I read this 5 times and thinking about why have this threat have subject "Class Q&A", if i dont see any answer on our questions here, maybe A is "A great big nothing" :(

I don't even see our questions, never mind the answers.

Good news is a recent post by GC:

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Q u o t e:

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Q u o t e:

Q4: Mages feel that Mana Gems and Healthstones should not share a cooldown as we are the only class in the game currently forced to choose on this matter (and with the apparent intent of our mana regen mechanics, it is not a choice at all.) When can we expect these to be unlinked?

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We will try to get them unlinked. I can’t recall if this was done for reasons of balance or kit, but it seems unnecessary.

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Maybe we can like start using healthstones on fights other than Vezax. Would be nice.

Worthless...

Try accually ansering our questions instead of just talking like a politician about random stuff.

The conclution is

*No fix for mana gems & Evocation
* No Fire PVP
* No T8 fix 4set bonus for certain speccs
* They still don´t know how to improve Invis after 3 years (although the new change in 3.2 i s nice) Still "we don´t want to make it to powerfull" Gz, 2 changes in 3 years.
* No Frostfix in sight for PVE
* Blink is still meh
* Still think tunics looks good on a mage (lolz)
* Blizzard is the only aoe spell mages have and the only devs know about
* Mages will have to wait like 2 years to have our talent trees smaller in terms of point spending as pala,warr

"The damage per second (DPS) difference between a skilled and less-skilled mage with the same gear can be pronounced. "

Hmm, how ??? is it not based purely on RNG ? Or am I missing something?
You get lucky crits = you get one of top spots in DPS, you miss them, you're down at the bottom. So where is that skilled versus unskilled comparison ? rubbish..

The most insulting Q&A I read.

The worst thing is that all GC said means they are no plans to change something for Mages.
We WAS glass cannons and we are now only glasses. I feel sunwelled again. There is still no reasons
for a raid leader to bring more than one mage.

I'm happy to have restarted playing my priest. She will became my main when she hit 80.

Disappointing... Very disappointing.... Fatal.

What a cop out. I was looking forward to this Q and A but it's really dissapointing.

No you don't have mana problems. Well I must be seeing things then when i'm doing ulduar because I need to use and time my mana gems and evocation all the time. Especially when we are doing hard modes. XT is a real drain Thorim is also quite taxing as is Iron council I need to be quite conservative at times but in this fight this is not a real problem.

Nothing about combustion this talent is a mess and a relic of ancient times where we weren't walking around with 60% crit in a raid setting. Not to mention the fact it doesn't even work as it should when we use the best dps glyph available to a fire mage

Nothing about the scorch glyph or the talent while I like the solution of the talent also giving us crit on our main nukes.
The actual applying of the debuff is still a pain unless you glyph for it. Don't understand why they not just make it a minor glyph it's not like our dps will instantly skyrocket because of it. And it would be nice to have another actually usefull minor glyph next to slow fall and not just cosmetic minor glyphs

I also like how Ghostcrawler apparently seems to think fire mages are only interested in crit. This shows a certain lack of insight in mages. Haste and crit give very similar results with crit being a stat that gives you a % chance on more dps and haste being a stat that just gives you a flat out dps increase.

I say back to the drawing board and give us some better answers

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Q u o t e:

* Blizzard is the only aoe spell mages have and the only devs know about

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Well we do have flamestrike as well!

*snicker*

Truth be told though, it does provide a decent increase in aoe damage on trash in naxx if you see where the tank is going to stand. If you're too slow though, you might as well be casting blizzard all the time.

I basically do it like this:
1. Look at where the tank is moving. Estimate where the mobs are likely to stand.
2. Start casting Flamestrike.
3. While casting flamestrike, ready blizzard over the same area.
4. Cast blizzard when flamestrike has landed.

What sucks is that if you're too slow with the flamestrike (i.e. start casting after everyone else has started aoe), you're likely to do less damage than if you had just started blizzard from the getgo. And trash is not where aoe damage counts. They go down anyway.

Using flamestrike in parts of the game where it counts is a pointless waste of time, because those fights tend to be a tad more dynamic with moving mobs, so you need to be able to re-apply the aoe quickly.

I'd like to see flamestrike improved a tad. Right now it's hardly ever used compared to blizzard.
Even Arcane Explosion has almost completely lost it's purpose.

