Looking at alt character builds...

[GenericKen]

I'm playing my rouge and I'm thinking that I'd like to have an alt character to play so that my friend's alt and my main don't totally fall out of pace with each other.

I've been looking at single target casters (shadow priests, destruction warlocks, mages), and I've been wondering whether an impact firemage build would be viable.

Primarily focusing on scorch & fireblast, the build would get 5 attacks every 6.5 seconds, or roughly .77 attacks per second, and an average stunlock for impact would be roughly .2 attacks per second; a soft lock with 3 impact mages, close to a hard lock with 4. The prospect of a damage-mitigation mage is interesting to me, but every time I look at it, the frost-tree just looks strictly better, in damage, mana efficiency, point efficiency, and even the freeze effect vs the orc-resistable stun effect.

Am I missing something, or is the ice tree just better than the fire tree, period?



EDIT> Looking at the stats, rogues actually don't get another skill after 34... EVER. The other classes don't plateau like this gameplay wise, do they?

I'm looking at drainlife warlocks. Could be fun, could be boring as all hell waiting for DoT to finish something off...

How are ranged Hunters in the DPS department?

[Xanthix]

I do not play a mage but here is what I hear from guild mages.

Fire is about damage. If you want to blow stuff up fast, fire is the way to go. The downside is that fire is weaker in Molten Core and in PvP (high fire resists).

Frost is about survivability. If you want to live longer, due to defensive abilities and freezing enemies, forst is for you. It has overall lower damage except in some cases where fire is strongly resisted.

Arcane is about efficiency. It has utility abilities; it seems like every mage has some points her to get extremely useful spells like evocation, improved explosion, presence of mind. It is also very rarely resisted so it makes for steady and low-threat damage, although lower DPS than fire/frost.

[Crusader]

Although generally true, Frost is not as defensive as one might think any more. True, it used to be defensive in the beta, all the way up to their first overhaul, but now a frost make can deal out sick crits, and is probably one of the best farming classes out there (a mage can kill 5-10 non-elite mobs at a time as long as they can be frozen using blizzard and frost nova). I played a fire mage to level 49. Throwing out sick ammounts of damage is their game, plain and simple. Arcane is the utility class, it has all kinds of niffty tricks. Most mages spec partially arcane, so the most common classes are Frost/arcane, Fire/Arcane, Arcane/fire (pyroblast+pom). Rarely will you see the Fire/Froswt combo, simply because it doesn't combine as well.

In my opinion, Frost is better for grinding multiple targets at once. Fire is single-target obliteration. Most standard mobs of your own level won't even be able to walk over to you to land a hit before they're dead using a fire mage. Frost can level faster due to grinding 5-10 mobs at once as soon as they have improved blizzard.

from the PVP perspective, fire is not as good, partially due to resist, but mainly due to fireball being a quite slow spell. Most mages I see in pvp use a lot of arcane and stick to the instant cast spells while running/blinking, etc).

It may also be worthy to note that 1.11 will be the Major Mage overhaul patch, so who knows what the future will bring?


Edit: regarding hunters: they are the top ranged DPS class along with mages. Melee hunters are just plain silly or just suicidal.

[Rinnhart]

Am I missing something, or is the ice tree just better than the fire tree, period?

PVP, ice is handsdown better unless you're OtherGuy and completely insane (Scorch, for all the wins!).

PVE, fire has a few advantages over frost, notably the non-binary resists and generally greater benefit from + damage (pyroblast is getting a huge boost next patch), range, and a lack of reliance upon a debuff to which monsters are commonly immune.

Frost still does it's world ruining, but fire has style.

Arcane is simply a must.

EDIT> Looking at the stats, rogues actually don't get another skill after 34... EVER. The other classes don't plateau like this gameplay wise, do they?

Mages do, as a matter of fact.

I'm looking at drainlife warlocks. Could be fun, could be boring as all hell waiting for DoT to finish something off...

Wand!

Affliction warlocks can be fun, but, while efficient, they do grind quite a bit slower than other classes. Spice it up with half-zone pulls.

