All I want on my hunter is to go back to MoP days. The old survival spec was my favorite especially back then and the other specs were great too. Miss glaive toss as well....such a cool ability they took out for no reason
Same! I tried my hunter so many times during legion and was just frustrated. I played it a ton during MoP and WoD but the legion changes just seemed to simplify it so much that... he's still 108...
They said they didn’t like how hunters suddenly left the bow as a weapon. So perhaps they’ll change or maybe maybe add another spec to it. Or simply slow you to use both a now and a staff. But what do I know I’m just a causal
Well, for me personally I felt that MM hunter spec was very bland and boring plus visuals on hunters period are severely lacking and dull was nothing like it used to be even in WoD or going further back, MM hunters were more fun back then to me at least. Now BM hunter spec I enjoyed, I found it capturing the essence of what being a BM hunter was about calling multiple pets to your aid made it enjoyable to me it will be sad when we lose Hati. Now for Survival hunter spec I found the spec really fun to play especially in pvp but I found the spec lacking damage in certain areas making it hard to maximize your dps and keep it consistent which is sad. I know people don't like Survival spec as Blizzard tried to bring back part of one of the hunters key elements from the past like in Vanilla/ TBC where every spec was able to equip melee weapons whether it be one two handed weapon or two one handed weapons. What people don't realize is back then you had to buy your ammo/arrows to put in your quiver which took up one whole bag space which sucked but when a hunter was in a dungeon or raid and runs out of ammo they would have to melee until the dungeon or raid was over which sucked.
I love you me vids mate. You literally have gotten me playing again more then once after a break by showing up on my suggested videos randomly with an interesting analysis of an aspect of the game.
I agree..mostly. I feel like your run throughs of elemental shaman has been lackluster. You never mention ascendence ( basically shaman super saiyan) or icefury and the fun gameplay that comes from the different options. Most importantly, you never once mention our amazing AOE. It's one of the best selling points for an elemental shaman. The pure joy as you stormkeeper and chain lightning/earthquake an entire mob of 20 enemies without blinking. Very strong in mythic+ and in the antorus raid.
Not to forget how with lego boots and gloves your core spells and abilities tie so well together! Use earthshock get a chance to proc another earthshock, then another earthshock, then ascendance, spam lava bursts. Your rotation is constantly changing in single target, which keeps you on your toes.
I LOVE my Fire-mage. I tried using Arcane and Frost and truthfully, they're all fun, but Fire just makes me so happy to roll through that crit-chain rotation and using Combustion and Fireballs to chain Pyroblast after Pyroblast just gives me a warm feeling (pun intended). I'm still maining my Marksmanship Hunter, if only because I still love the "fantasy" as you call it, of being a far-ranging deadeye. Honestly I don't mind waiting on the procs too much, because I've styled my handling of the character to playing without the procs and simply adjusting my rotation when they occur. I can see your complaints about it, but I can't stop loving getting big honkin' crits on a Piercing Shot that takes a huge chunk of even world quest elites' health bars, or the constant slicing off of their health with aimed shots. I'll agree there's room for improvement, though, and I do hope they work on it more in BFA. Balance Druid is fun, especially if you get that Wrath of Elune talent, then you're basically an Ion Cannon fire director and it becomes a fun game to see how well you can keep generating AP while the death from above beam is draining it.
I like that you started off with Mage. I approve of the music used, thought Cata intro surprised me since I haven't heard it in a long time. I got to to frost I was thinking "I hope he uses Crystalsong forest OST for Arcane because that would tie it up". And you did!
I picked affliction as my main when I started legion (and that hasn't changed) because the fantasy of a corrupter and torturer of the enemies is an amazing fantasy to me. Problem is that the rotation really never varies and as you said it's boring in world content. However I've found using certain builds can work well, like a DoT that drains the enemy and an AoE DoT. (Soul siphon and phantom singularity) and make questing at least engaging and interesting enough. Best part about the spec is its consistency though, and that never fails in raids.
I'm a little bit disappointed about your idea about Arcane Mage, especially about Dungeons. I'm pretty biased towards it, but I do think it requires a bit more acknowledgement. So many people have no idea how to use the Arcane Mage properly only because they aren't used to managing their mana and using their burn and conserve stage properly. I saw immediately from your burst / burn phase that your rotation wasn't even correct :( I dunno... Maybe play a little bit more of it tbh. You should never be using just one charge of missiles while you have AP up. Should be using at least 2 but generally always 3 if you can manage it...
Mage is my favorite class, but *ONE* thing really turns me off, and that is how bad they are when soloing content relative to other classes. One of the specs *need* a talent that lets them summon a tank pet. Frost makes the most sense here.
Warlocks have high damage and god tier survivability. I don't mean pvp; I'm just talking about regular open world pve. Mages suffer until they outgear it.
In World questing it's balanced because frost mage performs good with kiting mechanics, if you know how to use them it has the same effect like affli, because enemeys will never reach you. And Frost has insane damage too, it's all about haste and a luck with your proccs
As for me Affliction most fun in Legion, reminds me frost mage in Vanilla: mount, grab them all, dismount, stun with infernal, SoC, Drain Soul - and they just blow up. And I was playing since Vanilla with all classes and specs. You have own tank, healer for yourself and you are DPS.
I hate how they gave the old demonology gameplay to shadow.. Cuz mop/wod had metamorph working almost exactly like void form (build up resources and then turn into a form to spend that resource while trying to keep it up longer).. Honestly, shadow feels like a.. Well.. shadow of demonology's former glory (no pun intended).. Makes me sad. Rip old demo
Ayyy, Mages unite! Forever the ranged master race! Also... R.I.P. that Full Moon cast onto the Decimator as it died at 14:46 ... we've all done it, let's be real. xD
Even when I sucked early in the expansion, my guild still toted me around because I was a brez, cosmic taxi, and had cookies. It also helped that, for a while, I was my guild's only warlock.
