Horrific Visions (mage) makes me want to quit again

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*Long rant

I’ve played since Vanilla day 2 when WoW just launched. I played every single expansion but I did normally take breaks at some point during each expansion (sometimes over a year) and came back to check out the next expansion and so on. My main was a Mage in vanilla, I mostly enjoy PvP and a bit of casual PvE. With Wrath of the Lich King, I switched my main to my DK which stayed my main character for every expansion after that point although I normally had 3-6 top level characters (alts).

I currently have 6 lvl 120 characters. I played early BFA, didn’t enjoy it that much (it felt like a downgrade from Legion in terms of abilities, didn’t like the azurite forced constant daily grind, loss of cool legendary weapons, etc.). A year and a half later, my friend with who I play more convinced me to come back to the game just before 8.3 would launch because he wanted to see the end of an expansion for once (we often only played early expansions, got bored, quit and came back next one).

So I tested all of my characters, ended up deciding on trying to make my good old Mage my main again. I’m not as good at it (higher skill cap and less arena experience) but I knew it was the safest bet if we wanted to run double DPS arenas for fun as I hate single DPS + healer matches and our 3s healer quit the game many years ago.

I lvled my mage from 110 to 120 during the AV event thing, caught up on essences, azurite, mana pearl gear, etc. etc. I then entered 8.3 being a bit undergeared compared to people who kept on playing but it shouldn’t be massive… only to find out that I probably chose the worst possible moment to focus back on my Mage.

Forced extremely boring PvE daily quest grinds over and over again for Coalescing Essences for days only to be able to buy a ticket to enter a Horrific Vision… only to then realize how hard it is for Mage to solo this content and that I’m just a dead weight for my friend and holding him back if we try to run them together (rogue+mage). Mage being THE worst solo class for those, yet this content is 100% mandatory or else I’ll be way behind on ilvl but also cloak to be able to use stronger corrupted items, etc. I already failed 2 of the solo runs the 1st week (I underestimated the boss that was immune to roots/snares on my 1st try). Failed during a 2s run this week.

So mage is squishy, can’t face tank the mobs, has weak sustained dmg, its damage gets destroyed even further by mechanics that constantly force you to keep on running around (interrupting hard casts), has no heals aside from azurite traits anyone can get (no temporal shield in there since it’s a PvP talent), can’t really skip content with stealth (only one short invis on a long CD), etc. Mage has burst on CD and CC, some bosses are immune to the CC and the burst on CD isn’t really relevant in there.

I know I need to get used to the Vision mechanics, learn what AOE does what, what spells to look out for and try to interrupt but still, I’ve played this game for over 15 years, I’ve reached past 2.2k in arenas many years ago, I’m certainly not a pro or a “top mage” but I’m certainly at the very minimum an average mage (probably at least a bit higher than average). It’s not normal at all for me to struggle so much with this content that is supposed to be soloable for every class. If I struggle in there, I can only imagine new mage players or alts that don’t really know the class too well.

With the never ending daily quest grind, this 8.3 patch is extremely unfriendly towards alts. If I want to switch over to my Hunter, my DK, Warrior, Druid or Paladin (all lvl 120), it would take me weeks to farm back the essences (not account shared for some really dumb reason) and catch up on azerite (gear would be the least of my worries).

So I’m forced to spend several hours a week farming daily quests and use my WoW free time doing this as an utmost priority before I can actually enjoy anything else in the game (PvP arenas, BGs, Dungeons, etc.) only to be able to buy tokens to do the forced Horrific Visions only to possibly fail if I need to do side objectives solo to keep upgrading the cloak (so all those hours farming Coalescing Essences turned into a huge waste of time if the Horrific Vision run fails) OR find some PUG and cross my fingers that they’ll be good enough to get through the increased difficulty together.

This is not a thread to make any threats of quitting (I’m well aware that 1 player doesn’t make any difference) but rather to be 100% honest as to what makes me feel like quitting this patch. If we’re forced again into daily grinds and solo dungeons with Shadowlands, I’ll probably either sit it out or switch to an other better class for it by then. It’s just that I don’t recall ever seeing a WoW expansion/patch that was this unfriendly towards alts, forcing nonstop boring PvE quests (I had to fly 45mins last night just to find the 3rd chest to complete a daily) and solo dungeons that don’t take different classes and specs into the slightest considerations (so probably really easy for some classes like DH while being too hard for others like Priest or Mage).

