04-05-2004, 10:00 PM
Another week has gone by. I'm now level 21. Mages still stink, but last week I had accepted that.
The Blizzard Mage Forum is abuzz with talk on how to balance the Mage class. Everyone agrees that they need work, but nobody can agree on how to fix them without making them the uberclass. At first, I agreed with others' opinions that removing "stuttering" (the ability for mobs to interrupt your attacks) would be a bad idea. I'm starting to lean toward the other side now. I think removing stuttering would be a good way to balance out the Mage and bring them up to the other classes, while not turning them into gods.
In balance discussions, it is always assumed that you are referring to a battle against a monster of a level equal to you. Then, of course, there's PvP balancing, but that's a whole 'nother issue (if you're wondering, Mages are so bad at PvP that it's a practical joke; read the Blizzard forums for examples - such as the fact that a Mage has to face his/her target to hit it with a spell, so enemies can just run circles around the Mage, interrupt his/her attacks, and emerge unscathed). A Mage is excellent under one scenario: fighting a melee monster, one-at-a-time, that is not resistant to cold attacks. In fact, they downright rock in that situation, although they'll have to stop to drink afterward to regain the massive mana amount they used up in order to smack the single mob down quickly. In any other situation, Mages are in trouble.
1) Ranged attackers: unable to stop the monster from attacking, the Mage cannot get off consistent attacks because his/her attacks are interrupted. Also, cannot flee from the monster due to his/her low HPs - death comes long before escape distance is reached.
2) More than one attacker: with no crowd control methods available except for Frost Nova, the Mage has to pray that one cast of the Nova can freeze both monsters in their tracks. If they're both melee, and they both are frozen, the Mage has a chance of survival. Provided the Mage doesn't run out of mana, he/she can sometimes handle 2 at a time, but to do so regularly is suicidal.
3) Downtime: after practically every fight, a Mage needs to stop to eat and drink to regain lost hit points and mana. Failure to do so is a death wish, since you never know how many attacks will be resisted in your next fight. If a mob resists your spell, it does ZERO damage and you lose the mana points for the cast, a double-whammy that really hurts.
If the "stuttering" effect of Mage spellcasting is removed, the dynamic changes. If the Mage then takes on 2 mobs at once, he/she can actually get some attacks off. Fireballs (the mainstay spell of the Mage) take 2.5-3.5 seconds to fire, and if the Mage is being hit during that cast, it can take upwards of 7-10 seconds since the timer keeps getting reset. Return the Mage to 2.5-3.5 seconds per cast and he/she has a fighting chance when taking on more than one mob at a time. Remember that the Mage still has very few HPs and only cloth armor, so survival is still quite difficult enough already when soloing. Adding stuttering to prevent any offensive activity is what tipped the scales and sent the Mage down to the bottom of the playability scale.
For those who haven't played Mages yet, and don't see what all the complaining is about, imagine playing a warrior where every time you are hit, you have to wait an additional 2 seconds to attack. So if you take on 2 monsters at once, and they can (combined) hit you at least every 2 seconds, think you'll get an attack off? Now combine that with low hit points and paper-thin armor.
YES, Mages aren't supposed to be able to tank anything. YES, they're supposed to be weak. I'm not saying they should become tanks; but Blizzard should try out removing the stuttering and see how it develops. Just my opinion. I think that one tweak would balance things out - it's not like a Mage can really afford to get beat on by 2 monsters at once anyway. What would change is that a Mage could then at least get off some shots, and not be forced to only one option: running like hell (which doesn't often work).
leme witnessed this last night. After defeating a level 20 dire wolf in Duskwood (who aggroed on me since I do far more damage than his Warlock does), I was down to 111 hit points and immediately began eating. Right then, another monster spawned right next to me. I got up, cast Frost Nova to freeze the monster in place, and watched helplessly as it resisted the Frost Nova. Running for my life, with leme trying uselessly to draw aggro on the monster, I fell in a heap on the grass and sent my soul back to town.
But that's nothing, really - the most embarrassing moment was when my then-level-20 Mage took on two level 14 casters, Defias Pillagers. Now, Pillagers are tough cookies when you're that level, but a level 20 should NEVER even be threatened by 2 level 14 mobs. I didn't even take them on simultaneously; the second mob was activated only after I fired my killing blow on the first. However, the second mob resisted 2 sequential fireballs of mine and laughed as it killed a character 6 levels higher than it. No other class would have died in that situation; even Priests could have just cast Sleep (which is instant cast, by the way) on the mob and healed him/herself. I couldn't run, I couldn't stop the mob from casting at me, and its attacks kept interrupting mine. Pitiful, really.
