Crossroad: Warrior or Mage?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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I’ve researched a bit for the past few weeks and I’ve reached a crossroad. I’ve narrowed down my class picks to rolling between Warrior or Mage. I really wanna make up my mind before launch because I hate rerolling, feels like a bit “waste of time” that I could be investing on a main character.

For context, I started playing WoW in BFA for 4 months as DPS (Mainly as DH, but I also leveled for a while a Warrior and a Mage, enjoyed both). I dont have the knowledge/experience of most players in Classic. And Im probably be playing solo most of the time, cause 2 of my friends said they were gonna play, but its not guaranteed and they dont know which classes or faction they are gonna roll (*edit:One of my friends said he is rolling a Rogue). Plus, there is a chance that they end up quitting the game after a couple of months. I would be playing something like 3 hours a day or so.

My main goals are: Reach lvl 60, find a guild to Raid and PVP (BGs).

Key Points (from what I read these past few weeks mixed with some of my preferences):
- Leveling: Mage is easy to solo lvl, Warriors is probably the hardest class to lvl (but gets easier with a pocket healer). Mage have more tools to escape if they get ganked, Warrior get kited around. Mages basically spam Frostbolt to kill mobs, easy but might get boring. Warrior have a more engaging skill rotation. However, “Stance Dance” looks kinda hard to learn properly, seems like it could take some time.
- Gearing: Mage is not gear dependant, Warriors are very gear dependant. Plus, competing with other classes for gear.
- Roles: Mage only DPS. Warrior can be both DPS and Tank (I dont care much for tanking and I wasnt that good when I tried it in BFA. I had to tank some Timewalking Dgs when I was farming for Water Strider Mount on my DH. I did that to speed up the queue and it was kinda bad tbh. I didnt know which skills to use, how to hold aggro, generate threat, the dungeons routes, etc… But anyway, I would learn how to Tank if this is really important and good for Warriors) There will be times that people are gonna pressure Warriors to tank in certain times.
- Time Invested: Warrior needs way more time invested than Mages to reach a satisfactory level.
- Raiding: Both Mage and Warrior are Top Tier DPS and Warrior is Top Tier Tank. As a Ranged Class, Mages have less mechanics to avoid than Warriors.
- Dungeons: Again, both are Top Tier. And Warriors can Tank on a DPS spec.
- Battlegrounds: Mages are quite good at it. Warriors are not that good, unless they got some backup healers. If they got heals, they destroy everyone.
- World PvP: Same as BGs.
- Duels: It seems like Mages got less counters than Warriors.
- Group Find: If you Tank as Warrior, you’ll find groups very fast.
- Skill Kit: Mages got more utility and CC skills to deal with different scenarios (food, water, portals, ice barrier, blink, poly, nova). Warriors skills seems more like damage-wise or tank-wise, less utility.
- Farming Gold: Mages are probably the best class to farm gold due to AOE farming. Plus, mages can charge to provide food, water and portals.
- Repair Costs: Warriors have higher repair costs.
- Pre-Raid BIS: Gear is cheaper to Mages than Warriors.
- Health pool: Mages are squishier than Warriors.
- Skill Animations: Mages got more “flashy” skills, with ice and fire going everywhere, amazing. Warriors are more simple in that matter as a physical class.
- Armor looks: Mages can only wear Cloth and Warrior can wear Mail and Plate. (Cloth is kinda lame, Mail and Plate looks awesome).
- Weapons: Mages got wands and staves. Warriors can roll with everything but wands. (I really prefer to roll with a big sword or dual wielding some badass axes than a tree branch lol)
- Races: Warriors got more Races avaiable (I really like Orcs, Tauren, Humans for Warriors. For Mage I would go Gnome or Undead. I prefer Warrior races tbh).
- Macros: Warriors seem to have more Macros to be setup comparing to Mages.

Which class do you think I should pick? And Why?

EDIT: One of my friends said he is rolling a Rogue.

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Not gonna read all of that as it’s too time consuming and I’m not all that about mid-maxing but my answer to your question is: Why not both? It’s not like Classic will be a one month event. You got PLENTY of time to make 2, even 3 characters if you’re a casual. If you’re a speed runner: Like 8 lol.

