WOW: Troll Mage or Shaman
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Schadenfroh
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- Mar 8, 2003
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I played a Shaman for over a year. They are definetly a fun class, and not as overpowered as many people say.
As a Shaman, you have decent melee, but you are also VERY dependant on Windfury, which has an 80% chance of not doing anything.
You also have shocks, which can be quite potent. The problem with shocks is that they all share the cooldown, so you have to decide which shock to use in any given situation. They are also mana hogs, which makes the shaman very mana inefficient.
Totems are great too, and add a lot of flavor to the class, specially when grouping. Warriors will love you if you give them Windfury and Strength of the Earth; Rogues and Hunters will love you with Grace of the Air. Casters will appreciate Mana spring and mana tide. A shaman is a good addition to any group.
Lastly, if you don't like healing, don't choose a shaman, because that will be your role end-game. In Molten Core and beyond, a shaman's role is heal-botting and support via totems.
Mages are very powerful, but fragile. THey require a high amount of skill in PvP since they have such survivability, specially now that they nerfed the trinket combo that let them 2 shot people in PvP. They are reciving a rehaul in 1.11 so it will be interesting to see what happens with them then.
Mages also have the advantage of being a 'pure' class, and hence you can focus only in their primary role: damage, and get as much intellect and +damage items you can.
Shaman on the other hand are hybrids, and have itemization problems. You need strenght, stamina, agility and intellect if you want to be versatile, and will often have to carry several sets of gear to adapt to each situation, which can be a pain.
Oh, and like Schadenfroh said, if you hate rogues, don't roll a mage. SHaman generally have a relatively easy time against rogues.
If you want to run over warriors, though, a good mage should cream a warrior regardless of spec almost always. A shaman (specially enhancement) has almost no chance against a well geared MS warrior.
As a Shaman, you have decent melee, but you are also VERY dependant on Windfury, which has an 80% chance of not doing anything.
You also have shocks, which can be quite potent. The problem with shocks is that they all share the cooldown, so you have to decide which shock to use in any given situation. They are also mana hogs, which makes the shaman very mana inefficient.
Totems are great too, and add a lot of flavor to the class, specially when grouping. Warriors will love you if you give them Windfury and Strength of the Earth; Rogues and Hunters will love you with Grace of the Air. Casters will appreciate Mana spring and mana tide. A shaman is a good addition to any group.
Lastly, if you don't like healing, don't choose a shaman, because that will be your role end-game. In Molten Core and beyond, a shaman's role is heal-botting and support via totems.
Mages are very powerful, but fragile. THey require a high amount of skill in PvP since they have such survivability, specially now that they nerfed the trinket combo that let them 2 shot people in PvP. They are reciving a rehaul in 1.11 so it will be interesting to see what happens with them then.
Mages also have the advantage of being a 'pure' class, and hence you can focus only in their primary role: damage, and get as much intellect and +damage items you can.
Shaman on the other hand are hybrids, and have itemization problems. You need strenght, stamina, agility and intellect if you want to be versatile, and will often have to carry several sets of gear to adapt to each situation, which can be a pain.
Oh, and like Schadenfroh said, if you hate rogues, don't roll a mage. SHaman generally have a relatively easy time against rogues.
If you want to run over warriors, though, a good mage should cream a warrior regardless of spec almost always. A shaman (specially enhancement) has almost no chance against a well geared MS warrior.
mages ARE tough to play sometimes, and a lot of people get frustrated.. in my opinion, they are one of the classes you pretty much need skill to play. If played well, they can get pretty powerful. The major problem with mages, is that they are the only class that does not have an aggro dump (for pve), and generally have to lowest armor/health out of all the classes (pvp). There is not much room for error in pvp with a mage. If you mistime your counterspell, you are pretty much screwed against most healing classes, lol.
Shaman, I dont really have too much hands on experience with a shaman, only got him up to level 30.. but there are a lot of benefits for a shaman, 15 minute hearthstone type spell, walk on water, ghost wolf, etc.
I have a 57 mage, and it does get frustrating with rogues sometimes.. "unknown entity's ambush crits you for 2035. You die."
Shaman, I dont really have too much hands on experience with a shaman, only got him up to level 30.. but there are a lot of benefits for a shaman, 15 minute hearthstone type spell, walk on water, ghost wolf, etc.
I have a 57 mage, and it does get frustrating with rogues sometimes.. "unknown entity's ambush crits you for 2035. You die."
I think you nailed it on the head. Right now Mages are probably the hardest class to play (it used to be warlocks, but that changed with the ZOMG Death coil buff they got). They have immense potential (both in PvE and PvP), but it's hard to make the most out of that potential because a) they have no aggro dump and b) they have super low survivability.
A well-played mage is a real pain, though, and if they are skilful, they are super-slippery, meaning melee classes won't be able to get even close.
Like I said though, I'd wait and see what happens with the changes bound to happen in 1.11.
