Never have I once ran out of mana playing fire or frost. If this is our resource to manage, a seemingly infinite one, what’s the point of even having it?
Meanwhile I actually enjoy managing mana on arcane. Mana depletion in exchange for nuking is a fair deal—shouldn’t fire and frost be similar?
For every dps spec other than arcane, mana is just used to prevent you from spamming heals/utility spells. Practically, this probably just means spellsteal.
In Vanilla WoW, all casters were built around mana. Even fire and frost mages had to manage it.
With the current design, dps casters except for arcane mages can ignore mana. It’s an archaic mechanic.
The only way you’ll run out of mana as a fire or frost mage is if you spam Spellsteal like there’s no tomorrow.
The point, at least for Blizzard developers, is to maintain a link to the old ways of how classes used to work. For the rest of us, it’s a sad, extremely antiquated system that simply doesn’t fit in with modern class and/or raid design. Then again, arcane mage is a sad, extremely antiquated class that doesn’t fit in with modern class and/or raid design…
Here’s hoping at some point before 9.0 they rework us. Not holding my breath though.
There isn’t one. If they replaced mana for fire and frost with 4 charges for spellsteal, it would have the same effect. There’s room for some additional resource mechanics for all mage specs.
I like to give my opinion as fact. I’m a millennial and don’t have a job.
Giving opinions as fact is hardly just a millennial problem… haaaave you met Gen X?
My take on it is that mana is a remnant of an old system and they haven’t found a viable alternative resource for many specs. Mana obviously mattered in Vanilla but now it only matters for some classes/specs and mana has been replaced by proc-based resources (crits for fire, Icicles for frost) and they haven’t bothered to remove mana or integrate these resources into an actual resource pool in lieu of mana.
A) I’m not a millennial. B) I have a job, one that I’m usually at 6 days a week. C) It’s the internet, if you don’t like opinions, best to stay off of it. D) The irony of a post coming from yet another player hiding on a low level alt is not lost here.
it limits spellsteal spam. that is all
If it means anything, I don’t think you meant to present your opinion as fact. You just don’t know how to communicate very well. I Think that mana was a great logical system for magic users and that Blizz should start making it relevant again.
It doesn’t.
Or you’re far too butthurt over someone’s opinion to see past your own point of view.
Oh so YOUR opinion about is ok, but anyone else’s is just them lacking communication skills? Begone troll and take your snottiness with you. 
Hey man, cool down! lol You’re the one presenting your opinion as fact, not me! And that’s not just my opinion, so if you don’t intend on presenting your opinion as fact, maybe you should proofread what you write so everyone else wont misinterpret you instead of attacking someone whose trying to be nice.
Rofl telling people they lack communication skills and getting bent out of shape because of a comment that has zero to do with you personally isn’t “nice” in the slightest. As for “proofreading” remarks, you’re the only one here who seems to have misinterpreted anything. No one else is butthurt over this, why it seems to bother you to the point of being a condescending tool about it I don’t get. Nor do I care.
Ladies, ladies. There’s plenty of Mage problems to go around, no need to argue over who gets what.
Clearly I’m not the only one. But hey, no reason to have a temper tantrum over this. If you read and compare our posts, you would clearly see that You are the only one here “Bent out of shape”. If you actually read my posts, I’m not angry about it, bothered or bent out of shape. I don’t look down on people if they don’t communicate precisely, I’m a retired ESL teacher so it’s something I used to see all the time. But if you feel offended because you think I’m being condescending, then I apologize.
Also, I think it’s hilarious that one person says plainly that you present your opinion as fact, and then insults you and you’re calm about it, but I merely suggest a problem in communication, and you jump up and down on my head for it. Yeah, that’s kind of funny.
But Tuckletuts, I’m pretty happy with my mage atm no need for anyone to get mad about it. (“mad” in both senses of the word)