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Q u o t e:
"The damage per second (DPS) difference between a skilled and less-skilled mage with the same gear can be pronounced. "

Hmm, how ??? is it not based purely on RNG ? Or am I missing something?
You get lucky crits = you get one of top spots in DPS, you miss them, you're down at the bottom. So where is that skilled versus unskilled comparison ? rubbish..

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I guess he's referring to the SUPER HARD ROTATION of keeping LB and scorch up.

If the community felt that mana is an issue and you feel that damage dealing classes should have enough to do their job then I'm sure you see the problem with the changes currently on the patch notes, since the ignite regeneration change is not enough to offset the replenishment changes. We will lose mana.

The more I read the answers the more I feel that mage testers in Blizzard are always specced Frostfire for pve. Yes, Frostfire has no mana issues, it has good AoE and it has an on-demand cooldown (Icy Veins). But it is not our highest dps spec, you must have missed that detail. Our highest dps spec, which is Fire/TTW, does not have good mana efficiency, does not have good AoE since Flamestrike is unreliable and we are forced to use Blizzard for which we have no talents and there is no on-demand damage cooldown. Combustion is worth less than 40 dps according to calculations and is no longer worth picking up over another point in student of the mind. Doesn't that seem odd to you, having a useless 31-point talent in our main damage spec for a class which does nothing other than damage?

1. Question - Good that he explained the mage class for me. Maybe I can't read the readme or the class description. I am playing a mage but... wow... he told me news!

2. Question - An unique question, never posted by a mage fan around the world... He just made the first Q pretty "short" and there was still place in the thread window :/

3. Question - Okay.... first attempt to answer a real question...

5. Question - Mana gem & Evo are FINE, L2P! Really, priests have it hard nowdays! You have to stand still to regain mana in PvE/PvP! We could talk about mana regen overall & for instance.... Innervate but... thats Druid Q&A.....

6. Everything is allright kinda...

7. Fire PVP? We need to improve Hunters & Locks first..... Yay for Hunters, the next expansion is going to DELIVER !

8. Threat generation - Use invis = stop casting

9. Blink remains......blink

10.

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Q u o t e:
There are some funky cloth legging designs out there that are difficult to truly appreciate unless one wears a tunic.

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Finally, I've been waiting for it sooo long.....!

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I'm disappointed :|
Really, those question in the Q&A thread had such potencial!

GC basically said : "keep on playing"

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Q u o t e:
All questions were submitted up to the point I posted in the questions thread, but please keep in mind the Q&A included questions from WoW Mage fans all over the world. If not all EU Mage questions were answered, and I haven't personally checked, then it is simply likely that the Mages from other regions had different things they were curious about. Which is of continuing surprise considering everyone's playing the same class.

By the way, thanks everyone for the feedback so far -- good or bad it's all useful.

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Problem is that at least for Russia, EU and US questions are the same. I have read rmost of them, and in proportion of 90% Qs are the same.

PS: wrong character :D

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Q u o t e:
All questions were submitted up to the point I posted in the questions thread, but please keep in mind the Q&A included questions from WoW Mage fans all over the world. If not all EU Mage questions were answered, and I haven't personally checked, then it is simply likely that the Mages from other regions had different things they were curious about. Which is of continuing surprise considering everyone's playing the same class.

By the way, thanks everyone for the feedback so far -- good or bad it's all useful.

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Honestly, please do tell me, where did you see the good feedback? And no, we aren't crying about things we don't deserve, as a pure dps class..! Instead of giving us stupid answers ( point tunics ) please, just take your time, read some WWS reports, and finally just do the changes that have to be done! It can't be tolerated to feel neglected for patches away.
And don't even dare to say that we got our buffs.... Yeah we did... Polymorph Rabbit...
But why are we even talking about Blizzard caring about mages ? After all you did nerf Arcane without even posting it in the patch notes, hoping that it will either go unnoticed, or won't cause a storm, and yes it did. (i'm talking about arcane barrage nerf here)
Overall you spend more time in all other classes and it seems to me ( and i believe that every other smart enough player will ) that the changes concerning mages are about the visual part of the game, aka polymorph rabbit, tunics over robes, and stuff like that.
In my opinion, please delete all your answers Blizzard, sit down, think again, and don't come back in the forums before you have some real answers for us. And do remember, we understand that we can't have an "I win Button!" ( even though you did remove that as well 0o ). We just asked to review our Pre-Tbc talents and spells, and balance them, the way the game is evolving.
That is, if you still want people to keep rolling mages.

