So i know that mages aren’t exactly known for their self-heals, and haven’t ever been, especially compared to other classes, and i also know that the game isn’t designed around duels, but it’s utter garbage how bad mages are atm. I’ve seen other dps duels (warriors, rets, hunters, rogues, shamans, death knight, demon hunters, warlocks) where the fight just keeps going and going and going because of the insane self heals every class has. Mages are the only class that have been left behind in that regard, and the sad thing is we don’t even bring insane dmg to the table anymore either, so the trade off isn’t even there. What’s really bizarre is how strong healers are currently, in addition to how strong dps self-heals are (EXCEPT for mage). Makes it really annoying chain cc the heals and still can’t kill the dps because they’re just using their defensives and self-heals effectively.
I know arcane is getting an extra shield but tbh i don’t think that will solve anything. Self heals on dps classes (EXCEPT for mage) is just too strong, melee has waaay too many range spells and gap closers and casters haven’t gotten any concurrent “melee immunities”. Once upon a time mages did have a 3 second immunity (forget the name, it was during Draenor expansion, sorta made you see-thru and purplish glowy) and they quickly removed that. Had a mana shield that also knockbacked, they removed that. Mages had a spell reflect and they took that away and gave it to warlocks and warriors! lol. The latest blow was them removing blast wave knockback for most mages.
tl,dr: Does Blizzard think there are too many mages and they’re trying to thin out the herd? What is with the non-stop mage hatred they clearly have?
edit: Nearly forgot, they also removed our Greater Invisibility 60% dmg reduction for a WHOPPING 2 secs (oh boy!) Ice Block used to give a heal, now it doesn’t. Alter Time also got nerfed a bit since it won’t regenerate 100% health anymore. Just more evidence that mage defensives/self-heals have been absolutely gutted while everyone elses has been buffed.