TLDR: 8.3 is way too much time consuming with the forced mandatory daily grinds + AP grind + essences and rep grinds to the point where changing character at this point or having alts is almost impossible. The Horrific Visions should have been balanced in a way to take into account the different classes if they were to be played as a solo class because as it currently is, some classes can enjoy them and clear them easily to get far ahead while some others have it too hard and will be lagging far behind and forced to try to beg for groups. This wouldn’t be so bad if it was stuff like Dungeons but this content is central and madatory so it is very bad.

*EDIT: I did manage to solo clear side obj + boss in SW as Fire twice in a row (need enough essences to enter it one last time to get cloak rank 7 for the week). The healing food buff helps a lot and knowing what to look out for and knowing how many mobs I can pull to AOE down without risking of dying.

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Yeah, horrific visions sucks for a mage. My mage still hasn’t completed one successfully.

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If you are having trouble staying alive you could try the new food buff. It’s new food specifically for horrific vision. One of them heal you continuously.

I’d K’bab doesn’t seem worth it with low level cloak though. It’s just heal sanity once unlike in the PTR. And it just doesn’t worth eating for 10 seconds which sanity will still be draining.

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Heh, K’bab was the one I made =/

I’m rank 5 cloak now, it is the rank 6 quest that keeps killing me (tried trade, then dwarven, then dwarven more since people say it is better. )

Maybe I’ll try the heal one.

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Best advice I can give is stack 3x Cauterizing Blink, and for outdoor world content use a tanky trinket like Gladiator’s Safeguard. That alone should go a long way to keeping you up.

There’s also certain essences you can take that give you some self healing like Concentrated Flame and Lucid Dreams.

With all that in mind I haven’t had too much trouble in these visions and am now solo’ed to rank 5 so far.

What I do is designate a specific spec for PvP/solo world content/etc, and keep a set of gear with Cauterizing Blink. For me it’s Arcane.

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Thanks for the tip, I’ll look into the food you mentioned. Still, I think I should maybe look for a random group of people to team up with. It’s scary as I don’t like putting those important runs in the hands of strangers but I doubt I’ll manage to solo a side objective + boss on my own at the moment (I play all 3 specs, have better gear for fire but am unsure which spec is best suited for those runs as I haven’t really kept up with PvE in a long time). I may try it once with the food and resort to PUGs if I fail.

As for the essences, I do have and use rank 3 Flame and Dreams and did solo my cloak to rank 5 as well. Outdoor stuff is no problem for me. I can look for cauterizing blink but not sure I want to sacrifice stronger azurite pieces and the best damage traits for those. For rank 6, I need to be able to take out side obj which are supposed to be harder though.

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I have to say, Horrific visions isn’t balanced at all between different class/specs like the mage tower in Legion was.
Try a DH and its like night and day between running a Horrific Visions solo.

I have my mages cloak at rank 5, but haven’t even tried another horrific vision run to get to rank 6.

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Do your best to match damage traits with Cauterizing Blink. Might require you to hang on to azerite pieces for a while to get the right combo but it’s worth it. Especially since I do most of my outdoor solo stuff as Arcane and I can get three blinks outta that. xD

IMO it is definitely worth it to keep some survivability setup for stuff like that, in exchange for damage. I have Frost designated as my pure damage group PvE mode, and Arcane as my PvP/solo mode, and it’s worked well for me so far. I can face tank a lot of the easier rares/elites in the new invasions.

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I didn’t think about the arcane extra blinks (4 with shimmer) which could make cauterizing blink more useful indeed. I’ll keep an eye out for it.

Also, what would be the dmg traits you would suggest for soloing visions as Arcane? I was aiming for the arcane missiles clear cast procs and arcane barrage executes but I think this is PvP oriented. I guess for solo visions the arcane explosion might be better instead of arcane barrage execute?

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I’m at rank 7 cloak just fine solo.

What spec are you using? What traits?

