World of Warcraft(Mages)

[lozo]

I was wondering if anyone has played Mages.I've been a Hunter thus far and wanted to know if Mages were any good.

[TrongaMonga]

They were. Now they suck.

[Dream_Walker]

I play a Mage!

Fun as hell

[Octopor]

If you enjoy a class where your guild is retarded if they bring more than one of you to a raid, then sure.

[Trojan]

Locks > Mages kthx.

Especially WotlK mages are getting the short end of the stick from what I've seen on talents.

[Darkmatter]

Locks outperform mages on almost every scale now..even deep fire mages are raped by a Destro Warlock with equal tiered gear. Unless they changed that in the past 2 months but I doubt it. Play the mage if you want to have fun. That's my advice. Mi ne was fun all the way to 70.

[Octopor]

Deep fire is dumb, arc-frost is the way to go.

[Darkmatter]

Did it take over? I was Arcane Frost (40/0/21) before I quit...it depended too much on support in raids to compete in DPS when I was playing.

[Trojan]

Fire is still the best dps raid spec.

[Darkmatter]

Wonder how WotLK will change that.,..new talents are going towards Arcane Stats.

[Dream_Walker]

More like FFB spec with WG + like 5 other Mages. 8k dps? yes plz.

[TrongaMonga]

Originally Posted by Octopor

Deep fire is dumb, arc-frost is the way to go.

That was back in t5. Sunwell is fire.

[Octopor]

Originally Posted by TrongaMonga

That was back in t5. Sunwell is fire.

Nah, with the right gear and same buffs during a raid an arc/frost Mage will put out more damage than a fire mage (They are dependant on shadow priests, but really, who doesn't have one of those?).

Arcane/Frost mages on Brutallus w/o Bloodlust:
Wow Web Stats (Quatrosinko and Fireangel)
Wow Web Stats (Fireangel and Azuriel)

Fire mages from SK Gaming on Brutallus w/o Bloodlust (granted, they don't have a boomkin but we'll say the gear evens it out, trying to find another to compare with boomkin, but every mage group has gotten Bloodlust >_<):
Wow Web Stats (Ekyu and Gazz)

[Darkmatter]

Originally Posted by TrongaMonga

That was back in t5. Sunwell is fire.

What Octo said. Basically, if itemized right, Arc Frost can surpass and be competitive in damage to deep fire (2/48/7) if played right. Sunwell people proved it pretty accurately when 2.4 came out and they revamped spirit, which allowed for Arcane to push ahead.

[TrongaMonga]

Spirit is not the issue, if your mage is arcane he is going to have a shadow priest. But it's not like no mage on his right mind would gem for spirit.

Check out the armory links Octopor provided. They all have the same build: Fire with all the fireball cookie talents, and double Icy veins. And they're all in Sunwell.

The reason fire is superior in Sunwell is because you have enough crit to stick a DoT at all times in the boss, thus doing damage even while you move, and to be able to invest in haste, which is overall a much better DPS stat for any caster. And because Fireball just is the best DPS spell mages have. Specially talented.

Arcane/Frost for Arcane Blast is good (and, again, double Icy Veins), but it absolutely requires a shadow priest (fire mages can handle without one), it has no DoT so everytime you move (and trust me, you move a lot in Sunwell, it's also the reason why the SK mages have Boar's Speed enchant on boots) you do no DPS, and it requires 2x t5 to be effective (which are far worse pieces than Sunwell gear ).

The advantage Arcane Frost has over fire is that it requires far less spell hit, but with 4 pieces of t6 there's already a lot covered.

[Octopor]

They respec'd.

You have to look at the WWS for the rotation they're using, those fights they were Arc/Frost.

Also, while Fire mages can handle a raid without a shadow priest, without the shadow priest debuff on a boss their DPS is extremely limited. Arcane/frost mages simply benefit more from having a shadow priest in the raid (which any guild should have).

The advantage Arcane/frost has over Fire is just overall a ****load more damage at the cost of mana efficiency, there's no problems with not having DoT's because in Sunwell there are plenty of opportunities to chain cast.

[TrongaMonga]

Originally Posted by Octopor

Also, while Fire mages can handle a raid without a shadow priest, without the shadow priest debuff on a boss their DPS is extremely limited. Arcane/frost mages simply benefit more from having a shadow priest in the raid (which any guild should have).

I'm sorry, what does that have to do with anything? Misery is a boss debuff, and it affects all spell damage.

Also, looking at WWS, I can see the arcane/frost mages getting Innervates. That group was cattered for them, so no wonder they did so good.