Changes: Defense of the Ancients (Warcraft III map)

Revision as of 16:49, 29 April 2011

For the manga, see World of Warcraft: Mage.

Classes
Class races	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Ev	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Quests	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Evuid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Abilities	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Evuid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Trainers	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	-	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Armor sets	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Evuid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Useful macros	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	-	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Class Halls	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	-	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior

The mage is a damage-dealing spell-caster that specializes in burst damage and area of effect spells. Their primary role in a group at lower levels is damage dealing and crowd control through the use of [Polymorph], temporarily changing humanoids and beasts into harmless critters. At end-game levels, mages' damage is supplemented with [Counterspell], [Remove Curse], and [Spellsteal]. Mages' utility spells also include conjuring food and drink and the ability to teleport to major cities and open Portals for party members. In PvP, mages deal ranged damage while using snare effects and [Polymorph] to control enemy players.

As a spell-caster, a mage's primary stat is intellect, which directly increases the mage's spell power, mana pool and critical strike rating. Secondary stats that mages should wear on their gear for include hit rating (until reaching the hit cap), critical strike rating, haste rating and mastery rating. Stamina also benefits mages, but should not be focused on at the expense of other stats unless gearing for PvP. Spirit is of no use to mages at all after Patch 4.0.1 and should be avoided in all cases. Agility, strength and the other secondary stats should likewise be avoided.

Lore

MageW2 — An elderly mage from the *Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness* manual.

Mages, the most common of arcanists, are found all over Azeroth. They focus on magic that creates and that changes things, most often with the purpose of damaging their enemies and boosting the power of their allies.^[1] Such beings can obtain a familiar, which is a normal animal that gains new powers and becomes a magical beast when summoned to service by a mage,^[1] while others choose to become focused mages.^[2] Mages also understand the workings of arcane energy so well that they can counter most magic with great effectiveness. An adept mage who has dedication to and natural predilection for one of the schools of specialization becomes more entrenched. At this point the mage chooses either evocation or transmutation as a preferred school, and casts spells from his chosen school. The mages of the Kirin Tor first mastered the arts of casting spells using the elements of ice and fire. Mages are also known for being able to summon elementals, usually water elementals, but can also summon air, earth and fire elementals as well.^[3] The greatest mortal mage ever to live is the Naga Queen Azshara, who still lives. In fact, she may no longer be mortal.^[4]

The first known mages on Azeroth were elves, before the breaking of the Well of Eternity and the [Exile of the High Elves], who lived on the shores of the Well of Eternity and wielded its powers.

Origins

Early kaldorei civilization was defined by direct manipulation of magic drawn from the Well of Eternity to create and sustain their society. The constant use of the well attracted attention from Sargeras and the Burning Legion, and their coming resulted in a massive war known as the War of the Ancients. The war had grave consequences, for even though the combined might of Azeroth's mortal races were victorious, the continent of Kalimdor was shattered, and a swirling, raging miasma of sea storms flowed into the vacant area where the Well of Eternity used to reside. This Great Sundering caused the Well's waters to be permeated into the atmosphere and spread magic all over the world.

This event convinced the majority of night elves to reject arcane magic and embrace Malfurion Stormrage's call for druidism. Many of the Highborne refused this lifestyle, and left in self-imposed exile to Lordaeron where they eventually founded their kingdom of Quel'Thalas and became the high elves. When their kingdom came under siege by the trolls of Zul'Aman the high elves agreed to teach one hundred humans the arts of magic in exchange for military aid from the human nation of Arathor. From these two races, the arcane arts have spread to various races all over Azeroth.

