Wow Mages Dps

Hello and thank you in advance for reading my post, I had played wow up til 2014 and took a break due to loseing interest in wow. I came back briefly for legion and stoped playing about a month after the expansion.

I have recencly come back to play again and it seems i very out of touch for a dps mage. I do have three questions i hope i can get answers for or help :slight_smile :slight_smile:

I have read alot of guides and watched videos and nothing seems to be helping me as even if i try what they say it does not seem to work.

Now before i quit the first time i was a fire mage as that is what i lvled and was used to and with the changes they had made i tried to play and adjust but had issues and was able to play for a bit but due to RL i had to stop playing again.

When legion launched i tried playing again for 2 months with the new changes and artifact weapons and after 2 months got bored of the game and stoped playing yet again til about a month ago.

I got back into to see if i could play it still and it seems that more has changed this time then i care to admit so i have 2 question.

Does gear matter anymore for dps?

what spec does the best dps either single target or AOE

Gear will always matter. Stat priorities are the most important thing, but farming the right trinkets and Azerite gear traits is important as well. Icy-veins.com has very good guides for all classes and specs to help you figure out where to start.

In PvE I think Fire is the way to go for Mages? I don’t play that class, so I’m not positive.

For Classic level as Frost for more surviveability.
Bosses in some raids (Molten Core, BWL) are immune to fire.

i have not used icy viens in a long time and some ppl say it is kinda mute to use them but ill check them out and atm im still playing retail as classic server i picked is a little crowed so im giving it some time so what is why i asked about gear for mages cuase i just noticed that there is versatility and i have no idea what that means/does or how to improve it

I feel mages are more complicated to play compared to draenor days

Versatility is one of the four secondary stats that can appear on gear. It is a flat % increase to damage and decrease to damage taken. Different classes and specs prioritize it differently, which is where icy-veins comes in.

If you really want to get into min-maxing, you can also use Raidbots to sim your character and get a personalized “stat weight” template, which will effectively show you how heavily each stat (main stat, crit, haste, mastery, vers) is weighted (impacts your damage).

I’ve played every mage spec in BfA. I’m certainly not an expert player and I just resubbed after a 5 month break, but here are my thoughts:
In PvE

  1. Fire does well in long fights and fights with tons of forced random movement. The Ignite mechanic has decent cleave and the Fire spec has a lot of instant cast damage abilities although to do its rotation well you still need time to cast Fireball.
  2. Frost has good sustained dps, but amazo burst AOE damage. Between Frozen Orb and Blizzard and 1 or 2 other abilities you can unload some major whoop a-- on a group. Frost is a better kiting class for solo play. Your main filler spell inflicts a mild slow and you have tons of crowd control abilities, especially when using the water elemental’s ranged frost nova.
  3. Arcane is subpar for PvE group play. You can have above average Single Target with poor AOE damage, or above average AOE with poor Single Target damage. For solo PvE it does have gobs of mobility with Shimmer+Displacement, a very strong slow ability, and you can keep Arcane Blast at 4 charge damage almost indefinitely by eating after every encounter (4 charge arcane blast hits like a mac truck). Blizz really gutted this spec in BfA.

In PvP,

  1. Fire is your damage dealer spec. The Greater Pyro Blast is slow to cast but hits REALLY hard for 30% (I think?) of your target’s health. Meteor + Combustion + other things also hit super hard. It also has a ton of instant-cast abilities and you can cast scorch on the run. It’s the only spec with a killer combo if you can lock down your target long enough to pull it off.
  2. Frost is a cc-specialist in pvp. So many ways to slow, freeze, etc… your opponents. It can do respectable damage but its not really its thing.
  3. Arcane has a harassment role. It can keep healers from getting mana back and put some hard slows on people and steal enemy auras left and right, buts its damage is laughable.

If I were to only pick one spec right now I would pick Frost. Keep this in mind: you are always going to get gear that is bad for for Frost but perfect for Fire or Arcane. Instead of scrapping everything, hold onto some stuff and put some practice into an off spec or two. Then if the situation calls for it, you can switch your spec and have decent gear for it in your bags and perform respectably.

Nothing says you can only play 1 spec. Play them all.

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