I have exactly one mage who has managed to hit the level cap, but over the years I have dabbled with little project mages here and there. I got one to 20 with SAN before I got RAF-dinged all the way to 51, was left without any decent gear and had no money to buy new gear. There’s my horde side mage who I got to 30 before the horror that was horde-side questing made me want to off myself… or her. I have also leveled to the mid-range and then deleted a number of other mages from my alty stables.
And now there is Alas 2.0, rolled on Azgalor to be in <Stands in Bad> as a sort of exchange program (we got Kotakh from Amber’s guild to raid with us as he can, although his main focus is still <Stands in Bad> as mine will of course be for my Effers).
This is my first time really exploring any class I’m familiar with in a post-Shattering world. And I am left scratching my horns and wondering just what on Azeroth Blizzard has done to my beloved mages.
Alas 2.0, now more horny
I am level 30 and leveling in fire on the theory that it’s a good way to get a bit more familiar with it after spending so much time in Arcane on Alas 1.0. And I think that for all of Blizzard’s attempts to get players to stick to one tree and learn how it works, they dropped a ball somewhere along the way with mages.
After all, even as a fire mage, I still got Arcane Missiles to proc from levels 1-29 before I could finally spec into Hot Streak. This felt strange to me coming from a level 85 fire mage who, when she procs, gets a free and instant Pyroblast! I never cast Arcane Missiles in my fire spec at level cap. Why did they force it on me for so long while I worked my way up? I can see not having a Pyroblast! right away, truly, but maybe a free/instant fireball?
Along the way, I’ve run several dungeons because pugs scare me less than that big old PVP world where I am flagged against my will. Earlier on I didn’t really notice any disparity between what I could bring to the table versus what other classes could. No one buffed anyone because no one had anything with which to buff. But my latest run had me getting paladin and priest buffs lavished on me, leaving me wondering whether I had missed training something somewhere along the way because if someone is giving me fortitude shouldn’t I be able to give them Intellect in return? Or food? And, hey, shouldn’t I be able to give myself a shield of some sort?
As soon as I got out of there, I headed to my mage trainer and picked up the ability to decurse. And then I got to looking at when I would get my other goodies.
I’ll get Molten Armor in four more levels at 34. This will be my first self-buff.
I will be able to make party food at level 38.
I will get my first AoE damage spell (Flamestrike) at level 44. (And you know everything from 1-80 is an AoE-fest)
Coming in rather later, I get Blizzard at level 52.
And it will be until level 58 that I will appear to be a useless git in dungeons (aside from vending machine duties) because I will not get Arcane Brilliance until then. Level. Fifty. Eight.
Oh, and that other thing people like mages for? The whole business of getting around quickly? I don’t get to portal anyone anywhere until level 42, but at least I will get all of the Kal/EK locations all at once.
Overall, I don’t think mages are broken or anything. But I do think they seem somewhat unbalanced and not terribly intuitive for a new player, and I thought that was supposed to be the whole point?
I’ve been meaning to put some work in on Gevlonna-the-lesbian-fire-mage for ages now, but I think you’re right that there’s something hinky up with lowbie mage leveling. I mean I quite like the Arcane Missiles mechanic at low levels in that it’s nice to learn procwatching early, but it’s a bit odd to be a fire mage and keep casting Arcane spells.
As ever, I suspect the issue is that the whole game is based around the assumption that you’re racing to 85 as soon as possible, with little attention given to what it’s like on the way.
I think I am going to hop over to arcane for a few levels (or dual spec since it’s so cheap) just to see how it plays at lower levels. Of course, I did just get molten armor so it’ll still feel wonky in a way.
I do think that, having now had a chance to have Pyroblast! be my free proc, things feel more natural in that regard. But dungeons are still weird. As far as I can tell, everyone else who gets a mass buff already has theirs. It’s oddly embarrassing so I have been making these runs in total silence as if to not draw attention to the fact that I can’t give anyone anything.
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Exchange program…you got me and SiB gets you…i know what Amber would say to that… Eff got SCREWED!
SiB gets a celebrity and you got…Kotex the absorbant druid lol
Haha. I am still not sure about my supposed celebrity status. And anyway, we got a rogue ready to go with raiding. God knows when Alas 2.0 will be anything close to helpful for anything. (I keep seeing my 1 copper here and 2 copper there going in the gbank and thinking, that’s right, you’re welcome for the 20 silver I got you today!)
Really? I’m surprised that’s been your feeling! I’ve been leveling a mage since 4.0, and having only once played a mage before and quickly growing to hate the constant eating/drinking, I am LOVING the new mage. So I can’t make food. Who cares! I don’t need to eat! If I do actually manage to take some damage, a quick glyphed Evocation takes care of that nicely.
Now granted, it seems you’re examining the mage in a group/party role, and I don’t disagree with your points about being able to contribute or AOE effectively for those times. But I’ve been sticking to questing (since I want to see the new quests) and I’ve never been happier.
As for the Arcane Missiles, I don’t think I ever used it past the first few levels. The only time I ended up using it was if a mob was at less than 10% health when it procced. Otherwise it was all burn spells. :D
Yeah, when I am alone I feel far less awkward about my lack of usefulness. I just am on my little killing rampage in STV, never stopping for anything except to curse at my lack of bag space (which should be better now that I managed to skill my tailoring up a bit).
