Mage Is Inferior To Shaman

An Inferior Support Class
Not clickbait title. Each class has their strengths and their weaknesses but I feel that overall, shaman is much better especially in the role of a support class. I love the mage class, it is easily my favorite class back then and still is to this day. The idea of being able to heal yourself is nice and as a bonus, you offer extra survivability to the group. However, ever since the shaman class came out and better regen items have come mage lost its place as a good support class. It can pretty much do whatever mage does but better.

Totem vs Heal
These are the main two spells in question which will determine which class is the superior support class. Heal offers quick burst healing and can clear status effects while totem gradually heals and gives a 15% damage boost. Comparing the two minor effects I believe that the increased damage is much better than being able to clear status effects. Long-lasting debuffs are quite rare, what's more common are short duration debuffs like blindness from teleport. Mage is meant to clear long-lasting status effects but they are just so rare that this ability is extremely situational. For short-duration status effects, it isn’t very significant and hard to use selflessly. Trying to heal an ally that is blinded for 1 second from a teleport isn’t very practical nor impactful. Meanwhile, that damage boost from shaman is always useful and a 15% attack buff is easily available.

Now for the main part, the healing. The main thing that makes shaman a better healer is how it's deployed. To get healed by a shaman you just have to stand in that ever-present totem. Sure, the healing isn’t as much (with the exception of absolution and Trift Shaman) but, it is enough. The constant healing often prevents you from even needing quick burst healing. Finally, shamans don’t have break focus to do their job as support. A shaman doing its regular gameplay fulfills its role as support passively which is a huge strength. Mage’s heal is great selfishly and less so selflessly. Healing with a mage requires a change in gameplay. You have to stop, find the person, and then heal them. Overall, the lack of accessibility for others to a mage’s heal makes me feel like it isn’t as good as a totem heal. Finally, shaman healing stacks far better than mage healing thus making shaman even more appealing for larger parties.

Crowd Control Abilities
Shaman is THE premiere crowd control class. Its aura is amazing, trapping things in one spot pretty much indefinitely or until whatever is trapped dies. Mage’s ice snake lags far behind from this which can be expected because shaman was meant to be the best crowd control class. However, even when not comparing ice snake to aura it still is very mediocre. A 1 second stun from ice snake combined with its pitiful damage makes it very underwhelming especially when spin attack which also stuns for 1 second and does far better damage exists. I guess it does have range but spin attack overall is far more impactful.

Mobility
Mage does come out ahead in terms of mobility over shaman. Mage’s teleport is the best mobility spell according to most (I’d argue vanish is better) while shaman’s mobility spell has a lot to be desired. I don’t think this is very relevant to being a support class since mobility mainly benefits the user. It can be used to reach people who need heals easier but as mentioned earlier having something that is always there like a totem is better.

Damage
It is obvious that mage’s damage is worse than shaman’s, mage is definitely the weakest class in terms of dps. It makes huge sacrifices in damage in order to have its heal. While mage is meant to be a support class and not a damage class, damage, whether it be a buff or damage dealt by the user is useful to the team. Mage makes the least contribution of all classes in this department, while shaman gives a damage buff and itself does a ton of damage.


Conclusion
Overall, shaman brings a lot more to the table than mage, healing, the best crowd control, and amazing damage while mage just brings some healing and makes huge sacrifices in damage. I think this makes it pretty clear that shaman is a better support class than mage and a better class overall. It is clear mage needs some sort of buff because as it is mage isn’t as bad as warrior, it certainly isn’t at the same level as shaman, archer, and assassin. Buffs or reworks are needed to bring mage in balance with the other classes. Here is just an idea.
https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/mage-rework.278996/

 

How I see the difference between shaman vs mage:

mage have higher mobility, in fact, mage can heal while moving (in the air or on ground).
tankier than shaman (this become less apparent later level for shaman)
damage is meh but the support is really good since the high mobility + bigger AOE healing range than shaman

 

Not exactly sure what you mean by bigger AOE range than shaman because the AOE of totem is massive compared to heal. I'm assuming you mean that mage can heal anyone in the arena since the heal is more mobile while shaman's heal is tied to one spot.

 

I think Mage and Assassin are the closest in terms of being in the correct power level, in terms of balance. Mage could use a bit more damage and Assassin could stand losing some, which it will next update, putting Assassin as my new golden standard when it comes to the balanced power level. It's less so Mage sucks and more so Shaman is super overpowered and takes no brain to play at its most efficient, something most of the Wynn endgame community knows about.

 

Archer without nighthawk is actually pretty balanced. More so than assassin I think.

 

yes, I meant mage is more mobile and not constrained to one area. I shouldn't use AOE as can be confusing.

 

Yeah but they have nighthawk, so they're still unbalanced. I'm not too sure how badly the nerfs will kill hawkeye, but as it is now, Archer is the second most broken class.

 

The meta is saturated and there are no clear definitions of strictly better classes (besides warrior). Mythics included, which they should be, Archer, Mage, Warrior, and Shaman can all support (Ignis major ID, hero major ID, Abso, lament, and monster). The problem with comparing the meta classes is that they all can function well.

Still, even without mythics, KoH and Trift totem heals perform similarly. Sure maybe in damage they are different. Shaman actually does an incredible amount of dps without mythics compared to the other classes. While yes, I do agree that Shaman is better than mage without mythics, you cannot ignore mage's heal.

 

I haven't ignored mage's heal but merely asserted that it isn't as good. Even when comparing KOH and Trift, especially Trift Abso, one of them is clearly better. KOH is great burst healing but Trift and Trift Abso is just straight up immortality.

 

KoH can be just as immortal. Plus, trift abso takes time to set up and is sometimes RNG since time rift isn't guaranteed to give you all the totems you need. Abso is also stationary, and needs to be placed around which takes even more time. KoH is not only faster but can heal on the go and be immortal on the go.

Just whipped up this bad boy in less than a minute and it seems absolutely broken.
https://wynndata.tk/s/7fq8xw
KoH build with statue

https://wynndata.tk/s/4x3gew
KoH with Resurgence

 

Or escape

 

hmm well I should have clarified that abso timerift makes you and everyone around you immortal easier than KOH can. The builds you posted just do way more healing then what is practical, Abso Trift gives the right amount of healing to become immortal, doesn't sacrifice damage, and is far easier access. KOH is a great wand but I'd take an abso Trift as my support any day. When I need healing I always know where to look while a KOH mage might not reach me to heal me in time.

 

I agree with some other people here, mage isn’t bad shaman is just op. Warrior needs a buff, shaman needs a nerf, and archer needs nighthawk nerfed.

 

Mage is way better at tanking for others than shaman.
Mage can heal way more if something like a wretch hit happens.

 

Nighthawk got like 5 nerfs already

 

Ah I see I haven’t been keeping up with the item team lately

 

As @TrapinchO said, nhawk has already gotten numerous nerfs. It seems it's latest nerf has made the item fairly balanced, although still a good item, not op. (If you don't know, it got its arrow velocity halved and damage dropped from 100% to 80%).

 

man i had no idea

 

Sorry I haven't been keeping up to date with items or changelogs the most but I'm an assassin main so could you expand on that a bit? I want to be prepared for any nerfs :P