Dalaran

Once students of the Conjurers of Azeroth, this new order of mages had been forced to discover untapped magical forces to command in their war against the ruthless orcs. Although masters of their arts, the Conjurers who fell during the First War were unprepared for the rigors of warfare. Determined to avoid a similar fate, the mages began to undertake a regimen equally demanding on body and soul, thus dedicating themselves to the command of more aggressive and destructive magic. Whether in their sanctum at the Violet Citadel in Dalaran or on the many battlefields of Lordaeron, the mages are resolute in their efforts to defend the people.^[5]

The most powerful mages of the Eastern Kingdoms were perhaps the Archmagi of Dalaran. The city was transported to Northrend when the mages believed they were in danger. It now hovers in the skies over Crystalsong forest and is ruled by the Kirin Tor. The Kirin Tor are quick to recognize fellow mages as allies where outsiders must do more to prove themselves.

Notable mages

Races

File:KarinaOfSilvermoon.jpg

Karina of Silvermoon, another blood elf mage.

File:DorladrisSpellfire.jpg

Dorladris Spellfire, yet another blood elf mage.

Main article: Mage races

The mage class can be played by the following races:

	Strength	Agility	Stamina	Intellect	Spirit	Armor	Health	Mana
Draenei	21	17	20	23	24	34	52	165
Dwarf	22	16	23	22	21	?	?	?
Gnome	15	22	20	27	22	44	52	225
Human	20	20	20	23	22	40	52	165
Night elf	17	25	19	23	22	?	?	?
Worgen	23	22	20	19	21	?	?	?
Blood elf	17	22	20	26	20	44	52	210
Forsaken	19	18	20	21	27	36	52	135
Goblin	17	22	20	26	20	?	?	?
Orc	23	17	22	20	25	24	62	120
Troll	21	22	20	19	23	44	52	119

Mage Beneficial Racial Abilities:

Draenei

[Heroic Presence] is one of the most important mage beneficial racial abilities for PvE encounters as it increases the spell hit by 1%.
[Gift of the Naaru] is a minor (self) heal.

Dwarf

[Stoneform] is a minor defence trait which can be used in PvP and PvE.

Gnome

[Expansive Mind] is one of the most important mage beneficial racial abilities as it increases mana by 5%. Note that it increases mana pool but not Intellect, spell power or spell critical.
[Escape Artist] removes snares and speed reduction effects. Usable to PvP and certain PvE encounters. (Note: does not remove stun effects).

Human

Every Man for Himself is another beneficial trait enabling players to remove all incapacitating effects on the character (Slow, stun, fear, immobilize effects)
[Diplomacy] grants a 10% extra reputation gains for every faction.

Night Elf

[Quickness] mainly useful in PvP, gives a slight advantage over receiving damage.
[Shadowmeld] acts as a minor and temporal focus distraction from PvE encounters. However, player is still vulnerable (in contrast with [Ice Block]), does not reduce threat (unlike [Invisibility] but it removes Combat status (similar to [Vanish]).

Worgen

[Viciousness] is another of the most mage beneficial racial abilities as it increases spell critical strike by 1%
[Darkflight] enables the player to move faster. Usable in both PvP and PvE encounters.

Blood Elf

[Arcane Torrent] has similarities with [Counterspell] and restores a percentage of mana. Due to its limit in AoE range, it has limited use in Boss PvE encounters and is half effective on PvP.

Goblin

[Rocket Barrage] as small damage ability.
[Rocket Jump] similar to [Blink] for use in PvE and PvP.
[Time is Money] is a slight reduction in casting time.

Orc

[Blood Fury] gives an increase in spell power whenever activated.
[Hardiness] a reduction in the total time of stun effects.

Tauren

Mages are not available for the Tauren race.

Troll

[Berserking] has similar effects to [Time Warp], has 10 seconds duration, 3 minutes cooldown but the most important is that unlike [Heroism] does not place a 10 minutes debuff thus making it an extremely beneficial racial ability.
[Regeneration] is useful as an additional health regeneration effect, especially beneficial on long encounters.
[Da Voodoo Shuffle] has use in both PvE and PvP.

Undead

[Will of the Forsaken] is usable in all cases in PvP and PvE when losing control of character (does not include slow or immobilize effects)

The above list includes only the abilities that interact directly with the mage abilities, playstyle and needs over specific situations. Other traits are available and are usable as to what a player wishes to do with the character.