I agree with you Bellular. Warlock, especially demonology, has really had a rough couple of expansions. I feel like it was ahead of its time in MoP, and find myself wishing they'd just bring that back now to try it in today's environment.
Great vid, and great info for a one char player like me (lack of time), so all I know is my aff lock gameplay... the fire / frost mage does look good fun... perhaps my 110 char boost may be used up soon :)
I realize that this isn't a UI video, but I can't help but wonder how you play with room for 16 buttons between your player and enemy unit frames. Do you have other action bars hidden from view with the keybindings memorized?
*Fire* : it's like playing a shooter with a sub-machine gun *Frost* : is like your spell have a symbyoze between them *Arcane* : where did my enemies go? Where did my mana go? *Elemental* : it's RNG that somehow happens all the time *Destruction* : Sometimes you throw plushy toys, sometimes you throw nuclear warheads *Affliction* : press 3 buttons, spam unstable affliction, watch your enemy's healthbar just go away *Demonology* : if beastmastery was the worst spec then it'll be demonology *Shadow* : a little DoT, some direct dmg, self heal, pseudo-metamorphosis that lasts longer if you're good, this spec is amaizing! *Marksmanship* : get that proc and everything hurts, but still you gotta get that proc. Also you get the aspects of fuck you *Beastmastery* : If demonology wasn't the worst spec then this'll be it. Also you get the aspects of fuck you *Balance* : a tank mage with DoTs, builder-spender and hard hitting direct dmg Huh.
you should check out an Ele shamen guide. its much more dynamic then what you think, check out storm, earth and lava for some awesome tips and a a good look at ele.
My personal opinion as someone who has raided heroic or higher on most range specs this xpact is that I find Ele, Fire and Frost the more fun specs. The reactive playstyle to procs is what makes most specs enjoyable to me. Middle of the road are Arcane, Marksman(which I loved the original legion MM hunter but dislike I believe it was post 7.1.5 MM. Still ok just not as fun as it used to be), Destruction and aff has it's moments. Not bad but a can be boring is BM hunter, shadow priest and boomy. Bad is demonology. My issue with Mage and shammy is they don't have a tank spec. I honestly wished someone had 4 specs like druid. If they made boomy less same same with controlled procs I would honestly just main a druid. I like resto, bear and feral. But I tend to main range so boomy kind of kills it for me. I'm still personally undecided between mage, shaman and druid. Warrior and rogue are in consideration. I like having the tank/dps option with warrior but I find most people are in need of range and mdps spots are harder to find from my experience. Rogues. I like sub. And they are almost always in demand because of cloak and feint. But I don't think I can live on a 3 dps spec where I only like one of the specs. While I almost never play resto shaman I like it slightly more than resto druid. And enhancement is on par with feral for fun imo. So for more options than one thing druid and shaman win in that regard. I do enjoy fire mage so much though. And frost can be really fun as well. I also like that phoenix flames is becoming a talent. So this is where I am in my BfA main decision personally. Any input that isn't this spec is the best because I love it would be nice. I do want to try paladin and dk. I haven't played dk since WotLK and I have never played ret. My fear with leveling a paladin is I hear ret is the melee version of boomy. It's highly predictable with practically no reaction. It's all based around how well you can do the small existing rotation the best with the fewest mistakes.
I think you were right on with mage except for one little part. The crit fishing of fire, where you delay using your hot streak to cast a fireball and the instant pyro together, needs to go. Delaying the nuke to utilize a mechanic that is extremely unintuitive and slows the rotation just seems the opposite of what they are going for with the spec. When you get a hot streak, it should be best to launch that bad boy and work on another one.
I take it you'll be doing similar videos for Healers, Tanks and Melee DPS as well? Overall, pretty good food for thought, especially when thinking about leveling new Allied Races or other Alts.
IDK if it's just me, but it seems to be a bug in fire mage, especiall in early levels. I'm specced into getting an auto crit if the target is over 90% health, and I do get the proc, but if my next cast does not crit, the proc goes away immediately, doesn't last the full duration. Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe I'm missing something here?
"as a hunter main" - hehe i don't mind too much the current mm, but yeah procs for marked shot really need a fixed timer maybe lower cd on artifact skill, but its pretty good compared to the past but it really doesn't add much since the days of rolling the mouse wheel up and having a pet, i do miss having a couple of damage dots. Only thing i can think of is maybe intro a based on largest crit during the fight a bleeding/take more damage debuff like an arrow stuck in the boss randomly proc's and gives benefit of vunerable without the required procs, on top of everything else so you get a free window every so often during a fight to dump resources in, but currently its building the resources back up that feels slow and boring to me.
Kind of inclined to agree with you. Have leveled everything to max, while maining Hunter this expansion (probably about 60% MM, 30% Surv, 10% BM across the xpac), but I think the most fun I have as DPS is Frost mage. Been considering switching mains, but I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to do it come BfA. Still enjoy hunter too much, and it was my original main since I started playing seriously in BC.
good list. I definetly believe that Elemental only becomes interesting with t21 4pc. they become one of the very best feeling specs, you're like an elemental master weaving between all the different spells.
surprised you didn't touch upon what if each of these ranged specs equally geared 1v1'd eachother, which would come out on top ;D I have a feeling it would either be the frost mage or the marksmanship hunter.
I main a BM hunter. I like it and have fun. Sure it's not top of the dps charts, doesn't even come close, but I find it fun to play. And to me that's the most important thing of this game. Play what you enjoy or you won't enjoy what you're playing.