Mages have a spell called Minor Phantasm which was supposed to deal with this; it creates a smoke minion that attacks a mob with melee. However, mobs just ignore the Phantasm 90% of the time (a known problem, there are whole threads on the Blizzard Mage forum discussing how to fix this) and will come right for the Mage.
Anyway, all I'm saying is that, for now, Mages are practically Variant Scumâ¢! They're so much harder to play that they take a lot of technique and preparation before fighting each and every monster. I see Warriors and Paladins just go from mob to mob to mob in a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am manner, hardly pausing after each fight. Do that and your Mage career will be most short. :)
As one user said on the Blizzard Mage forum, "nobody ever sends a message out saying 'Party forming for the mines, looking for a MAGE!'" In fact, it really confuses the players who haven't tried one when we have to stop so often to drink up. Mages aren't popular because they tend to slow down a party - we have a lot of downtime and the others also have to constantly worry about protecting us. It's not worth it to be able to kill the mobs a little bit quicker when the spot could better be filled by another Paladin or Priest.
On the next push ("Coming Soon," says Blizzard) when the Horde characters are introduced, Mages will get a beef-up in some manner. Blizzard hasn't said how yet. Should be fun to see what they decide on, although I'd like to see them try out removing the stuttering to allow the Mage to have some offensive capability against anything other than a single melee mob who doesn't resist his/her cold attacks.
Someone had also suggested that maybe it's not that Mages are underpowered, it's that the other classes are overpowered - but Blizzard has stated all along that they wanted to design WoW so that every class is able to play solo. Blizzard recognizes that some people can only play in 30 minute segments, so forcing people to party to play the game is NOT what they're looking for. Playing a Mage solo right now is a labor of love that really makes you a better, more cautious player. Defeating your first Black Dragon Whelp (that shoots fireballs of massive damage) via the use of Dampen Magic, Minor Phantasm, Fireballs, and Fire Blasts in a strategical fight that leaves you with 13 HPs left (happened to me) was a massive thrill. But then watching a Paladin run up to one and waste it, only losing 1/4th of his HPs, takes the thrill away fast. :)
--- End constructive criticism of the Mage class ---
As I said, I'm level 21 now, so I don't yet have what I hear is the Mage uberskill - Invisibility. It's supposed to let you walk right past mobs that would annihilate you so you can position yourself strategically in fights (and escape from them, too). I believe that comes at level 26. In either case, I'm plugging along. I'm just blown away by the sheer number of quests in this game. There have to be hundreds and hundreds already, and so much isn't implemented yet. Clean an area of the game out, and return to it 10 levels later. There will be a whole new set of quests there for you that didn't appear before, making it so no area of the game gets too "old." This is a fantastic thing, although clearly as you progress there are some areas that will no longer offer a challenge to you, and the quests WILL dry up. But it doesn't happen quickly. You'll go through at least 20 quests per area, probably more, before the pool of available quests cleans out.
Elite quests (marked as such by an Elite label next to their title) WILL require a group to complete, if you want to complete them at a level that will actually give you experience for killing the monsters involved. However, for pure solo characters, there's no need to actually do elite quests. If you wanted, you could always return to try them when you're much higher level just for kicks. But elite quest rewards are not so great that they are game-breakers if you don't do them - usually the reward is just mad experience points. You can get exp anywhere.
In short, the quest system rocks. So far, I've been met with enough variety to make it interesting, although the clear bulk of them are "go out and kill x." One quest was "go out and kill x" on a timer, but it was easy enough that my solo Mage could do it - piece of cake. Hmm, but I was 4 levels higher than the mobs for that quest. And for Mages, character levels are EVERYTHING, since you only get new offensive abilities via new spells, and they only come as you level up.
I've explored maybe 30% of the world so far. I visited the Burning Steppes, an empty unfinished area that Blizzard will let you walk through. It's an exact ripoff of Mordor from the Lord of the Rings movies. I could practically see Sauron's eye at the top of the high mountain there if I squinted just right. ;)
Hmm, this report is getting long, isn't it? Right now I'm having a lot of fun, even being underpowered. Maybe it's some of that Variants' pride that is felt by taking a class that stinks and still getting to 21. Will I still be having fun 6 months from now when the beta may be winding down? That will be the true test. For now, I only hope that even more Lurkers get in for the future phases so I can start out a level 1 Priest and see what makes them tick.