How are ranged Hunters in the DPS department?
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They are definitive ranged dps, paragons of ranged dps, the mold from which all other ranged DPS were wrought. If I could get away with it, I'd bring 1 warrior, 5 paladins, 8 priests, 1 druid, and 25 hunters to raids.

[Arnath]

Affliction warlocks can be fun, but, while efficient, they do grind quite a bit slower than other classes. Spice it up with half-zone pulls.
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This isn't really true. Affliction builds tend to have almost no downtime, especially after Dark Pact, which makes up for the generally slower killing speed. Also, once you get high end gear, your three DoTs will do ridiculous amounts of damage. In particular, an affliction lock (especially 30/21 affliction/demo) can pull/kill an entire satyr camp in Felwood at once by just throwing Corruption/Agony/Siphon on everything while running around and using Lifetap to get mana back.

Arnath

[oldmandennis]

In particular, an affliction lock (especially 30/21 affliction/demo) can pull/kill an entire satyr camp in Felwood at once by just throwing Corruption/Agony/Siphon on everything while running around and using Lifetap to get mana back.
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Yup, or half a twilight cultist camp. I just follow along looting and healing after lifetap.

[Concillian]

It may also be worthy to note that 1.11 will be the Major Mage overhaul patch, so who knows what the future will bring?
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I saw blue mention that improving the viability of the 'elementalist' (fire/frost or frost/fire) mages was one direction they were heading..

[Rinnhart]

This isn't really true. Affliction builds tend to have almost no downtime, especially after Dark Pact, which makes up for the generally slower killing speed. Also, once you get high end gear, your three DoTs will do ridiculous amounts of damage. In particular, an affliction lock (especially 30/21 affliction/demo) can pull/kill an entire satyr camp in Felwood at once by just throwing Corruption/Agony/Siphon on everything while running around and using Lifetap to get mana back.

Arnath
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Note the "Spice it up with half-zone pulls."

Warlock killing speed, for individual targets, is slow. Damage over time effects require time to do their damage. As I said, they're efficient, but the lack of downtime doesn't make up for the pace of their damage, unless you start shadowbolting everything (which kills your efficiency). Closer to 60, yeah, warlocks pick up the pace, but until you're 40 with Dark Pact and and then 45 with the respec to demonology/affliction, you are neither efficient nor fast. In fact, until 40, my warlock rates as the most frustrating, easily the worst leveling class I've played.

They don't have the staying power of paladins, priests, or druids, the raw damage of mages, warriors or rogues, or the aggro control of hunters ( in conjunction with their pet). They have fear, which while powerful, is still limited.

[Alram]

Note the "Spice it up with half-zone pulls."

Warlock killing speed, for individual targets, is slow. Damage over time effects require time to do their damage. As I said, they're efficient, but the lack of downtime doesn't make up for the pace of their damage, unless you start shadowbolting everything (which kills your efficiency). Closer to 60, yeah, warlocks pick up the pace, but until you're 40 with Dark Pact and and then 45 with the respec to demonology/affliction, you are neither efficient nor fast. In fact, until 40, my warlock rates as the most frustrating, easily the worst leveling class I've played.

They don't have the staying power of paladins, priests, or druids, the raw damage of mages, warriors or rogues, or the aggro control of hunters ( in conjunction with their pet). They have fear, which while powerful, is still limited.
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I disagree. I recently have been playing an affliction warlock, taking her from level 30 to 40 on a PvE server. It is a blast to play. There is minimal downtime from drinking or eating, and the variety of pets makes the lock adaptable to a variety of situations. Outdoors I primarily use the imp, and the mobs drop reasonably quickly. With the VW though it is slow. All in all I cannot think of any other character I have played that finishes some battles with more mana and health than they had at the start of the fight.

If I had to nominate a slow boring class from the levelling standpoint, I'd vote for a protection warrior with a shield, a priest or a paladin. This is just my opinion of course, and to be fair my paladin is only level 18.