Gear

See also: Mage sets

A mage is able to wield staves, wands, daggers, one-handed swords, and can use items with the slot "Held in Off-hand" if using a dagger or one-handed sword in the main hand. Wands go in the ranged slot and will continue to shoot once manually started. A mage can only wear cloth armor.

Mages gear primarily for intellect (which increases spell power, critical strike chance and mana pool) and hit rating to reach the hit cap. Other ratings like crit, haste and mastery are next in importance. Reaching the hit cap (+17% for PvE, +4% for PvP) is important, but not at the expense of intellect. [Reforge] weaker ratings stats like crit,haste or mastery instead.

As of 4.0.1, spell power mostly no longer appears on gear, with the notable exception of caster weapons, so the lack of raw spell power on a mage's gear is not a sign for alarm. Additionally, spirit confers no mana regeneration to mages and should be avoided in all cases. In-combat mana regeneration is provided by abilities, including [Mage Armor], [Evocation], [Conjure Mana Gem], talents, such as [Arcane Concentration] or [Master of Elements], and the use of low-mana casting cycles (such as [Scorch] for fire mages or heavy use of [Arcane Missiles] for arcane mages).

Spells

File:FemaleBloodElf.jpg

A female blood elf mage in Magister's Regalia, wielding the [Staff of the Shadow Flame].

Main article: Mage abilities

Mages have a wide variety of spells which fall in to three schools of magic: arcane, fire and frost. All spell schools include damage spells. Arcane includes some crowd control and utility, and most Frost spells provide a movement-slow effect supplementing their damage.

Fire spells are primarily damage-dealing spells, including direct single-target damage and area of effect damage. Many Fire spells include damage over time effects. Fire mages trust heavily on RNG in raid situations to proc [Hot Streak].

Frost spells are primarily single-target and area of effect damage-dealing spells, but with more emphasis on chilling effects. Nearly every frost spell has a chill or freeze effect that fully or partially immobilizes an enemy. This includes freezing it in place (called a root) or slowing its movement speed (called a snare). Frost specialized mages can further improve these chilling effects and increase frost damage output to respectable levels. Frost spells help the mage use kiting as a combat tactic.

Arcane spells include single-target damage spells and utility. Arcane spells allow the mage to remove curses, provide crowd control, absorb damage, teleport himself or others to major capital cities, Slow Fall, [Counterspell], buff players' spell power and mana pools, save mana for later use in the form of mana gems, conjure food for himself or others, and provide many other conveniences.

Arcane and Fire are the trees currently best suited to raid damage. Frost's snare effects and [Ice Barrier] make it the best leveling and PvP tree. Fire and Arcane specs lack the control and survival abilities crucial to leveling and PvP.

Talents

Main article: Mage talents

Mage talents are split into 3 categories which mirror their 3 main spell types. Descriptions of the roles of mages who specialize in each talent tree are shown in parentheses.

Arcane

The arcane tree's damage focuses on [Arcane Blast] and [Arcane Missiles]. Arcane can provide the greatest potential damage output mages can offer. The Arcane tree includes [Slow], a powerful instant single-target slowing effect, and [Arcane Barrage], an instant-damage ranged attack. Arcane mages can provide substantial burst damage with [Arcane Power] and [Presence of Mind]. Leveling as an arcane mage was once very difficult, but since Patch 4.0.1 the signature arcane spells ( [Arcane Barrage], [Arcane Missiles], and [Arcane Blast] are learned much earlier thus it is more feasible.