Well, there are only 2 pure melee classes in the game (warriors/rogues), and they both have slowing effects, e.g. Crippling poison/hamstring. even then, it might be a kind of close match.
well.. i guess pallies are too.. but they cant be slowed, and unless you nuke them HARD, they can just shield/heal. they are a pretty long fight, lol
Only other thing i can think of, is that caster itemization does not equal melee itemization... melee, you can upgrade damage by getting better str/agi gear or a better weapon. with casters, only way to up your damage is by actually sacrificing even more of your already low survivability for some +dmg gear (sacrificing int/sta).
Not trying to scare you away.. i love my mage, its a blast to play. But those are some of the problems you may run into, sooner or later.
well.. i guess pallies are too.. but they cant be slowed, and unless you nuke them HARD, they can just shield/heal. they are a pretty long fight, lol
Only other thing i can think of, is that caster itemization does not equal melee itemization... melee, you can upgrade damage by getting better str/agi gear or a better weapon. with casters, only way to up your damage is by actually sacrificing even more of your already low survivability for some +dmg gear (sacrificing int/sta).
Not trying to scare you away.. i love my mage, its a blast to play. But those are some of the problems you may run into, sooner or later.
My short answer is that if you're going to do 5-man instances and PvP, go shaman. If you're going to raid, stay away from the hybrid characters like shaman.
Shaman are a blast to play in small groups. In your typical 5-man you'll basically change roles constantly, picking up the slack wherever it's needed.
As group size scales upwards and the roles of each class become more rigidly defined, you get stuffed into the healbot role. I've seen plenty of shaman that can keep up with priests and druids in raw healing, but I can tell you from experience that it's boring to heal as a shaman. You're essentially spamming lesser healing wave, since it's more efficient that either healing wave or chain heal. Every once in a while you'll have a lapse in attention and pull aggro, but even that isn't a big deal since you're not squishy and can take some lumps before the MT grabs the mob back.
Totems become a chore because they need to be dropped at every encounter, lest your groupmates start to whine that they're not getting their WF or GoA buff during a trash pull.
PvP can be a lot of fun - there's nothing like having a rogue blow all of their cooldowns on you and then wipe it all away by hitting the nature's swiftness + healing wave macro. With the shaman PvP boots you'll be one of the go to people for running flags in WSG (since you'll be running at mount speed with ghost wolf). And as much as people whine about hunters in PvP, to a shaman they're free HK's.
Shaman are a blast to play in small groups. In your typical 5-man you'll basically change roles constantly, picking up the slack wherever it's needed.
As group size scales upwards and the roles of each class become more rigidly defined, you get stuffed into the healbot role. I've seen plenty of shaman that can keep up with priests and druids in raw healing, but I can tell you from experience that it's boring to heal as a shaman. You're essentially spamming lesser healing wave, since it's more efficient that either healing wave or chain heal. Every once in a while you'll have a lapse in attention and pull aggro, but even that isn't a big deal since you're not squishy and can take some lumps before the MT grabs the mob back.
Totems become a chore because they need to be dropped at every encounter, lest your groupmates start to whine that they're not getting their WF or GoA buff during a trash pull.
PvP can be a lot of fun - there's nothing like having a rogue blow all of their cooldowns on you and then wipe it all away by hitting the nature's swiftness + healing wave macro. With the shaman PvP boots you'll be one of the go to people for running flags in WSG (since you'll be running at mount speed with ghost wolf). And as much as people whine about hunters in PvP, to a shaman they're free HK's.
honestly, I wouldn't start either before the next patch is released.
both mages and shaman are getting talent overhauls in 1.11... I'd wait to see how the new talents turn out and just play a warlock or something for now
both mages and shaman are getting talent overhauls in 1.11... I'd wait to see how the new talents turn out and just play a warlock or something for now
Schadenfroh
Elite Member
- Mar 8, 2003
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I just got my first mage to lvl 30, I can say that I will never play mage again (at least not on a PvP server).
I play on a normal server and can't say I would love to play any class on a PVP server except a rogue. Anyway, with that said, I find my mage very enjoyable. My mage is only 28 right now and I am taking my sweet time to 60 this time (My Priest made it to L60 in 7 days /played). Doing all the quests, learning the class and waiting to see what happens with the 1.11 patch.
To each their own, though
Originally posted by: ArchAngel777
I play on a normal server and can't say I would love to play any class on a PVP server except a rogue. Anyway, with that said, I find my mage very enjoyable. My mage is only 28 right now and I am taking my sweet time to 60 this time (My Priest made it to L60 in 7 days /played). Doing all the quests, learning the class and waiting to see what happens with the 1.11 patch.
To each their own, though
I leveled a Paladin to 60 in a Pvp server. It was loads of fun because, as a Paladin, you are basically ungankable. And most people will leave you alone because they don't want to spend the next 30 minutes killing you.
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