In any form of group pvp, Arcane Mage and healer is borderline unplayable. The main three offenders are
- Lack of pushback protection
- Lack of instant casts
- (sort of a result of above, but) Lack of survivability
When it comes to pushback, the only talent/option we have is for arcane missiles. A fix might be as simple as adding pushback protection to Arcane Blast and/or the healing spells to this talent. Trying to hardcast Arcane Blast is pretty much only possible in 1v1 settings where you have to first sheep them, or just hoping that nobody notices you hard casting a 2.5s spell. Both rarely occur. Trying to hardcast a Chronostatic Preservation is really only possible when people are ignoring you, and also just asking to get interrupted and then locked out of ALL spells for 10 seconds.
I donāt really think there is a balanced way to give Arcane Mage / Healer Mage any instant casts, but Iām still mentioning it because instant cast heals / hots / bubbles is a core component of other classes ability to heal in pvp settings.
If we got some form of pushback protection, that would certainly help survivability. But right now Mage survability in PvP outside of Frost is pretty much a joke.
Anyway it would be nice to see some changes to help out the Healer and/or Arcane bros in PvP. I do appreciate the QOL update to mage water. But I would have preferred an update to mage other than making us better water ponies.
3 Likes
arcane mage right now at 40 can global anybody 100% to 0 in a couple of casts. Maybe try that
Long CD, eats 100% of your mana, and only might 1 shot you if it crits.
chronomatic preservation is an amazing heal. just use that and run deep frost for more survivability and gg you got one hell of a support/healer.
If you want you can do a bit of damage first before one shotting in a global lol. Maybe a fire blast, arcane blast if you feel good
so mage is only good in a 3 minute window, just like it was in original vanilla, the 3 minute mage meme lives again! lol
Itās an amazing heal if people ignore you. Yes. But if anyone decides to interrupt your 2s (very long) heal, you are locked out of ALL fire frost and arcane tree for 10 seconds. if any pet or aoe damage hit you, itās a full pushback with no mitigation.
with Arcane Power up and full mana, Arcane Surge hits for ~1300 in my gear. A lot of damage, yes. But nowhere near a 1shot. If youāre anywhere other than full mana, it does not hit very hard at all. Also, that is relying on a 3min CD (arcane power) and a 2min CD (Arcane Surge), AND you must be full mana, AND you will have zero mana afterward lol.
i mean its the same issue literally everyone has outside of druids if they only focus on hotsā¦being a healer is all about positioning. being a mage ontop of that we have the ability to CC better then any other healer right now. with a way to escape stuns. mobility and still dish out good damage.
Arcane surge doesnt one shot by itself. You presence of mind and cast a instant arcane blast and a arcane surge and if one of those crit its normally 2.5k+ total damage then finish it off with a fireblast if they have 3k hp which most people do not have
The reason i know this is because i have 3k hp and a mage was fighting me in a Rare spawn spot and he would one shot me constantly and the only way for me to survive was to send my pet in with cooldowns (Beastial Wraith) and use nightelf stealth.
This thread is about mages but the truth is no one can heal at the moment. I mostly play warrior and you legit donāt need mortal strike right now. On the off chance you do see a healer theyāre going to get blown up from 100-0 in seconds. Even as a fury warrior you can death wish and outdamage their healing, donāt even really need pummel. Other non-warrior classes have it even easier to kill healers.
They need to change the meta across the board and probably add some DR. Right now itās a burst meta but heals hardly move health bars.
2 Likes
Arcane Mage and other healers that rely on long cast times are unplayable in PvP. What were the devs thinking?
Examples:
- Priest given 90% INSTANT damage reduction + mana regen on a 2 min timer (essentially a pally bubble + mage evo in one)
- Priest healer has instant bubble, prayer of mending, renew, penance, and instant dots,
- Holy Priest and Fire mage can spec into 70% reduced spell pushback with just 2 talents
Compared to arcane mage who has no HoTs, instants, or defensives. Who thought this through?
2 Likes
Truly what is needed most to address both PvE and PvP concerns is Nether Tempest, an arcane DoT that will provide a HoT effect on those we beacon, splash heals while we are stunned/ccād, and give some buffer while we try to cast our spells.
Arcane Barrage would be nice as well, itād feel like a holy shock.
The full lockout on CsP is just punishment, especially since we never get time to pump it up with any extra damage anyway. Presently it is just a clunky 2-button heal. Good in theory but pointless in practice. Augmenting mana shield via rune would be good, not to duplicate Ice Barrier, but to make it castable on others like a disc shield would be very nice.
Iād also add a line to mana shield that it reduces spell pushback from all sources by 100%, the effect continues for 10 sec after the shield is consumed. Add new buff āfocused mana residueā for that time.
There are myriad of solutions to pushback, that is just one idea. A blink rune that provides some shielding, spacetime preservation to allow a freecast, anything like that would be snazzalicious.
i mean, the nature healers get fully locked out on heals too, so does holy pal. even priest can do very little after being holy locked. guess who has the 10 second lockout ability?
the mana shield rune is actually a cool idea due to the cost if its consumed, but does fire pushback not work on CsP? Iām asking cause Iām almost 30 on my mage right now. From what Iāve seen, of the āFlashā heals CsP is the strongest, by far.
In the burst meta right now Iād take a look at every healerās ability to respond. We are all dying too fast without being able to respond. Itās not rock-paper-scissors atm, itās just rocks.
disagree, but comp is very important. you typically want sturdy filler spots and unfortunately moonkin has that on lock, both defensively and as an off healer. I dont think you wanna solo heal with a mage either. TBH you donāt wanna solo heal with anything even priest but with double heal or heal + moonkins with wg(op) you can survive quite a bit. but if you think back even the OG full PvP gear 5 mans in vanilla ran double heal, so nothing out of the ordinary.
Mage healing is very strong in pvp now and my guildies are usually amazed at how long I keep them alive while also kiting multiple melee
Healing in general can be rough this phase but mage healer is actually one of the stronger options for pvp right now
1 Like
Whatās your secret to getting casts off?
Ice barrier, icy veins, mana shield, fire ward, positioning, self peels, including sheeping someone on you
You can keep a heal stored before you need it unlike other healers and you can run to cover charge your heal out of los then come out to throw it
The main thing is positioning well though
Hmm, thatās frost, not arcane. I get it, though.