Fire

Fire's damage output is oriented around [Living Bomb] and [Hot Streak]. Living Bomb is an instant cast damage-over-time effect. Hot Streak is a triggered effect: whenever a Fire mage deals two critical strikes in a row, their next Pyroblast spell is instant. Fire is currently behind Arcane in single-target damage, but [Living Bomb] makes Fire vastly superior to Arcane in AoE situations. Fights in which players are forced to move frequently can also benefit Fire mages, as [Living Bomb] and [Hot Streak]-enabled instant Pyroblasts can fill the movement time which Arcane mages can only use for [Arcane Barrage], [Fire Blast] and [Ice Lance] which is especially poor damage against bosses. The Fire talent tree provides few survival tools. This has historically made the fire tree a good choice for high-end raiders who seek to maximize damage output, but poor in PvP due to Resilience's reduction of critical strike chance and Arena's survival requirements.

Frost

Frost specializes in crowd control and snaring foes with its various chills, allowing for powerful kiting, and provides good AoE capability. It is the most mana-efficient spec. Frost also has very high survivability, making Frost very popular PvP tree. Frost's AoE makes it the spec best suited to five-player dungeons. However, it is far behind fire and arcane in terms of DPS. Frost is most effective in PvP, as Frost mages can learn [Ice Barrier] to protect themselves from damage and [Deep Freeze] to supplement their snare effects with a stun. Frost mages also learn [Summon Water Elemental], gaining a pet which has a Freeze ability similar to [Frost Nova].

Common builds (pre-cataclysm)

Prior to Patch 4.0.1, which pretty much removed talent-hybridization (the act of mixing different trees), three major hybrid-builds existed for mages. While it is no longer possible to create these builds, the information about them is still listed here for historical purposes.

Frost & Fire:

A mage with talent-points spent both in fire and frost was often called an "elemental mage" / "elementalist". After Wrath of the Lich King was released, a mage with such a build was also usually aiming to specifically empower his/her [Frostfire Bolt], becoming a "Frostfire Mage" (sometimes abbreviated to FFB mage). The changed mechanics in 4.0.1 forced Frostfire Bolt (and [Flame Orb]) to be either fire-based or frost-based.

Arcane & Fire:

A mage with points both in fire and arcane was often referred to as a "three-minute mage" because this kind of mage often based its damage on combining the fire-talent spell [Pyroblast], which takes long time to cast yet provides powerful damage, with the arcane-talent-spells [Presence of Mind] and [Arcane Power] to create a instant-cast, long-ranged, high-damage spell. As the two arcane-spells both had a three minute cooldown, one would say the mage "functioned" (most likely in a humorous context) only every three minutes. Patch 3.0.9 Caused Arcane Power and Presence of Mind to share cooldown, which somewhat ruined the three-minute mage. Still, with the talent [Arcane Flows] which was introduced in Patch 3.0.2, the cooldown of both Arcane Power and Presence of Mind was reduced to two minutes, changing the original three-minute mage into a "Two-minute mage". This spec was championed during The Burning Crusade by the mage Pigvomit [1]. Patch 4.0.1 made it impossible for a Mage to obtain both Pyroblast and Presence of Mind within the same build. Additionally, it also changed Pyroblast to be received by choosing Fire as the main spec and [Presence of Mind] to be an Arcane talent spell on tier 3.

Arcane & Frost:

A mage with points both in arcane and frost was sometimes called a "Arcane Shatter" mage. The name derived from a combination of the arcane-talent [Arcane Barrage] and the frost-talent [Shatter]. This talent specialization was popularized by the success of Abni, who obtained Gladiator titles for several seasons using this spec. After 4.0.1 it is still possible to place a few talents in Frost after choosing Arcane or vice versa, but mixing the two trees doesn't make much of a difference compared to placing all points in one tree.

Stats

This is a list of the Mage's primary stats for level 85 raiding in order of importance according to latest theorycrafting.

Arcane	Fire	Frost
1) Intellect	1) Intellect	1) Intellect
2) Hit	2) Spell Power	2) Hit
3) Spell Power	3) Hit	3) Spell Power
4) Mastery	4) Haste	4) Crit
5) Haste	5) Crit	5) Haste
6) Crit	6) Mastery	6) Mastery

Note that Hit above 17% (1742 rating) is worthless. Crit cannot go higher than 97.9% because of crit suppression versus bosses. Haste reaches a cap when the spellcast reaches the minimum cast time of the GCD, 1 second.

