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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-05-2008 @ 3:03PM
zikko said...
To address some of your comments:
"You forget that Mages have the best AoE skills in the game."
Unfortunately, no. Ever heard of Seed of Corruption? I don't say it is necessarily better than Mage AoE, but (even as Blizz devs stated at the WWI) it is too powerful compared to mages.
"You can sheep for god knows how long. "
That will be less of a necessity to bring a mage with you in Wrath. With buffed Sap (can be used on anything with a brain), Root (can be used indoors) and the arrival of Hex for the shamans (I don't say they don't need it!) Sheep won't be one of the things why you take a mage with you. There are many other classes who can perform that duty as well.
"A lot of classes that have very powerful single abilities lack skills in other areas. JUST LIKE MAGES with their DPS."
The problem here is that mage DPS isn't what is was before TBC. Rogues, Hunter and Warlocks regularly out-dps mages when they have equal gear level.
Mind you, I'm not a mage myself, but I really see a problem here. Mages can give out food/water and AI before the raid and a portal afterwards, but in combat itself there isn't a lot of reasons to take a Mage with you. Mages need something that makes them needed in raids again (or at least appreciated). What about a raid-aura that gives some spirit? Or increases damage? Nearly every class has some point why you want them in combat, Mages won't have one when Wrath comes out.
But I agree with you, there can be a lot of changes, but from what I heard in the WWI Blizzard seems to be very content with the Mage class right now and don't seem to see the problems.
Reply
7-05-2008 @ 3:05PM
zikko said...
That was meant as a reply to kamolahy...
7-05-2008 @ 5:35PM
Cookie McWeaksauce said...
I disagree with your point about sheep losing its value. So sap works on beasts and humanoids now... it's still not sheep, as it can't be re-cast in combat. And it still breaks on damage, just like sheep. I'd prefer a mage.
Hex... from what I've read, hex isn't sheep; it's blind with a cast time. Lasts for 10 seconds, has a cooldown. Not re-castable. I don't think this is really what shammies needed, so it may very well end up as a more ordinary CC by the time Wrath comes out. But as it stands now, I'd prefer a mage.
Indoor root is a great dungeon buff for boomkins and healers that don't use tree form. Root isn't quite as simple as sheep, since sheeped mobs can still attack at range. So you'd have to root the target so that the party is out of range/LOS. On the other hand, root will work on any mob that isn't nature-immune, and won't always break on damage. So if my group needs CC and has a healadin or several casters, I'll probably take a boomkin instead of a mage, for the aura. Otherwise, it's pretty much a toss-up.
So, one class's least popular spec will be as good, or arguably better at CC than mages. Mages are still up there at the top of the list if I need some CC. And, in my experience, one can rarely afford to be choosy while assembling a pug.
Of course, this whole post is about raid dps, and since I only do 10-man raids, with a kind of small guild, my opinion probably isn't worth much. But IMO, mages still do very good dps. Not the best, apparently, but far from broken. I don't agree with the whole "we die fastest so we should do the most dps" argument. All non-tanks die extremely fast in raids if they pull aggro (except those damned death-cheating rogues). And in pvp you have frost nova, blink, ice block, and chill effects to help you stay out of harm's way (plus a shield and an elemental if you're frost, and shatter shield when Wrath comes out). So... while mages probably could use a small buff to their damage, the problem isn't nearly as big as some of them are making it out to be. They're not broken, not useless, not hopelessly outclassed by the perennially overpowered warlock. They could use some tweaking. That's it.