The other thing I will say about leveling this mage is that holy crap it is going fast. For my first 30 levels, it was just me and no special gear. Now that I am in SiB, I get some guild perks which help with gains, but still no heirlooms and my quest log shows me as having leveled beyond a zone’s difficulty long before I get close to done with the quests.
It all just feels very unbalanced to me. But then the last time I really leveled a mage it was late vanilla and everything took so much longer back then.
The conjured-food thing really makes me sad. Apparently Blizzard heard the cries of Mages everywhere, who complained that their food never restored enough mana, and responded: Now you can’t conjure food at all till level 38.
Of course, even once you can, it’s still basically useless. You have to eat at least two of them just to fill your bar, at which point you might as well just use the higher-return drinks available from the vendor. If I’m going to have to sit and drink anyway, I’d at least prefer not to have to do it twice. Sitting and drinking is no fun. Having to sit through two full cycles just adds insult to injury.
Otherwise, though, I’ve mostly enjoyed the Mage. In retrospect, Fire wasn’t my best choice for levelling, because there isn’t enough crit available on gear to trigger your Pyroblast proc often enough to be fun. I can imagine at the level cap it will be hilarious, but through the 30s and 40s it’s kind of like, “Well, I’m casting Pyroblast, I’ll just go make a cup of tea while it finishes…oops, nevermind, the boss is dead. I just wasted 3.42 seconds standing here waving my burning hands in a circle.” :)
Very true on the food. I’m not sure why Blizz thinks it’s so terrible for our food to be useful. I am nothing if not cheap, though, so I sit through the cycles and cackle quietly to myself over my meager hoard of silver.
I think leveling as fire has been somewhat valuable for me in terms of performance on my main. At least, I thought it was all more intuitive in last night’s heroic and was managing what I thought was a decent output.
I’ve not tried levelling a mage since Cata hit – in fact the only thing I’ve done is level a troll druid to level 15 just before the shattering – so it has been a long time since I’ve done that whole experience (I’m a one toon kinda guy). Looking over from your experiences levelling a new mage in a post shattering world though I can’t help but agree that something seems very very wrong here.
The whole idea of the new talent system was that you picked your tree and you stuck with so that you had some idea what you were doing when you hit endgame. Somehow the idea of procc’ing Arcane Missiles as a Fire Mage appears totally contradictory to the design intent. Not having Arcane Brilliance until 58 just seems ridiculous. Yes under the old system we didn’t get Brilliance until late on (if I remember right) but at the very least you could self buff with Intellect.
In fact surely all the ‘class specialty’ abilities you list above should be fairly early on cos it’s in these early stages that you should be learning exactly what it is that you, as a mage, are bringing to the raid table and using these abilities need to be second nature when it comes to end game raiding.
Ofc must of us regular mages don’t have to worry about all this because those levelling days are behind us, but honestly, with all the new players, shouldn’t they be able to experience how awesome the mage class is? Cos looking at your experiences here it’s a wonder any new players get past the first few levels and that’s worrying for our class as a whole.
Yes. I hope it just seems odd to me because I do know what an end-game mage is like. I hope I am just projecting too much of my own comfort with the class here and that to a new mage it doesn’t seem as bizarre. I mean, okay, 1-29 I had to proc Missiles but then I just swapped Pryo out on my bar and it felt the same while looking better.
The only thing I would really agitate for a change on is Arcane Brilliance. If priests, paladins and druids can all buff already, why not me?
Wow, that sounds really rough as far as fire magery goes. All I know is that I’ve heard people rave about Arcane for levelling and pvp at lower levels, and that’s what I’d most likely try first myself if I were in your hooves. It might be worth a shot to try it out at that level for a bit at any rate…
Urgh, pvp.
I’ll probably dual-spec today. And maybe get glyphs.
What’s a mage?
I’m so glad you asked. A mage is the essence of pure awesome wrapped in a delicate shell of burning rage and frosty intellect. Or something.
I haven’t leveled a mage since.. eh.. TBC.. but getting Arcane Intellect at 58 seems rather late. I could have sworn it was one of the first buffs you got before?
Been thinking about leveling a little pet warlock for myself on a friend’s realm to see what they’re like to level these days. A little Démonique 2.0 I guess.. but I don’t have the time so I guess it won’t happen. Though I might still give it a go.. or a hunter. Don’t ask me why – I really couldn’t say cause at the moment I mainly sit and whine because hunters (and rogues) beat my warlock on the damage charts in raids.. grr
But I digress!
When leveling a character that you’re used to playing at max level I find that you always miss certain abilities that are normally your go-to spells/abilities. To find that they’re suddenly not something you get until a very late level must be.. thoroughly disturbing!
Yes, I quite recall being able to single buff Int very early on before. Brilliance did always come in rather later, but so did everyone else’s multi-buffs.
I keep trying to roll and re-roll and re-re-roll a new warlock. I had one, but ended up server and faction changing her. Thinking I would try a new one, I rolled a worgen and deleted her because I can’t stand the look of a worgen in a dress (Grandma, what big teeth you have!). Tried a gnome, got all the way to level two and got bored. I’m not sure why I have such a lack of interest. I’m sure I’ll get the urge for it sooner or later.
Sounds like fun to make guest appearances on other servers… maybe I’ll take a tour over the summer :)
Haha. I can see the blog series now. Zelmaru on tour. Appearances to be made at the following venues. Email for tickets.