(Holy crap, a post two days in a row? BELIEVE IT!)
Q: Where do mages fit in the current scope of things, and where do you see them from this point going forward?
A: Mages are the iconic caster class, squishy as hell, standing at range and chucking things at their enemies. We see them basically staying exactly the same with no major changes whatsoever. Mages are awesome, and we’re going to keep it that way.
Q: What is it that makes them unique when compared to other classes?
A: More than any other class, mages focus on a single spell to the exclusion of all others. This means mages are the only class that can effectively raid by pressing a single button. Kinda like how Warlocks worked in BC, except without all that pesky “sacrifice the Succubus” stuff.
Community Team: A lot of initial questions and concerns we received from mages around the world were concerning itemization.
Q: In particular, a lot of the newer PvE and PvP mage or caster items seem to favor Fire spec and, to a lesser extent, Arcane. Do you feel as though mages are being forced to focus too much on critical strike rating (crit) over stacking more haste, spell power, and intellect, stats that are much more beneficial to the Frost mage?
A: Yep.
Community Team: There are some funky cloth legging designs out there that are difficult to truly appreciate unless one wears a tunic.
Q: Even so, will mages get robes, or at least the option of choosing robes, over tunics going forward?
A: Nah. We decide these things by rolling a d6. 1-5, it’s a dress. If it’s a six, tunic, yo!
Community Team: The next few questions concern the number-one issue raised by mages on the forums as of late: mana efficiency.
Mana Gem and Evocation are commonly referred to as outdated mechanics. Many players feel the Mana Gem does not restore enough mana and should not be placed on the same cooldown with a warlock’s Healthstone, while Evocation has too lengthy a cooldown and is typically not a reliable means of acquiring mana during boss fights.
Q: How do you view these mechanics, and are there any intentions of updating mana recovery capabilities for mages in the future?
A: Meh.
Community Team: Compared to many other damage-dealing counterparts, mages feel their AoE damage is less reliable and way too costly.
Q: Do the developers feel that the cost to mages of doing AoE damage is appropriate?
A: BLIZZARD IS TOTALLY AWESOME GUYS.
Community Team: Spell Steal is a very costly spell, especially considering it can be resisted, an unnecessary buff can be stolen unintentionally or the stolen buff can be dispelled.
Q: Are there any plans to reevaluate the mana cost and functionality of this spell?
A: BLIZZARD IS TOTALLY AWESOME GUYS.
Community Team: Now let’s jump to some questions about specific talent specs. Firstly, the Arcane tree is widely considered too bloated.
Q: How do you feel about revitalizing the Arcane tree to thin out some of these five-point talents?
A: Hey, arcane totally isn’t the only tree that has five-point talents!
Community Team: To expand upon the last question, Torment of the Weak is used in several of the most popular mage talent specs for both PvE and PvP, however, the Arcane talents prior to this one are of very little use to Frost mages – and Fire mages to a lesser degree — in PvE.
Q: Are you concerned at all that Torment of the Weak is considered to be so important to mages, regardless of specialization, that a minimum of eighteen talent points must be spent in the Arcane tree to reap its full benefit?
A: No.
Q: Are there plans on the horizon to improve Fire mage representation in PvP?
A: No. I mean YES I mean… maaaaybe.
Q: Is threat generation from Fire mages a concern at all given their burst damage is controlled mostly by proc talents and critical chance?
A: Yeah, it kinda is. We’d like to fix this threat issue via Invisibility. Do remember that we have no idea how threat works with Mirror Images, so we need to look elsewhere to fix threat.
Q: Do the developers still consider it an objective to improve Frost damage for PvE?
A: We guess? We dunno, we kinda have this glyph of ice lance thing that would solve it perfectly, but we don’t wanna.
Community Team: Finally, this wouldn’t be a mage Q&A without a question about Blink. It has been discussed in the past that it’s the terrain that can cause the spell to fail and not necessarily an issue with the spell itself.
Q: While mages do recognize this issue, has there been any discussion about reworking Blink so it’s more intuitive and could recognize a mage failing to teleport any distance forward, wasting only a global cooldown rather than the mana and spell cooldown?
A: Blink is totally fine. Remember, WoW is a client-based game, so if Blink fails, learn to play.
Lol Basil that was gr8
“BLIZZARD IS TOTALLY AWESOME GUYS.” i rotfl at it:)
Q: Is threat generation from Fire mages a concern at all given their burst damage is controlled mostly by proc talents and critical chance?
A: Yeah, it kinda is. We’d like to fix this threat issue via Invisibility. Do remember that we have no idea how threat works with Mirror Images, so we need to look elsewhere to fix threat
On the bright side… atleast the fade time on invisbility won’t be able to be interrupted my damage anymore. I see that as the end of mages dying… like ever!
I just don’t feel like a mage unless I’m in a dress. . .er robe. . .
and
BLIZZARD IS TOTALLY AWESOME GUYS!!!
ROFLMAO
I heard there were some strange changes coming up in 3.2, but none of them were really going to fix any of the real mage issues.
LOL, yea I’m strangely I’ve become at peace wearing a dress now, even though big blue dress from Cranius plays in my head all the time.
and BLIZZARD IS TOTALLY AWESOME LOL!
I read this version first.
I have a feeling I will now be disappointed when reading the official Q&A.
OMG, is the Q&A open to post responses?
BLIZZARD IS TOTALLY AWESOME GUYS.
lol that was good… but I can’t help but feel that either:
a) you are posting too often, or
b) you are getting old…
You went far too easy on them…
BLIZZARD IS TOTALLY AWESOME GUYS.
hehe, that was win.
Succinct.
It is sad to see the number of valid and good proposed changes and suggestions in both CQQ and especially WOW official Mage Forums. The Mage proposals amounts to more than all other classes and Bliz does not give a tiny rats ass about.
Is it really that Mages are just whinning? I personally do not think so when I read posts from experienced Mages voicing their frustrations.
I mean there are clear problems in the class which GC or Bliz dev team just do not respond to or care about. A mere ‘agree that Mage needs improvement but not our priority” is just depressing.
Mage havent seen much changes since the last biggest patch, i.e. 3.1, while the rest had. So which just means that Mages are not updated to the current environment whereas the other classes have. Shouldn’t this justify a little more attention?
I love the mage class, I love the way mages used to function as a glass canon. I can try to adapt. BUT! There are just only that much gear u can load, that much rotations that you can manage. It isnt a player issue anymore. Its a CLASS ISSUE!