From Paper and Pencil Role Playing Fantasy Games. To Literature and Movies, PC and Console Games. We have seen all kinds of wizards, sorcerers, spell casters, and Magic Users. Which have now come to be called Mages. Which is kinda an all inclusive generalization.
If you could Redo the Wow Mage. What type of abilities and Spells would you consider would appropriately reflect / represent the Traditional Fantasy Mage Ideal in your opinion?
I would delete the class altogether.
Whoâs bright idea was it to give someone that much control? Itâs like giving a fighting game character the best mobility/damage in the game then justifying it with low health.
I would turn arcane into a battlemage. Their aoe is already pretty much melee range. They can wield swords. Just crank up the strength of their barrier, turn some abilities into weapon strikes, and let them use shields. Ooh, have some kind of effect where the damage they take is converted into mana.
https://www.wow-freakz.com/img/screenshots/wowhead_601540.jpg
Iâd probably collapse the specs into one, build it around balancing the arcane forces flowing through them. To far into ice you get slow, but build up mana, too far into fire you take damage but do extra, to far into arcane and you blow through mana like it was âsugarâ but have insane haste. But keep them balanced and you just delete things.
I would strip Fire & Frost from the spec. Any fun âelementalâ spells lost could be given to Shaman. Or even DK, in regards to Frost.
Iâd add some form of conjurer/arcanist that uses a book to summon objects or very temporary monsters.
Itâs important to distinguish that it would not be a traditional pet summoner class.
This would be a little bit of:
Wildstar Esper
FF14 Summoner (With the bopk + how some of the summons are super brief)
Lost Ark Arcanist / LoL Twisted Fate
So youâd be summoning things like weapons, cards, magic creatures that do 1 thing then leave.
For the other spec, Mage needs some form of Time magic.
MoP iteration of Alter Time. Remove the Temporal Flow stuff from Arcane. Freeze time as CC, speed up / slow down yourself / enemies as offensive / defensive spells.
They could have a unique level 65 talent row where the actual talent is only active during your burst window where you grant yourself 5 levels.
Thatâs just off the top of my head. Time Magic could be really really creative.
Ok, another redo for arcane. Letâs really emphasise the warping of time and space. Iâm thinking lots of blinks. Iâm thinking some wacky secondary effect to an area you blink to, like any enemies in a certain radius are suspended in the air for a few seconds, or just dealt heavy damage. Iâm thinking mirror image type things that are an echo of what youâd been doing a few seconds prior, or maybe repeat your last few damage spells. Iâm thinking mirror image clones with far better AI. Like island expedition AI. Iâm thinking slows. Lots of slows. Big slows for all your enemies! Iâm thinking being able to reverse your enemyâs position to a few seconds prior. Iâm thinking alter time is not negated by death, but is actually immediately triggered by it. Iâm thinking a self heal where you reverse the wounds youâve sustained.
Long story short, I think arcane is a very boring spec that deserves a much more creative design.
If they were like dnd mages theyâd just fall over if you so much as sneeze at them
I would just make the mage a summoner pet class increasing the duration of mirror image. And giving each mirror image a different spell. Like Fire, Frost, Lightning. Etc. Just an idea.
Honestly, I think Mages are largely fine as they are - they reflect well the history of the concept in WarCraftâs past, and donât feel like theyâre missing anything from that definition.
If you want to tinker with balance, thatâs one thing, but thematically, they donât really want for anything.
I can dig that.
Agreed, only thing about Mage I was do is make the skill trees effectively open up âsub specsâ so to speak for all three. 3 different types of fire mage/Frost mage/arcane mage depending on how the player wants their mage to work Tailoring to individual play styles.
Honestly would love to see this skill tree change for ever class and their specs. Give players more class identity.
Revert the mana management style of Arcane into WotLK Arcane Mage.
If I were in a position to redo mage from the ground up, I would be incredibly tempted to split it into two classes, one of which would be a very illusion/charm focused mage with at least one melee spec in the mix (functionally GWâs mesmer).
The Elemental Mage that covers both the ice-focused human mage and the fire-focused high/blood elf mage from wc3 could maybe, idk, have a third spec that makes it a hybrid (preferrably a heal spec).
The illusions mage could do melee dps/ranged dps/tank-or-heals as its specs
I would increase the burst phase of Arcane Mage and make the rest of the time about actually rebuilding the mana. Itâs not good in pvp at all but it could be really fun in pve to work for like 20 seconds and get like a 600k chunk off the boss/mob group.
The same could be said to Rogues and Warriors to some extent.
Lightning and Sword combo.
Idk Iâd just make a new spec that was rooted in arcane but didnât remove the current arcane spec.
Ion: âAfter further deliberation and some rando named Mustachio, weâve decided to delete the Mage class altogether. Unfortunately all that time you spent using one as your main with all the gold, legendaries, achievements, and various other things youâve done with that class will be gone.â
Yeah, name an MMORPG that got rid of a class and it worked.
I like the Mage as WoW has presented it. If I could add anything else, it would be a fourth chronomancy themed healer spec so I have access to a role other than dps, and maybe bring back the Khadgarâs Unlocking spell.
I donât know about reinventing mages as a class, but I would be very happy if they made CC and polymorph relevant in instances again.
/sigh