(Best) Mage (spec for) dailies and open world content?

Post by Klaphood

Context: I left BFA just before the 8.2 Rise of Azshara patch came out last year in June I think.

Thinking about coming back now, but my problem is: I love to play Mage in Dungeons & Raids like no other, but from almost all the classes I've played, Mage felt the least fun or fit when it comes to open world content, dailies, soloing, or easy farming etc.
And in the end, this is what you do a great majority of the time in the game. And I love WoW's open world and it's large amount and variety of content.

I even remember people particularly reporting how tough some mobs and world quests were in Najzatar (at least when it came out). So that made me feel even more like I will not be enjoying that on Mage.

(TL;DR) So I wanted to ask you: How is the state of Mage right now when it comes to everything else but instanced content? Do you have fun doing your WQs and progressing in time gated content? I know you can't expect every class to be like a Death Knight or Hunter and just tear through everything on screen at once. But the careful approach I always had to take on Mage felt really weak to me after a while, even when I had no real problems fighting mobs (as Arcane).

Cheers!

EDIT: I just read in the official forums that people say once you've got some better equip it's supposedly looking very good for mage. I'm surprised but interested now and might try again!

Post by Aryonotos

Frost mage is really fun and safe when it comes to open world and soloing content simply because you get to freeze and slow everything. You literally gather a lot of mobs slowing them with blizzard, frozen orb and cone of cold, and rooting them with both your frost nova and your water elementals frost nova. Frost mage isn't a meta pick for raids and dungeons, but if you master it and get the right gear, corruptions, essences you can blast through any content you like while topping the meters.
The general rule for mages (you absolutely DON'T have to follow this if you don't want to, its just a suggestion):

Frost: open world, soloing content (both old and new), fresh 120 (its because other mage builds require a lot more specific gear and azerite traits to be better)
Fire: raids and mythic+ with endgame gear, pvp (meta pick for all endgame content, insane damage output, you need specific gear like on use trinkets from pvp and azshara and cooldown reduction wrists from mechagon and stacking 3x blaster master traits)
Arcane: levelling (insane dmg with favourable scaling), pvp (though rarely seen, if mastered you can bamboozle and kite melee dps forever)

Of course all of the above can and should be used interchangeably, you should try every spec for every scenario possible and check whatever suits you best. My main is frost, I use it for everything in the game because it is so universal and fun to play (for me).

Tl;dr - Frost if you are a casual, Fire if you are hardcore gamer. (Take it with a grain of salt)

(Best) Mage (spec for) dailies and open world content?

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