I am fire, I do my mythic+ rotation on groups of 2-4… hard cast flamestrike with talent…at the end of the hard cast hit fire blast for 1 Bm stack, hard cast another and cast fire blast before the first BM one is gone. Then use the insta flamestrike again and another fire blast…that’ll be 3 flamestrikes on top of them, 3 bm stacks while the ground is burning. Usually at that point you can scorch execute and use it to spam flamestrike more or prioritize a higher health target with the insta pyros.

Edit: also every 2 minutes I group as many non elite enemies as I safely can and combustion them down

If you want more control do frost. You can talent in to cleave quite well and do a lot of damage to aoe/single target with orb and comet.

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Thank you for the rotation info, that surely can be helpful for me, I’ll try it out. I play all 3 specs but have azurite traits set more for PvP (As fire I have fireblaster and wildfire x3 each and got the heroic 415 mechagon bracers. As Frost I have Frostbolt trait x3, icicle extra dmg x2 and I forget the other one as I didn’t find icicle x3. As Arcane I can’t remember but I have mostly the clearcast arcane missiles dmg and arcane barrage executes).

I had living bomb, I’ll try what you suggested. I don’t know what the combustion AOE is about though. Is it the same as you just described but with activating combustion? I don’t mind playing any of the 3 spec, I like all 3 but I have highest ilvl (azurite) as Fire at the moment.

(cool mechagnome xmog btw : P)

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Thank you for the xmog compliment!

The combust aoe is basically grouping a lot and using your opener on a high priority target so the ignite hits everything and does the work for you. Like for example in the dwarves district, the forge guy (mini type boss) I pull him and most of the mobs around each bomb site (not elites) then use opener on the forge dude and let the others burn from ignite, once execute phase use that to spam flamestrike and you will finish off the little guys.

I definitely recommend trying to get 3x blaster master…makes a huge difference in AoE for pve.

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I do have blaster master x3 (just forgot the exact name, made a mistake calling it fireblaster in my reply). Would you have an example of suggested opener for the combustion pull? Pull all the mobs and then do the Fireblast x2 > Pyro > fireblast > bracers > pyro > fireblast> pyro etc. sort of thing (with meteor in the mix)?

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Hey my paladin is totally caught up and solos the content easily. The problem is I don’t feel like doing it. I log on and start resenting I have a brand new hamster wheel at the END of an expansion get really pissed off and log.

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Fireblast to open -> rune if power -> lucid/trinket/fire blast -> meteor -> combustion as it falls -> pyro -> FB -> pyro -> FB -> bracers -> pyro -> FB -> pyro etc.

Recast rune of power for it ignite ticking and to not have too many charges.

Always use meteor with rune of power.

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Can i turn myself into a pally? Enhance shamans ain’t the greatest at them.

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Alright, I’ll try that combustion rotation. Getting the AOE rotation you mentionned on trash mobs in daily quests right now and it’s working fine and not confusing or hard to pull off. I gotta log for tonight. I still do dislike how unfriendly this patch is for alts and the forced daily consuming a portion of my WoW playtime but I will definitely try out those rotations with fire, check out for the food mentioned and cauterizing blink trait for arcane gear. I expected a lot of negative comments about how I’m bad rather than several constructive ones so this thread will have been helpful to me for sure and possibly for some other mages in my situation that stumble across it. Thanks guys (I’ll check it back tomorrow in case other people have other suggestions or tips to add, mage forums didn’t seem very active compared to this part here).

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With mage you have to run as a group. That’s why I went right-side tree on mine. Definitely not a class I would recommend solo in a vision. Not until you’ve heavily outgeared it at least.

As for pretty much any melee class though, they can solo the whole thing no probs.

There’s a reason why all new classes are melee only.

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This is Kreivos posting on my mage main just in case you want to see how I’m doing things. But yep, I was in your position not too long ago, struggling with what I think is one of the tougher classes in the game. And I still do at times, a lot of what you are talking about is stuff I can relate to. Welcome to World of Meleecraft after all. Just basically managed to scrape together a few ideas to make things bearable in that harsh open world. Warmode and tougher content like visions is not friendly to a solo mage. xD

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This right here is my biggest problem with visions. Some classes and specs are going to struggle, others will just breeze right through them with minimal problems. I tried trade district for the rank 6 quest, failed and lost all drive to farm the coalescing visions for another vessel to try dwarven district.

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