Requesting the return of PvP Updates: Proposed Balance Changes (7/21/16)

[Safiras]

Let me add some mage stats:
*6,400 health
*1,900 armor
*1,300 damage
*Instant full health heal + significant dot heal for a few seconds.
*Ability to rotate between a 70% damage reduction shield and a 40% damage reduction shield at will.
*2 seconds of invulnerability.

A shield with a 15 second duration and 27 seconds cooldown means a 12 second downtime which a 8 second nekro shield kindly reduces to a 4 second downtime. 4 seconds of no shields is compensated by a heal that almost acts as an extra shield.

Juggernaut is incomparable due to its 15 seconds duration and 40 second cooldown (with the mastery). That's a 25 downtime. What do we rotate here and for 25 seconds? We don't, we just die after those 15 seconds.

Mages appear to be much too tanky in terms of a dps or support class.

Warriors are tanks.

Rogues are dps.

What is the purpose of the mage class exactly? To be warriors with more damage?

You're comparing apples to oranges. There is no fair comparison between one skill of a class vs another. I will list the following points:

1.Juggernaut has an extremely long cooldown that is true. But you also neglect to mention that, during the period that the skill is in effect, a tank with enough HP and armor will not die no matter how much damage is thrown at him. In contrast a mage shield does not grant a self-heal like Juggernaut, and after the first 2 seconds of invulnerability, a mage can die.

2. You speak of Nekro shield as an additional shield. Tanks can also utilize Nekro for its damage reduction and stun immunity. Also factor in the Horn of Renew bubble which gives 2 seconds of invulnerability and you have a total of 27 seconds of some form of shield. True, there is still a 13 second (with jugg mastery) window that a tank has truly little defence against attacks. But the heal over time of HoR can be timed to cover that period of vulnerability, and because a tank has so much HP and armor, it still takes some effort to bring a good tank down. Lastly, A tank with reasonable gear should have enough damage to force a mage/rogue to heal/shield and disrupt their attack cycle. We are not even talking about a clash which typically has two tanks covering each other such that the tank in their window of vulnerability is not always open to attack. In summary, what I'm trying to illustrate is that a tank is still hard to kill despite an apparently large window of vulnerability.

3. A tank has inherent high damage absorption capability compared to a mage due to the huge difference in armor. The stats you mentioned in your post above are that of a mage who has geared him/herself to the teeth with the latest gear and possibly munch mouth happiness bonus. You do not find every other mage in PvP running around with those stats. The average mage has 1.6k to 1.7k armor because they sacrifice armor and sometimes damage for higher crit (imbued/slaterock gear). These mages are extremely squishy after their shield expires, and probably form the majority of mages who claim that they get one-hit by rogues. However that is not the point I am trying to make. The point is that after taking into account the damage reduction of mage shield and tank juggernaut, a tank in the end still has much higher capacity to take damage. A mage in that reapect cannot replace a tank.

4. I have come to see a mage as ideally being an intermediate between a tank and a rogue: to be able to be less glass than a rogue as they can rely on their shield to forestall impending death to give them a brief chance to fight back or find cover, but not as cannon in that their lightning will never hit as hard as aimed shot. Nerfing their shield so much will bring them down to a survivability almost equal to that of rogues even with shield on, and I do not think that should be the case.