I know why he doesn't talk about the numbers, but when you title a video "WHO WINS? Top Ranged Specs Roundup & Class Picks", he's giving the impression that these classes are the ones you want if you want to play the best ranged dps in the game. He isn't really saying that these classes are in his opinion the most fun to play.
so with the free 110 I'm getting from the new expansion who do i get.... I have a 110 priest mage monk dh and I love fast combat but I also like to see big numbers over many numbers
Fire mage main, I play Fire since BC and the problem I'm having with it this expansion is that it's super legendary dependant. I have none of the BiS (and I have a ton of legendaries feelsbad) and I struggle to stay in my guilds' top 3 dps, when I had no problem in any other expansion always being there.
Balance druids are so under appreciated! I very quickly found it such an intuitive spec. Mages are amazing fun to play and do crazy DPS but I like my boomkin.
I must say, I started to enjoy the MM hunter after watching your videos and it became my main spec in Legion (with a retpaladin on the side), so it's kinda weird to see you somehow abandon it :D
Love ice when playing mage I loved doing crowd control made me feel like a hero to the team when I slaughter a mob that's giving us trouble :3 I also love warlock demonology... now I think about I'm just an almost pure range user... but as of recently I'm trying out warrior which is fun to
I think playing the mage in dungeons is a lot of fun, actually. It’s fairly mobile. Not as much as frost obviously, but using blink and displacement or shimmer to set yourself up is entertaining. Plus having slip stream to cast evocation and arcane missiles on the move. And arcane explosion. Example, tank is attacking boss surrounded by mobs, build 4 charges on boss with arcane blast, pop prismitatic barrier, pop arcane power, blink to the tank, spam arcane explosion until you’re out of mana, displace out of mob and use arcane barrage (preferably still in arcane powers’ 10 second window), watch mob size thin out. OR if you accidentally pull too much aggro or something just displace out and use your invisibility. Finally, find other ways to fuck shit up. All this number crunching sucks the fun out of the game. Mages have a lot of tricks up their sleeve, if you’re just trying to get the biggest DPS numbers you can you’re probably just better off not being a mage at all. Unless Mythic+s are your thing, then you still probably shouldn’t be a mage but you should go for the highest dps amount possible and tailor your play style to exactly that. The same could probably be said about a lot of classes. Hope things change for the better in BFA, with the whole “bring the class, not the player” philosophy.
Just rolled a Lightforged mage because I want that heritage armor so I can race swap my main Draenei paladin over. I’m enjoying Fire the best for questing, but Frost is okay too. Haven’t touched dungeons since I’m trying to finish out lore master
I think that a number of people, Bellular included now, are overstating the Demonology rework. Yes, it will be one of the most reworked specs for BfA, but I don't think it will be changing all that much thematically. While I have nothing more than intuition to go by, I do feel that it will remain a "Demon Horde" spec. At the end of the day, pets are dots. Always have been. They are dots that cannot be dispelled through anything other than CC or DPS. What's more, Demo in Legion actually mirrors Affliction quite a lot. Doom is Agony, Dreadstalkers are Corruption (but now it stacks) and Hand of Gul'dan/Wild Imps are Unstable Affliction (with a longer duration). It's the resource and flow that separates the two specs. Only UA costs Soul Shards for Affliction (as far as the above dots are concerned), whereas both Dreadstalkers and Hand of Imps boths cost multiple shards, which is what leads to the change of flow. Demo is very reactionary compared to Affliction's more planned and predictable flow. Also, multidotting just isn't really a thing for Demo. Demo almost seems chaotic in comparison, and it's very easy to feel like you made a mistake by hitting Demonic Empowerment too soon, yet the Malefic Grasp talented Drain Soul more often than not feels optimally used. Assuming that a full out spec redesign isn't happening (which, lets be frank, is perfectly possible despite my own assumptions), then what we will likely see is a review on resource costs and maybe making Wild Imps from HoG an optional talent, allowing Demonologists to choose where their demon army comes from, or to forgo it entirely to turn their main demon into a true monster.
For me Shadow is by far one of the best and fun classes in Legion, even tho they are kinda of lackluster for most M+ due to some inactivity on some boss fights and wasting voidform losing the ramp-up. Seriously tho, Aff is the best spec in the game if you just love high numbers and viability for everything without any drawbacks (they are slow AF), their ramp up isn't even that annoying, you just need to put 3 UA on a target and boom, Spriest instead needs at least 30 sec on a target to be able to compete with other dps, its rewarding but at the same time it costs a lot of concentration to reach 50+ stack.
Affliction is far, far more than just a raid spec. Sure, it isn’t the most visually appealing, but it performs well in essentially every aspect of the game. PvE, PvP, world content, dungeon content, M+, immense survivability, trolling...you name it.
I agree. I main a Affilock and I blow through any open world content. Now, I know I am heroic geared, but I took on 30 mobs yesterday and only got down to half health once. Mythic+ is really fun, especially on teeming weeks. I have a blast playing affliction.
Yeah I thought levelling an affliction warlock was rather dull too. It seems great for bosses but yeah. Even destruction has its main spell do aoe at some point as well as the main aoe so that seems more fun
Spriest is (from my experience) extremely susceptible to lag. I don't know about 7.3.5 but until nighthold (especially StM) it was very frustrating to lack behind on dps because you have 100 ping
depends on the spec honestly. Even with low armor levels a lot of ranged classes have cooldowns that can help them be really really tanky. Or like Affliction where their main filler spell makes them feel invincible and is a constant source of healing.
