Mages in PvP [SoD]

WoW Classic Season of Discovery
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So what’s the idea with Mages going forward in SoD PvP? Currently they are in a really bad place, and even tho AoE-farming in dungeons that one day was … “fun”, the end game PvP is anything but.

Mages have always been glass cannons. Im currently rocking Pre-raid BiS +, with some Gnomeregan gear (no negative Stamina tho), 5 Epics, and I have about 1.2-1.3K unbuffed with 400 armor. 700 with my own Frost Armor.

In Classic/Vanilla this was fine - balanced, as Mages could play around RANGE to outplay their (melee) opponents. But unfortunatly RANGE isnt a factor anymore. Between Warbringer (2 charges in combat, breaking all snares), Shadow Step, Quick Strike and Between the Eyes, the 15 sec on Blink is easy to outplay. Slows around oppenents that can slow you and keep beating at you from melee range are rendered useless. On top of this, currently the “old” PvP Trinket doesnt remove stuns, meaning you either have to Blink for range or escape, but often would need both when initiated upon.

Mages have some defences against melee, the Mana Shield (Rank 3 is 300 damage) and Ice Barrier (Talent: 455 damage, 30 sec CD), but when regular hits are on par with them, they do little for protection. Mages lack the “tankyness” that other casters have like Boomkin/Bearform (Survival of the Fittest Rune), Metamorphosis, Dispersion, Inner Fire, that can allow for a escape when targeted. Instead, we do have Ice Block - which one could use to wait for the CDs of Blink/Nova, but then again the oppnents would get their CDs back aswell (see previous points about anti-range).

Mages could sacrifice a rune or two for healing (themselfs), but after the 2 nerfs on AoE heals (80% x 2 ) and the 50% reduction on self healing, a hardcasted Arcane Blast (2.5 sec) offers a low 200 hp heal - worse than both the HoTs of the Druid, Priest and Life Drain of Warlock, yet not even instant. Hardcasting in SoDs fast phased PvP is the last resort, but Mages need to rely on it to both heal and do damage.

Other casters recived hard hitting, low CD, instants (Star Surge, SW:P) ONTOP of their new runes and already big toolkits, DoTs, other baseline instants and defences, but for Mages to mimic this playstyle (which is baseline rotation for other casters), they would have to play a 3 min Mage (Arcane Surge), where the cost is all of the mana - rendering anything else after this point useless. Fun for videos or duels, not that fun in any other scenario.
Apart from that, any damage that is offered is based on hardcasting apart from a Fire Blast (8 sec CD, 200-300 damage unmodified at Rank 5, with a short range of 20 yards) for Fire which needs to crit (and spec) for a DoT, but is way below the DPS of any other instants of casters on the same or lower CD, with longer range, and Ice Lance (45-55 damage unmodified each GCD) for Frost.

So whats the idea going forward? If the Rock, Papper, Scissors “balance” that once was is removed, how can Mages be viable casters apart from being the 3rd player DPSing on targets which are focusing on somebody else? In theory slows, snares and blinks are powerful tools, but currently they all have counters and are simply time wasters before a certain death than tools. Going against any other class needs a missplay, ambush or the other part lacking a CD for a equal chance.

If Discplacement Rune is true, it could be a start (altho most gap closers are doubled), but question is if that is enough to compensate for the hardcasting and low armor/HP Mages of SoD. Currently the only people annoyed/bothered with Mages in PvP are people who get free casted on in zergs, but in equal terms Mages would be one of the easiest targets for now.

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Are you actually serious?

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I know that jokes, sarcasm and irony are hard for you in your state, but no, Im not joking, would much more prefer a counter argument to anything posted than seeing you struggle with inference.

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i played in 2019 most likely mage, i grinded to rank 10 with him, and gave up, because i dont enjoyed, how u have to grind, back then “always turtle av” …

if u play mage, i highly recommend, to skill Engi, and make incap grenades, so u can nova them, then grenade frostbolt, coc

the Problem about mage most likely is, the lack of scaling

u dont get enough stamina in low level, to deal with hunters, rogues, or other oponents

ur just a squischy Glass cannon.

it is different at 60, cuz u have acces to more stamina gear, and also u get more spell power with getting multiplied by an shatter crit

and if u get deep freeze idk, mage will be in a really good spot at 60 nothing to complain about it

we shouldnt take the term of balance around twink pvp level

and i mean u can Play arcane mage, this class onetaps with pom

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Mage is really good right now in PvP.

Literal, absolute, skill issue.

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He’s actually serious, it’s just you’re a literal goon complaining about mages being bad while they are literally the best class for PVP right now, being able to dish out the best damage via instant only.

