Pve Max area damage

depends on what you actually want. do you usually pair up with a healer ? do you want to pvp at some point ? do you want it just for botting orders where first hit aggro is important ?

if you don't plan to pvp, mm is a good choice. else go mage.

lazypenguin1 wrote: »

ok so basiclly, the aoe is larger with a mm, but the damage of a mage is higher

spike damage is higher with a mage imho. With our burns mm have a lower but more steady aoe damage.

lazypenguin1 wrote: »

ok so basiclly, the aoe is larger with a mm, but the damage of a mage is higher

Mages:
-Spike Damage
-Damage based on max mp meaning Azures work just as well as Rages in gear

MM
-Can turn the bread and butter aoe skills into 0s cd with the preferred Burst build even if only for a short period
-AOE attack with the ability to drop resistances to Fire which is used by the other pve AoE damage casters (Inferno Vamp, Fire Mage)
-Use of runes means we can give ourselves plus pt a crit chance and crit damage bonus
-Longer range on all skills plus range bonuses in Burst for our aoe skills
-Shield skill that lets us actually attack and thanks to recent patches actually works properly (and is considered OP by some)
-None of the effects our skills generate reduce incoming damage *coughIcecough*
-Longer lasting DoTs

I've managed to grab aggro from mages even as a Burst / Prec hybrid unless they were super op. But at that point, they can far more easily survive the aggro they generate which works for me since I can AoE with impunity.

As to the pve side of things, it can be pretty even depending on level in terms of overall damage but when it comes to spike damage mages will eventually win that contest at end game since the right combo of MM skills can give 20% bonus to both base and bonus damage but it's for a limited number of attacks and burns through a large amount of the soul clip unlike a mage who just needs the right debuffs on the target. The difference comes in the amount of status effects a MM can generate from a skill or skill combo that either up our damage or the pt damage as well as being able to do hybrid builds due to the way the various skill trees are laid out.

TL;DR version of the above paragraph: Mage smash keyboard! MM need to understand timing for buff / debuff usage as well juggling range and soul bullets in combat leading to more of a challenge.

Borsook - Eyrda wrote: »

You do realize burns don't generate aggro though, right?

A Dyos fire mage for instance can get +14%/+16% perma crit chance in PvE (Fervor + Fire Shield, latter is with Fire Shield rune but is very rare) and +40% crit damage on AoEs. And for PvE purposes (with the talent making it more than 180) +225 mastery for like 15sec and way more burn.

You can't compare yourself to mages who are completely noobs/trash gearwise. If a mage isn't crit build, he's doing it wrong. Don't even compare to those.

This is of course talking PvE wise since that's what we're talking about right?

1) Yes yes burns don't generate aggro, but I do still steal aggro from fire mages that don't out wing me on a pretty average basis. I don't think they're crit build, but I guess that's your point right? If they aren't crit build they are trash? That can get pretty pricey for the casual player. For fairly average casual-ish (as in very little to no cs) it's even imho.

Now for leaf exchange/gold farming yadda-yadda yadda to get the cs items (esp now there are gems in there) it is possible, but for the average person, it can take a while.

2. Dyos burst also has +base crit chance on all aoes. No buffs or nothing needed. Nyos gets +base crit chance on all skills, but buff dependent (which increases both chance and chance to get buff as fervor goes up) Not to mention Contact/Motivate runes which just boost all party members crit chance/damage (which is a much better buff than mage's mana to most classes)

3. Me and Trogatha aren't saying Mages won't kick our dps **** with spike damage, that's a given. We can however, continuously put out a large aoe (range wise) with decent damage. I can literally only hit fire aoes (and one earth for fire resistance lowering), without auto-attacking. While I haven't paid too much attention and my personal fire mage is lvl 48, I don't really think fire mages can claim the same. They can still have high aoe dps, but it's not continuous with the high burns. RoF goes off every other skill, inflicts normal damage and burn. That is where our power comes from. Will one RoF wipe a mob group out? No. Will we clear it faster than a fire mage? From my estimations, runs and yadda yadda it's actually about the same. We might take more skills, we might not.

4. Lightning mages are actually the ones that will take my mobs and wipe them out before me. This might be accredited to the low number of high level fire mages vs lightning or ice. But that's just my experiences.


5. My little dwarf is WAAAAAAAAAY cuter than your fire mages :P

As a maxed 80 Burst MM, I can tell you know that the best aoe class is a mage. Pure DPS leans toward fire. If I was to reroll a class, it would be a Frost Mage. What they give up in pure DPS they more than make up for in CC. When it comes to mobs, CC is better than pure DPS. That being said they are the ones I fear most in PVP and welcome most in my parties.