#0 - Aug. 29, 2006, 8:20 p.m.
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<br>Let me start by short review:
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<br>* New pala spells - More damage, more mana (getting healed gives you back mana!), *increased mount speed by 20%* (now how cool is that!)
<br>* New Rogue spells - More damage, more damage and yet more damage. Can't accuse rogues of not being a focused class, that's for sure :)
<br>* New shaman spells - a shield that *gives back mana* when hit (compare that to our so called "mana shield"), ability to summon 2 types of Elementals every 20 min for 2 min (way cool, and no talent points wasted!), increased damage (for all party)
<br>* New warlock spells - damage to target followed by damage to mobs around target, an armor that increases both health *and* damage (and again, no talent points wasted!), a well of health-stones, reduces threat by ***%50*** (without wasting talent points!), and finally, of course, yet more damage.
<br>* New warrior spells - well the only thing I can say is, it looks like not only mages got shafted ;)
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<br>So much for the other classes. And where do we stand? Do we get more damage? More mana? A well of water or horn of food?
<br>* Why, we get a lovely Arcane spell that will increase damage but will suck our mana pool dry in seconds. Fat load of good you will be then...
<br>* We get the wonderful ability to blind ourselves for 8 seconds. That's right, if the mobs can't see you, stands to reason you can't see them. Doesn't it? Doesn't it?!
<br>* Steal a spell - the one good/interesting spell we got. I wonder on the cooldown on that though, and other restrictions (1 spell per stolen per target?) More on this below...
<br>* Reduced chance of crits against you - yeah, like I'll give up my Mage Armor for something this lame. We're not a melee class, but this is something that apparently Blizzard has forgotten, once again I may add...
<br>* Ice lance - a moderately nice damage spell, although only against frozen targets, and the damage isn't that hot tbh. And no, the description does *not* say damage from *other* spells will increase by %200, only *this* spell's damage. Like I said, not that hot.
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<br>I don't know why Blizzard hates mages so much. Already I am struggling to live up to my name as damage dealer, already I have a hard time with the lousy talents and spells given to mages, compared to other classes. I have to go almost all the way up the new Arcane talent tree and spend 5 talent points to get about +100 damage bonus (do the math) that warlocks get for free from a spell, and they get more health, to add injury to insult!
<br>I have to go all the way up the new Frost tree to get a minion that will probably die very quickly and do little damage. I have to waste talent points to reduce threat, warlocks get that for free. Paladins can make their horses go 20% faster (okay also of the party, but in practise this will usually be the paladin himself) - what cool new spell have mages got to compare to that?
<br>Yes, Spellsteal sounds interesting, but I'm talking about PvE here, remember? How many mobs go around carrying "beneficial magic effects?" I doubt you will be able to use this on bosses, so for most of the time, this spell will be pretty useless to PvE.
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<br>How many mages will want to go on, when locks are doing more damage and getting less aggro? When paladins still have full mana when you are forced to wand cause your mana is out? When the top damage dealers are locks/hunters/rogues, except for those brief AoE encounters?
<br>I imagine that after BC comes out, mages will be much in demand for parties/raids, because there will be so few of us left...
<br>I've been playing a mage since day 1. I love my mage, and I've put a lot of effort into him. I've never ranted on our class failings, on the dubious talents bestowed on us, on how quickly we die and how tough it is to get to the top of the damage-dealers. I took these as challenges, which made the game more fun. But this is too much. I'd love to be proven wrong. Please, prove me wrong :)
<br>Or if a blue poster can comment, that would be great too...