Mage is really hard to compete with a great warlock. I know. Granted i do have 185 ms due to living in Guam but i do my rotation near perfect. (Frost mage)., fire mage i can keep up with the adds of course. But frost feels like a lack of procs, and can fall really flat for like 15 secs at a time. Now im just that guy who avoids alot of damage does mechanics but middle of the pack
With demonology I think what they should do is you summon an additional demon and then you've got to make it use attacks like Kill Command etc. Spamming little imps everywhere doesn't feel that fulfilling particularly when it does the same damage as another caster casting a single magic bolt
So in lore the answer is always Warlock then a large step down in power arcane mage because they can mess with time after that it’s a toss up, so it will be interesting to see how lore and gameplay don’t line up.
As a main demonology Lock, i disagree... Demon Lock is the real "pet tamer" (unlike Beastmaster), that relies on his pets to do all the dmg for him... He has a constant dmg like no other class, his bursts are kinda "meh" compared to other classes, but it can make it up the rest of the fight... I usually do 1,6~2m dps, depending on the encounter... I just think people dont know how to play properly with him, its not spam one spell, like some classes
damage doesnt really add to the fun factor though. I rolled a MM hunter in WoD and i was top dps most of the time, despite this I was always bored af since it was basically just pressing 4 keys over and over
I leveled Demo 1-110 and did lots of Mythic+ and raiding.. I actually think Demo is very underrated, I got a lot of fun and good numbers from it. Got a unique single target and AOE rotation. However I still welcome the rework. It's very close to being great, it just needs a few changes. Notably in the empower demons ability. It's not a fun button top push, but it's the button you push more than any other.
elemental blast is like one of the coolest looking spells in the game....ele pvp is so rewarding chunking ppl down with 3 casts and instant lavabursts....that being said its prolly the hardest spec to be successful with in pvp aswell, due to super lack of healing, defensive. but if you just casually do random bgs...try ele :) will have tons of fun!
As a Balance main, I also gotta say something. If the absence of RNG in the spec isnt good enough, being the ONLY ranged able to have a tank offspec is just amazing.
Balance is a bursty spell caster in ST but a pure dot class when it comes to AoE. This the most appealing thing for me, I don't think any other class plays like this maybe unholy? I will have to give mage a try after watching this though thanks!
Fire Mage 0:49
Frost Mage 2:12
Arcane Mage 4:10
Elemental Shaman 5:06
Destruction Warlock 6:27
Affliction Warlock 7:41
Demonology Warlock 9:03
Shadow Priest10:05
Marksmanship Hunter 12:05
Beast-Mastery Hunter 13:32
Balance Druid 14:26
Recommendations 16:05
Hidden Gem 19:03
Lakko pin this boi
thanks
This derves a PIN.
most important comment here
All I want on my hunter is to go back to MoP days. The old survival spec was my favorite especially back then and the other specs were great too. Miss glaive toss as well....such a cool ability they took out for no reason
Lucas444 Glaive Toss is coming back in BfA.
Same! I tried my hunter so many times during legion and was just frustrated. I played it a ton during MoP and WoD but the legion changes just seemed to simplify it so much that... he's still 108...
They said they didn’t like how hunters suddenly left the bow as a weapon. So perhaps they’ll change or maybe maybe add another spec to it. Or simply slow you to use both a now and a staff. But what do I know I’m just a causal
Well, for me personally I felt that MM hunter spec was very bland and boring plus visuals on hunters period are severely lacking and dull was nothing like it used to be even in WoD or going further back, MM hunters were more fun back then to me at least. Now BM hunter spec I enjoyed, I found it capturing the essence of what being a BM hunter was about calling multiple pets to your aid made it enjoyable to me it will be sad when we lose Hati. Now for Survival hunter spec I found the spec really fun to play especially in pvp but I found the spec lacking damage in certain areas making it hard to maximize your dps and keep it consistent which is sad. I know people don't like Survival spec as Blizzard tried to bring back part of one of the hunters key elements from the past like in Vanilla/ TBC where every spec was able to equip melee weapons whether it be one two handed weapon or two one handed weapons. What people don't realize is back then you had to buy your ammo/arrows to put in your quiver which took up one whole bag space which sucked but when a hunter was in a dungeon or raid and runs out of ammo they would have to melee until the dungeon or raid was over which sucked.
I love you me vids mate. You literally have gotten me playing again more then once after a break by showing up on my suggested videos randomly with an interesting analysis of an aspect of the game.
Same here
I agree..mostly. I feel like your run throughs of elemental shaman has been lackluster. You never mention ascendence ( basically shaman super saiyan) or icefury and the fun gameplay that comes from the different options. Most importantly, you never once mention our amazing AOE. It's one of the best selling points for an elemental shaman. The pure joy as you stormkeeper and chain lightning/earthquake an entire mob of 20 enemies without blinking. Very strong in mythic+ and in the antorus raid.
Not to forget how with lego boots and gloves your core spells and abilities tie so well together! Use earthshock get a chance to proc another earthshock, then another earthshock, then ascendance, spam lava bursts. Your rotation is constantly changing in single target, which keeps you on your toes.
Last time i was this early bellular did not sleep.
I LOVE my Fire-mage. I tried using Arcane and Frost and truthfully, they're all fun, but Fire just makes me so happy to roll through that crit-chain rotation and using Combustion and Fireballs to chain Pyroblast after Pyroblast just gives me a warm feeling (pun intended).
I'm still maining my Marksmanship Hunter, if only because I still love the "fantasy" as you call it, of being a far-ranging deadeye. Honestly I don't mind waiting on the procs too much, because I've styled my handling of the character to playing without the procs and simply adjusting my rotation when they occur. I can see your complaints about it, but I can't stop loving getting big honkin' crits on a Piercing Shot that takes a huge chunk of even world quest elites' health bars, or the constant slicing off of their health with aimed shots. I'll agree there's room for improvement, though, and I do hope they work on it more in BFA.
Balance Druid is fun, especially if you get that Wrath of Elune talent, then you're basically an Ion Cannon fire director and it becomes a fun game to see how well you can keep generating AP while the death from above beam is draining it.
