Question about Mage viability in current Meta
Hello, i would like to start off with a question regarding the currently viable comps for Mage. Since we are in 284 Meta, Mages seem to be one of the most under represented class out there. If you kept track of the past 2 seasons for example Mages would probably make around 5% of the total ladder's class proportion compared to Paladins who have more than 50-60%(Currently 32 teams in top 50 2's have paladin and 25 in 3's). I am not even going to talk about the Mourne wielder classes. So the question is: What are viable comps for Mage to go high?
The 4 comps that have mostly been observed on high rating are RM, Disc/Mage, Shatter and Ele/Mage. The latter is good but it has many counters and i would not include it in the top tier comps for Mages in current meta. Looking at RM, you can definately go high but its a win/lose situation since most of the comps that you would face 2k+ would be War/Hpal, DK/Hpal and maybe some Ret/Hunt or Lock/Sham. In order for you to win as a RM you have to play somewhat flawless and rotate your cds better than the enemy or rely on a lot of mistakes from the opponent(God Bless if you dodge kidney/disarm). Historically speaking, RM was never a widely played comp which is fine because its harder than the average composition and that's self explanatory but at least it had the potential to stay competitive since you weren't faced with the unforgiving force of the Shadowmourne (you make a mistake=you lose). in 264 Meta you could actually get resets way easier and kite war more successfully cause you didn't get 1 shot as a rogue really. *RIP in peas Rogues even if you get 2k resil*
Disc/Mage seems to be an alright on theory comp. It has the utility, it has very high survivability, kite potential, it has damage and while its not as bursty as the majority of the comps it can still have a good output. The first problem is, its very gear dependent. Relentless gear just puts you on the backtrack and you are an easy victim because with mage you will lack haste and spell power which makes a big difference to get fast sheeps/nova+deep and actually burst down opponents. You would probably need at least 1 solace per person so you can successfully burn the opponent even though 2 solaces would be better. Even if you have full gear it's still really hard to manage the pressure of the Warrior/Ret or the Dk and to a degree the Hunter. So my next question is how do you deal with the incoming damage? Even top rated mages say that it really makes Disc/Frost unviable because it feels like paper compared to scissors. The problems i find personally when playing this comp is that we oom faster than Disc/War or Disc/DK even if we have a good burning/bursting game. When playing vs War/Druid its hard to burst down druid. Perfectly purged druid doesn't go down in Fear into Shatter into Deep into CS because Barkskin is enough for him to live unless we manage to dispell it. Lastly, what do you kill vs Destro/Ele. Do you go pet or just stay on Sham?
The last and probably the best comp for this meta that we are left with it is Shatter. Honestly, Shatter seems fine if we exclude THE PRESSURE once again Zzz... and the fact that warmane have seemingly zero interest in fixing the ability for melee attacks to hit through pillar which i find one of the most game breaking things about playing SP/Mage because you would often have to hide behind a pillar to get a flash heal off or just kite a warrior. But overall this comp is good and very rewarding if you play it well.
So i would be happy if somebody who has more clarity and experience on Mage and mainly on Disc/Mage to answer the questions above and share your thoughts on the current viability on Mage comps :)
PS: I know that this topic would be more suitable for the Mage section but since the majority of the viewers there are PvE oriented and since the nature of my questions is more relatable to the Blackrock players experience I would like to ask the staff members to keep it here so I can get more answers and for them to be more accurate.
