Poster: Erebus at 10/15/2005 6:45:21 PM PDT
Subject: To the Devs: The Mage Paradox |
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I've played a Mage since the later stages of beta. In these sorts of games I always play the caster archetype. The Mage is currently my main character, and the one I spend all my WoW time collecting epics and honing my skills with. While suitable in many PvP situations, Mages do have several weaknesses. Some of their weaknesses serve to add to the unnecessary frailty of the class. There is no simple explanation, and hence my summation is a bit long. I have attempted to keep my opinion interesting, insightful, and honest.
Here we go:
Fire Resist: As more players collect increasingly powerful armor, they are outfitted with many resists. The most commonly available resist is currently fire resist as it is standard on many of the epic sets of armor. Such abundant fire resist cripples a Mage who depends on the power of fire to deal significant damage. One must consider that such a Mage does NOT have access to quick Frost Bolts, snaring Blizzard spells, an Ice Shield, or the infamous Ice Block. Mages who choose not to spec heavily in Ice give up a vast majority of their survivability in exchange for higher damage output. As stated, however, the extensive resists hinder such a role. As if that was not argument enough, it is worth noting there is a mod called Wardrobe which allows players to instantly swap entire suits of armor, weapons, and variations of, at the touch of a button. As a result, said users of this mod can become practically immune to fire spells at the touch of a button -- the most powerful magical attack, "indeed."
Mage DPS: Even without the high resist rates, Mage DPS is average. While Frost Mages have a high chance to crit, such crits rarely score considerable damage for a 2.5 - 3 second wind-up on a Mage with epic gear. Furthermore, the higher chance to crit is only achieved through first getting a "freeze" effect on the target. The only way to do this is to come within melee range of the opponent, or get extremely lucky. Thus, the higher crit chance is not innate. In other words, the Mage has to be alive long enough to stack this effect up, and it cannot be repeated without extreme luck. More on survivability later. Meanwhile, Fire Mages have a potential to crit harder, but far less often. The supposed "damage" spec for a Mage generally relies on unleashing burst DPS via 3 second fireballs or a PoM Pyroblast every three minutes at most. While this may sound like a potentially devastating attack, the severe reliance on luck, the high innate resists, and the plentiful resists on epic gear can completely negate such potential. Furthermore, if none of the previous factors even existed to dilute the Mage damage, their damage output is still completely toned down with lengthy cast times -- who would actually cast Pyroblast, a 6 second spell, in a PvP match outside of a 1v1 duel? As already discussed, it takes but a couple seconds to drop a Mage. The alternative is PoM Pyroblast, which forces a spec in one tree to make an ability in the other tree useful. I'd say it's time for an evaluation, wouldn't you? Arcane Mages do not generally exhibit DPS comparable to Warlocks, Priests, Warriors, Rogues and Hunters. They will all unquestionably out-DPS a Mage who relies on Arcane Magic -- even while invoking Arcane Power. Arcane Power only serves to intensify other schools of magic into the average category -- as previously stated.
Survivability: This is where things go from bad to worse. Not only do Mages have average DPS, they are the undisputed easiest target to kill. Even I, playing a Mage, quickly assault enemy Mages first. This is not due to their threat level, but instead to their extremely low hit points. Generally speaking, Mages do not bring enough to the battlefield to justify such an easy demise. Even the most adamant, skillful, and tactfully aggressive Mage will quickly meet his demise from a conscientious target. A Mage will drop in two to three hits from a Warrior. He will be annihilated by a Hunter within a few seconds and rendered completely useless by the Hunter until that time. Rogues take but one or two seconds to drop a Mage. Even Priests can drop a mage out of the fight within a handful of seconds. Warlocks, with Death Coil, do not even need a pet to easily kill Mages. Mages have the worst survivability and the least amount of damage output or abilities to make up for it.
Crowd Control: In PvP, Frost Nova is generally something a Mage invokes just before they die. While this may not be intended, stopping just about any class close to melee range of a Mage is an immediate death sentence for him. Although this spell is incredibly useful, its cooldown and limited effect hinders its potential at performing adequate crowd control. Polymorph is far worse. Its main weakness is that it is basically automatically dispelled within 30 yards of a Priest with literally no effort on the part of the Priest. This is mainly due to mods such as Decursive which allow one to bind a key to automatically decide who to remove the effect from without interrupting the Priests's rhythm. The general shortcomings of Polymorph such as healing the target, diminishing returns, removable with a trinket, dispellable, short duration, broken when hit or DOT'd, immune while DOT'd, and HIGHLY resistible further reduce the spell's utility.
Utility: Aside from summoning water and providing teleports, Mages do not have much utility to speak of. They can not heal, they can not tank, they can not provide substantial DPS, and their crowd control is extremely limited. If there was ever a Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none who happened to die extremely quickly, it would be the Mage.
Buffs: Arcane Intelligence or Arcane Brilliance costs far too much mana to be useful in PvP. The mana cost and time spent replenishing it does not justify the bonus of the spell(s) in PvP situations. Hence, they are generally only cast before beginning a game.
Mage Itemization: Caster Itemization is a huge issue. It is generally understood that melee classes have far more to gain from gear than casters. This uneven advantage has been subdued some with items such as the Hero Charm and the Talisman trinkets, though the problem is far from gone. However, these items are contested by several classes including Priests, Warlocks, Druids, and Mages. As for armor pieces, all generic "damage and healing" cloth armor is up for grabs by all the cloth wearers. Items like the Untamed Blade, on the other hand, are used almost exclusively by Warriors. The balance is just not there. This disparity of equipment is due, at least in part, to the aforementioned Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none-but-die-really-easily syndrome Mages exhibit. No items stand out as being "Magely." In retrospect, Priests are guaranteed all "healing" stat bonus cloth. Furthermore, actual "Mage only" items do not always take into account the Mage's spec. For example, the epic Mage trinket increases casting speed by 25% for a limited time, but does NOT affect channeling spells. Any Mage specced fully in Arcane will not benefit from this effect. In other words, it is not really the issue of caster gear as much it is the issue of defining what gear would suit a Mage's role best.
In closing, Mages need to be feared and contested only with discretion, not disposed of quickly. After all, on the battlefield, there are certain classes a wise Mage won't even go near such as a Warlock or Hunter. On the flipside, it is rare any class would second-guess their assault on a Mage. Yes, it's true: Mages need some love.
I would really love to see some sort of "official" response to this matter.
| | | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=5318594&p=#post5318594 | | | Poster: Tseric at 10/15/2005 7:49:24 PM PDT
Subject: Re: To the Devs: The Mage Paradox |
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Even though this is only a short thread (and should have been posted in the mage forums), I like the debate here and think it may apply more to casters overall. Therefore, let it stay in General.
Basically, I am just bookmarking this thread for later reference. Please don't let me interrupt the discussion.
Carry on...
Do you see the forest or the trees?
| | | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=5318594&p=#post5319003 | Poster: Tseric at 10/15/2005 7:49:24 PM PDT
Subject: Re: To the Devs: The Mage Paradox *edited post* |
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Even though this is only a short thread (and should have been posted in the mage forums), I like the debate here and think it may apply more to casters overall. Therefore, let it stay in General.
Basically, I am just bookmarking this thread for later reference. Please don't let me interrupt the discussion.
Carry on...
Do you see the forest or the trees?
| | | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=5318594&p=#post5319003 |
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