Time Stamps-
Fire Mage 0:48
Frost Mage 2:13
Arcane Mage 4:08
Elemental Shaman 5:05
Destruction Lock 6:28
Affliction Lock 7:40
Demonology Lock 9:02
Shadow Priest 10:05
Marksman Hunter 12:03
Beast Master Hunter 13:30
Balance Druid 14:25
Recommendations 16:03
I like that you started off with Mage. I approve of the music used, thought Cata intro surprised me since I haven't heard it in a long time. I got to to frost I was thinking "I hope he uses Crystalsong forest OST for Arcane because that would tie it up". And you did!
I picked affliction as my main when I started legion (and that hasn't changed) because the fantasy of a corrupter and torturer of the enemies is an amazing fantasy to me. Problem is that the rotation really never varies and as you said it's boring in world content. However I've found using certain builds can work well, like a DoT that drains the enemy and an AoE DoT. (Soul siphon and phantom singularity) and make questing at least engaging and interesting enough. Best part about the spec is its consistency though, and that never fails in raids.
This was a very helpful video. I know for me I recently am leveling both a frost mage and a shadow priest and they are loads of fun.
Stumbled upon your legion class series, gotta say your videos are top notch!!! Keep it up bud.
I hear a lot of people call Shadow "dot-heavy," and I do not get it. It has 2, lol. And they're both applied with one button.
here be opinions
i'm gonna try a mage now, getting to use that boost ^^
My BM hunter did a lot more dps last night in raid! Was #2 during one fight and I have not been #2 this tier yet. (heroic)
stop hating survival hunter :p
I'm realy enjoing the demo lock, maybe cos i played one in the D&D warcraft, but i like the fact that he can outdps affly or destro in good hands
I'm a little bit disappointed about your idea about Arcane Mage, especially about Dungeons. I'm pretty biased towards it, but I do think it requires a bit more acknowledgement.
So many people have no idea how to use the Arcane Mage properly only because they aren't used to managing their mana and using their burn and conserve stage properly.
I saw immediately from your burst / burn phase that your rotation wasn't even correct :( I dunno... Maybe play a little bit more of it tbh.
You should never be using just one charge of missiles while you have AP up. Should be using at least 2 but generally always 3 if you can manage it...
Mage is my favorite class, but *ONE* thing really turns me off, and that is how bad they are when soloing content relative to other classes. One of the specs *need* a talent that lets them summon a tank pet. Frost makes the most sense here.
Noble high damage, bad survivability its balanced this way
Warlocks have high damage and god tier survivability. I don't mean pvp; I'm just talking about regular open world pve. Mages suffer until they outgear it.
Boohoo. Boohoohoo.
That's hardly crying, Ben.
In World questing it's balanced because frost mage performs good with kiting mechanics, if you know how to use them it has the same effect like affli, because enemeys will never reach you. And Frost has insane damage too, it's all about haste and a luck with your proccs
Didn't watch yet, but Affliction Warlock gg.
You were wrong time to speculate why lol
He thinks Affliction "raid only" spec.
i agree with him on alot of things but that statement made me lol out of my chair. aff is by far the bast spec for world of any ranged in the game
ResidentSleeper
As for me Affliction most fun in Legion, reminds me frost mage in Vanilla: mount, grab them all, dismount, stun with infernal, SoC, Drain Soul - and they just blow up. And I was playing since Vanilla with all classes and specs. You have own tank, healer for yourself and you are DPS.
Just something to note, Destruction and Affliction (via talents >.> ) are being changes to function more like the beloved versions back in MoP in BFA.
I hate how they gave the old demonology gameplay to shadow.. Cuz mop/wod had metamorph working almost exactly like void form (build up resources and then turn into a form to spend that resource while trying to keep it up longer).. Honestly, shadow feels like a.. Well.. shadow of demonology's former glory (no pun intended).. Makes me sad. Rip old demo
darcraven01 MOP warlock never forget
Christoffer mop lock was perfect.. Was the best place locks had ever been
Even wod demo was good
Taylor Allen yep.. Though wod was a little stripped down from mists but still same design.
yeah just that shadow is 10 times better than old demo so not rly a shadow LOL
Ayyy, Mages unite! Forever the ranged master race!
Also... R.I.P. that Full Moon cast onto the Decimator as it died at 14:46 ... we've all done it, let's be real. xD
IronStar Gaming XXXXXDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Ranged DPS video and no Jaina thumbnail? What channel is it?!
Artein he still prioritized the mage which reflects jaina
Artein jaina dreadlord confirmed
looked forward to a new video all 20 minutes since the last one!
jessica are u okay???
i am now xoxo
Jessica The Drunk go home you're drunk
0:45 The Shattering! Possibly my favorite wow sountrack!
I'd venture to say affliction is the best ranged spec for open world. Easy survivability and dog ramps super fast in big groups
Hahaha BM Hunters are wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better for open world and soloing shit hands down and way more fun!
Warlocks are just better for everything, battle ress, summon stone, healthstones for all and self heals forever.. every raid group want a warlock :D
Even when I sucked early in the expansion, my guild still toted me around because I was a brez, cosmic taxi, and had cookies. It also helped that, for a while, I was my guild's only warlock.
You make Frost mage sound really intricate when in reality it's mostly just "Spam frost bolt till shiny button pop up"
this
I agree with you Bellular. Warlock, especially demonology, has really had a rough couple of expansions. I feel like it was ahead of its time in MoP, and find myself wishing they'd just bring that back now to try it in today's environment.
Here's the times for those wanting to skip through specs their interested in.