-Bolty
The Blizzard Mage Forum is abuzz with talk on how to balance the Mage class. Everyone agrees that they need work, but nobody can agree on how to fix them without making them the uberclass. At first, I agreed with others' opinions that removing "stuttering" (the ability for mobs to interrupt your attacks) would be a bad idea. I'm starting to lean toward the other side now. I think removing stuttering would be a good way to balance out the Mage and bring them up to the other classes, while not turning them into gods.
In balance discussions, it is always assumed that you are referring to a battle against a monster of a level equal to you. Then, of course, there's PvP balancing, but that's a whole 'nother issue (if you're wondering, Mages are so bad at PvP that it's a practical joke; read the Blizzard forums for examples - such as the fact that a Mage has to face his/her target to hit it with a spell, so enemies can just run circles around the Mage, interrupt his/her attacks, and emerge unscathed). A Mage is excellent under one scenario: fighting a melee monster, one-at-a-time, that is not resistant to cold attacks. In fact, they downright rock in that situation, although they'll have to stop to drink afterward to regain the massive mana amount they used up in order to smack the single mob down quickly. In any other situation, Mages are in trouble.
1) Ranged attackers: unable to stop the monster from attacking, the Mage cannot get off consistent attacks because his/her attacks are interrupted. Also, cannot flee from the monster due to his/her low HPs - death comes long before escape distance is reached.
2) More than one attacker: with no crowd control methods available except for Frost Nova, the Mage has to pray that one cast of the Nova can freeze both monsters in their tracks. If they're both melee, and they both are frozen, the Mage has a chance of survival. Provided the Mage doesn't run out of mana, he/she can sometimes handle 2 at a time, but to do so regularly is suicidal.
3) Downtime: after practically every fight, a Mage needs to stop to eat and drink to regain lost hit points and mana. Failure to do so is a death wish, since you never know how many attacks will be resisted in your next fight. If a mob resists your spell, it does ZERO damage and you lose the mana points for the cast, a double-whammy that really hurts.
If the "stuttering" effect of Mage spellcasting is removed, the dynamic changes. If the Mage then takes on 2 mobs at once, he/she can actually get some attacks off. Fireballs (the mainstay spell of the Mage) take 2.5-3.5 seconds to fire, and if the Mage is being hit during that cast, it can take upwards of 7-10 seconds since the timer keeps getting reset. Return the Mage to 2.5-3.5 seconds per cast and he/she has a fighting chance when taking on more than one mob at a time. Remember that the Mage still has very few HPs and only cloth armor, so survival is still quite difficult enough already when soloing. Adding stuttering to prevent any offensive activity is what tipped the scales and sent the Mage down to the bottom of the playability scale.
For those who haven't played Mages yet, and don't see what all the complaining is about, imagine playing a warrior where every time you are hit, you have to wait an additional 2 seconds to attack. So if you take on 2 monsters at once, and they can (combined) hit you at least every 2 seconds, think you'll get an attack off? Now combine that with low hit points and paper-thin armor.
YES, Mages aren't supposed to be able to tank anything. YES, they're supposed to be weak. I'm not saying they should become tanks; but Blizzard should try out removing the stuttering and see how it develops. Just my opinion. I think that one tweak would balance things out - it's not like a Mage can really afford to get beat on by 2 monsters at once anyway. What would change is that a Mage could then at least get off some shots, and not be forced to only one option: running like hell (which doesn't often work).
leme witnessed this last night. After defeating a level 20 dire wolf in Duskwood (who aggroed on me since I do far more damage than his Warlock does), I was down to 111 hit points and immediately began eating. Right then, another monster spawned right next to me. I got up, cast Frost Nova to freeze the monster in place, and watched helplessly as it resisted the Frost Nova. Running for my life, with leme trying uselessly to draw aggro on the monster, I fell in a heap on the grass and sent my soul back to town.
But that's nothing, really - the most embarrassing moment was when my then-level-20 Mage took on two level 14 casters, Defias Pillagers. Now, Pillagers are tough cookies when you're that level, but a level 20 should NEVER even be threatened by 2 level 14 mobs. I didn't even take them on simultaneously; the second mob was activated only after I fired my killing blow on the first. However, the second mob resisted 2 sequential fireballs of mine and laughed as it killed a character 6 levels higher than it. No other class would have died in that situation; even Priests could have just cast Sleep (which is instant cast, by the way) on the mob and healed him/herself. I couldn't run, I couldn't stop the mob from casting at me, and its attacks kept interrupting mine. Pitiful, really.
