Do we post questions here? If so, my question (serious) question is:

What is the class roll of the mage? With several other classes becoming more and more hybrid-based, and the mage still being out-dpsed by warlocks and shadow-priests, why roll a mage?

Mages are also hybrids in a way imo. They have lots of AOE, crowd controlling effects and survivability without requiring heals.

Just a thought :p

mages have always been known as water coolers and more and more recntly with the way things are being nerfed/buffed, mages are becoming simply that, water coolers. i think that mages have taken a huge nerf from recent patches and i don't like it. rogues for example are continuously getting buffed: i.e. cloak of shadows which basically makes hem immune to spell damage 10% of the time. and in the upcoming patch, all rogues are getting imp sap. this does not seem fair in the least bit to me. mages didn't even get a new rank of sheep in the expansion or the ability to improve the effects of sheep. i feel that mages are getting the cold shoulder from blizz and being ignored. i used o be at the top of the damage meters in every raid but now i am getting beat by almost everything out there. i for one vote that all the classes need to be rebalanced.

I don't quite agree, demonhuntr, and it's quite obvious to spot a player who has never played another class, yet simply cries wolf. As a bit of back story, I play every single class and I do have a high level mage and rogue.

First, you're trying to directly compare Polymorph to Sap. They both have the same classification (crowd control), yes, but that's essentially where they differ. The reason for giving rogues improved Sap by default is mainly because of the expansion instances practically requiring it. The instances require a larger amount of crowd control where you may use sap, seduce and polymorph all in one pull! If you've ever sapped a mob without Improved Sap, I think you'd understand why it's not exactly great to do. The rogue becomes the primary aggro target (the mobs must not be in combat, so he has to be first to "strike") and hopes to god the warrior comes to get the mobs off him. He has to pray the priest is in a good mood and gives him a PW:S to help stave off the attacks he'll receive trying to run back (note that Vanish is not an option; Vanishing while a mob is sapped will remove the sap. This occurs in PVE only). Since not everyone plays in the Subtlety tree, not every rogue will have Improved Sap and thus, it was problematic. This is also compared to Mages (note, the class you're using as your example of unfair treatment) and Druids receiving Evocation and Innervate (respectively) instead of having to spec into Arcane and Restoration (respectively) to get them. Polymorph doesn't need an upgrade. It lasts longer than sap (up to 50 seconds vs up to 45 seconds), it can be cast while the target and/or caster are in combat. The only disadvantage it has is it puts you in combat. You could say the fact that it heals is a problem, but this is really only a point in PVP, as a mob should have full health when it's not in combat anyway. Also, what upgrade would you give polymorph that wouldn't be deemed unfair?

I'm not too sure where you get the 5% resist... I mean, if I do some matherization, 90% resist / (60/5) = 7.5%. But what's the point of saying "Oh he can resist 7.5% of the time" when he can only truly resist 90% of the time for 5 seconds every minute. A mage can Ice Block for longer than 5 seconds and use Cold Snap to bring it back before the rogue's Cloak of Shadows comes back. But complaining about Cloak of Shadows makes it seem like you're angry that rogues aren't such a joke to kill anymore as a mage. When leveling my mage, I remember killing this 60 rogue at level 52, because he thought I'd be an easy kill. I guess he hadn't heard how easy it is for a rogue to lose to a mage, and he got clobbered so bad he was running away... of course I'm not that nice ;). Also, Blizzard made a change to the rogue class that severely hampered our ability to fight Druids. Originally, even with Faerie Fire on, a rogue could cast Vanish to remove Entangling Roots. But Blizzard changed it so you could no longer even cast Vanish with Faerie Fire on, which made rogues a literal sitting duck for being killed with ease. Cloak of Shadows is now one of the best defenses against this druidic strategy.

Also, who said damage meters really matter? People who set their worth on how much damage they put out are horrible players. I don't care of JohnnyMcBadAssRogue can output twice as much damage as the next rogue, if he can't play his class correctly (sapping, not pulling aggro, etc), I don't want him. There's way too much of an emphasis placed on damage amounts and healing amounts.