people get to you, you still have great mobility and tools to keep them away, so even if you cant necessarily kill them, you can at least make them overextend or spend some time chasing you.

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Thank you so much for the replies. :slight_smile: Seeing two people discussing back and forward gives better perspective hehe.

The reason I’m giving Mage a shot atm, is because you keep hearing about Mage as being “the top caster class for PvP, just like Rogue is the top melee class for PvP”… Or is that just me? :sweat_smile:

…

So just to summarize what I have learned from your messages…

Mage play in a more “CC and burst” type of way, since their CCs break on dmg. And Boomie “CC and rot” and deal dmg more over time rather than instant.

And because of that, Mage is considered better in fast paced Arena since they have strong but long CDs, and in “team fights” like in BGs, Boomie is considered better at rotting a team while being behind their team. :slight_smile:

…

What I am picking up on here…

Is that it sounds like Boomies extra survivability is needed because they need to stay alive during the “rot period”, as their opponent slowly dies. Meaning that Boomies survivability is there to “fill a gap”, that would otherwise make Boomie TERRIBLE to play if it didn’t have that survivability…

And Mage on the other hand, relies on avoiding damage through shields and CC instead of healing. So instead of needing to “survive until their opponent is dead” like Boomie does, Mage constantly avoids damage and attacks in small bursts…

:point_up_2: Which confirms what you both have been saying about the strengths of Mage and Boomie in Arena vs BGs.

…

Looking back at my “Boomie vs Mage tests”…

Personally I have mostly experience as a Boomkin rather than Mage, and I haven’t had struggles in 1v1 or in team fights. As long as I can get my casts off, I have no issue feeling like Boomkin deals a lot of dmg in fights… But as soon as it comes to situations where more than 1 player is focusing me at the same time, Boomkin feels MUCH more of a “gotta CC and run” playstyle.

I have leveled a Mage that I have leveled mostly through BGs and Arena, and it was because of this Mage that I decided to create this post…

Whenever I went into a BG as Mage, it felt incredibly awkward in team fights… But I think that may have been because I’m so used to my Boomie dotting everyone, where as Mage is more ST oriented. However when going into Arena fights, it felt SO MUCH BETTER when I had fewer targets to worry about. Mage even feel so much stronger than Boomie if I went into a 1v2 situation, because I felt like I was in full control over my opponents. I think a HUGE + for Mage, is that there are much fewer spells to worry about, where as Druid literally require a 12 btn MMO mouse to play. :sweat_smile:

…

Conclusion.

What I’m gathering here, is that it is more of a playstyle question… I gotta ask myself what type of content I mostly wanna play, and whether or not I prefer rotting or dealing direct dmg to opponents. :slight_smile: I’ll definitely continue to try Mage a bit more, and see how I like the playstyle now that I have a bit more info from your replies. :slight_smile:

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well first off, you are comparing a spec to a class, like, if we say mage and druid, druid is 100% the better pick, if we say mage and BALANCE mage has more comps he can work with, but like someone said, for bg, specially as a whole class druid is the most picked clas in the game, as guardian works, resto is somehow picked, balance is much picked, feral might be the only one falling behind in rated bg, but works in arena too. triip knows if he is trip i know of x)

if you have never played either, id say druid is the better choice, even if you are set on balance, u might change in the future, if you play mage, changing between fire frost and arcane is not that much of a change, there ios only a few differences, fire has db to setup sheep and ring, and doesn’t suffer from interrupts as much, frost and arcane is just casting and fiooshing procs, only arcane suffers more from interrupts and clearcasting proc is super low, unless you play venthir just for the sake of forcing them with mirror of torments.

ive never played druid, but iove played mage since vanilla, and im somehow disattisfied with the state of mage and his concept rn, but that might just be me.

almost forgot, if you look for people playing these classes on twitch
for boomie i recommend

https://www.twitch.tv/snupy (Feral)
https://www.twitch.tv/rudarx (boomie)
https://www.twitch.tv/obliv_wow (fire)

if i remeber anyone maining frost and arcane ill let u know

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Just play whatever you like instead of what is more OP.

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As boomkin or druid in general,you can literally win games solo.Even epic bg’s such as av.

Stealth and go cap stuff all over the map.In random bg’s there’s barely anyone defending

So many av games could’ve been won if just one stealther went into ally base and capped bunkers,and not just av,but any game that has similar objectives.When you die,you can re-stealth and go in again.Perma stealth = win

Big + is not being dependant on other people to keep you alive.

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Kill, not delete.

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na, fire mages and rogues burst you so hard that you even want to uninstall the game and delete your character :man_shrugging:

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