So, I’ve traditionally played ranged classes. Save for Shaman I’ve tried and enjoyed them all. Maining a disc priest back in the day I eventually turned to DPS and fell into the mage. Traditional, vanilla, I know. But I enjoyed the class pre MoP. And even after found some joy in the class. Now I should disclose, I did end up leaving the game after WoD for personal reason, a close friend who got me into the game passed. But I decided to make a reappearance in DF because I’ve been hearing good things and wanted to try out the new Dracthyr race.
Anyway, since being back I’ve slowly been immersing myself back into the game/meta/community and noticed there are a few mages out there who want to see Blizzard spice up the class a bit. And it got me thinking about what I wished I could have had for a mage back in Cataclysm/MoP. So I want to present a rework idea and get opinions.
Three specs (duh), Arcane/Elemental/Necromancer. But this isn’t just “combine two current specs and add Necro”. I want to see Arcane become a Spellblade build. Let my mage use that sword/dagger they have been carrying. And my insane bubble. Let mage armor be a thing to allow a mage to be slightly tankier and funnel the channeled arcane spells into instant melee spells. Allow the Spellblades Mage to buff the melee in raid (similar to Aug). Then make Elemental dance around Fire and Frost spells. Maybe the frost builds up to frozen and a fire spells hits for guaranteed crit and shatter or something. Make the spec dance around the elements they control, similar to Balance Drude’s. And Necromancer, well I’ll admit. This is just fan service as a DK is already like a necromancer in a lot of ways. But in WoW Lore, Necromancers were generally mages. And we could even make the spec CD a Lich transformation (taught by the liches that act as class trainers) similar to old Metamorphosis for Locks.
I know this isn’t fully thought out, and a dev or someone with more experience will see the flaws. But I’m still interested in feedback/public opinion on this.
One spec belongs to a shammy and the other for a DK.
Well… you kinda said this yourself. It wasn’t fully thought out, therefore it’s bogus.
Not quite true. Necromancy, when applied to a spellcaster, were generally for priests. Using light magic to bring back the dead is a form of necromancy.
Ok, well your idea is bad and built on a faulty premise. The mage specs are some of the best defined of any in the game. One class with three very different playstyles. It’s awesome as it is. I don’t think ive ever seen anyone express a desire for the class to be turned into one mage spec, a shaman spec and a death knight spec.
The classic Warcraft example of a necromancer is Kel’thuzad - a mage.
As for OP, I agree with the overall concept of Mage specs needing a revamp. I think it’s pretty lame that the defining theme of your wizard is “I only throw fireballs/icicles/glowy balls”.
Don’t get me wrong, the specs are currently fun to play and we’ll designed (at least Fire and Frost; I haven’t played Arcane recently). It’s the theme of the specs that is outdated (to put it nicely).
But I don’t think the 3 specs you recommended are the right choices, and I’m not going to spend time trying to brainstorm alternatives…because I just play a mage occasionally as an alt, so it’s not that important to me.
I do think lots of classes could use a complete spec revamp.
Exactly. Kel was a mage who was also a Lich. But even considering the “New World” we are definitely in. Liches continue to be connected to mages in lore. And there are Liches who haven’t been hostile and would seemlessly transition into class trainers.
But, I do see that of my offerings, only the Battlemage is a truly original idea in WoW. Elemental mage exists through the Shaman and Evoker more or less now. Even though neither are expressly working around having to cast fire and Frost in a rotation to maximize each. But I’m no master of either so maybe I’m playing them wrong. And DK’s are pretty heavy in the Necro tree. But, still, I can’t shake this feeling that mages have one spec with three different visuals. Yes one spec is always a step above the others but all three are the same.
It’s interesting how much Warcraft has codified these things in modern culture. We all think of a lich the way it’s portrayed here as these skeletal figures with those weird ribbon-legs and a phylactery protecting their soul but classically it’s just an undead mage. We can roll one ourselves.
While we’re at it, “immolation” originally meant sacrifice. Immolation Aura makes no sense in that regard. Thanks to Warcraft it’s taken on the connotation of “sacrifice by burning.”
We have to remember that there is a Lich in game that is completely different than any other lich. He is just a run of the mill undead in the undead starting zone on an island. Sadly, no quest associated with him anymore but he still exists in the game and his lore hasn’t changed. So, to your point, there is just an Undead Mage in game who turned himself into a Lich without Arthas’ help. Who could serve as a “class trainer” in Org. Even though class trainers have no point in the game anymore