0:48 - Fire Mage
2:12 - Frost Mage
4:08 - Arcane Mage
5:06 - Elemental Shaman
6:26 - Destruction Warlock
7:39 - Affliction Warlock
9:04 - Demonology Warlock
10:05 - Shadow Priest
12:03 - Marksmanship Hunters
13:30 - Beast Mastery Hunters
14:26 - Balance Druids
16:04 - Recommendations
Great vid, and great info for a one char player like me (lack of time), so all I know is my aff lock gameplay... the fire / frost mage does look good fun... perhaps my 110 char boost may be used up soon :)
Trying to decide what to level my Upright Orc Boi as, thanks for the excellent video my dude.
Love your stuff, Thank you! Im pretty sure you've done one, but have you thought of doing an updated solo video? (for raid farming, endgame stuff?)
Very helpful ! Are you going to make the same video format for melee dps, healers and tanks ?
I realize that this isn't a UI video, but I can't help but wonder how you play with room for 16 buttons between your player and enemy unit frames. Do you have other action bars hidden from view with the keybindings memorized?
Why no mention of Survival when comparing melee alternatives for the ranged specs (i.e. enhance vs feral at the end)?
does it bother anyone else that the fire mage wasnt picking up the crit mastery buff when it was sitting right next to him
I'm maining demonology in mythic Antorus, and honestly, I really like how it plays. It does require an insane amount of haste to feel well, though!
I'm glad you switched to something you like. I been giving Discipline a try and enjoying it.
*Fire* : it's like playing a shooter with a sub-machine gun
*Frost* : is like your spell have a symbyoze between them
*Arcane* : where did my enemies go? Where did my mana go?
*Elemental* : it's RNG that somehow happens all the time
*Destruction* : Sometimes you throw plushy toys, sometimes you throw nuclear warheads
*Affliction* : press 3 buttons, spam unstable affliction, watch your enemy's healthbar just go away
*Demonology* : if beastmastery was the worst spec then it'll be demonology
*Shadow* : a little DoT, some direct dmg, self heal, pseudo-metamorphosis that lasts longer if you're good, this spec is amaizing!
*Marksmanship* : get that proc and everything hurts, but still you gotta get that proc. Also you get the aspects of fuck you
*Beastmastery* : If demonology wasn't the worst spec then this'll be it. Also you get the aspects of fuck you
*Balance* : a tank mage with DoTs, builder-spender and hard hitting direct dmg
Huh.
you should check out an Ele shamen guide. its much more dynamic then what you think, check out storm, earth and lava for some awesome tips and a a good look at ele.
I'll be keeping an eye out for the MISSING posters, I ned to figure out Bellular's feeding patterns.
My personal opinion as someone who has raided heroic or higher on most range specs this xpact is that I find Ele, Fire and Frost the more fun specs. The reactive playstyle to procs is what makes most specs enjoyable to me. Middle of the road are Arcane, Marksman(which I loved the original legion MM hunter but dislike I believe it was post 7.1.5 MM. Still ok just not as fun as it used to be), Destruction and aff has it's moments. Not bad but a can be boring is BM hunter, shadow priest and boomy. Bad is demonology. My issue with Mage and shammy is they don't have a tank spec. I honestly wished someone had 4 specs like druid. If they made boomy less same same with controlled procs I would honestly just main a druid. I like resto, bear and feral. But I tend to main range so boomy kind of kills it for me. I'm still personally undecided between mage, shaman and druid. Warrior and rogue are in consideration. I like having the tank/dps option with warrior but I find most people are in need of range and mdps spots are harder to find from my experience. Rogues. I like sub. And they are almost always in demand because of cloak and feint. But I don't think I can live on a 3 dps spec where I only like one of the specs. While I almost never play resto shaman I like it slightly more than resto druid. And enhancement is on par with feral for fun imo. So for more options than one thing druid and shaman win in that regard. I do enjoy fire mage so much though. And frost can be really fun as well. I also like that phoenix flames is becoming a talent. So this is where I am in my BfA main decision personally. Any input that isn't this spec is the best because I love it would be nice. I do want to try paladin and dk. I haven't played dk since WotLK and I have never played ret. My fear with leveling a paladin is I hear ret is the melee version of boomy. It's highly predictable with practically no reaction. It's all based around how well you can do the small existing rotation the best with the fewest mistakes.
I think you were right on with mage except for one little part. The crit fishing of fire, where you delay using your hot streak to cast a fireball and the instant pyro together, needs to go. Delaying the nuke to utilize a mechanic that is extremely unintuitive and slows the rotation just seems the opposite of what they are going for with the spec. When you get a hot streak, it should be best to launch that bad boy and work on another one.
I take it you'll be doing similar videos for Healers, Tanks and Melee DPS as well?
Overall, pretty good food for thought, especially when thinking about leveling new Allied Races or other Alts.
IDK if it's just me, but it seems to be a bug in fire mage, especiall in early levels. I'm specced into getting an auto crit if the target is over 90% health, and I do get the proc, but if my next cast does not crit, the proc goes away immediately, doesn't last the full duration. Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe I'm missing something here?
Alex Fursov I’ve had the same experience and I believe it’s because your follow-up spell (Fireball) has to crit as well.
"as a hunter main" - hehe i don't mind too much the current mm, but yeah procs for marked shot really need a fixed timer maybe lower cd on artifact skill, but its pretty good compared to the past but it really doesn't add much since the days of rolling the mouse wheel up and having a pet, i do miss having a couple of damage dots.
Only thing i can think of is maybe intro a based on largest crit during the fight a bleeding/take more damage debuff like an arrow stuck in the boss randomly proc's and gives benefit of vunerable without the required procs, on top of everything else so you get a free window every so often during a fight to dump resources in, but currently its building the resources back up that feels slow and boring to me.
I like BM hunter as an alt spec, simple enough to get into with a bit of CD management that can put you above the rest.
