Dead classes = Boring!

I have 3 characters at level 90 now and trying for the 4th and to get the achievement for 3 max level characters who are different classes. The character who drew the short straw for that task ended up being my Mage called Windlepoons, he is named after a character from a Discworld novel.

Currently he is level 89 Fire Mage and about half way to level 90, but I am struggling to play him effectively. The reason for this is that the current recommended spell rotation relies on A) being a Octopus or at least have an extra hand and luck at getting spell effects to boost damage.

I’ve give you the current recommended rotation as it seems to stand as listed by a few sites.

Execute the following priority for optimal DPS.

  1. Combustion with Ignite on the target.
  2. Pyroblast with Pyroblast! proc.
  3. Inferno Blast when Heating Up procs.
  4. Living Bomb refresh with < 1 tick remaining.
  5. Fireball as a filler spell.

The issue I have is that the first 3 of that “rotation” are actually “if” spells, if you get the right spell effect press the button. The only two spells in the rotation are Living Bomb and Fireball!
Last expansion Mages had a proper rotation, his spells put DoTs or spell effects on the target that boosted damage. For example if you had Living Bomb and Pyroblast DoTs on the target spell damage was increased. This meant your rotation had to include spells to keep up DoTs all I do now is play “bash the button” or “Whack a Mole” if you will.

What is really annoying me is that not only is Fire Spec currently the bottom of the DPS ratings for class right now (Arcane being the best) I am being out damaged by a good 10k DPS by other classes.

When I look at Recount I am being shown as having my DoTs up for longer than most, as active, if not more so than most other people in the instance but I do bugger all damage.

Another thin that is really killing the class (in my eyes at least) is that the spell casting effects has become listless and not “amazing” looking as the class used to be. To be far the graphics for the Fireball & Pyroblast spells was changed some time ago to actually look like a ball and around 90% less cooler!

Dowdy Graphics

I managed to capture this screen shot that makes the casting of the Fireball spell look amazing, but the actual “ball” looks shite. Look at that piece of shit! it’s rubbish, it is in fact just a lava textured badly created “lump”

Shaman’s lightning bolt has was also slapped with the dowdy graphics bat sometime ago and in stead of launching bolts of lightning from their fingers you get this gods awful “fizzle” effect. The end result for the Mage and Shaman class is to have removed the “bang, fizz crackle boom” from the class and replaced it with this fat wheezy dribble spell animations. It certainly take the edge of the class for my money at any rate. 

2 Responses to “Dead classes = Boring!”

  1. Blizzard has done everything to really kill the mages. I loved playing the Arcane mages but it seemed like they kept adding time to the cooldowns,and nerfing the damage.. trying telling that to someone who doesn’t play a mage,and thinks they are still overpowered.

  2. I’ve always specced my Mage as Fire, I just find it looked so much better than Frost or Arcane to me. Your right as to how Mages are a shadow of their former glory, same with Shaman. For me though, the real issue with these two classes is that casting spells seem to just feel and look flat, there is no “emotion” to the casting, it just feels dead and flat.

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