Mage Invisibility

[Train Wreck]

Mages had invisibility in previous Warcraft games.  According to a Blizzard rep, they are planning to Bring it back to WoW.

We definitely wish to bring invisibility back into the game for the Mage at some point, however, it would more than likely be a slightly different mechanic than players might remember from Beta. It's important that invisibility is both useful and fun to use, but not so much that it provides its caster with an unfair advantage or allows for the bypassing of game content.

Right. Only rogues and us Druids get to bypass game content.

Does that mean you're also going to "fix" druids and rogues being able to bypass game content?

[Amp]

I tried to play my mage again last night after leaving him offline for awhile.
I encounter a lvl 54 shaman....I attack with a sheep first...so i've got the upperhand and usually shamans don't give me too much trouble, it's about a 50/50 fight against lvl 60's usually.  Maybe a little less but I don't get destroyed.
I think the only spell the fucking ass casted was earthshock.   1 min timer to all shocks thanks.  Most retarded spell line in the game along with purge.

Anyways I hit cold snap during this fight....no shield refresh, actually no nothing refresh, and my cold snap is gone so I didn't not hit it.
I died to a fucking shaman 6 levels below me because of a mage bug that's been in the game for months now.
I made a post in the suggestions forum today to forget Invisibility until they fix the way the class is intended to work instead of adding more shit to break.
The post was off the first 2 pages in about  5 mins.  Pretty pointless to make posts in that forum I guess.

So invisibility.  Do we need it?  In the lower levels it would be nice.  At level 60?  Hell no.  Gimmie more dmg, more sta, more anything damage related.
See the whole point of invisibilty is just so we don't get ganked while drinking, except i've been reading that it will drain mana while you're invisible.  So exactly what is the point of this spell.  I can't see any other use for it.  You're a mage, you have the best crowd control vs PvE in the game.  Why do we need to sneak past shit.

And I really hope they don't change the way rogues and druids can bypass content, i've made a druid just to do this with 3 or 4 other rogues.  It's not fair to other classes, but i'd still be quite annoyed if I worked up this character in hopes of doing only stealth boss runs, to get him to 60 and they fix it.

[Train Wreck]

Anyways I hit cold snap during this fight....no shield refresh, actually no nothing refresh, and my cold snap is gone so I didn't not hit it.
I died to a fucking shaman 6 levels below me because of a mage bug that's been in the game for months now.

I've never had this happen to me before.  Is it a common bug?

[Sogrinaugh]

Yea, i read this too.  Honestly, they will make the invisibility suck, but it will still be great, fun-wise.

Blizz said it would be substantially different from beta, im guessing:

1)  It will break at the begining of spellcasting, rather then when the spell is launched.

2)  Im going to also assume that non-offensive actions, such as bandaging and evocation will break it (i hope this isnt the case but again you're not allowed 2 have too much fun)

3)  Its going to have a (painfully) short duration, OR drain mana/tick.  By painful i mean like 10 to 15 sec for the lower ranks and maybe 30sec for the top rank (45 sec if blizz really wants to be nice)

4)  Cooldown between 1 and 3 minutes?  If they go with the mana/tick duration option, maybe not so much, like 45seconds.

5)  Like stealth, higher level mobs will be able to see through it (they couldn't in beta)

The way i see it, the fixed duration thing is more likely to happen, simply because thats better for pvp, and the mana/tick would seem more suited to skipping content, which seems to be what blizzard dislikes the most.

Timeline-wise though, im guessing mages will get thier invisibility back around the same time that shamans get thier bloodlust back.

[Amp]

I've never had this happen to me before.  Is it a common bug?

Very common.  I'm seriously considering a change to the cookie cutter fire/arcane mage.  But with all the bugs for this class, i'm just sick of the mage I think.  It's almost retarded how easy it is to get CP as a mage.  I didn't play him all week, went to SS for about an hour and abit with 4 friends.   With one day of playing I jumped 2 ranks in Honor.   That's just stupid.

Anyways, I understand that the stun, and snares are warping creatures, and it is not a cosmetic bug but affects all stun, snare classes, but this cold snap is all Frost mage.  And it's probably the worst bug of them all, considering the frost mage has such a drop in damage output compared to the fire mage, and you really have to depend on your 2 shields, 2 frost novas and 2 ice blocks.

[Fabricated]

The only way I can think of giving mages an invisibility spell without making it a Rogue stealth-type ability is to make it simply reduce threat.

[Sogrinaugh]

The only I can think of giving mages an invisibility spell without making it a Rogue stealth-type ability is to make it simply reduce threat.

You think they'll let us cast it in combat?  Hadn't even occured to me, that would put it more on par with say vanish... i dont think thats gonna happen.

[Amp]

Ahhh...that would be sweet.
On par with Pally's shield and hearth trick.

