Blizzard wrote:
Mage DPS lower than warlock's ?
If your concern is just that locks (or whoever) is currently beating you on damage meters, I'll just say that 1) we're not done with our numbers, 2) the signal to noise ratio on this topic is particularly bad because virtually every (and maybe in fact every) spec claims that they have the lowest dps at the moment. (Source)
Frostfire Bolt
We created Frostfire Bolt for 3 reasons: an interesting new spell that would cause a lot of exploation into which talents, gear and rotations benefited the best, a solution for those fights in which a Frost mage shows up to a Frost-immune fight, and the keystone for a new Frost + Fire "elemental" build. If you want to go respec every fight, you can still do that. But with Frostfire, you should be able to do a lot more damage than if you hadn't respec'd at all. (Source)
Ignite munching / potential spell change
Let me be clear, that this is ONLY because you're wee. Ignite munching is a bug, but it's a hard one to fix, partially because it has a large lag component. We can't always tell which crit landed first. It is something we want to get fixed though. If we absolutely can't fix it, we're likely to change the spell. (Source)
Developer Q&A (Source)
Will mages continue to have mana issues as much as they do currently, or is something planned to help?
Yes, we are working on mage mana issues. They seem to run out too fast.
Will mages be expected to be dominant AoE DPS? Or is AoE DPS also being flattened across the board?
Great AE damage isn't a good niche in a game with so many single-target fights. Your AE will be good, but so will that of warlocks and moonkin. We won't keep your single target dps down in order to justify high AE dps.
Will Frost be able to dps as strongly if not more strongly than Arc/Fire in PvE? Or is that still the PvP spec?
We would like to see similar dps from all 3 trees. However, if you go for a heavy PvP build (in any tree), you will probably sacrifice some dps to get there.
Will Arcane Blast be modified so it can be used as a main nuke? Or is that ship sunk?
We want Arcane Blast to be used a lot. It's not Pyro.
Scaling plagued mages throughout BC, will this be closely examined so it doesn't repeat in WOTLK?
Yes. We aren't happy with what happened to mages in BT and Sunwell.
Mages from BC have a stigma attached (see top guild interviews regarding least useful class), will we be given something to help justify bringing us to raids?
We'll make your dps competitive. We're trying not to give *anyone* the one ability that gets them invited to raids.
Will Evocation ever be updated? Lowered Cooldown? Made like Innervate instead of channeled?
I don't know the answer to that yet. I think Evo is fine if mages don't run out of mana in 5 seconds. Evo could be part of that solution or not.
Will Frostfire bolt be given a purpose, now that double dipping is gone. Is it simply an "immunity" fight fallback?
No, we want it to be the kind of spell you can use all the time. But we want to get Frost, Fire and Arcane feeling good first.
Will the Water Elemental get more survivability? More resist? More +hit? More scaling?
All pets should inherit the hit of the master now.
Will mages have purpose other than dps in raids so that so called "hybrid" classes won't fill in the mage spots after the single obligatory Winters Chill/Food/Scorch mage has been invited?
Just be better / do more dps than those other classes and you'll earn a spot. We're not going to give you a reason other than that that someone HAS to take you.
Is the numbers pass starting soon? We're worried that you may be running short (5 weeks) on time to properly see data regarding the dps passes.
We've been in the middle of it for weeks. Don't worry about the time. We don't. If we looked at the ship date as a deadline, then we'd get sloppy and do dumb things. The truth is that in an MMO, game balance is a process not a destination. Even after the patch goes live, we'll have opporunities to make changes before you can head to Northrend. With all the changes we've made, there are going to have to be some quick patches to fix things we missed. And overall we'd like to address balance problems that do erupt in a more timely fashion - consider, before we could always say "Eh, they'll still take the X for his Y buff even if his dps is low." We can't say that anymore. Now we just have to get stuff fixed.
If your concern is just that locks (or whoever) is currently beating you on damage meters, I'll just say that 1) we're not done with our numbers, 2) the signal to noise ratio on this topic is particularly bad because virtually every (and maybe in fact every) spec claims that they have the lowest dps at the moment. (Source)
Frostfire Bolt
We created Frostfire Bolt for 3 reasons: an interesting new spell that would cause a lot of exploation into which talents, gear and rotations benefited the best, a solution for those fights in which a Frost mage shows up to a Frost-immune fight, and the keystone for a new Frost + Fire "elemental" build. If you want to go respec every fight, you can still do that. But with Frostfire, you should be able to do a lot more damage than if you hadn't respec'd at all. (Source)
Ignite munching / potential spell change
Let me be clear, that this is ONLY because you're wee. Ignite munching is a bug, but it's a hard one to fix, partially because it has a large lag component. We can't always tell which crit landed first. It is something we want to get fixed though. If we absolutely can't fix it, we're likely to change the spell. (Source)
Developer Q&A (Source)
Will mages continue to have mana issues as much as they do currently, or is something planned to help?
Yes, we are working on mage mana issues. They seem to run out too fast.
Will mages be expected to be dominant AoE DPS? Or is AoE DPS also being flattened across the board?
Great AE damage isn't a good niche in a game with so many single-target fights. Your AE will be good, but so will that of warlocks and moonkin. We won't keep your single target dps down in order to justify high AE dps.
Will Frost be able to dps as strongly if not more strongly than Arc/Fire in PvE? Or is that still the PvP spec?
We would like to see similar dps from all 3 trees. However, if you go for a heavy PvP build (in any tree), you will probably sacrifice some dps to get there.
Will Arcane Blast be modified so it can be used as a main nuke? Or is that ship sunk?
We want Arcane Blast to be used a lot. It's not Pyro.
Scaling plagued mages throughout BC, will this be closely examined so it doesn't repeat in WOTLK?
Yes. We aren't happy with what happened to mages in BT and Sunwell.
Mages from BC have a stigma attached (see top guild interviews regarding least useful class), will we be given something to help justify bringing us to raids?
We'll make your dps competitive. We're trying not to give *anyone* the one ability that gets them invited to raids.
Will Evocation ever be updated? Lowered Cooldown? Made like Innervate instead of channeled?
I don't know the answer to that yet. I think Evo is fine if mages don't run out of mana in 5 seconds. Evo could be part of that solution or not.
Will Frostfire bolt be given a purpose, now that double dipping is gone. Is it simply an "immunity" fight fallback?
No, we want it to be the kind of spell you can use all the time. But we want to get Frost, Fire and Arcane feeling good first.
Will the Water Elemental get more survivability? More resist? More +hit? More scaling?
All pets should inherit the hit of the master now.
Will mages have purpose other than dps in raids so that so called "hybrid" classes won't fill in the mage spots after the single obligatory Winters Chill/Food/Scorch mage has been invited?
Just be better / do more dps than those other classes and you'll earn a spot. We're not going to give you a reason other than that that someone HAS to take you.
Is the numbers pass starting soon? We're worried that you may be running short (5 weeks) on time to properly see data regarding the dps passes.
We've been in the middle of it for weeks. Don't worry about the time. We don't. If we looked at the ship date as a deadline, then we'd get sloppy and do dumb things. The truth is that in an MMO, game balance is a process not a destination. Even after the patch goes live, we'll have opporunities to make changes before you can head to Northrend. With all the changes we've made, there are going to have to be some quick patches to fix things we missed. And overall we'd like to address balance problems that do erupt in a more timely fashion - consider, before we could always say "Eh, they'll still take the X for his Y buff even if his dps is low." We can't say that anymore. Now we just have to get stuff fixed.
Edited, Sep 30th 2008 9:40am by Anobix