Mages have a spell called Minor Phantasm which was supposed to deal with this; it creates a smoke minion that attacks a mob with melee. However, mobs just ignore the Phantasm 90% of the time (a known problem, there are whole threads on the Blizzard Mage forum discussing how to fix this) and will come right for the Mage.
Anyway, all I'm saying is that, for now, Mages are practically Variant Scumâ¢! They're so much harder to play that they take a lot of technique and preparation before fighting each and every monster. I see Warriors and Paladins just go from mob to mob to mob in a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am manner, hardly pausing after each fight. Do that and your Mage career will be most short. :)
As one user said on the Blizzard Mage forum, "nobody ever sends a message out saying 'Party forming for the mines, looking for a MAGE!'" In fact, it really confuses the players who haven't tried one when we have to stop so often to drink up. Mages aren't popular because they tend to slow down a party - we have a lot of downtime and the others also have to constantly worry about protecting us. It's not worth it to be able to kill the mobs a little bit quicker when the spot could better be filled by another Paladin or Priest.
On the next push ("Coming Soon," says Blizzard) when the Horde characters are introduced, Mages will get a beef-up in some manner. Blizzard hasn't said how yet. Should be fun to see what they decide on, although I'd like to see them try out removing the stuttering to allow the Mage to have some offensive capability against anything other than a single melee mob who doesn't resist his/her cold attacks.
Someone had also suggested that maybe it's not that Mages are underpowered, it's that the other classes are overpowered - but Blizzard has stated all along that they wanted to design WoW so that every class is able to play solo. Blizzard recognizes that some people can only play in 30 minute segments, so forcing people to party to play the game is NOT what they're looking for. Playing a Mage solo right now is a labor of love that really makes you a better, more cautious player. Defeating your first Black Dragon Whelp (that shoots fireballs of massive damage) via the use of Dampen Magic, Minor Phantasm, Fireballs, and Fire Blasts in a strategical fight that leaves you with 13 HPs left (happened to me) was a massive thrill. But then watching a Paladin run up to one and waste it, only losing 1/4th of his HPs, takes the thrill away fast. :)
--- End constructive criticism of the Mage class ---
As I said, I'm level 21 now, so I don't yet have what I hear is the Mage uberskill - Invisibility. It's supposed to let you walk right past mobs that would annihilate you so you can position yourself strategically in fights (and escape from them, too). I believe that comes at level 26. In either case, I'm plugging along. I'm just blown away by the sheer number of quests in this game. There have to be hundreds and hundreds already, and so much isn't implemented yet. Clean an area of the game out, and return to it 10 levels later. There will be a whole new set of quests there for you that didn't appear before, making it so no area of the game gets too "old." This is a fantastic thing, although clearly as you progress there are some areas that will no longer offer a challenge to you, and the quests WILL dry up. But it doesn't happen quickly. You'll go through at least 20 quests per area, probably more, before the pool of available quests cleans out.
Elite quests (marked as such by an Elite label next to their title) WILL require a group to complete, if you want to complete them at a level that will actually give you experience for killing the monsters involved. However, for pure solo characters, there's no need to actually do elite quests. If you wanted, you could always return to try them when you're much higher level just for kicks. But elite quest rewards are not so great that they are game-breakers if you don't do them - usually the reward is just mad experience points. You can get exp anywhere.
In short, the quest system rocks. So far, I've been met with enough variety to make it interesting, although the clear bulk of them are "go out and kill x." One quest was "go out and kill x" on a timer, but it was easy enough that my solo Mage could do it - piece of cake. Hmm, but I was 4 levels higher than the mobs for that quest. And for Mages, character levels are EVERYTHING, since you only get new offensive abilities via new spells, and they only come as you level up.
I've explored maybe 30% of the world so far. I visited the Burning Steppes, an empty unfinished area that Blizzard will let you walk through. It's an exact ripoff of Mordor from the Lord of the Rings movies. I could practically see Sauron's eye at the top of the high mountain there if I squinted just right. ;)
Hmm, this report is getting long, isn't it? Right now I'm having a lot of fun, even being underpowered. Maybe it's some of that Variants' pride that is felt by taking a class that stinks and still getting to 21. Will I still be having fun 6 months from now when the beta may be winding down? That will be the true test. For now, I only hope that even more Lurkers get in for the future phases so I can start out a level 1 Priest and see what makes them tick.
-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.