Mage actually solos a lot better than they used to

Classes Mage
1

At least frost does, but arcane/fire keep up too. And arcane is only spec that can solo sylvanas from Shadowlands (haven’t done it, but there is a youtube video of an arcane mage doing it)

More sustain and defenses (granted its all active and you need to know how to use most of them, like alter time) than most classes.

You got strong barriers (normal barrier, mass barrier, blink barrier)
Self heal with ice block, and technically can go to ice cold and still do stuff and still have the self heal, but I find the other talents to be better (edit: actually trying out cold snap after all, I can see why most mages take it)
Displacement self heal
barriers can self heal
slows as arcane and frost
Tons of crowd control abilities as frost
alter time, takes practice to use but very good
If you add leech to that, even better
I imagine missing a thing or two, already listed a lot

Mage is honestly kinda OP for soloing. I find I have an EASIER time soloing on my mage than my ret paladin. And I can just stand there (mostly) taking hits compared to my hunter, shaman and evoker characters. My warlock can stand there taking hits, but I find mage to be a bit tankier (at least frost due to cold snap)

Mage is seen as super squishy because of how it was in the past.

but in DF it has more defenses and self sustain than hunter, warlock (maybe affliction warlock is better because all the drains and life leech), better heals imo than ret paladin, evoker, shaman, priest…hmmm…most classes tbh. Blood DK better still and most tanks still better, but for DPS I find mage to be very tanky and self sustainable.

Definitely overlooked for soloing, because how people perceive them from the past.

(to add:

There is fire cataracts think its called, thats like a cheat death sorta
Invisibility is sorta an escape death, can break aggro and give you a chance to live (does reset the enemy though)
Reabsorbtion I guess is ok, 5% of mirror image hp to heal, but only by direct damage

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Frost mage is in a league of its own when it comes to soloing open world content. A shattered Ray of Frost can melt almost any rare mob just by itself. Arcane and Fire need to pop major cooldowns to do the same and it takes them much longer.

3

yeah, open world its pretty trifle compared to most classes. Can even take on the 20+ million bosses decently that I can only mostly/usually do on tank classes. Most time someone shows up though at some point, but could probably solo them if wanted to

can solo dungeons easily, though do pretty outgear them with the new item levels being thrown around

probably can’t solo mythic 0-1 like could potentially before, I know I soloed mythic 1 on my warrior prot, but mythic 0 is mythic 10 now I believe.

4

Are you sure tanks can’t solo sylv? I’m pretty sure tanks are still the gods of wow.

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According to the arcane video, its cause of uh…touch of the magi is kinda broken in “old” content or it scales high or something

I can’t link it, but its by Araitik on youtube, arcane mage solo sylvanas

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This has to be a joke post.

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I’m not sure if this is a troll post.

I’m pretty sure this is a troll post.

I’m 100% certain this is a troll post.

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lol for real, Mage is honestly the only class I’d recommend boosting. For other classes it’s nice to slowly build up and learn the rotation…for mage it’s basically waiting on cooldowns and using every single defensive to accomplish anything.

3 Likes
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you just must be a bad mage who doesn’t use their defenses or goes 100% glass cannon only damage abilities

The only troll here is YOU

You gladly ignored all the abilities I listed that mages can use for self sustain and defenses. Try harder.

Literally hunters get a couple defenses and one is a 30% damage decrease…thats literally it…and can’t even attack during that period lol. Hunters are squishy as heck without their pet or as survival (beastmaster is the only good solo spec but its still lacking in defenses/sustain if their pet dies), and having a pet is no excuse cause warlocks have a ton of defenses and self sustain.

I’d say warlocks are still pretty tanky, but with all the mage defenses in DF, they can compete imo. Ret paladins have some defenses, but their word of glory been pretty nerfed compared to how it was in shadowlands and WoD, though I’ll admit they are really tanky too.

But the point of the thread being mages have TONS of defenses and self sustain abilities…you just can’t build it as a glass cannon dps only lol. Leveling sucks as a mage, but once you hit 70 its vastly better since you get the full tree…kinda does suck leveling though compared to most classes, since early on mages don’t have much defenses/sustain.

Plus again, arcane mages can solo sylvanas. No other class can apparently do that.

Either way, at least in the open world and doing dungeons (haven’t tried mythics since they got buffed up), I honestly personally find soloing as a mage easier than my ret paladin. I find I have an easier time than my warlock too, only beastmaster is easier but kinda squish if pet dies. Tanks are still vastly easier though.