You’re talking about PVE gear with minus stamina, you just have to get the other set, just use the right gear for pvp and don’t complain about having no HP while using PVE gear in PVP.

Just died a few days ago against a mage that pressed two button ( instant cast ) and got hit for 2000 damage. The guy didn’t even crit, just pressed 2 button. Needless to say i’am heavely geared ( around 500 hundred GS )

If you want to play mage in pvp you play frost ( giving you access to double ice block ), you have a blink that dispels stun, slow on demand. I’am having a blast reading to your post talking about mage being a glass canon XD, which clearly shows only one thing : you’re an ignorant when it comes to the class

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Sad.
Mages require skill.
Most other classes don’t :slight_smile:

The self healing nerf is sad tho, no other healer suffers in groups, healing themselves.
Pushback protection on arcane missiles but not arcane blast is awful design IMO.

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Its not sad or bad, makes sense. It was too busted. Not like that heal nerf should even affect you now with Chronostatic preservation.

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Mage is tough in SoD because the overall damage is off the chart with the added runes and given we have the least amount of hp and armor, we’ll always be the first to feel it.
Also the damage is so high that the classic spells feel useless. Mana shield for one, blocks about half a mutilate, or half a 2 handed auto attack for a hefty mana cost. Arathi rep can give a shield of about 300 physical damage which is once again useless given the amount of damage we ditch atm. Feels like that is the issue. I understand that runes have to be good enough that we’d want to play them, but they are a bit overtuned compared to our classic toolkit.

Now, just to share my 2 cents :

If you stand at 1.3k HP you clearly don’t have the right gear for PvP. I sit at around 1k8 with my gear. Could go higher but then it would mean dropping too much spell power and I feel useless not having around 200 spellpower.
Now having 500 more hp doesn’t mean you won’t get one tapped by certain classes but it helps.

Just one - Chronostatic preservation - and it is very good. It heals hard, but if you get kicked on it you loose all three schools for 8 sec. Sad that we don’t get to use brain freeze as it could help make frost worth but it’s just too good to pass.

I wish they’d add a bit more damage to ice lance and fix the fingers of frost/root proc to make frost more viable without casting. Or reduce the pushback from damage when casting cause it feels sad to die from a hunter’s pet while trying to sheep it. (Bloody cats…)

The most rewarding spec I’ve tried so far is either 0/10/21 or 0/0/31 and play as a heal/support for my team in bg. Greatly improved my winning rate in wsg to peel for my FC, heal my melees and drop the idea of landing kills. Mage support is a great addition to SoD with our healing/cc toolkit atm.

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You mean arcane surge spec right ? It looks impressive for sure, but having an insta kill every 3 min and literally nothing much in between isn’t much fun. The only use of that spec is for WSG to get the EFC or making pewpew youtube clips. I get that it looks crazy but most mages don’t care about that spec, it’s a fun build to try for a few hours but end up being more frustrating than it’s worth.

He clearly said that he didn’t take the irradiated set (you actually end up with less than 1k hp with it) - but he certainly doesn’t have the right pvp gear. ( I sit at 1k8 hp with mine)

Sadly, this is what mages have to deal with from most of the classes atm. Sham/pal/SP/boomy/rogue can 2 tap us quite easily. It kinda makes sense that mages can do it too since we are a bursty class but i’d rather see damage get nerf for everyone so that strategic thinking get a more prominent place in pvp encounter.

I agree with you that frost and ice block is the answer to get that survivability we lack, but doing so cuts so much on our damage output that it feels like playing hide and seek in Alien: Isolation. You can run and escape, but forget about trading blows since you can’t match what you’re facing with your frost toolkit.

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I think 5 or 6 other classes need buffs before we even look at mages. Wait for phase 6 and u get a buff together with shamans.

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I agree, I play as a mage and the problem is that I don’t have enough arm armor from the right place, but compared to what was before SOD, the mage is nothing, he is worthless, look at the warrior 2 run-ups and more pulls, plus 1000+ damage to me, and I only have 3500 heals points and only 2 pancakes of frostbite and the like are easy to remove or press in addition, I play fire mage and everything now has a lot of resistance to fire because to frost because T1 - T2 have a lot of resistance and in soda mage there is almost no penetration of any and you were on a tank with 300-400 damage and he on you with 1000 when a mage should have a huge damage instantaneously he doesn’t have it and other especially nice classes like horn warrior paladin shaman have!!! Fact!!!

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what kind of shamans are they, and they are so overbuffed in soda, you mock mages now in pvp nothing