Hey all,
I purposely put this question here as I would like to know your thoughts. I played shaman since WOTLK (all 3 specs at some point) but I do not have much experience with a mage.
I just returned to WoW after (a year and a half) and I would like to choose a new ranged class main for the end of SL and Dragonflight (and upcoming expansions).
What would you rather recommend?
Thanks
As you specify ranged.
I would choose mage. Shaman is quite up and down in performance and hasnt shown promise of stability.
You may find enhancement dominants and ele drops or vice versa. Shaman cant really promise ranged gameplsy alike mage can realistically.
So without throwing in opinons based on enjoyment or elements of fun as i dont know ur preferences there.
Id say based on stability and reliably filling a ranged role, Mage would be a superior choice.
Hmm I’m not sure where you are getting this information from, but ele shaman has been good for years now. I can’t remember a single patch where someone thought " oh you play ele shaman I’m not gonna invite you".
It’s been rarely at the top in the chars but if elemental has something to offer, is stability (unlike Enhancement).
Pretty underrated spec imo, it’s really fun and DPS wise you can compete with the top 5 specs.
Legion first half shaman was also in not great state either.
BFA launch shaman was extremely bad prior fixing it up.
Also enhancement led the field on Shadowlands launch initally.
Still in respective of its life time its seen multiple falls.
In this game you had arcane mages knocking out +23s in bfa while being one of the worst options for m+.
So sure yoy still see em even if they arent top 10
But its never gonna compete with the flexibility a pure ranged DPS class offers.
I tend to follow a logic of picking a class that fills my needs with the most speccs. Instead of dedicating to a singular specc which is a risky move in itself
I will always say play a class not a specc.
Can’t really argue since I didn’t play Legion.
Ele was never bad, for comparison Survival and Subtlety were bad.
Just like every other spec, it has ups and downs. But precisely Ele is one of, if not the most stable DPS spec every patch, it is never at the bottom.
While I agree pure DPS classes offer more versatility, that doesn’t make them immune to tuning.
Take for example mage this expansion, all 3 specs have been going up and down on the DPS charts, meanwhile Ele has always been at the top middle of the pack every single patch since launch.
That’s generally a good metric to follow but it’s far from being flawless as I showed with the Mage comparison.
your missing the point im making.
i aint Saying Shamans a bad Choice, im Saying choosing a Class that Simply CANNOT fill roles you do not want. Removes the Ability for a Raid Leader, a Guild or a Static ur among asking you to flex into Other Areas.
I.E if ur team wants Windfury Enhancement is a requirement. u cannot access thios utility among a Ranged build on Shaman. as a Mage u never have to consider the possibility of this Request.
Playing a Entire Class. which Does the Role asked, instead of 1 Specc of 3 Options offering u the Role is Simply better, in Every fashion possible. Sure Mage has a Chance to be bad, So does Ele Espically if ur looking at a Long term main.
However MAge has been Meta in every patch Since MoP Excluding 3 Patch cycles. Shaman has Barely touched the boarder of a Meta choice since Cata. atleast in a Ranged DPS Role.
Mage is. and Will forever be considered the Golden Child of blizzard. it gets fixed the fastest when in poor state. It gets ALOT of love and Attention and very RARELY sees non-meta, there are memes being rpoduced based on Mage currently not being Meta. Because how alien the concept of that is to players.
As a Example:
Shadow priest, is my favorite class in the game. However i will never main Shadow. Why? Because its a REALLY bad idea. that will end awfully for me, because its Never meta. and getting into content becomes a Absolute headache when playing around this.
its very unlikely already to be meta in Dragonflight either… Because looking at the new talent trees… we already see the Problem occuring surrounding Shadow Priest AoE Options.
sure u run the risk with any class, but its Simply less likely. due to the fact of depending on a singular specc to be functional. and i know people say, just run ur own keys. but generally. this makes targetting specific dungeons Extremely hard. it also depends on ur own key continously.
and if ur lucky with grouyps, but unlucky with drops. u can quickly out + urself. i ended up with a +12 key back in Season 1, with a 195 ilevel, it reached a Point where i simply couldnt manage the keys without spam delevelling them.
being accepted into groups and more makes the game faster. it shortens the time required to progress as u can target specific dungeons for loot and more when in a role of demand.
your weighing up odds… and playing a Pure DPS just has a higher roll.
Now ofcourse shadow priest and elementalist arent the same shadow has consistently underperformed while ele has always been better.
However i wouldnt say its inaccurate to say mage is likely safer, espically if we were to count how many times its been meta compared to shaman.
Both are good choices, but as a outside party the only comment yoy csn really base on is whats consistently performed better really.
However i would say enhancement atm edges out ahead due windfury totem
If you wanna bet safe, mage has never once in the history of this game ever been bad in any content.
If you wanna take the risk but also get more variety from the playstyle a hybrid brings, you go shaman.
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