Hey guys i was making this post because i was currently having a hard time deciding between Mage and Shaman and I’m not really sure which one would be better to main long term. Usually I Like Having A lot of Utility to be brought more to pushing higher keys and M+ and I like doing progression raiding whether it be heroic or mythic raiding, but between these classes which do you think would be better to main even though i played both of these classes and their specs and like them both, but just want one to main?
I made this mage because they have far more utility and self-sufficiency. I don’t dislike shaman, but with this character, I can do everything except tank, heal, or pick pockets. Every other aspect, I have the full ability, including making six additional copies of myself.
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Ret Paladin.
honestly 
do yourself a favor and level that hunter and thank me later
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Agreed. Hunter = Master Class.
Im not biased at all, by the way. Nope.
As someone that doesnt do any challenging content, i would say whatever one you prefer the fantasy of and the aesthetic of.
Its much easier to stick to a class if you can connect with the character. At least in my experience.
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Mage. Mage will always be meta and needed in raids and M+ they are blizzard favourite child so they always will be good. When was the last time mage was bad in raids and M+ you have to go ball way back to BFA for M+ but raid they are still good. So pick a mage.
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(I don’t do competitive content and likely most of S3 I will be just doing Delves as a hunter. Very boring I know.)
My observation having a few close friends who do push for stuff like CE is that a High end Mage is hard to come by and is HIGHLY desirable for raid progression.
Whereas there will usually be a Shaman in some shape or form.
If you’re doing casual or even regular content, I highly recommend you pick something you just enjoy. If you’re doing really high end content then change based on what your set group needs.
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I don’t really like Ele. It has a lot of buttons that you press that literally don’t do anything when you press them, the Lightning Charge one, summon Ele, dropping a Magma totem that slowly pulses and is static until you manually move it. Yeah, it’s clunky, it reminds me of WoW before they started designing CDs to do upfront damage. It really does not feel fluid, I think they need to trim Ele a bit still.
Having said that, Mage is a more smooth experience, but it’s not as simple as Ele.
Shaman provide more variety as you can play as either Ranged, Melee or Healer. You also have an Earth Elemental to take some punishment for you, self healing, and Ghost Wolf for mobility.
Mages is more pick-your-favorite between Acrane, Fire and Frost. They can create their own food, however, that’s not as powerful as it once was, and only Arcane really runs out of mana. World Teleports are always good, and Slow Fall is very handy should you accidentally dismiss you pet whilst flying.
It depends on the subclass. For instance, if you like “kill em all” then you would like Fire Mage. If you like overly complicated but still powerful then try Arcane Mage. If you want a tank to keep the enemy occupied then go with Frost Mage. Shaman is DPS and Heals giving them an edge over Mage. I would recommend Enhancement Shaman for the power and audacity! But nowadays, all classes have speed buffs, shields, and healing methods so they are all the same!
If you are basically asking which one has a higher likelihood of being considered good and having a spec that will get easier invites to M+ season after season, Mage is the answer.
how dare you forget fire mage in bfa ?
Mage was kinda dookie at the start of Legion. Shadow was taking a dump on everything.
Shammy. No contest.
- Mail mogs are no longer super garbo.
- Far superior survivability than mage due to heals.
- Heal spec for insta-queue.
- Much faster than a mage due to blizz deleting arcane mage speed boost talent.
- Can melee and ranged.
- Far too many classes have lust now. So chances are no group needs a mage anymore.
- Mage int buff got nerfed into irrelevance.
The only advantage mage has is ports. But that’s becoming increasingly irrelevant as more and more ports get added all over the world.
The only real downside of shammy is being forced to carry around 4 trinkets if you multi-spec because for some unfathomable reason, blizz can’t get it through their head that all agi trinkets also require int.
I compromised a list of all know data with the help of AI. The results came out as Mage #1 overall. 20+ years of data, all known content.
Honorable mentaions Druid, Paladin, Monk for being able to perform in all roles. With Rogue having more positive results in PVP, Arena, BGs, Early days of M+ such as Legion, BFA due to skips.
depending how good you are at this game. If you are good at this game, mage is better, otherwise, shaman. They both are good and provide a lot of utilities. Mage is arguably a bit more complicated and you need to learn all 3 specs to adapt to the meta. On the other hand, shaman has a quite number of keybinds but its rotation and toolkit are arguably simpler and straightforward (well, you can say frost mage is an exception, it’s just BM hunter in disguise). Mage is more stable, even when they aren’t meta, at least one of their specs remains strong. For shaman, you have to roll the dice.
Fire Mage always scales and becomes a god at the end of every xpac, sometimes it happens mid xpac like in BFA where it basically dominated the game the entire xpac.
Arcane will start off strong then they will nerf it. It’s played out like that more than a couple times.
when at equivalent ilevel, shaman grab all positive points except good raw damage that belong to mage
If you’re choosing between mage and shaman, the answer is Mage. Mages are always viable and very often top tier in most, if not all, content. It provides a necessary raid buff and lust while also having plenty of strong defensives.
Shaman is a low priority at blizzard. Rarely top tier and often last to receive developer attention. Theyre decently strong right now, but that’s more the exception. Shaman also provides a raid buff and lust, but has fewer defensives which are also on longer CDs.