Best overal mage in the game?

General Discussion
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I know I know many are situational. But what is in your oppinion the best mage.
My vote is for Jaina, nice burst cc waveclear, strong independend woman, both ults are good. Her only downside that she is close range compared to other mages

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Mephisto, he has more presence late game.

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Kel’thu-freaking-zad

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My vote will be always for Jaina

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shes just follow up mage
dont call her independent

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Jaina by far. Burst, waveclear, constant CC, decent survivability if you dont play like a moron.

After that Li-Ming > Gul’dan > Kael’thas > Kel’Thuzad > Chromie > Nazeebo

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This is far from reality. Far.

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Hanzo and jaina in the strict mage sense.

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Li ming is very good on several maps, gul’dan is probably the best in terms of sheer damage and waveclear. Kael is decent, but kind of overshadowed by Gul’dan and Jaina. Kelthuzad can be really good but has a lot of problems as far as “not dying” goes. I think chromie lost her niche, but is still better than naz who only really works in long games.

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What is the job of a mage usually?
Waveclear and aoe dmg in tfs.

Liming is almost the worst in that regard. So I wouldn’t pick her for the second. Especially with her feast-or-famine design. Plus her winrate is nowhere good enough imo for second place (sidenote: I love Ming, my fav mage probably, I don’t see problems with her or her design but let’s be realistic).

The “not dying” is not a big problem in high leagues. Or do we list the best mages based on overall performance in all brackets? Because I thought we rank them by their true and max potential and versatility.
Imo Kelthu-freaking-zad is the second.

Also, where is Orphea, Azmodan, Probius, they’re also mages.

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Jaina, easily.

Also quite interesting that Orphea is not even mentioned. She is not at the top, but i expected she would at very least listed in a ranking of mages.

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He can easy hold her own in a lane, or when being dived upon. Not solo lane material but she can hold her own

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Kelthuzad is more of a pubstomp hero imo. He is nearly murky tier at tournament level. If you just engage on him rather than poking waiting for him to land a combo he struggles to do anything.

Li ming is first pick material in several places. She has big big burst damage to followup on cc and snowball fights. That is a very big deal.

I don’t think orphea is a mage. She plays very differently from “mages” and is sort of like greymane, genji, and tracer where she can get really aggressive going for a kill.

Calling probius a mage is a stretch. He is more like an area control hero who can deal lots of burst damage if you fight on his terms.

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li ming is situational, some maps and certain heroes do better with her. but IN GENERAL she can fulfill mage and be great if well executed. shes my main and i never ever regretted picking her. her long range and fast teleport can make her a bit comparable to tacer, in the sense that a good ming can outsmart her at close range. she has a displacment ult, a pure dmg ult. can do awesome on objectives, and…

well the feast part i can easily agree on, if u meant by famine mana issues, then mana addict solves it. if u say she cannot kill, well its the problem of the player, not the hero. otherwise there are no meanings for ( famine ) since her safe/aggressive playstyle makes her change modes depending on the situation, so there is no famine unless the player isnt unlocking her true potential. believe it or not 35 levels with her and even i am not close. pros with her are true gods.

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To be honest it’s pretty hard to say. Feel like they are all balanced, all good. They all have their strengh, like Ming is a win more hero with her trait and stuff

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Kael Thas. I just love his kit. Jaina is up there too.

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Jaina Proudmore of course.

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Feast or famine is a saying. You either get it all or nothing with li ming and her trait. Without constant resets she’s a liability on your team. If she can consistently get kills she’s an unstoppable god of destruction.

How are we defining mages? Is that anyone who primarily deals damage through abilities? Exclusively ranged? Do they have to be a magic caster archetype in another blizzard universe? We can’t fully answer that question without a clear definition on what a mage is. AoE burst is already incorrect, as a hero like li ming does best picking off targets one by one, as does ktz in many situations with his spike, chromie is a single target hero, and Gul’Dan/mephisto are sustained AoE.

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Probably Jaina for best ‘overall mage’. She simply has everything you want a mage to do. No matter what you need a mage for, Jaina can do it. Other mages might do a specific job better, but they can’t really match her in versatility.

I wouldn’t call her ‘best mage’ though, as that seems to imply she’s strictly better than the others, and that isn’t really true. She’s just got a really well-rounded kit, while the others tend to be more specialized.

As Hailfall already said, that probably has to do with her not really fitting the typical ‘mage’ profile of (mostly) standing back and tossing spells. Orphea does use spells, but she also goes in far more than a normal mage would (or should, really).

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Jaina.

-20 Celcius…

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