I am having a metric ton of problems on my frost mage and am thinking of swapping classes. I leveled this guy to 31 and all I want to do bg when it comes out in the late game but as of so far in world pvp everything craps on me other than warriors and shamans. Locks just dot me up and I die even if I kill them. Priests just dot me up and I die even if I kill them and just mind blast me for majority of my life. Rogues literally 1 shot me. Hunters obliterate me. Druids don’t give two sharts about what I do and nither do paladins. All I have ever played in retail is melee classes and I did really well. For once I just wanted to try a caster.
I know mages are supposed to be the best at 1v1 but I just don’t get what I am doing wrong. I tried running up and nova into my rotation… it does nothing even with shatter, I just die. I tried just spamming cast blocking what I can and blinking around, well with a pet on me or anything on me like dots or a druid I just die.
Even in pve I am having hardships. Every other pull I am oom and everyone just plows through dungeons without letting me drink, so every other pull at the end I just sit down and drink while the team is fighting.
I am starting to feel like I should just make a lock.
Could anyone tell me what I should do… lock is looking real good. How easy is it to play a warlock? Are they good in pvp? All I have ever played are melee and the only two casters in classic I think are cool are mage and lock.
Everything you heard about a mage is wrong… you’ll get destroyed by locks and hunters.
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If you aren’t enjoying mage now then you won’t enjoy it later. The only big differences between now and 60 would be health pools and how hard you hit with spells due to spell power items.
As a frost mage you have to keep moving. Cast and move. Never let people get in melee range. Are you maxed out with slow talents and damage increasing talents? Did you take frost barrier? Sheeping a hunter pet takes away a lot of damage or you can sheep the hunter and kill the pet and then kill the hunter. There are quite a few strats to use as a frost mage. Remember that hunters have a dead zone. Get in melee range, freeze them and blast them.
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If you’re looking for 1v1, I think warlocks have that position.
They just fear and dot. You die.
From my experience, it takes a lot for a mage to win 1v1. With a lot of kiting or deadzoning hunters with arcane explosion. Rogue, you will need engineering or snare removal. Warlock survival requires ice block to remove dots(even after a fight).
if your not having fun there is no reason to continue and mages are the glass cannon of classic wow not a play stile for evryone
who said mages are best 1v1?
This is the core issue. Your potential should not be pre-determined by so called analysts and theorycrafters. There is no easy button and 1v1 stacks, ratios, minmax analysis etc. crumble in world pvp due to the situational nature of it.
Honestly, rolling Lock won’t solve your perspective and you will get frustrated early in pvp, too.
I would group in a guild with a more experienced mage and shadow them in world pvp.
You will learn more from doing, than any forum response or clickbait ‘definitive’ youtube video. Keep dying, but learn from it.
Tldr; pick up they robes, and learn from someone better than you at your class
PS: oom in dungeons suggests you may be overtuning. Dial it back, trust the group, and you’ll see yourself using less mana. If you are using Details, cover your DPS meter with a threat meter for a while.
Shadow priests and locks are better 1v1 than mages. They are probably the two best 1v1 classes.
In BG’s and wpvp (raids) mages decimate with their aoe roots, slows and damage. If you want to focus on BG’s, then mage is still a good choice, don’t expect to win vs a shadow priest or lock very often 1v1.
It depends on what you want to do, no one does it all.
dot classes will always give you trouble. On private servers I’d only beat spriests/locks 1v1 is if I block super early, clear my dots and get a full poly reset, then basically 1 shot them in a shatter (ie, frostbolt>fireblast>blanket cs (or actual cs if they cast for whatever reason)>frost nova>frostbolt>cone of cold). With that being said, this game isnt all 1v1s, every single premade will include 1, probably multiple mages in bgs, mages are very very very strong in group pvp (even stronger than they generally are 1v1, which I still think they’re A-tier at and have a chance at every matchup)
Thank you all for the advice so far and I guess the biggest suggestion is decide what direction I want to go in pvp. As Skirby stated, no one does it all. What I have always loved is my DK, but they don’t exist here. The thing is that I loved about him in pvp was looking at a guy on the battle field and being like “You. Me. Let’s go.” Which is something I like in wpvp too. But it just feels like I can’t do that as mage. But that might be just because I am bad. Is lock easier and more like a man fighter like my DK. I was considering warrior but I have 0 time to get some class like that geared.
wait, shamans aren’t crapping on you too? something IS wrong…
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Well my impressions may have been wrong 
Come back to the warrior fold, friend. You know you want to. 
Phases will slow roll. You should have plenty of access to gear.
Well I played a 60 warrior in vanilla as… basically a child. I sucked so hard.
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Do you know how to kite properly? Because you have great mobility and escapes, but if you’re backing up or have your camera spinning around you lose a lot of functionality. Unlock your camera, master strafing, move whenever you aren’t casting. You end up being ganked a lot less when you’re not handicapping your spacial awareness. You can’t range hunters well, so stay in their dead zone, bop in-and-out of it to reset their auto attack and it totally neuters them.
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Learn to pace your spells. You don’t have to unload everything on every enemy all the times. Keeping good consistent damage is better than bursting every pull, you will go OoM slower and you are less likely to rip aggro from your tank, who will appreciate that. Trust me.
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Learn your spells in general. A lot of it is just learning curve, you need to know when and where to use them and how much they’ll cost and be able to make judgement calls on the fly. It’s not retail where you can plant your feet and type-writer out your rotation. Be flexible. And be proactive with sheeps and frost novas.
I don’t have a ton of experience with mage, but I’ve played OoMkin on pvp servers before and it’s a lot of the same basic principles. Casters have a learning curve that’s different from melee (and vice versa) so you’ve just gotta re-learn how to play. And if you’re already re-learning the whole game by jumping from retail to classic, then it’s gonna be a lot harder when NOTHING is familiar to you.
If you’re enjoying it keep at it, it takes some time to pick up the nuances of it. If you’re not liking it, then try something else. Maybe check out Shaman or Druid? You get casters, but with melee variants so you can experiment. Warlock is fun, but is a lot of micro-managing with DoTs and pets, which if you’re struggling with mage might be a lot.
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Hunters, Locks, and Priests will always have the advantage. Rogues are a skill matchup, it could go either way. Things will get easier when you have all your talents and some more spellpower gear.
You can’t do that as a mage. They’re too squishy. If someone gets the first hit on you, you’ve already lost. You’re only choice is to retreat and come back at them later. If you get the first hit, you’ve often won. If that’s not okay with you, you will need a different class. They’re basically a non-stealthed ranged rogue.
What you’re describing is more melee shaman or paladin (if they hit harder).