Mages or shaman?

[ilikemages]

I have the following 10 days off...

my mages are all 52 (3 of them) and am unsure if it would be better pvp wise to continue to play them or make shaman.

With 2.4 patch it seems sham will be nerfed so i just wanted some opinions

[Stealthy]

Elemental shams got a nerf and some nifty buffs in 2.4.

Nerf:

Call Of Thunder 5 point crit bonus reduced from 6% to 5%.

Buffs:

Tremor totem pulses every 3 secs (down from 4).

Totem global cooldown reduced to 1 sec (down from 1.5).

Overall I don't mind the changes at all...

Cheers,

Shane

[Kicksome]

The biggest problem with a mage - and I have 2x level 70's, is that there is a lot of micro management. sheep, ice block, counter spell, blink, the target AOE like bizzard, the mana gem things, regen mana thing, are hard to use ( I never do - too much micromanagement) and gods knows what else They also die really easily. often times you are the first to be taken out - especially fire mages. Now if you have 4 mages I'm sure you could make the best of this and utilize most skills.

On the plus side POM+Pyro almost makes up for it alone! God that thing is a life saver. Also,mages have a longer range if you are fire and arcane explosion is a killing machine with multiple mages - it's awesome in PVP - it's my panic button.

With Shamans it's a lot easier - plus they can heal, dps, tremor and ground totems, crit+hit toems and have chain mail and a shield so they don't die near as quick. You have a chance to use ALL the shamans power - where my mages rarely use blink or iceblock or their target AOE spells.
The downside to shamans is almost NO Crowd Control. You have the elemental pets though - which come in REALLY hand and also Heroism/Bloodlust.

I think what I learned is don't mix too many classes together and you can probably make anything work. Keeping the complexity down is really nice. When you are in a fight - it's just too hard to think - ok, what should my tank be doing, what should my shaman be doing, what should be mages be doing, what should my priest be doing - ugh. So I'm working on my 5x shaman team now. with 4x shaman and 1xpally setup available to me as well.

[Emo?]

Ive been 70 with my 3x mage team now for 2 days, ive tryed both 2v2 and 3v3 (10 matches (4-6 in 2v2) and (2-8 in 3v3) and battleground, the thing is atm WoW (imo) is destroyed in arena sins u meet vengfull guys @ 1500 rating. Because they have saved points from S2 and been on low rating in S3 so i dont ahve a chanse to kill them atm, or well one i have but then there is 2 left lol :P.

Anyway, i also used to play a 70 shaman before theses and i can asure u that shamans have a 300% better survivability in arena than mages, tho everyone plays it, i dont see any point in follow the crowd. I will try with my mages now, and i KNOW for sure that i will pwn some as soon as i get more than 5000 hp and 0 resiliance :P. What im trying to say is, dont be affraid to create mages just because they die easy,

And to kicksome, i manage to sheep 2 targets + Iceblock + blink + use managems in a affective way both in arenas and BG. :) ,

And yes im currently 41/21/0 specced Pompyro, tho a 3x shatter combo would be imbah i think that handle 3 elementalpets @ once is to much cause u have to swich window to be albe to use their extra frost nova :(

[ilikemages]

thx for the replies guys

shaman look good, but i think i will stick it out with mages for now.

worse comes to worse i can always use the mages to power lvl a 4 shaman team.

[Biz]

Why I Like Mages More Than Shaman

Tangible:
Trainable ice block is going to be huge.
Counterspell on round robin
Frost nova on round robin
Pyro
Multiple AEs kill everyone in seconds.
Assorted nukes
Sheep

Intangible:
Mages are so much more fun.
The idea of just standing in one spot spamming chain lightning is not appealing to me.
I hate totems.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on my VCR the other night, but after his first gank I repeatedly killed a 70 epic rogue ('http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Magtheridon&n=tactsta') in Hellfire at 62 on my 4 PoM/Pyro mage + pally group the other night. It was sad. He could usually kill or almost kill one of my mages but they nailed him every time afterwards. Usually sucked up all my mana in doing so but it worked. I have no experience with shammies but I imagine that it would be difficult with limited instant spells available to them. My routine was bubble, frost nova, get a little range, turn back at him, fire blast, blast wave, PoM/Pyro, Arcane Explosion, Fire blast, then chase him down as he tried to run and fire blast him again for the kill. Worked a LOT better than I expected, and the arcane/fire mages lasted quite a bit longer under epic rogue assault than I would have guessed they could.

[Ðeceased]

I will be lvling both.. I for some reason never lvld a mage.. and have been regretting it every single day :S so 5 at a time is going to be a lot of fun ^^
the reason I'm sticking to shammies atm is that they simply have soo much versatility even though they have no CC and limited snares.