(to add)

All relatively same item level. My warlock is the only one that hasn’t been touched much since the item level increase in recent patch. Hunter is a bit further down than mage, but not by much. Paladin is actually a tiny bit higher due to some lucky drops.

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Yeah leveling is miserable but at max Fire is low key one of the tankiest specs…alter, cauterize, 20% DR, double shield, ice block, invis…I’d just immediately topple over if I tried to play anything else

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yup :smiley: When you go for a more tanky build, mages really are surprisingly…well… tanky. Of course, most builds are glass cannons made for 100% groups/mythics. But…I mean, thats on the person and I guess thats why people think they are squishy I guess or stuck in the past of how mages used to be.

And fire next expansion looks lit, with all the phoenixes (even though they aren’t actually pets). Gonna be super fun to play.

(to add again)

Literally not trolling, I really find mage to be really tanky in DF compared to most DPS (not all but most) and personally find it really easy (and fun) to play. But I’m built talent-wise to be tanky and have most sustain/defenses possible, so my dps isn’t very good. I wouldn’t likely be welcomed in mythics but oh well, this is a solo thread not a mythic thread :stuck_out_tongue:

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Says the person on a hidden Druid.

I didn’t ignore anything. I’m well aware of what mage has and doesn’t have.

Thus why they have it. Hunters have always been one of the best if not the best solo class. Talk about being bad at something.

Yep, which is why they are vastly tankier than mage. I have both at fairly high IL and the warlock can do things solo the mage would only dream of doing.

You just said previously mages were tankier.

2 bubbles including a full immunity one, a 100% instant heal, word of glory still heals for a lot. In no way is mage self-healing better.

Not arguing this, though it’s vastly different for each spec. Fire has quite a bit more than frost which has more than arcane.

Ok so mage is great soloing but not great at soloing but great at soloing but takes a while to be great at soloing? Um…

An aberration because of a scaling bug isn’t really a good argument to keep referring to here.

You haven’t done dungeons on anything but base mythic difficulty but you’re going to tell us how they work?

And that’s awesome you do. But to claim mage has better heals than ret is lunacy.

Again, awesome but in no way representative of the general populace. In fact, try soloing one of those 10m+ health elites and see if your lock or mage has a better time.

But you previously said hunter was worse at soloing than mage. Which is it?

Point being, you’re using very limited experience and painting with a wide brush here. If you’re enjoying your mage and find it’s survivability better, fantastic. And in some cases mage is better at soloing than it used to be. Not arguing that. But to claim that it’s better than almost every other class, including the actual survivability classes like hunter and warlock, is just silly.

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Can you post your build? My mage is about to hit 70 and I am curious as to how I should build for open world

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Hunter have the least amount of defenses and sustain of any class, maybe rogue has less I’ve never leveled one (rogue I’ve tried leveling and find it impossible. I’d LIKE to have one at max level, but just can’t figure it out). But hunter doesn’t have anything except the pet. Either way, can’t think of a class with so little defenses in DF except again…maybe rogue.

I do find hunter SUPER easy because the rotation is so simple, but just so squishy if they ever get targeted.

Like literally, DF the entire game is designed around surviving one hit attacks in harder content (which I don’t do, BUT its a big problem for those who want to do harder content or solo harder content) and having self defenses and self sustain…hunters lack that heavily. They get a junky heal, and the worst defense any class has lol.

Compare hunter defenses/sustain to mage, and its not even the same ballpark. Though I kinda think we are talking about two different things…so I’ll tell you where I am focused on

I am focused on self sustain and defenses when soloing, not just dps. And I want to stand and tank stuff like…a tank xD Mostly cause kiting doesn’t really work on mobs that can’t be slowed or CCed. Mage can do that however sorta (shield, blink or shimmer shield etc), havoc DH can do that, ret paladin can do that and warlock obviously.

BUT I find mage to be better than most of those classes I just listed for defenses/sustain, except havoc DH is super OP lol.

Mage today is WAY better than it was in the past for defenses/sustain…I remember mage was the worst by far class for defenses and sustain, needed a priest or warrior all the time with you

As for my character, I can’t actually change it for some reason. I want to post on my mage since I’m maining it, but when I click my mage the forum won’t change my character xD its stuck on this character without even a picture on it for some reason, so I dunno whats going on. Its been like it for two weeks now, I thought it just fix itself tbh…but guess not

(edit: if anyone sees this before the edit, trimmed post down cause was kinda long than it already is)

15

Mage has always had excellent solo capabilities throughout all of WoW.

Slows from Frost allows kiting as well as Blink to have further distance from melee, frost nova etc.

While Fire has always had wonderful burst to burn stuff to a crisp and fast.