I see, in a lot of threads, where people are struggling under the impression that there are only four mage classes. Either these people are bad at math or it is a subtle attempt to insult one of the groups of mages. Listed under mage are 6 classes that fall into one of three groups: Sorcerers Wizard Warlock Summoners Conjuror Necromancer Enchanters Coercer Illusionist So where does this four mage class reference come from? (Just because the enchanters can be in other groups besides the mage group in a raid doesn't mean that they aren't mages.)
prolly has to do with the fact that warlock think they suck (not playing one so cant tell) and that conjuror feel they are now inferior to necro (wich used to suck compared to other mages)
Warlocks feel slighted because for the longest time Spell Double Attack has been a class skill of theirs but with it on skills/Time Warp up all the time they are falling behind in damage. Conjies for the same reason as Necro's have harder hits. The whole 4 Mage Classes are Necromancer Conjuror Wizard Warlock The two Enchanters are commonly lumped in with "Utility Class" which includes Illusionist Coercer Dirge Troubadour
That's funny, I've never seen a single piece of gear drop that says "Utilities Only". I have, however, seen gear that says "Mages Only", and that gear can be equipped by Coercers, Conjurors, Illusionists, Necromancers, Warlocks, and Wizards. Additionally, each one of those classes has an identical "Mage" line on the Shadows tree (i.e. Root Mastery, Runic Protection, Strike of the Mage, Enhance: Master Strike, Arcane Barrier, Shadow Step, and Arcane Bewilderment). These two facts indicate that there are, in actuality, six mage classes, not four. If they would refer to them as the four Mage DPS classes, I wouldn't have an issue with it (it indicates their primary role and differentiates them from Melee DPS and Ranged* DPS classes). They could then refer to Enchanters as Mage Utility, and I still wouldn't have a problem with it. But to claim there are only four mage classes is disingenuous, imho. *Non-mage
You generally split stuff into tanks, bards, chanters, shamans, curebots, deeps. Sometimes splitting deeps into mage dps and scout dps, sometimes splitting further than that when people talk about things like this. For example I feel dissapointed that warlocks will never regain their aoe eminence and how some of our best skills are becoming less useful when compared to the other 3 mage dps.
Player conception not SOE-Mechanics there. Though I agree it is a but odd to say there are 4 Mages... considering weather you are outcasting Conj/Lock or Illy/Coercer they are all still considered "Mages". As the Warlock above me pointed out. Warlocks were THE AE-Mage for a long time.. but they are losing that because of how gear is effecting other classes. To me, it should be very noticable when an Lock on an AE fight versus a Wizard but also that the Wizard will beat out the Warlock on Single-Target (boss) damage. They both then have rolls they are better at but each can do the others job to an extent.
Well, if you look at the mage classes (including enchanters) around TSO, at one point, the summoners were having to work 2x-4x as hard for comparable parses with both wizzy/lock (slightly less utility*, more dps) and coercer/illy (more utility, more dps). (And groups would drop a summoner in a heartbeat if another class - even a bard - was available.) A few years after that, they decided to allow pets to share some of the summoners' survivability stats, which resulted in summoners (necros especially) being able to survive a little bit longer (since the pets weren't dying quite so fast, which meant that they weren't transferring their accumulated hate to the summoner - in addition to the hate the summoner had already gain on his/her own - quite so fast, thus allowing tanks more time to build and keep aggression). This, in turn, made the summoners parses higher (because it is pretty durn hard to DPS while dead). Although you haven't, if you ask me, they should give all mages utility and high deeps. Summoners, Sorcerers, and Enchanters should each have one non-dps skill that raids and groups need and that they do better than the other two mage categories. Each should also have two non-dps skills that raids and groups need but that aren't quite as good as the mage category that has it as a prime skill. This would allow substitutions in a raid, if necessary (so if the raid illy didn't show up, a conjy or lock could take the illy's place - at a slight disadvantage in that role). Enchanters should (by their very name) be the best CC of the mages. Since sorcery involves the shaping of arcane forces to the Sorcerer's will, they should be the power regeneration specialists. Summoner's call extraplanar creatures to do their bidding, so they should be able to use those creatures to heal/ward members of the group/raid. A justification could be found to give the secondary utility skills. Since this would give equal utility, then the DPS could be comparable between them, with a lot less wailing and gnashing of teeth (and marginalization of one or more mage classes).
Not sure if I agree with your point Roth but you certainly have thought it out. I do not main a mage nor play one beyond my Illy alt. I happen to like the way Enchanters work atm and think there are issues between the other 4 mage classes. As of this moment though I do not have a well thought response. Given the nature of forums unless this has an update I see I probably will not find this post again. You frame a good argument Roth and that is a good thing though.