Endgame expectations

In a group or raid environment, mages are usually tasked with ranged DPS, AoE, [Counterspell], [Spellsteal], Crowd Control and finally providing food.

With the introduction of patch 1.11, mages enjoyed a high degree of flexibility in the endgame. Previous to patch 1.11, it was expected that most mages would spend at least 11 talent points in the arcane tree for [Evocation], as it is a quite powerful mana-regenerative spell. It was given free without the use of talent points. New changes to all three trees also made investing points into both the fire and the frost trees much more viable. This still holds true with the release of Burning Crusade. It should be mentioned that a build predominantly using the fire tree will usually contribute greater DPS in multiple-target encounters; those using a predominantly arcane tree will usually contribute greater DPS in single-target encounters; and finally, those using a predominantly frost tree will contribute a fair amount of control.

The endgame mage also acts as a utility class, providing drink, food, buffs and portals. Originally, when it came to providing drink and food, mages were by some considered equal to "vending machines" due to their unique ability to create food and drink and provide them with no cost except mana and time. In Wrath of the Lich King, Refreshment Tables may also be created at level 80 at the cost of five [Arcane Powder]; the table lasts for three minutes or 50 charges of [Conjured Mana Strudel], whichever comes first. It is expected that a mage provides his party or raid with food and drink for free. A second (or third) table can sometimes be called for while mustering players at the beginning of a raid if the first expires before everyone has received their strudel.

PvP

PvP-wise, mages are considered "glass cannons" - a design philosophy which gives mages generous burst damage at the cost of generally low health and armor values. Aided by talents such as [Presence of Mind] and [Arcane Power], they are one of the classes with the potential for dealing out the greatest amount of damage in the shortest amount of time. In group PvP, mages will stay back and focus on crowd control with [Polymorph] and pick off targets from range. Depending on the Battleground and the situation, mages typically AoE to prevent node captures or nuke flag carriers as fast as possible. In solo PvP, a skilled frost mage is a formidable opponent. Fire mages are in PVP well known for their burst damage, and arcane mages are known as venerable supporters.

Cataclysm changes

General preview

Cataclysm Class Preview: Mage | 2010-04-10 06:57 | Bashiok

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we’ll be making lots of changes and additions to class talents and abilities across the board. In this preview, you’ll get an early look at what's in store for the mage class, including a rundown of some of the new spells, abilities, and talents, and an overview of how the new Mastery system will work with the different talent specs.

New spells

[Flame Orb] (available at level 81): Inspired by Prince Taldaram's ability in Icecrown Citadel, this spell allows the mage to cast a flaming orb that travels in front in a straight line, sending beams that cause fire damage to passing targets. Once it's cast, the mage is free to begin casting other spells as the Flame Orb travels. While the spell will be useful to any spec, Fire mages will have talents that improve it, possibly causing the Flame Orb to explode when it reaches its destination.

[Time Warp] (level 85): Grants a passive Haste effect much like [Bloodlust] or [Heroism] to party or raid members. Time Warp will be exclusive with Bloodlust and Heroism, meaning you can’t benefit from both if you’ve got the Exhaustion debuff, though the movement-speed increase will still work even when under the effects of Exhaustion.

Curtain of Frost (level 83): Creates a line of frost in front of the mage, 30 yards from end to end. Enemies who cross the line are snared and take damage. The mana cost will be designed to make Curtain of Frost efficient against groups, not individuals. This spell is intended to give mages a way to help control the battlefield, whether the mage is damaging incoming enemies (Blizzard can be channeled on top of Curtain of Frost) or protecting a flag in a Battleground. 15-second duration. 2-minute cooldown.

Changes to abilities and mechanics

In addition to introducing new spells, we're planning to make changes to some of the other abilities and mechanics you're familiar with. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we intend for each spec.