5x mage.. fun factor multiplied.. however be ready for some frustration with the micromanagement
5x shaman.. might not be as fun as mages, when it comes to spell choice, blinking etc.. but in such a group you have huge survivability, that the frustration you will likely suffer from running 5 mages will make up for the lesser amount of spells..
with this new tremor pulse if you time it right you should have one pulse going off every 0.6 seconds.. say byebye to running outside your totem range.. or if you prefer a little more mobility you can spread them out a little and drop them all simultaneously to cover a large area with antifear..

I want to experience both mind you :)

5x blast wave and 5x nova totem :)

[Toned]

Rogues = easymode for shamans. LB/Earthshock him this should make him pop cloak because he's at 50% or less. Soon as cloak wears off either instant chain lightning his ass or do 5x fire nova and watch him /cry. I like shamans more than mages because shamans are more mana efficent, and they have the ability to heal ( <3 Chain Heal ). Let's not forget the utility of 5x grounding totems along with a tremor totem rotation.

[thinus]

Rogues = easymode for shamans. LB/Earthshock him this should make him pop cloak because he's at 50% or less. Soon as cloak wears off either instant chain lightning his ass or do 5x fire nova and watch him /cry. I like shamans more than mages because shamans are more mana efficent, and they have the ability to heal ( <3 Chain Heal ). Let's not forget the utility of 5x grounding totems along with a tremor totem rotation.

You are assuming you get the drop on the rogue and he is alone.

More realistic is you being distracted by the rogue's group.
Rogue Shadowsteps behind one of your clones.
Rogue stunlocks your clone.
Rogue is out of line of sight to all the others.
Rogue pops Cloak of Shadows when rogue notices 4 shaman suspiciously turning to get into LoS.
Rogue 5 combo point Ruptures and Vanishes before Cloak of Shadows wears off.
Rogue regens energy.
Rogue pops Preparation and rinse and repeat minus Cloak of Shadows.

...or...

Rogue sneaks up behind a clone.
Rogue garottes, blade flurries, adrenaline rushes and smash that shaman into tiny little pieces.
Cloak of Shadows if necessary.
Vanish.

[TMNT]

I hate totems. i lol'ed at that

Don't be afraid to start a new trend. Ellay started the shaman because he got high. Doesn't mean others wont. You have to be creative try the unthinkable and others will follow.

[chris916]

I hate totems.i lol'ed at that

Don't be afraid to start a new trend. Ellay started the shaman because he got high. Doesn't mean others wont. You have to be creative try the unthinkable and others will follow.Hey! I saw you today! :P

[Djarid]

Rogues = easymode for shamans. LB/Earthshock him this should make him pop cloak because he's at 50% or less. Soon as cloak wears off either instant chain lightning his ass or do 5x fire nova and watch him /cry. I like shamans more than mages because shamans are more mana efficent, and they have the ability to heal ( <3 Chain Heal ). Let's not forget the utility of 5x grounding totems along with a tremor totem rotation.

You are assuming you get the drop on the rogue and he is alone.

More realistic is you being distracted by the rogue's group.
Rogue Shadowsteps behind one of your clones.
Rogue stunlocks your clone.
Rogue is out of line of sight to all the others.
Rogue pops Cloak of Shadows when rogue notices 4 shaman suspiciously turning to get into LoS.
Rogue 5 combo point Ruptures and Vanishes before Cloak of Shadows wears off.
Rogue regens energy.
Rogue pops Preparation and rinse and repeat minus Cloak of Shadows.

...or...

Rogue sneaks up behind a clone.
Rogue garottes, blade flurries, adrenaline rushes and smash that shaman into tiny little pieces.
Cloak of Shadows if necessary.
Vanish.

Ok lets play this one out ;)

Assuming the rogue gets the jump on the shaman. (assuming 5 shams, and Wow 2.4) with timeline
0secs : autoattack, 2x tremor totem (no sap), 1x grounding, 1xEarthbind
1sec : 4 x magma totem (no stealth and lots of damage every 2 secs)
2secs : cure poison totem, healing stream, healing stream, healing stream
3 secs : 5 x Flamestrike... (fire DoT x5 no stealth at all)
4.5 secs : NS+LB

I really don't think that the rogue is going to last too long after this... especially if he has already used cloak of shadows

[Djarid]

i think that handle 3 elementalpets @ once is to much cause u have to swich window to be albe to use their extra frost nova :(

Why? you can cast pet spell in a macro

[Kicksome]

I played one of my mages SOLO in ZA today with 9 other people - it was a blast. I had no idea I could hit stuff for like 4K crit with a fireball. (I just see my pally hitting for like 150 all the time). Got to use blink, frostnova, scortch, fireblast, mana ruby. All which I actually had to add to my toolbar since I NEVER used them with my 5-man group. Despite the fact that I have 2 mages that are level 70 - i really didn't know how to play them well. So I have a few new ideas for macros. I guess that's the problem when you level your guys to 70 when they are on follow. You get [or at least I did] like 1/5th the playing experience - if that.

Anyway - I might take a crack at tweaking my macros to see if I can make more out of my current setup.