Mage question

[crowdx]

Hi all,
so I see all the time people running 3 shamans, warlocks etc and really do not see many people running multiple mages? I have a single mage which really nukes heroics, why would I not want to add another mage or even two more? Is it simply the lack of buffs to the group or is there something else I am missing?
All insight welcome

[Siaea]

The main reason I haven't made a multiple mage team is that their main AoE (Blizzard) is mouse targeted. People on here have gotten it to work, but to me it just seems too clunky. Also, multiple shaman, as cliche as it has become, can put out the pain. That, and they can self rez, heal, rez others, take a beating better than cloth wearers, have mobility in PvP (instant Ghost Wolf), and something else...Twenty Totems!

Don't get me wrong, the most fun I've ever had in PvP was with my mage pre-TBC, but for me, multiple shaman bring too much to the table.

[genocyde]

I run 4 mages in PvP and 2-3 mages in Heroics. They are extremely powerful. IMO they have among the highest DPS you can get on a multiboxed character and they really dish out the punishment in PvP. They are extremely mobile damage dealers as they have the most high damage instant spells. They are a little weak on the defensive side but I haven't had many problems in WG or BG's.

They are very powerful for AoE as well. Blizzard is not that hard to coordinate but they're real power lies in Arcane Explosion. 5-7k per GCD AoE while running can chew up large groups pretty fast.

I'll be starting Arena when season 8 begins here. I'm out to prove a mage team can compete to some level. I expect to miss out on the 2k+ range though. 1st season + running my own healer + starting out with trash PvP gear = you gotta start somewhere

[Ughmahedhurtz]

The main problem is that mages lack group utility for heroics. Basically, all you get is CC, long-cooldown spell interrupts, +/- magic dmg and remove curse. Consider the wealth of utility you get with shaman setups or multiclass setups. Resists, anti-fear, auto-poison/disease-cleanse, wipe-prevention, AoE heals, full-spectrum resists, high-utility/dmg pets, taunt pets, speed, all sorts of good things.

Back in the day, there were a few boxers that ran mage setups. Just not so many these days because shaman groups have proven so much more effective in a wide range of situations.

[genocyde]

The main problem is that mages lack group utility for heroics. Basically, all you get is CC, long-cooldown spell interrupts, +/- magic dmg and remove curse. Consider the wealth of utility you get with shaman setups or multiclass setups. Resists, anti-fear, auto-poison/disease-cleanse, wipe-prevention, AoE heals, full-spectrum resists, high-utility/dmg pets, taunt pets, speed, all sorts of good things.

I guess I don't see my team lacking any of these because I run either pally tank, disc priest, 3 mages or druid tank, disc priest, 3mages. So I've got all the cleanses, anti fear, some of the best resists a character can get, aoe, and the significantly higher damage output that mages bring.

Frankly, in heroics, I don't see the need for any of that junk. I can clear any heroic with significant speed and no deaths and not sweat it. I've even been debating trying some heroics with 4x mage and just a tank or healer. Only problem is both my tanks are on a mages account and not having a tank limits which heroics I want to try.

PvP might be a different story since I only run priest, 4x mage. I simply can't deal with as much incoming damage as a shaman boxer. I have to rely on putting more out and staying mobile, which in the end I think makes me more dangerous in some cases and less dangerous in others.

Edit: I will say my team probably take a bit more micromanaging then shaman though.

[pinotnoir]

I used to run pally tank, 3 mages and my druid healer. It really sucked without fear totem and poison and disease cleanse totem. I subbed one mage out for my shaman and it was pretty good. I had a better set of resist, fear totem ect.. Right now I am gearing my other toons up so I am running pally tank (may change to my dk because the pally needs no badge gear) 1 mage, 2 shaman, and my priest. The group is pretty solid. I like being able to chain heal with my two shaman to help out the priest if needed. The priest healer is much less button smashing over my druid. I think my ideal group setup would be pally tank, mage, shaman, priest, and lock. I love having mage buff, food, and ports so I think all groups should include 1 mage.

[HPAVC]

The mages crank out some serious DPS, I am fond of my Mage in my 10box sidebar team once I went Arcane and once I got some serious gear for it. Until the gear I was seriously thinking of dropping it. Plus arcane potency is nice and hard to replace integrate in a lot of common boxing setups. I guess amp / dampen magic is nice too.

I don't see how multiple mages add any synergy, more than one is an opportunity missed.

[crowdx]

Well I seldom use AoE on my teams, my locks and mage can do quite a bit of damage with AoE and ISBoxer which can make AoE very usable, in general I single target mobs and burn them down that way.
I agree with mail on a shaman it does make them more robust and the totems give a lot of passive dps,resists and heals.
With my arcane I just see a noticable dps lift, once arcane barrage procs he can be very deadly and it does seem at least once on each mob it procs and the mobs health bar drops like a stone lol.

[crowdx]

So really buffs are what is the edge with shammies or multiclass groups
I know the one edge my locks have over the mage is very little down time, lifetap , quick heal and they are back to full power in seconds, whereas mages do have some more downtime.
Having said that, I do like that they bring food LOL

[gitcho]

I've run a pally,disc priest, 3x arcane mage for a long time ... recently subbed out 2 mages for a shaman and druid specifically for all the buffs, but am considering putting the 2 mages back for my heroic runs. My mage can double the DPS of all my other same-geared toons in heroics when spamming arcane blast ... crazy amounts of short-term DPS - easily long enough for heroics. If you just want to burn through heroics and aren't worried about gearing other toons, arcane mages will easily out-dps any other class by a good margin with AB spam. The issue with ground-target AOE was the primary reason I switched to ISboxer, and now I use it all the time ... If you want to raid or PVP, that's another story ....