[Arcane Missiles] is being redesigned to become a proc-based spell. Whenever the mage does damage with any spell, there is a chance for Arcane Missiles to become available, similar to how the warrior’s [Overpower] works. The damage and mana cost of this spell will be reworked to make it very desirable to use when available. This change should make gameplay more dynamic for the mage, particularly at low levels.
We are planning to remove spells that don't have a clear purpose. [Amplify Magic], [Dampen Magic], [Fire Ward], and [Frost Ward] are being removed from the game, and we may remove more.
The ability to conjure food and water will not become available until higher levels (likely around level 40), as we're making changes to ensure mages generally won’t run out of mana at lower levels. Once mages learn how to conjure food and water, the conjured item will restore both health and mana.
[Scorch] will provide a damage bonus to the mage's fire spells. Our goal is for Scorch to be part of the mage's rotation and a useful damage-dealing ability, even if someone else is supplying the group with the spell Critical Strike debuff. Scorch will provide the mage with more specific benefits, which can also be improved through talents.

Talent changes

[Arcane Focus] will now return mana for each spell that fails to hit your target, including Arcane Missiles that fail to launch. We want Arcane mages to have several talents that play off of how much mana the character has and give the player enough tools to manage mana.
The talent [Playing with Fire] will reduce the cooldown of [Blast Wave] when hit by a melee attack, instead of its current effect.
[Pyromaniac] will grant Haste when three or more targets are getting damaged by the effects of your damage-over-time (DoT) fire spells.
The [Burnout] talent will allow mages to cast spells using health when they run out of mana.

Masteries

Arcane

Spell damage
Spell Haste
Mana Adept: Arcane will deal damage based how much mana the mage has. For example, Arcane mages will do much more damage at 100% mana than at 50% mana. If they begin to get low on mana, they will likely want to use an ability or mechanic to bring their mana up to increase their damage.

Fire

Spell damage
Spell Crit
Ignite: All direct-damage fire spells will add a damage-over-time (DoT) component when cast. The flavor will be similar to how Fireball works; however, the DoT component will be much stronger.

Frost

Spell damage
Spell Crit damage
Deathfrost: Casting Frostbolt places a buff on the mage that increases the damage for all frost, fire, and arcane spells. The only damage spell that won't be affected by this buff is Frostbolt.

We hope you enjoyed this preview, and we’re looking forward to hearing your initial thoughts and feedback on these additions and changes. Please keep in mind that this information represents a work in progress and is subject to change as development on Cataclysm continues.

View original post

Clarifications

Re: Cataclysm Class Preview: Mage | 2010-04-10 17:42 | Ghostcrawler

Flame Orb is not channeled. It may have a cast time, but after that is fire and forget. We want to try the line idea because there aren’t any spells that work that way currently. Giving it a target to follow makes it feel more like a fancy dot – useful perhaps, but nothing that feels really new. It will be balanced for single-target damage, but if you can launch it in such a way that it will hit multiple targets, then you’re just being awesome.

Wall of Fog is not channeled. We don’t know yet how wide it will be, but wide enough so that it feels more like a trip-wire than an area like Frost Trap.

We like the basic gameplay of Hot Streak. With lower crit rates all around, we hope that it will feel more like a bonus when it’s up rather than a penalty when it refuses to stay up. We may lower the magnitude overall for the same reason.

On Arcane Missiles, the basic spell is pretty cool. The problem is the way the spell works makes the current design hard to balance. It’s either too expensive and low damage or the opposite problem. This is particularly true at low level, and meanwhile we think the mage experience at low level is also a little too repetitive. The change is that you can’t hit Arcane Missiles whenever you want. The icon is just grayed out. However, when you deal damage, you have a chance to get Arcane Missiles to light up and then you definitely want to hit it. At higher levels Fire and Frost may eventually phase it out in preference for other spells, or if we like the mechanic, it may be something even Fire and Frost do, just less often than Arcane.