Getting killed?
Nova, blink, invis...run.....blink..mount

Oh yea...sweet.  We'd be better escape artists then druids.

We really don't need invis.

[sidereal]

It'd be useful for ambushes.  My experience has been that mages can gank pretty well when they can pick the battleground and the timing.  Not sure if ambushing fits the flavor of mages though.  They're supposed to be up on a mountainside raining down fire, not sneaking around.

[chinslim]

Thanks for reminding us that the 2 stealth-having, content-bypassing, first-strike-capable classes also have the 3 best abilities of getting away(Vanish/Sprint and catform)

The mind soothe nerf still pisses me off.

[Kageru]

Removing invisibility was one of the few clever things they did. As a skill the only gameplay it offered was skipping content and preparing ambushes, and the game doesn't need more of either.

[chinslim]

Where did rogues fit into Warcraft lore anyways?  It sucks that Blizzard foresaw in order to capture a large market of players out there, they needed to implement a gank-from-stealth, but avoid-being-ganked-yourself class.  Not that I run into a whole lot of trouble vs rogues myself, but a large element of player vs player in my mind is that both sides should be able to assess the situation and then decide whether or not to engage in combat.  Rogues that have both the ability to pick and choose their fights without the knowledge of the opposing party and run away (Vanish/Sprint) when caught robs everyone else of that element I mentioned earlier.  If mages do get any form of invisibility beyond aggro control, it means that the 3 stealth classes will also have the best escape abillities as well(Vanish/Sprint, catform, and Blink).  There's so much WoW gets right in class balance, and some things they don't.  OTOH, any sort of cloth caster boost is welcome given the recent trends in melee vs caster itemization.

[Sogrinaugh]

Blink is not comparable in terms of ability to avoid conflict with catform and sprint, both of those 2 abilities are far superior, particularly coupled with stealth.

Its also worth mentioning that shamans get earthbind + ghostwolf, paladins get shield + hearth (the best or worst escape method, depending on how you look at it), hunters get aspect of the pack as well as various traps to hinder persuit.  Really the only classes who seem to get no form of escape are priests, warlocks, and warriors.

[Amp]

Blink is comparable to some idiot mele jumping around behind me while I cast.
It is kinda a weak escape method.  But it works well to confuse.

On a side note.  To combat that stupid mele jump behind the guy bullshit, as a druid in bear form I have a hell of a time keeping the guy in front.  Would putting the enemy on follow keep me facing him while I just mash my special buttons?

[Sogrinaugh]

Blink is comparable to some idiot mele jumping around behind me while I cast.
It is kinda a weak escape method.  But it works well to confuse.

On a side note.  To combat that stupid mele jump behind the guy bullshit, as a druid in bear form I have a hell of a time keeping the guy in front.  Would putting the enemy on follow keep me facing him while I just mash my special buttons?

The lack of colisons is one of the dumbest parts of the WoW combat system.  IMO, wherever thier is a PvP solution available, colisions should be present, and absent when thier isn't.  This prevents dickheads from blocking doorways, while allowing tanks to intercept tanks in thier quest to rend cloth, whilst also making it so that fancy footwork can screwup a casters spells, but cheezy "run threw" tactics dont.

Seriously, watching 2 melees duel is the dumbest fucking thing ever.  Endlessly running THREW each other, trying to get the other one to wiff... im all for skill differentiating gameplay, but no one can honestly say that is anything but flamingly homosexual.

[Tannhauser]

Mages are all about damage, big buckets of damage.  Not sure where Invis will fit in. Maybe a good idea would be to deny ranged attacks against the mage, you must hit him with melee.  He could show up like stealthers do to melee range enemies.  If Invis drains mana why bother?  A fighter can swing all day but when a mage runs out of mana he's just a gimp with a stick. 

[jpark]

Invisibility could be added with all the utility of priest mind control.  More of a gimmick, since in performing the act you forfeit the ability to do anything including movement, making it more of a parlor trick than anything your party would appreciate and certainly not worthwhile solo.

However, based on my friend's experience as a mage - it would be nice for the class to have a few more strategic options beyond damage.  Invisibility could be a nice feature to escort a younger player through a dangerous area.

[Phred]

Invisibility could be added with all the utility of priest mind control.  More of a gimmick, since in performing the act you forfeit the ability to do anything including movement, making it more of a parlor trick than anything your party would appreciate and certainly not worthwhile solo.

However, based on my friend's experience as a mage - it would be nice for the class to have a few more strategic options beyond damage.  Invisibility could be a nice feature to escort a younger player through a dangerous area.

I doubt they'd make it castable on others anyway. None of the other cool mage spells can be cast on others, like slow fall or the fire and ice sheild spells so somehow I doubt we'd see the ability for invising others. Look at the duration on invis potions. They definately dont want anyone but druids and rogues skipping content.