How are mages faring in 1v1?

Classes Mage
1

I’m looking to potentially role mage as a new main.

How a class performs as part of a team is far and away the most important consideration, but classes are designed with teamplay in mind. 1v1 potential has a habit of going by the wayside for many specs and that’s something important to me when considering spending a lot of time with a class.

How are you folks doing in 1v1? Do the mobs present in the open world complicate things to your detriment? Which spec would you recommend and why?

Thank you!

2

I’ve always had an easy time with frost. Arcane and fire seem a little wonky since the mobs can run to you in 2 seconds. Elites that have any form of snare immunity will mess you up. As frost I can kite mobs infinitely for the most part. Ranged or dot npcs will sometimes give you trouble though.

3

^ weird that it posted as my warlock lol

4

What I meant by that was: Do mobs make things harder for you during PvP encounters in the open world?

5

Yeah, compared to other classes that can ignore them.

6

As a mage in 1v1 you have to work your butt off to get a kill. Small mistakes will give you a loss compared to other classes. You can’t go toe to toe with any class in the game, you need to out smart, Los, and kite them. PATIENCE!! During fights…wait for your cds and after you use them cc and kite again.

2 Likes
7

Open World PvP is a lot different when compared to how classes do in Rated PvP evironments where Traits are nerfed by 50% and things like Leech on gear don’t work.

  • As an Arcane mage, with healing Traits such Quick Thinking (Small heal when you use an instanct cast damage spell) and Cauterizing Blink (Small Heal over Time when you Blink) I find it a great spec to currently 1v1 as.

You automatically beat both of the other two mages specs. Frost has to cast for a lot of their damage, and Fire mage heavily relies on Combustion and that’s something you should always be spellstealing as Arcane. Arcane not only has much more healing than both Frost and Fire, a lot of Arcane’s damage is instant cast spells that are healing you at the same time. You also have a much larger mana pool and much more mana regenration, allowing you to spellsteal a mage of another spec many more times.

Things like this apply to all other classes as well. Arcane has a huge toolkit when it comes to 1v1s. The good amount of healing is only the start.

Arcane has a spammable slow, spammable spellsteal, two invisibilities
(Greater Invis - 2 Minute CD - 60% Damage Reduction for 3 Seconds After Ending)
(Mass Invis - 1 Minute CD - Stealths you and allies for 5 seconds)
An Important Note to be known about Mass Invis
You can cast 1 damaging spell while you are in Mass Invis before reappearing, as long as you don’t take damage or have DoTs on you. This is HUGE for getting off things such as a free Polymorph without being able to be stopped. You can also cast ANY cooldowns such as Arcane Power or Charged Up without coming out of Mass invis.

I could probably go on for days with explanations, but Arcane is by far the best mage spec when it comes to 1v1s. Even if you are losing the fight, you can slow/poly the enemy and double blink / invis away to heal to full health.

*One Side Note, Quick Thinking is a very powerful Azerite Trait. You should constantly be taking advantage of this trait. You don’t actually have to deal damage for it to heal, as soon as you cast the spell you receive the heal. So, when you have an enemy player Poly’d you can constantly cast Arcane Explosion to heal, same thing for when you are running away.

1 Like
8

In open world PVP…as soon as you attack another player or are attacked by a player all PvP changes or nerfs apply. This includes the 50% nerf to Azerite traits.

9

I was thinking about going arcane, what would your burst rotation be? Also since we’re talking about pvp, how does it fare 's meele classes? It seems like it has good tools.

10

Arcane burst has two different styles - one is on demand, the other requires setup but is FAR more potent.

First type - Arcane power and trinkets - Hard cast 1 AB, PoM 2 ABs, spam AB and use missles when possible.

Second type (FAR deadlier but requires some luck/setup) Get THREE stacks of clearcasting, pop arcane power and trinkets, use all 3 arcane missles, PoM 2 AB insta, then spam AB for the rest of its duration unless you get more clearcasting procs. Clearcasting missles with the level 15 talent that gives it another tic AND the honor talent that increases its max charge limit and damage is incredibly powerful. I also stack Arcane Pummeling trait which gives me so much more damage with this burst rotation as well. Best of luck!

Note: This may not be the best rotation for everyone, but the more you play the more you’ll start to develop your own tactics and strats, pvp is about who thinks faster and reacts quicker as well as adapting to your surroundings. Nothing is set in stone especially with LoS, CC, kiting etc.

11

Trick is play fire
Pie+maledict=win.

12

Fire is a blast in wPvP :slight_smile:

Stacking healing or absorb traits make it feel much better. Too bad these aren’t what I rock most of the time.