Hello, I play all classes, but mage has been my least played.
My mage DPS has always been on the low side. I want to race change to a Void elf Mage, but since it is not my main, I want to choose the easiest spec to reasonably master. My mage is currently 113 NE.
I’m also dropping rogue and Lock in order to focus on mage more.
Thank you for any input!
Depends on what you consider difficult
Arcane in PvE is pretty easy, but you need to understand when and how to save mana when you’re not bursting.
Frost is also relatively simple though there are a few things about the rotation that aren’t immediately obvious depending on the talents you use.
In the end i recommend checking out a guide for either, but they’re not complicated at all.
Fire is the most complicated of the three in my opinion. Either way it’s not performing very well at the moment.
I’ve mainly been frost since I made a mage in BC. I just haven’t played it much. I used a boost to 100 from 60. Thank you for help. I do read icy veins and still mage seems less forgiving than other classes. I think arcane will suit me better.
Frost IMO!
Frost would be easier to master, frost orb is sort of fire and forget/throw out icelances. Blizzard is used for some extra dps but mainly to lower Frost orbs cd. There really is no difficulty spamming frostbolt and using glacial spike > flurry > icelance. The hardest aspect to frost is learning what to shatter and when with pet freeze or frost nova, and even that becomes simple once you understand when to do it. It doesn’t suffer as much from movement as arcane.
Arcane is simple enough just spamming blast and using evo, once traits like equipoise are introduced and depending on your mastery/ rules of three talent juggling mana efficiently becomes the complicated part of the spec, you don’t want to go under 70% but you also don’t want to be capped with mana wasting time running around. Gauging mana/mana regen becomes a lot more complicated in that scenario than anything frost has to offer.
Fire is probably the most complicated, especially with traits like blaster master and aiming meteor with tanks moving or mobs in general. The pay off is no where near what arcane and frost give for playing well damage wise in raid. It can pull decent numbers in extremely high keystones where you can use combustion a lot.
Thank you!
Arcane and Frost are both fairly easy.,
I’d recommend avoiding fire though. Flub your combustion as fire and your dps is hosed.
Uhh isn’t arcane literally 1 button? Arcane missiles?
Only in the lower levels.
In terms of damage Arcane is still a 1 button spec. The only difference at max levels you just have to manage your mana with a few small CD’s and barrage.
And you have to cast AM on proc when not in burn phase.
But yeah… arcane at max level is not hard.
you cast AM on proc when in burn phase too
Fire mage is the most difficult during combustion as you need to be quick and press the right buttons, one screw up will cost you a ton of dps, but outside of that it is a joke and sub 30% you don’t ever have to stop moving with scorch.
Frost really depends on talent choices and knowing when to use your ice lance/flurry procs. If you are someone who just likes to spam procs, frost will probably not for you. Timing orb/flurry procs around phases with cleave/aoe is key to maximizing frost dps.
Arcane I defer to the others, I really don’t play it and never have outside of the mage tower in legion.
Not during AP though.
No, you really don’t…
No AM during burn phase. Only cast AM during conserve phase.
I would personally say Frost. I’ve played Fire for 8 years and I would consider it the hardest to master anyway. But its also the most fun in my opinion at the same time.
Arcane… idfk Its just not in a good place. 85% of your damage is from Arcane Blast at 120.
I don’t think most of the spec’s damage coming from one source is an inherent problem. If there was a structured but varied system of interesting support and setup spells for AB you could have a really fun spec whose payoff is the empowerment of their filler skill.
But we obviously don’t have that, so that’s big sad.
Easiest is arcane, the rotation is the rotation and there’s only one proc that comes up for mana free missiles. the worst part is you need to land your burn phase and mechanics can easily mess that up and then your DPS goes way down.
Frost is pretty easy, but you rely on procs. but you have a lot of ways to get procs. It’s also nice never having to care about where your mana is at.
Fire is pretty easy too, but you need to the right stats and it’s very proc dependent and you also have to line up your combustions well. I think it’s the most fun and mobile of the specs but it’s damage is really bad in pop right now.
Mage is a fun spec but if you’re looking for damage now is not the right time to be a mage.
Not at all.