PROS & CONS of MAGE Vs. WARLOCK
In my quest to pick a class to play, I’ve narrowed down my choices to either the Mage or the Warlock. However, from there, the decision gets much more difficult as they are both amazing classes and fun to play for different reasons. So, in order to finally pick between the two, I’ve come up with a pros and cons list for each. If possible, I’d love for you all to either add to any portion of this list or correct me on some of opinions. As always, thanks for the help!
Mage (PROS)
1. Great overall mobility using blink, teleports and portals (also a decent way to make coin)
2. Self-sufficient (ability to make food/drinks)
3. Provides some amazing CC with sheep and frost skills
4. Great AoE damage/farming potential
5. All three skill trees are viable (though for different for PvP or PvE)
6. Probably the top “ranged” DPS in the game
7. Every group wants a mage regardless of PvP, PvE or raiding
8. High skill ceiling in order to master in PvP
Mage (CONS)
1. Every skill tree has the same basic playstyle.
2. In PvE, you pretty much only use 1-2 skills over and over and over…
3. You are often considered a “vending machine” and are expected to come to groups with a ton of food/drinks available.
4. Super popular (Some may not consider this a con but playing a high-pop class means limited amount of availability in raiding).
5. Outfits look stupid and created by someone who was high on !@#$.
6. About average leveling speed.
7. Stand and cast – meaning, you cannot move while casting most of your damage abilities.
Warlock (PROS)
1. Super group utility with health stones, summons and soul stones.
2. No real down time while leveling due to pets.
3. Probably the fastest solo-leveling class in the game.
4. Can easily fight multiple targets at once due to CC, pets and DoTs.
5. Unique and different play styles for each skill tree (doesn’t get boring over time).
6. Low pop class making it easy to find groups.
7. Demon pets have highly useful skills and are much easier to maintain than hunter pets (no food).
8. Free mount at level 40, reduced cost mount at 60 (with quest).
9. Probably the best looking tier sets for a caster class.
10. Many spells are instant cast allowing you to move while in combat.
11. Great for those who love kiting.
12. Lower than other classes when it comes to gear dependency.
Warlock (CONS)
1. Produces probably the lost DPS of any ranged class in group content due to not being able to use DoTs.
2. Soul shard farming is a pain, takes up lots of bag space, and they are removed if you log out for more than 15 minutes.
3. Without soul shards, you are screwed.
4. Terrible mobility (no speed boosts, teleports, etc.).
5. No real “ultimate” skill that provides a boost other skills.
6. If playing on the Alliance, you will struggle against Horde being as about 1/3 of Horde players are undead (will of forsaken).
7. For raiding, you are forced to play destruction or a destro/demon hybrid while affliction is often considered the most effective in PvP.
8. Slower overall combat playstyle than Mage – more methodical due to lack of mobility
Soul shards don't disappear when logging out for longer than 15 minutes, and WoTF is much easier to play around when you get death coil.
Affliction isn't the most effective in PvP by a long shot. Especially when it comes to premading.
Realistically it comes down to this:
Do you want more mobility when it comes to pvp?--pick mage
Do you want more AoE farm/cash gen?--pick mage
Do you want a higher skill ceiling and be the best class at 1v1?--pick warlock
Do you want the ability to take on multiple opponents easier in World PvP?--pick warlock
Affliction isn't the most effective in PvP by a long shot. Especially when it comes to premading.
Realistically it comes down to this:
Do you want more mobility when it comes to pvp?--pick mage
Do you want more AoE farm/cash gen?--pick mage
Do you want a higher skill ceiling and be the best class at 1v1?--pick warlock
Do you want the ability to take on multiple opponents easier in World PvP?--pick warlock
Also warlock is 2nd for ranged dps and 4th overall but I tut kicks in later due to having the highest hit requirement of basically any class.
Generally mage had higher skill floor, lock had higher skill ceiling.
Thanks for the corrected information. I was trying to write this up from memory and from testing both on a PS.
actually, Afflic (Dot) Lock was OP for raiding in vanilla. destro took that place in BC.
and ice mage was the skillful class for pvp. believe it or not.
dont take any psever as a comparison. if all else fails, there are tons of vanilla pvp videos on youtube and raiding. make sure they say over 10 years ago. there are ways to research deeper.
and ice mage was the skillful class for pvp. believe it or not.
dont take any psever as a comparison. if all else fails, there are tons of vanilla pvp videos on youtube and raiding. make sure they say over 10 years ago. there are ways to research deeper.
As a side note, locks get the better party buff from Aetish. So, a lock is usually going to get picked before a mage to get it. Their ribbon is also blue!
11/09/2018 11:39 AMPosted by Moonbladeactually, Afflic (Dot) Lock was OP for raiding in vanilla. destro took that place in BC.
and ice mage was the skillful class for pvp. believe it or not.
dont take any psever as a comparison. if all else fails, there are tons of vanilla pvp videos on youtube and raiding. make sure they say over 10 years ago. there are ways to research deeper.
7/21/23 or whatever variation was always the superior spec for warlock raiding. 30/0/21 being the imp !@#$% was mandatory for the tank group, and they only saw a 7% decrease in dps from not using corruption vs using it in optimum circumstances (they had the debuff slots available).
private servers are always a better comparison to what we are going to get versus videos from 10+ years ago. there's more information out now. I could go find that video of the gnome fury warrior doing 1400 dps on patchwerk and use it for an argument on why private server armor values are undertuned, but let's be real--the warrior in question was garbage and wasn't playing his class correctly at all.
