patch 2.0.10 notes on the PTR

[Watto44]

Sorry, having played a raiding frost mage, I find that statement absolutely ridiculous.

Mages are the class with the worst survivability, even when specced for it. They simply have the worst armor in the game, even with Ice Armor up.

It's something, I suppose, but claiming they have more survivability than, for example, druids...

In my experience of playing both a PvP druid and a PvP mage, my mage has greater survivability than my druid. For a druid to survive, they need to heal themselves and you just cant do that when the assist train hits you. The second you shift out of bear, you're stunned/feared and from that point on your great survivability goes out the window (along with a lot of your hit points) and you're dead in roughly 4 seconds.

My mage, on the other hand, can use a variety of tools to mitigate damage. Yes, ice block is one of them, but there's also frost nova, CoC, blastwave, blink, counterspell and (despite it's extreme average-ness) ice barrier. While it might be that the mages playstyle matches my personality better, and thus I'm able to play him a little better than my druid, I've found that my mage - on the whole - performs better under focus fire than my druid did.

Another nit: When you're ice blocking as the assist train hits you, you're not actually staying in the block after they've switched targets. You're jumping out of the block, hitting cold snap, frost nova, and unloading as much damage as you can on your focus fire target. If the train swings back to you, hit ice block again. Is it perfect? No, it's not. But you certainly can't dismiss it out of hand.

One final nit.:)Stamina wise, I fully expect to be hovering around the 10k hp mark when I've finished replacing my greens and have everything enchanted. That certainly doesn't hold a candle to the figures that warriors and bear druids are going to be putting out, but again, it's not bad.

Do mages have absolutely amazing, mind blowing survivability? No, of course not. No class does, not even warriors, although they have an edge in group PvP. Let's face it, when the assist train hits you, you're going down, regardless of what class you are. What matters is what you can produce before you go down. In my experience, a mage can produce a fair bit before they go down and that's enough to satisfy me.:)