Hi all, I am a warlock main, and wish to start a second mage character for PvP.
What race is best for this?
I have heard that Night Elf is great for Shadowmeld. Humans are also an excellent choice because of the stun removal. Dwarf is also good for STone Form.
However, my main is already a NE, and Shadowmeld on a mage doesn’t seem too useful as they have invisibility.
I’m also uncertain about the human stun removal - doesn’t Blink do that much faster on a shorter cooldown?
And of Stoneform, I’m not sure either as Ice Block does it too.
What should I do?
Thanks.
Alliance:
Night Elf - provides Shadow Meld that is used not so much for invisibility as for feature that getting invisible with it if timed correctly can negate many projectiles like Storm Bolt. It also disrupts enemy casts (including crowd control like Fear and big hitters like Glacial Spike / Chaos Bolt) and channeled spells which get also put on cooldown (like Ray of Frost / Void Torrent etc).
Human is used to play with 2 dps trinkets instead of one being Gladiator’s Medallion and still remove stuns. Since you as a Mage can blink stuns it can be fitting, but has its own risks like inability to remove other types of crowd control effect and either sitting them or wasting Ice Block to remove them (not recommended).
Kul Tiran - is massively underappreciated for ranged specs. Its racial is both a knockback that can be used to force melee waste one more gap closer or waddle to you and a stun that non-Frost Mage specs don’t have at all. It also lasts long enough that you can cast something into it including even Glacial Spike with decent amount of Haste. It can also be used while silenced / against magic immunities to surprisingly smack for example Cloak of Shadow Rogues and Anti-Magic Shell DKs and send them away.
Normal / Dark Iron Dwarf - its removal of dots and debuffs is useful since it is in addition to Ice Block and can allow to keep IB for emergency situations or cases where you need healing (from Cryo Freeze) or simply remove dots or debuffs 1 additional time (which can be very annoying for Feral Druids or Assasination Rogues for example).
Horde:
Orc - common pick to reduce stun duration (nerfed to 10% in PVP) and mini-on use trinket racial. Can be a decent pick if you prefer playing Shimmer to Blink (since Shimmer does not remove stuns).
Undead / Forsaken - its racial can remove Fears (Warlock / Warrior / Priest) and sleep effects (Evoker) so if they cause much issues for you it can be suitable.
Tauren - has higher health than most races and has AoE stun that has pros to Kul Tiran’s (faster cast / AoE) and cons (does not knockback, lasts for shorter period of time). Can be a good Horde analogue if you want a stun.
Common:
Dracthyr - gives you both knockback and knockup racials that can be useful. Also can be played as either Alliance or Horde.
Pandaren - gives you instant cast melee range CC, but can mess incapacitate DRs for Polymorph. Its advantage is being instant (as both War Stomp and Haymaker have cast time that enemies can react to). Also can be played as either Alliance or Horde.
I would suggest to think what classes or enemy types give you most issues in PVP and pick racial accordingly.
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It means removing stun effects via using Blink. It also can remove root effects (immobilize) too. Only normal Blink removes them and Shimmer does not.
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Thaaaaats why my shimmer wasn’t doing anything.
Thank you for your help.
You are welcome!
Take into account that Dracthyr would become available for Mages only in 11.0.5 (around November), so it you pick it you can level as other race and change when it becomes available.
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I am too attached to shadowmeld.
It keeps the pets off in EBGs.
Decent option, but in EBG you can also drop target / fend off pets with things like Potion of Trivial Invisibility and other invisibility potions. So if you would have issues with some classes mentioned above other racial options are available too.
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Thanks.
I decided to choose a human mage for PvP after I realized something: the Shimmer talent, which most players take for PvP, gives 2 charges of Blink, but removes its ability to get out of stuns.
Thus, this effectively makes mages ultra mobile with Shimmer while still being able to get rid of stuns.
Then, yeah, the double DPS trinket works great too for mage.
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