Thanks for this video, this is exactly what I was looking for :D
Kind of inclined to agree with you. Have leveled everything to max, while maining Hunter this expansion (probably about 60% MM, 30% Surv, 10% BM across the xpac), but I think the most fun I have as DPS is Frost mage. Been considering switching mains, but I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to do it come BfA. Still enjoy hunter too much, and it was my original main since I started playing seriously in BC.
have a missed a Melee Top Ranged specs video ? :) or is there one to come ?
does this include the hotfix today with the buffs to fire mage and BM hunter?
I enjoy Arcane personally, the ramp up feels good and with the right utility you can keep your mana up for increased burn phases.
Did you do a melee specs video?
good list. I definetly believe that Elemental only becomes interesting with t21 4pc. they become one of the very best feeling specs, you're like an elemental master weaving between all the different spells.
surprised you didn't touch upon what if each of these ranged specs equally geared 1v1'd eachother, which would come out on top ;D I have a feeling it would either be the frost mage or the marksmanship hunter.
You can also go Hunter if you want a melee offspec.
I assume you left that out because you prefer balance or elemental over marksman or beast mastery?
I main a BM hunter. I like it and have fun. Sure it's not top of the dps charts, doesn't even come close, but I find it fun to play. And to me that's the most important thing of this game. Play what you enjoy or you won't enjoy what you're playing.
Thats why he never talks about output in these sort of videos.
I know why he doesn't talk about the numbers, but when you title a video "WHO WINS? Top Ranged Specs Roundup & Class Picks", he's giving the impression that these classes are the ones you want if you want to play the best ranged dps in the game. He isn't really saying that these classes are in his opinion the most fun to play.
so with the free 110 I'm getting from the new expansion who do i get.... I have a 110 priest mage monk dh and I love fast combat but I also like to see big numbers over many numbers
For melle options enhance or feral. What happen to good ol Chadsurvival hunter
Awesome video. Please make one for tanks and healers as well!!
Hey, i believe he showed this UI in some video, does anyone remember which one it is?
With class trials you can get you artifact weapon and just hearthstone out then you have the character for a while. I got a pally class trial to 102
Can I ask you Bellulargaming how you raid with every spec in every class to give your opinion on each class?
why not compare the survival hunter when talkin about melee?
I really wanna play a shadow priest but I don't feel like rebinding and learning holy/disc again :/
Fire mage main,
I play Fire since BC and the problem I'm having with it this expansion is that it's super legendary dependant. I have none of the BiS (and I have a ton of legendaries feelsbad) and I struggle to stay in my guilds' top 3 dps, when I had no problem in any other expansion always being there.
Balance druids are so under appreciated! I very quickly found it such an intuitive spec. Mages are amazing fun to play and do crazy DPS but I like my boomkin.
I must say, I started to enjoy the MM hunter after watching your videos and it became my main spec in Legion (with a retpaladin on the side), so it's kinda weird to see you somehow abandon it :D
It's been a good thirty or so minutes since the last video. You doing ok buddy?
Is that the default elvui skin for his action bars?
Love ice when playing mage I loved doing crowd control made me feel like a hero to the team when I slaughter a mob that's giving us trouble :3 I also love warlock demonology... now I think about I'm just an almost pure range user... but as of recently I'm trying out warrior which is fun to
For melee it has to be windwalker monk right?
I think playing the mage in dungeons is a lot of fun, actually. It’s fairly mobile. Not as much as frost obviously, but using blink and displacement or shimmer to set yourself up is entertaining. Plus having slip stream to cast evocation and arcane missiles on the move. And arcane explosion. Example, tank is attacking boss surrounded by mobs, build 4 charges on boss with arcane blast, pop prismitatic barrier, pop arcane power, blink to the tank, spam arcane explosion until you’re out of mana, displace out of mob and use arcane barrage (preferably still in arcane powers’ 10 second window), watch mob size thin out. OR if you accidentally pull too much aggro or something just displace out and use your invisibility. Finally, find other ways to fuck shit up. All this number crunching sucks the fun out of the game. Mages have a lot of tricks up their sleeve, if you’re just trying to get the biggest DPS numbers you can you’re probably just better off not being a mage at all. Unless Mythic+s are your thing, then you still probably shouldn’t be a mage but you should go for the highest dps amount possible and tailor your play style to exactly that. The same could probably be said about a lot of classes. Hope things change for the better in BFA, with the whole “bring the class, not the player” philosophy.
Just rolled a Lightforged mage because I want that heritage armor so I can race swap my main Draenei paladin over. I’m enjoying Fire the best for questing, but Frost is okay too. Haven’t touched dungeons since I’m trying to finish out lore master
Bell, which buff tracker are you using?
You forgot about Survival when you talked about ranged classes with melee offspec.
Survival hunter is going to be a combo, both ranged and melee dps spec. It is also getting new rework.
Taking "Haunt" is the key to Affliction world content. If you talent for ST Raid bosses, WQ will seem like a pain.
Thank you... do you have a dps, heal, tank one?
I think that a number of people, Bellular included now, are overstating the Demonology rework. Yes, it will be one of the most reworked specs for BfA, but I don't think it will be changing all that much thematically.
While I have nothing more than intuition to go by, I do feel that it will remain a "Demon Horde" spec. At the end of the day, pets are dots. Always have been. They are dots that cannot be dispelled through anything other than CC or DPS. What's more, Demo in Legion actually mirrors Affliction quite a lot. Doom is Agony, Dreadstalkers are Corruption (but now it stacks) and Hand of Gul'dan/Wild Imps are Unstable Affliction (with a longer duration). It's the resource and flow that separates the two specs.