On the topic of mastery bonuses, understand that this is a new design for us and very few people have seen them in action yet. We run the risk of specific masteries being so generic that the mastery stat isn’t interesting or so complex that what players really like about playing a certain spec gets turned on its head. This is the kind of thing that will require a lot of iteration and the reason we’re trying to cover the whole gamut of relatively complex to relatively simple to see what feels right.

The reason behind Deathfrost (Frost mastery) isn’t to get Frost to spam Frostbolt more. It’s to get mages to spam Frostbolt less. If you hit nothing but Frostbolt, you’re wasting the Deathfrost bonus.

We’re shifting food and water to higher level because we don’t want players to have so much down time at lower level. We’re not trying to make it harder to level; we’re reducing the need to drink or eat so we’re bumping the actual food and water (though it’s really foodwater in the case of mages) higher.

The intent behind Mana Adapt (Arcane mastery) is that Arcane currently has a pretty fun mana management game going, at least at relatively high level. We thought it would be fun to extend that concept even further to where Arcane mages that use the mechanics to keep their mana high would do higher dps. I find many of the predictions that Arcane is doomed in PvE based on the very limited information you have at the moment to be quite premature.

On Time Warp vs. Bloodlust, we are really trying to give groups flexibility in who they bring to 10 player raids to an even greater extent than we did in Lich King. We heard over and over that shaman still felt like the one mandatory class in any raid. The more we hear “now there will be no reason to take me over X class / spec” the happier we will be. The reason should be that you’re a good player, not that your mere presence makes everyone else perform better. It’s fun to feel more powerful in a group – we get that, and we aren’t going to completely marginalize group synergy. But it needs to come secondary to the skill of the players involved.

I understand some mages really like Fire Ward or Dampen Magic. Perhaps “no clear role” wasn’t the best choice of words, but we are trying to remove mechanics from the game that we think aren’t really cutting it. When asking players to put more buttons on their action bars from these new spells, we only think it’s fair to try and get some bar space back from the least interesting spells. Don’t worry so much about balance at this stage. Many things will need to be tweaked. Worry more about whether it ever felt like a fun decision to use these spells.

For everyone focusing on the RMP Arena comp, I really think you’re going to see a shift to more PvP concerns in Cataclysm being about Battleground balance. There will still be players playing Arenas for sure, but a lot of the players currently doing Arenas are going to shift to rated BGs instead.

View original post

Videos

Cataclysm Class Changes by TGN on YouTube

DPS Rundown: Mage by TGN on YouTube
Arcane	Fire	Frost

Trivia

The Wrath of the Lich King faction of Dalaran, the Kirin Tor, start with a neutral reputation standing with all other classes. Mages, however, are automatically friendly with the Kirin Tor, making it possible to purchase and wear the [Tabard of the Kirin Tor] at level 1.

Dr. Bill Lee, a re-occurring character from the TV Series 'Stargate SG-1' and 'Stargate Atlantis,' states that he plays a mage, and makes multiple references to the game, including Elwynn Forest. While his character's race is not explicitly stated, it's assumed from that statement that he plays a human.

References

^ ^a ^b World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game, 59
^ Alliance Player's Guide, 17
^ World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game, 59, 60
^ Dark Factions, 34
^ Warcraft II manual, 47

External links

World of Warcraft Community Site WoW mage discussion

World of Warcraft Community Site Mage class FAQ guide

L2DPS A Guide to Mage DPS

Icy Veins Arcane, Fire, and Frost Mage Raiding Guides (Cataclysm)

Other sites

Mage Rage A WoW Mage community focused on PvP and some PvE content

WowInsider Arcane Brilliance — Mage weekly feature at WoW Insider

WowInsider Mage guides at WoW Insider

StratFu Video and Strategy Guide for playing Arcane since the 3.0.8 patch

Mage Builds Popular and top WoW mage builds list for Arcane, Frost and Fire Mage

ja:Mage nl:Mage

[WoWRPG59-1] World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game, 59

[2] Alliance Player's Guide, 17

[3] World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game, 59, 60

[4] Dark Factions, 34

[5] Warcraft II manual, 47

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

Wowpedia