#0 - July 20, 2008, 1:24 p.m.
26/07 : Added 1 more post from within this topic and links to some constructive feedback in this post [i may have missed some (A) ] .
22/07: Topic blue-tagged by Vaneras saying he would pass the feedback
There are tens of topics all about the same subject so I decided to compile some of them together to make it easier for mage views to be read so the mods can read this topic and find all concerns instead of going over 20 which is not very likely. Feel free to post here 1 topic with more feedback is much better than 20 topics with very little feedback.
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Post #1 Blizz,
According to Tom Chilton's comments (read below) during the WWI class panels, the Mage is going to become the #1 AOE damage dealer (The #1 Trash Killer?). I don't know about the rest of the mage community but this is NOT something I am excited about. In fact its completely discouraging.
If you have a vision of why this would make me excited to play the Mage class in WOTLK please share it with us....
The following post is from:
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/07/05/arcane-brilliance-how-to-fix-mages/
There is a mutli page post just like this one in the general forums found here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=7903761169&sid=1&pageNo=1
First the Short Version:
During the WWI class panels, Tom Chilton was asked a rather pointed question that echoes the sentiments I've expressed here. With every other class able to assume our role and frequently best us at it, and Mages having no truly unique qualities to offer at the highest levels of the game, how did Blizzard intend to reestablish the class as something valuable and worth playing? Chilton's answer was perfect. Mages would be given back their essential hallmark: raw unadulterated damage.
This is exactly what's needed. To offset our unmatched squishiness, we would be given back our status as the kings of damage output. It's the solution to the problem, would re-vitalize the class, and give us back a unique, irreplaceable role in the game. We don't need to be given anything that isn't ours. Other classes can have their Titan Grips and their Demon Forms. We just want to have what's rightfully ours: the highest DPS potential in the game. We don't need to be the best by a large margin, either, just enough that our role is secure. All it would take is a small balance tweak, perhaps to the talent trees, perhaps to our trainable spells' damage potential, perhaps to both. There would be no danger of us replacing the other ranged DPS classes in end-game raids, simply because those classes can and will always be able to offer things we cannot, like rezzes, buffs, healing, utility, and survivability.
But then Chilton backtracked, saying that Mages were intended to be the best at a very specific type of DPS: AoE. The intention seems to be to return us to the being the best class at that particular kind of damage-dealing, but not necessarily overall. In as civil a tongue as I can manage, let me say that no, Blizzard, that is not going to work.
Now the long version:
Mages...Mages are Warlocks without pets.
Ok, to be entirely fair, we can also make food and open a portal to Shattrath at the end of every instance.
Mages need help (Shamans need help too, but Arcane Brilliance isn't a column about Shamans). Come back after the break and we'll talk about what needs to be done.
After I responded briefly to the WWI class panels at the tail end of last week's column, I received several requests to give the matter more attention. The more I thought about it, the more I agreed with those requests. This matter does need more attention, and even though I'm certain you guys are seriously over-estimating the amount of clout we have with the folks over at Blizzard (the actual amount of clout? None), if there is any chance that someone who can get things done in that company might stumble across this column, I'd be remiss not to give the ongoing problems with Mages the space they deserve.
I'm a Mage. I've been a Mage since I first logged into the game three years ago and have loved being one ever since. I love the idea of Mages, the whole concept behind the role we have to play in the game. We're glass cannons. We're incredibly fragile dealers of death. We aren't built to get close to the action; we dispense our damage from afar, channeling the might of the twisting nether into great orbs of flame and frost and launching them over the helms of the mighty melee classes and into the gaping maw of the dire foe beyond. We know that the trade-off for our mystical prowess is that physically we're the weakest class in the game, and we accept that.
We made that particular deal with the devil at the character creation screen, and have upheld our end of the bargain ever since. When the Rogue sticks stabby things into our backs, we die quietly, because that's what we're supposed to do. In return, we hope that our swift death was preceded by copious amounts of pain inflicted on the Rogue's allies. When the monster breaks our sheep and lumbers over to smack us, we fall without complaint, believing that our death is the price of that top spot on the DPS meter. We trade our blood for power, suffer one extreme to benefit from another.