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Read it all for some reason.

You sound like a rogue to me.
Yes I know you did not list it as an option but that is how I see it.

But in any case if you don’t enjoy tanking don’t roll a warrior.
They are very much expected to tank even if they are DPS specced.

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Defiantly if your leveling. You want to do DM as a warrior? Gotta tank. Want to do WC as a warrior? Gotta tank.

5

Go warlock. Very good solo abilities and desired in raids even though they are not top DPS.

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I mean. He can do the same with a mage but doesn’t have to deal with soul shards.

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Lock less squishified.

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Well, I dont like to make alts because it feels like Im “losing time” that I could be investing on my main. You know?

And @Sírre , its not that I DONT LIKE tanking. I had a poor experience in BFA, because I was kinda “forced” to tank those dungeons to speed up the queue. Like I said, I would be glad to learn how to Tank if thats really benefitial to Warriors and if that is actually a “fun” role. As a beginner, I just didnt have enough experience on the role to know if I like it or not.

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Totally understandable. But there will be certain times where you will just be “halted” because of resets. Because you could of just done a raid, gather all of your pots for the next raid in like a day or two, but still have like 6-5 days of just waiting as you already have all the current BiS gear in the game. Which mostly happens when in a hardcore guild waiting between phases.

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The class fantasy of the Warrior appeals bit more to me. But I feel like mage would be a better fit to my time avaiable.
If I go Warrior, there is a chance I could end up rerolling because I could get discouraged from all struggle related to leveling, gearing, farming, being facerolled on PvP.
And if I go Mage, there is a chance you could end up rerolling because I could get discouraged from playing a Class/Race that doesnt feel like the best class fantasy fit for me.
Its not that I dont like X or Y, its just a matter of trade-off.

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I think the defining factor is going to be whether you like raiding as melee, or ranged. These are nothing alike. Melee is more difficult but also has basically no responsibilities. You just show up, wait for the fight to start, then start swinging at the boss. A caster like mage has to buff the whole raid before every fight. As a mage… well if you don’t like the idea of summoning dozens of stacks of water every night then being trade spammed for it… stay far away from this class.

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Pick the mage. The word on the street is that warriors are on the chopping block for the next patch after 1.12. No, not an ability nerf either. The whole warrior class may be deleted.

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Mage is definitely more gear dependent than war. Warriors can get ap from strength casters don’t get much from int. I’m rolling lock, my eyes are mostly on crafted gear like [Robes of Winter Night]. I would play mage and stack as much frost damage as possible then switch fire after bwl.

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well, thats new for me. :thinking:

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It isn’t true that warriors are a weak PvP class. They are just more difficult to play. But a good warrior is god tier in PvP. Depends on your strengths.

But the two classes couldn’t be more different. It really is a matter of personal choice. Both afford you many options for how you spend your end game.

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You should go with what class fits your rpg fantasy the most. In other rpg’s do you tend to play as casters or melee fighters? Both classes are top tier and very fun to pvp on. I always find that class fantasy is the most important factor in determining if you want to spend hours playing the character.

If you just want to raid log, and wont spend much time playing, then class fantasy is not that important. Only thing important for raid logging is if the class is fun, and mage is not very fun in raids imo.

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I was having the same issue deciding between mage and warrior. If you don’t mind tanking dungeons for people then go warrior. Dungeon tanks will always be in high demand and people loved you. Nobody will complain if you decide to reserve that best in slot gear either. Just let them know prior. If you tank peoples dungeons for them when your looking to get into that pug for MC as dps they will remember how awesome you are and most likely give you an invite. If you just wanna make people food and hope they appreciate it then go mage.

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Pretty much. There was always a shortage of tanks since Warrior was the only reliable tank class in classic. If you join a group as a warrior, it’s pretty well expected you are there to tank it.

@NinjaKillz - There isn’t a bad class in WoW classic. But if you don’t feel like tanking, just play mage at first, maybe level a warrior as an alt.

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But do you guys feel like will there still be a Tank shortage this time? why?

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In general fewer people choose to play tanks or healers and DPS often have a harder time getting groups. But I don’t know what the state of the game is now and what the state of classic will be. And if you have a small group of close friends you always run with it isn’t a huge issue.