Only UA costs Soul Shards for Affliction (as far as the above dots are concerned), whereas both Dreadstalkers and Hand of Imps boths cost multiple shards, which is what leads to the change of flow. Demo is very reactionary compared to Affliction's more planned and predictable flow. Also, multidotting just isn't really a thing for Demo. Demo almost seems chaotic in comparison, and it's very easy to feel like you made a mistake by hitting Demonic Empowerment too soon, yet the Malefic Grasp talented Drain Soul more often than not feels optimally used.
Assuming that a full out spec redesign isn't happening (which, lets be frank, is perfectly possible despite my own assumptions), then what we will likely see is a review on resource costs and maybe making Wild Imps from HoG an optional talent, allowing Demonologists to choose where their demon army comes from, or to forgo it entirely to turn their main demon into a true monster.
For me Shadow is by far one of the best and fun classes in Legion, even tho they are kinda of lackluster for most M+ due to some inactivity on some boss fights and wasting voidform losing the ramp-up. Seriously tho, Aff is the best spec in the game if you just love high numbers and viability for everything without any drawbacks (they are slow AF), their ramp up isn't even that annoying, you just need to put 3 UA on a target and boom, Spriest instead needs at least 30 sec on a target to be able to compete with other dps, its rewarding but at the same time it costs a lot of concentration to reach 50+ stack.
Affliction is far, far more than just a raid spec. Sure, it isn’t the most visually appealing, but it performs well in essentially every aspect of the game. PvE, PvP, world content, dungeon content, M+, immense survivability, trolling...you name it.
I agree. I main a Affilock and I blow through any open world content. Now, I know I am heroic geared, but I took on 30 mobs yesterday and only got down to half health once. Mythic+ is really fun, especially on teeming weeks. I have a blast playing affliction.
what happened to the half ranged DPS DISC lol.
Yeah I thought levelling an affliction warlock was rather dull too. It seems great for bosses but yeah. Even destruction has its main spell do aoe at some point as well as the main aoe so that seems more fun
Spriest is (from my experience) extremely susceptible to lag. I don't know about 7.3.5 but until nighthold (especially StM) it was very frustrating to lack behind on dps because you have 100 ping
Question: does ranged dps = more squishy vs melee dps? Or is it all gear type ?
depends on the spec honestly. Even with low armor levels a lot of ranged classes have cooldowns that can help them be really really tanky.
Or like Affliction where their main filler spell makes them feel invincible and is a constant source of healing.
Mage is really hard to compete with a great warlock. I know. Granted i do have 185 ms due to living in Guam but i do my rotation near perfect. (Frost mage)., fire mage i can keep up with the adds of course. But frost feels like a lack of procs, and can fall really flat for like 15 secs at a time. Now im just that guy who avoids alot of damage does mechanics but middle of the pack
With demonology I think what they should do is you summon an additional demon and then you've got to make it use attacks like Kill Command etc. Spamming little imps everywhere doesn't feel that fulfilling particularly when it does the same damage as another caster casting a single magic bolt
is there a melee video guide?
I absolutely love Frost Mage but damn is it a pain to level before you get the procs....
Marksmanship also appears to be undergoing significant changes for the next expansion
So in lore the answer is always Warlock then a large step down in power arcane mage because they can mess with time after that it’s a toss up, so it will be interesting to see how lore and gameplay don’t line up.
permeus2nd well that warlock thing is pretty accurate, but Frost Mage performs better on many ways like arcane
As a main demonology Lock, i disagree... Demon Lock is the real "pet tamer" (unlike Beastmaster), that relies on his pets to do all the dmg for him... He has a constant dmg like no other class, his bursts are kinda "meh" compared to other classes, but it can make it up the rest of the fight... I usually do 1,6~2m dps, depending on the encounter... I just think people dont know how to play properly with him, its not spam one spell, like some classes
Tulio Andrade I welcome the rework.
Yep i like the spec, im levelling one atm (lv71 atm) but i saw logs of demos beating hard affly locks in antorus
damage doesnt really add to the fun factor though. I rolled a MM hunter in WoD and i was top dps most of the time, despite this I was always bored af since it was basically just pressing 4 keys over and over
I leveled Demo 1-110 and did lots of Mythic+ and raiding.. I actually think Demo is very underrated, I got a lot of fun and good numbers from it. Got a unique single target and AOE rotation. However I still welcome the rework. It's very close to being great, it just needs a few changes. Notably in the empower demons ability. It's not a fun button top push, but it's the button you push more than any other.
I love the gameplay just needs more mobility, maybe being able to cast HoD while moving or DE will fix that
Your action bar is so low... how do you keep your eyes on your character?
17:18 "If you want to try out some melee, then we're really comparing the Druid with the Shaman" Bel confirms, SV Hunter isn't even a spec atm
0:23 not many classes with a ranged spec that can tank. Druids and Shockadins maybe.
not bad guide, keep it up and any chance on we can get blackrock orc along with brown orcs, i really like blackrock orcs :(
You do get your artifact weapon as a class trial. You just can't get it capped out in traits.
eu.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/17617921944#3
elemental blast is like one of the coolest looking spells in the game....ele pvp is so rewarding chunking ppl down with 3 casts and instant lavabursts....that being said its prolly the hardest spec to be successful with in pvp aswell, due to super lack of healing, defensive. but if you just casually do random bgs...try ele :) will have tons of fun!
As a Balance main, I also gotta say something.
If the absence of RNG in the spec isnt good enough, being the ONLY ranged able to have a tank offspec is just amazing.
Is that an addon that puts an outline on you Shadow Priest?
Balance is a bursty spell caster in ST but a pure dot class when it comes to AoE. This the most appealing thing for me, I don't think any other class plays like this maybe unholy? I will have to give mage a try after watching this though thanks!
What about Frost mage Chain reaction buff from weapon talents....... Missing a lot of dps right there....
I'm never early FROSTMOURNE HUNGERS