Classic: Mage vs. Warlock! Who's the better overall caster?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
21

Sorry - I was doing multiple things at once and didn’t respond appropriately in the quote you provided. Equal gear for two players dueling would come down to skill (provided they are the same class). Classes had a much, much more rigid rock, paper, scissors determination than skill (even with equal gearing). I can’t think of a time when 1v1 has been equal with equal gear. :face_with_monocle:

Edit: I think my post may still sound confusing. If gear is equal for player A and player B, class will significantly influence outcome versus minor disparities in skill.

22

In a lot of ways, they fill a similar niche. But in a lot of ways they complement rather than compete with each other in that niche.

DPS:

  • Mages generally has the superior dps in fights that last less than a minute.
  • Warlocks can out dps with dots in long fights, but due to debuff limits they cannot use many dots during raids.

CC:

  • Mages have the best all around cc, which is sheep. It works on humanoids and beasts if I recall.
  • Warlocks have fear, which works on almost everything. But it has some unpredictable results if a feared mob runs to get help. Warlocks also have access to banish (elementals/demons), enslave demon, and Seduce (humanoids).

Group Utility:

  • Mages can cast portals, make food/drink, have unique buffs/debuffs (empower magic for example). They also have Arcane Intellect and have a ranged interrupt.
  • Warlocks have a variety of curses (weakness/recklessness/agony/elements). Health stones, Soul stones, and some demons had party buffs as well.

This just scratches the surface, but either class is loads of fun to play. And bringing both in a dungeon ensures that said group will be ready for nearly any eventuality.

3 Likes
23

Caster wise I would say mage is cooler. They are a more true caster.
Warlocks are casters but they use a pet and demonic rituals. Just make one of both and main the one you like more by level 30.

2 Likes
24

In a raid setting, it’s really hard to choose because Warlock’s utility is incredible, but scaling is off and their threat is bonkers. Mages are strong and get stronger, can iceblock, evoMP back, got good tier sets.

I gotta go with Mages on this one, even though I love Warlocks.

25

Comes down to style. More like the Mage. Some like the Warlock. Few play both as mains. But Lock usually had the upper hand on the Mage.

1 Like
26

Felhunter destroyed casters. It would eat all their buffs, silence them, eat debuffs off the warlock, and gave a bunch of spell resist I think.
Plus fear fear fear losing over half your hp running like a chicken. Gosh I hate fear, lol.

1 Like
27

Master Demonolist + Imp. If you’re threat-capping, you don’t need an extra 15/10% +shadow damage.

Warlock’s main issue is a complete lack of hit from talents. It all comes from gear. Where as mages got 6% for free from talents.

That’s the main difference. Once they got the hit they needed, they passed mages pretty easily. Mages just got to enjoy a fair bit of head-start so guilds tended to have more mages to start with. Also the 8 debuff slot limit meant you really couldn’t bring a Spriest to buff your locks. However once 16 hit and gear with +hit started getting more common (the ZG patch especially was a godsend for locks who were starving for hit).

2 Likes