I created my mage when I was 14 years old and I’m now 32… I’ve played off and on but I can’t express how disappointed I am that my favorite class just doesn’t hit the same.
My favorite part of being a Mage was that I was fragile and weak but my abilities hit so hard. With all the class changes over the last 15 years my Mage is just not fun as it used to be. It feels like my abilities do so little damage in comparison to other classes.
This is just me complaining into the void.
Amplify/Dampen Magic - Gone
Arcane Brilliance - Gone
Conjure Mana Gem - Gone
Ice Armor/Molten Armor - Gone
Deep Freeze - Gone
Living Bomb - Gone
Summon Water Elemental - I can randomly get a water elemental…
Spell Steal… This is crazy and it’s the only reason we even have mana now. So limited.
Pyroblast - This went from a Nuke to a tickle
Polymorph - At 6 seconds in pvp why is this just not an instant case?
Invisibility - Why can’t I just blink without breaking invis?
Mirror image - Why should I even use this ability? This should create clones like ‘Mirage’ in apex legends.
Scorch - This is underwhelming now
Icy Veins - Why isn’t this just a passive at this point?
WTF happened to our talent trees? Why are fire mages only doing dmg with combustion active? Why can’t I have my water elemental as a tank back? Why does every class seem like it has some close in ability now? Blink is not unique anymore. Why not just reduce blink cd, or double blink distance?
I’m just an old grump who misses wanting to play my mage and doing big dmg. Now I prefer DK, Hunter, Warrior, Demon Hunter, Druid, or any other class at this point. Moonkin, Evokers, Hunters, Priests etc. hit harder and get heals.
What do you think Mages really need to get that feeling back of being a glass cannon?
One of the main reasons is that Mages simply have not gotten the same level of design overhaul as other classes and as direct result of that feel dated and underwhelming. The other, which is related, is that the devs created a brand new class in the Evoker with all the updates they should have given Mages.
P.S. All of these shortcomings stand out more to us now precisely because we aren’t kids anymore and have higher expectations that devs simply aren’t meeting. It’s an industry-wide problem when it comes to gaming these days.
I mean…things like amplify/dampen magic from vanilla are well-relegated to the dustbin. Do we also miss “Detect Magic”? Stacking ToEP & ZG trinkets to AP POM Pyro delete someone every 3 minutes? Whether or not we agree with the design philosophy, I think it’s good that things have at least evolved in a way to (at least try to) create 3 unique specs from what was basically 2-ish depending on the raid tier…
Sounds like you’re just tired of the class. You might find you like another one more if you tried others. There’s nothing wrong with that. I still happen to love Mage shrug.
Yes there are some complaints with mages but holy hell look at brewmaster or survival hunter
There are definitely specs with worse off situations than us.
Mainly focusing on arcane, I think the design is probably the best it’s ever been. You mentioned classic; back in classic arcane had arcane missiles and explosion. Blast came in BC and barrage in WotLK. That, to be quite frank, sucks. Current arcane feels so much better imo
My biggest gripe with arcane is the current target cap, as well as the useless capstone nodes on the right bottom of the tree and the uselessness of mana as a resource. And i wouldn’t even say these are major gripes; aff lock for example has to manually spread agony in aoe (or at least that’s what i was told, i dont play aff)
Arcane is pure chaos right now lol in a good way. The amount of orbs and barrages going out and the amount of aoe missiles from tier set and aether attunement. it’s wild how hard it is to not be at 4 charges constantly. Arcane orb to me is one of the best looking spells and aoe missiles firing off constantly it’s so cool to play atm.
Really? I am of the opposite mind. Arcane Orb looks incredibly dated to me which is no surprise given that it has literally never gotten a VFX update since it was first released way back in WoD well over a decade ago. Meanwhile the updated visual has been in the game since BfA but is only used by NPCs. It’s one of the main reasons I prefer Sunfury over Spellslinger; I’d much rather see more Arcane Barrages flying out than Arcane Orbs.
Arcane Orb also has the added problem of accidentally pulling targets you didn’t intend to pull even when casting it directly and trying to aim it correctly but especially when it procs randomly and catches you by surprise when you’re moving. In those cases it either gets wasted or, worse, gets you (and likely the rest of your party) killed if it pulls too many extra mobs.
I do agree that it’s definitely fun to have more procs as Arcane and have all of these extra spells popping out but, like you said, that’s pure chaos and directly contradicts the fantasy of Arcane which is literally the magic of order.
The design direction for Arcane has been all over the place over the years and the resulting hodgepodge of competing and clashing ideas has left it feeling like a mess with more talents that don’t synergize with one another than those that do. Nothing they’ve added to Arcane since Legion has been well received or added positively to the way the spec plays aside from the Hero Talents which unfortunately didn’t mesh well with the spec since neither was designed with Arcane in mind. We’re definitely in need of yet another overhaul though, if it even comes, likely won’t go nearly far enough just like none of the previous ones have.
I can get behind this, though I am in that very small minority who loved WOD arcane and prismatic crystal. But there are still several non-synergies that are frustrating like harmony vs 3 second use it or lose it Barrage procs and AB being both a builder and spender that simply doesn’t hit hard anymore. Arcane has almost always been a ST spec and outside of Legion, this is the only time I can remember its ST sucking.
You’re definitely correct about the right side of the talent tree being essentially wasted and Barrage only hitting 5 targets.
I’m an oldie here too. I started near the end of Vanilla as a Tauren Warrior, and made this Mage mid-TBC before the Isle of Quel’danas was released.
When the WotLK pre-patch launched, Arcane was absolutely dominating people in World PvP and I loved it. I’ve mained this character ever since. I’ve also watched it slowly degrade into what it is today and yeah, I no longer get that same high as I did back then.
I miss the times when I could 1-shot POM Pyro people into the ground, or Arcane Blasts that actually felt like getting hit by a magical semi-truck, or the Deep Freeze Ice Lances…
So many memories, and no new memories have been made lately because it’s a struggle to keep up with whatever direction this class has turned into. The constant nerfs and questionable changes lately are a sign that this dev team really doesn’t know what the basics of what a Video Game is supposed to be: Fun.
Instead, it feels like you have to do homework all the time to stay relevant.
