Dynamics of Mage vs Mage

Dynamics of Mage vs Mage

by mozibake » Sun Mar 27, 2016 5:15 am

I see a lot of mages open on other mages by using counterspell for the improved silence and then immediately casting polymorph. This method is sub-optimal at best. It's mainly useful in a 2+ v 1 situation to keep the mage from escaping while your team mobs him. In 1v1, the fight usually proceeds in a predictable way:

Mage 1 opens with counterspell
Mage 1 casts polymorph
Mage 1 begins casting frost bolt
Mage 2 ice blocks, or uses a PvP trinket
Mage 2 cancels ice block if it was used and quickly casts counterspell
Mage 2 now has 10 seconds to freecast against mage 1, mage 1's ice block is also locked out during that time
Mage 1 dies

IMO the best thing to do is scorch spam. With that, you can force the enemy mage to either:
- Waste CS
- Waste fire ward
- Eat a bunch of damage

Arcane missiles would be the other candidate, but having it interrupted means also being locked out of polymorph, blink, and CS. Being locked out of the fire school just means being locked out of fire damage spells, and the main reason for casting them (assuming frost spec) is to avoid getting locked out of either of the other schools. But there is no risk of that if the enemy mage's counterspell is on cooldown.

Extrapolate your opinions, pls.
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Re: Dynamics of Mage vs Mage

by Milton3450 » Tue Mar 29, 2016 2:52 pm

U forgot:

...
...
Mage 2 cancels ice block if it was used and quickly casts counterspell
Mage 2 now has 4 seconds to freecast against mage 1, mage 1's ice block is also locked out during that time
Mage 1 blinks away.
Mage 1 survives.

:D
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Re: Dynamics of Mage vs Mage

by mozibake » Tue Mar 29, 2016 11:24 pm

In this scenario, mage 2 waits until mage 1 has started casting frostbolt to cancel iceblock and cast counterspell. Using a macro to cancel it doesn't trigger a GCD so you can counterspell immediately and lock him out for 10s.

That is how I see it happen most often.
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Re: Dynamics of Mage vs Mage

by Milton3450 » Wed Mar 30, 2016 12:33 pm

Counterspelling frostbolt doesn't lock out arcane school (blink).
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