So Frost gets an elemental. Why cant Fire spec get a Phoenix, and Arcane get its Arcane Familiar baseline. At I think it would be awesome for Fire mages to get a phoenix modeled like the Phoenix from Phoenix Flames?
This has always bugged me that Frost Mages get an elemental but the other two get nothing.
I think it’s due to gameplay reasons, I mean, mages are one of the most limited by gameplay classes in the game due to how godly Arcane is in the lore so our character’s are basically novices when compared to what mages actually do in the lore.
But to answer your question, it’s probably a situation that earth and fire elementals were tied to Shamans but since Water Elemental was an archmage spell in Warcraft 3 they decided to give it to Mages.
So I do see what your saying but if you look at it Shamans elementals are temporary. Frost Mage’s elemental is 100% a pet. But still Fire mages get no Familiar or elemental at all and Arcane has to talent into their Familiar. So why not just give Fire Mages a phoenix and make Arcane Familiar baseline for arcane. Have the phoenix cast fire ball like the ice elemental or use another fire ability that we have.
Well, I am not against it, I would take anything that would make the gameplay match the class fantasy but I just wouldn’t hold my breath, WoW mage’s design is dated as hell.
Ohh I agree. But it makes me wonder why frost was so weak that they had to give them a pet? Or is frost that weak? I guess I just dont understand why not give the full class access to elemental’s?
And along this topic why give frost Lonely Winter talent that makes it so you cant summon your ele but get 25% more damage? Does the water elemental do that much added damage?
No, frost elemental is for utility, not damage, it’s not like a hunter or warlock pet, it doesn’t tank and at level 60 it does 500-600 damage per attack. What you do get is an AoE freeze, AKA a ranged frost nova. The frost elemental is basically class fantasy flavor + call back to WC3. In raids and dungeons you want lonely winter because you got (almost) no use for freeze.
(apologize for typos, giga tired.)
Then why give the damage increase for not having the elemental? See this is the garbage that I just cant understand why they did that. Its like what they did to MM hunter with lone wolf where they get a 10% dps increase for not summoning a pet.
Stuff like this makes my head hurt. So frost mages get a elemental that cast frost bolt but its real use is for a free frost nova. And if you don’t want the free frost nova then you get 25% more damage. Again why. I do understand what your saying I just do not understand the reasoning.
Thank you for you’re input 
np! And yeah, I get you’re saying, imo they should play around the elemental instead of just making it disappear, but again, it’s one of those dated design philosophies that Blizzard struggles to change.
I hope some good news come with the new skill trees but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Well considering they are taking abilities and turning them into picked talents yea this is kind of worrying for me. If you look at DK you have to choose to take Silence which has been baseline since the getgo.
An elemental that nearly nobody uses 
Just as a small reminder, the Water Elemental was (if I recall correctly), added to the game in BC as the final talent in the frost tree. Fire got Dragon’s Breath, arcane got Slow.
A lot has changed since then…
I think about this every now and then too, but as an arcane mage, I don’t want a pet. I’ve never really been into the pet class concept, so if I switch to frost, lonely winter is ideal because I don’t want to have to think about a pet.
Dont fret… almost noone wants Drippy around anyway heh
becuz the water elemental was from warcraft 3 Archmage. There was not Phoenix…
Its not used now that we have lonely winter so we get a dmg increase for not being able to summon it.
While i was looking for a Dalaran achievment about finding books, i found this:
“More formidable specialists in conjuration can summon several glasses of water at once, or perhaps even a tankard. A few daring wizards have occasionally attempted to summon water without remembering the glass - and thus, the art of summoning water elementals was born. Water elementals are a wizard’s best friend. (Felhounds are not, in fact, friendly at all.) A summoned elemental is a formidable ally in combat, a great listener, and they even taste great!”
So probably water elementals are not the same elementals we see shamans summoning, it’s more like regular water brought to life.
Ok so I find this to be interesting bit of lore.
So blizzard couldn’t have made it so that a mage tried to summon fire for a camp and used too much power and created an elemental? The phoenix was created for legion. So now why not make it a fire mages Familiar? Frost get water elemental, Arcane gets an arcane Familiar(granted its a talent) blizzard could make it base line and create a phoenix for Fire mages.
Well, technically speaking in WC3 Fire Mage hero could temporarily summon a pet Phoenix to fight for him as his ultimate ability, so the concept is already there.
I am not a fan of pet builds myself, but do not mind if they add some pet options for Fire and Arcane as separate optional tree branches / talents (so they are not required to pick any other non-related to pets talents) for people, who want to have an elemental pet.
Originally it was a talented cooldown, and it was great. Then they made it permanent, and soon after that players stopped using it because it is garbage. I don’t think any Frost Mage would miss Mr Bubbles.
While thematically a phoenix does fit Kael, I’m not aware of any other Mage that uses one. Mages aren’t meant to be a pet class, so if it was given to Fire it would likely have to repalce combustion as its major cooldown which I don’t think would go down well.
Wow, was the Welly retconned? My understanding was that the bracers essentially forced the water elementals into servitude.
Frost mages are a pet spec when Water elemental was made perm it was still doing a lot of damage. And yea you get a talent that gives you 25% damage increase for not being able to summon your elemental as frost. When was that talent given?
Yes and the mage artifact weapons were made for legion which brought the phoenix. And considering every fight we have with Kael has a phoenix in it kinda imo point to fire mages should get a phoenix. Let frost mages keep their ele, make Arcane Familiar just like Water Elemental and give fire a phoenix that flies by us like the Arcane Familiar and just have it cast a weaker version of the spells we cast.
And just to add a touch of realism most witches and wizards which are just other names for mages are depicted with having a Familiar of some sort that helps them.