I think the thing is that we overestimated this Q&A series. First of all, there's 2 types of players: the ones who play for enjoyment and dont really want to understand what their class does. The other type is the one which does a research on stats, specs, gear, etc. The second type is typically keep an eye on official forums and know the position of developers.

Since the Q&A was positioned as the the answers for MOST COMMON questions, guess what we get... We get the most common, basic questions. Obviously devs won't make new statements on the class unless they have something in plans for them. Well, the shamans got "better" answers because they are changed in 3.2. We are not. This whole thing was not a best idea from the beginning (like a 3.1 patch brief plans announsment) since it apllies to first type of players only. If you wanted your concerns answered, you need to wait for "Deep, Insightful, Full and Precise Interview with Ghostcrawler about Mages". So chill out guys and stick to leveling alts. We're in a good place right now :P

There wasn't even a real answer on the trivial (to me) robe issue. The fact that was even included (Given what was excluded) is a joke.

I felt some of the later stuff was more relevant, but I was incredibly disappointed when I started reading and the first few questions were basically a rehash of the mage class description. Was there really any point or need for that ?

In other news, mirror image is just fade (i.e. rubbish), and fire mages in pvp, well... ranged scatter shot is fine, but not what we need.

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Q u o t e:
I think the thing is that we overestimated this Q&A series. First of all, there's 2 types of players: the ones who play for enjoyment and dont really want to understand what their class does. The other type is the one which does a research on stats, specs, gear, etc. The second type is typically keep an eye on official forums and know the position of developers.

Since the Q&A was positioned as the the answers for MOST COMMON questions, guess what we get... We get the most common, basic questions. Obviously devs won't make new statements on the class unless they have something in plans for them. Well, the shamans got "better" answers because they are changed in 3.2. We are not. This whole thing was not a best idea from the beginning (like a 3.1 patch brief plans announsment) since it apllies to first type of players only. If you wanted your concerns answered, you need to wait for "Deep, Insightful, Full and Precise Interview with Ghostcrawler about Mages". So chill out guys and stick to leveling alts. We're in a good place right now :P

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This. I too found the Q&A disappointing, but I expected it to be, since I read the shaman Q&A and noted that it was not exactly an indepth analysis of the current problems. The thing is, the minority reads elitist jerks, the minority spreadsheets, etc. So this caters to the majority, and the majority... well, that's not the people posting here.

So the quote above me is spot on, however disappointing it might be to all of us.

Well....
I think the developers team is "tormenting the weak" here.

LOL

There is an answer to all this: stop playing mages. I leveled up a priest and a pally just to continue playing but it is not the same thing. The 3.2 patch /ignore us again. If the 3.3 patch will not include a MAJOR OVERHAUL of Mages I will stop playing.

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Q u o t e:


Well we do have flamestrike as well!

*snicker*

Truth be told though, it does provide a decent increase in aoe damage on trash in naxx if you see where the tank is going to stand. If you're too slow though, you might as well be casting blizzard all the time.

I basically do it like this:
1. Look at where the tank is moving. Estimate where the mobs are likely to stand.
2. Start casting Flamestrike.
3. While casting flamestrike, ready blizzard over the same area.
4. Cast blizzard when flamestrike has landed.

What sucks is that if you're too slow with the flamestrike (i.e. start casting after everyone else has started aoe), you're likely to do less damage than if you had just started blizzard from the getgo. And trash is not where aoe damage counts. They go down anyway.

Using flamestrike in parts of the game where it counts is a pointless waste of time, because those fights tend to be a tad more dynamic with moving mobs, so you need to be able to re-apply the aoe quickly.

I'd like to see flamestrike improved a tad. Right now it's hardly ever used compared to blizzard.
Even Arcane Explosion has almost completely lost it's purpose.

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I know. I use POM FS then AP+ICY (If trash) on aoe packs. Just interpreted blizzards respons to the aoe thing.


@ Wryxian: The problem here is that all the questions asked, all the feedback provided during the last 6+months were not even alittle taken into consideration. Please, provide THAT to the devs. They need to start working on the forums to see REAL problems. Presented by REAL people who plays the mage class.
This is, imo just pure ignorance to all the constructive threads that have been here for the last half year or well, since wotlk released. That Is, why I belive people are upset.