04-27-2005, 10:46 AM
savaughn,Apr 26 2005, 09:10 PM Wrote:Disagree. Frost Nova is an immobilize, frost everything else is a snare, blink is a movement bonus. In solo play a mage has many ways to escape when things go wrong. A priest must scream and hope the shield holds while running. Especially up through the 40's, priests end up dead more often. Substantial down side.
That's true. Mages have an easier learning curve, as they have a few more ways of getting out of bad pulls.
Quote:After Shadowform, this can be the case (depending on the build and assuming you stay maxed as a shadow priest). You get shadowform at level 40 - 48 if you couldn't wait that long for Improved Shield. Until then you are VERY behind mages. A level 32 fire/arcane mage will run the following sequence: pyroblast, fireball, fireblast, arcane missiles.[right][snapback]75337[/snapback][/right]
The mage can't pyro every battle, but I do concede your overall point, which is that pre-40, mages will have superior damage. Every shadow priest I've seen with shadowform, however, is specced all the way shadow very early and regularly outdamages fire mages of equivalent level. Once you hit that magical level 40 and get Shadowform, you will never want for damage again.
Even before that, however, shadow priests are closer than you portray. 32 is a level that's highly advantageous to the mage side of the comparison, as Arcane Missiles gets a rank-up at 32 and Fireball/Pyro/Fire Blast rank up at 30. In comparison, a level 32 priest's last attack spell rank-ups were SW:P at 26, Mind Flay and Mind Blast at 28. The difference between the damage output will fluctuate as rank-ups are not on the same levels, but 32 is certainly one of the levels in which the difference is large. It's certainly not representative.