I have several of each. If you want to go meta I think mage is better right now. BM hunter was tons of fun last expansion but I’m still kind of mad about button bloat. Being the only class that could move and dps all on one hand was a thing of beauty.
TY guys. I am still undecided but favoring a littlebit to mage
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I’m partial to Mage, but mostly because in Vanilla I tried them both out and didn’t like the Hunter “dead zone” (couldn’t attack targets beyond melee range but too close to shoot) which is no longer a problem.
Hunters are better for solo content than Mages, for sure.
Hunters and Mages are both generally viable in raid/M+ but Mages bring more utility and are a bit more coveted. Hunters also have a bit of a stigma, people don’t think the random Hunter player is skilled.
Mages are generally better in PvP I’d say. Mages also have Teleport which is super convenient.
Mages tend to be more stationary (less mobile) than Hunters.
You will generally find it easier to get into groups as a Mage than Hunter, if that matters to you.
I have both and I prefer Hunter and warlock over mage any day and any expansion
What Celebrate said
I’d say go Hunter. Hunters can tame a large variety of pets and even go camping for unique rare spawn pets. There are so many to choose from. You can also solo almost anything in the game, minus current dungeons and raids etc, as your pet can tank most of everything for you while you blow everything up.
Hunter’s also have a large arsenal of utility that come in handy for sticky situations.
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Some people like me dont like to tame pets and they just see pets as other dot. In that case mage over hunter anyday
I’m biased, but definitely hunter.
Hunter is easier to pick up. I’d suggest that if you’re still newer.
Well Mage has 3 dps specs so generally one of them is always top 3. Hunter has 2 and BM is STUPIDLY easy. Marksmen is SLIGHTLY more difficult but never seems to stay up top for long. We don’t talk about the spec Hunter lost.
It all depends on what you want to do. As someone with a mage and hunter at top level I can say they excel in different areas.
Raiding; Mage IMO. I just find mage’s rotation more fun in raids than hunter, and they have lots of tools to make mechanics easier. laughs in shimmer at painsmith’s spiked balls
M+: easily mage.they’re more desired for pug groups, and mage smashes aoe/cleave. And every healer wants some of those sweet mana buns.
Arenas: either one tbh, tho I personally find hunter more fun. Mage is good in arenas too, just getting trained by melee cleaves (most of arena opponents) on a class with lots of hard casts isn’t super fun. Tho with mage you do have more 3s comp options, with hunter it’s jungle or bust.
Open world questing/pvp: hunter all day. Hunters own world pvp, and soloing quests/bosses with BM is a joke.
If your main goal is high end PvE i’d recommend mage. They bring more utility to a raid/dg group, and do crazy good damage. Also have the added benefit of at least one mage spec is always going to be good for raiding, can’t necessarily say the same for hunter.
If you just want to mess around in the open world and focus more on PvP I’d recommend hunter. BM owns in arenas, and MM is godly in bgs and open world pvp. And BM is hands down the best class for soloing content.
Disclaimer: some of this is based on personal preference and how fun each class is in different content. YMMV
Hunters are easier and more fun IMO.
Seems to me on my Hunter and DK I can do more damage with way less effort than my other classes. I do more DPS on them by accident than I do on some others.
Only cool people play Mages, so…
Hunters are made fun of a lot if you can handle that (i.e. 2 button pressing, huntards, etc) even though they are hard to master. The reason they have a lower chance in getting invited is due to the overpopulation of bad hunters. Mages have a more set boundaries in what they can do and with a better dps scaling vs skills meaning that messing up is easier compensated then hunters (thus the term huntard because when you mess up with a hunter, it’s usually bad in tanking your dps completely to pet management).
If you pair up a good hunter with a mage/druid/rogue, your party will have so much utilities at it’s disposable.
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I played MM for years, but a few months ago something changed. I don’t know if it was me or the game, but I found I was just falling behind in raid and having a hard time killing rares in the “world”, which was never a problem before.
I switched to frost mage and have really enjoyed the change. It takes a bit more planning to not die lol - but overall it’s a fun spec.
It depends on your your fantasies. Botha are good, but hunter is more fun in general to me.
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Mage, historically one spec has always been at or near the top, you will always be required in raids due to raid buff and you have bloodlust
I prefer BM Hunter because there’s a lot more buttons available to push and you can independently control your pet on top of it, so I’m never bored.
And it’s 100% mobile. Every shot can be executed while moving. (I tend to forget that when playing other classes.)
BM is like being in a small group. You can use your pet as the tank, complete with demanding aggro commands, and an extra heal-on-command if you have a Spirit Beast and take it’s heal off auto mode so you have it when you need it.
There’s also a super-easy mode with fewer buttons if you choose all passive talents a let your pet stay in defensive mode if you prefer that.
I’ve also played Mages, but I strongly prefer BM Hunter over every other class.
Can confirm.
I loathe PvP, but last year I was doing the Waist Of Time quest chain, and when I was doing the part in Halaa, a DK decided I looked like an easy target. (To be fair, this was a good assumption on the DK’s part.)
At first, my instinct was to just let them kill me. (Faster, takes away their sport, and not as humiliating.) But then I remembered… hold on, I’m a BM Hunter and currently at the top of the food chain.
So I turned around and 2-shotted Mr DK.
I always thought Arcane mage was one of the most unique classes in the game! that’s my vote…
I’m not sure how “effective” they are…I’d say they’re equal when it comes to the utility they provide a group 