Mage will sheep something & dps a mob. That's mage pve.
Lock may seduce something, chain fear a mob swapping curse of recklessness & curse of agony to keep it from pulling other stuff, while banishing a demon add & putting dots on everything. Or he may fear a mob coming towards him & pull everything in the dungeon, even thought the tank already taunted it before the fear even went off. Ya never know what you're gonna get with a lock, unless you already know them.
Lock may seduce something, chain fear a mob swapping curse of recklessness & curse of agony to keep it from pulling other stuff, while banishing a demon add & putting dots on everything. Or he may fear a mob coming towards him & pull everything in the dungeon, even thought the tank already taunted it before the fear even went off. Ya never know what you're gonna get with a lock, unless you already know them.
11/09/2018 11:45 AMPosted by Ironsides11/09/2018 11:39 AMPosted by Moonbladeactually, Afflic (Dot) Lock was OP for raiding in vanilla. destro took that place in BC.
and ice mage was the skillful class for pvp. believe it or not.
dont take any psever as a comparison. if all else fails, there are tons of vanilla pvp videos on youtube and raiding. make sure they say over 10 years ago. there are ways to research deeper.
7/21/23 or whatever variation was always the superior spec for warlock raiding. 30/0/21 being the imp !@#$% was mandatory for the tank group, and they only saw a 7% decrease in dps from not using corruption vs using it in optimum circumstances (they had the debuff slots available).
private servers are always a better comparison to what we are going to get versus videos from 10+ years ago. there's more information out now. I could go find that video of the gnome fury warrior doing 1400 dps on patchwerk and use it for an argument on why private server armor values are undertuned, but let's be real--the warrior in question was garbage and wasn't playing his class correctly at all.
they might seem like the best way to compare but psever have a lot of values altered. i had an argument with a poster who was convinced that the demo was incorrect when it came to pet defensive stance. the psever they played, had it where the pet would attack when the hunter did- in defensive stance. this was not in vanilla. this was a BC change. so they compared a vanilla psever, that had BC alterations and tried to convince people on the forums that it was incorrect. in vanilla, when in defensive stance- the pet would ONLY attack when you or it, was attacked. it would do nothing else. i even showed them the patch in which this change was implemented (3.0.2) and they STILL believed the psever was correct.
please take the advice of the vets, who were there. it will make your life so much easier. if not, you will only have your self to blame for your disappointment.
11/09/2018 11:50 AMPosted by Moonblade
they might seem like the best way to compare but psever have a lot of values altered. i had an argument with a poster who was convinced that the demo was incorrect when it came to pet defensive stance. the psever they played, had it where the pet would attack when the hunter did- in defensive stance. this was not in vanilla. this was a BC change. so they compared a vanilla psever, that had BC alterations and tried to convince people on the forums that it was incorrect. in vanilla, when in defensive stance- the pet would ONLY attack when you or it, was attacked. it would do nothing else. i even showed them the patch in which this change was implemented (3.0.2) and they STILL believed the psever was correct.
please take the advice of the vets, who were there. it will make your life so much easier. if not, you will only have your self to blame for your disappointment.
I've looked over videos from 04-06, recreated the raids with appropriate debuffs and surmised gear from players in those videos, and tested damage values and tweaked armor levels to get the same damage values on private servers as there was on 04-06 servers. The armor levels are no different from private servers to what there was on 04-06 servers. You can try it yourself by downloading the Nostalrius client that was released and doing your own research.
I'm not sure why you bring in your anecdote and assume I'm the same huntard you had your argument with, as it appears you're just trying to win this argument by strawmanning me.
And to respond to your last statement where you seem to imply I never played in that era, I give you my account history that I linked some other guy who made the same assumption.
https://i.imgur.com/0AkGx7O.jpg
How about you take the advice of vets who not only were there, but have done their research to confirm the evidence?
11/09/2018 12:03 PMPosted by Ironsides11/09/2018 11:50 AMPosted by Moonblade
they might seem like the best way to compare but psever have a lot of values altered. i had an argument with a poster who was convinced that the demo was incorrect when it came to pet defensive stance. the psever they played, had it where the pet would attack when the hunter did- in defensive stance. this was not in vanilla. this was a BC change. so they compared a vanilla psever, that had BC alterations and tried to convince people on the forums that it was incorrect. in vanilla, when in defensive stance- the pet would ONLY attack when you or it, was attacked. it would do nothing else. i even showed them the patch in which this change was implemented (3.0.2) and they STILL believed the psever was correct.
please take the advice of the vets, who were there. it will make your life so much easier. if not, you will only have your self to blame for your disappointment.
I've looked over videos from 04-06, recreated the raids with appropriate debuffs and surmised gear from players in those videos, and tested damage values and tweaked armor levels to get the same damage values on private servers as there was on 04-06 servers. The armor levels are no different from private servers to what there was on 04-06 servers. You can try it yourself by downloading the Nostalrius client that was released and doing your own research.
I'm not sure why you bring in your anecdote and assume I'm the same huntard you had your argument with, as it appears you're just trying to win this argument by strawmanning me.
And to respond to your last statement where you seem to imply I never played in that era, I give you my account history that I linked some other guy who made the same assumption.
https://i.imgur.com/0AkGx7O.jpg
How about you take the advice of vets who not only were there, but have done their research to confirm the evidence?
how about we stop trying to give misinformation, for the sole purpose of creating viability for a preferred class (aka favoritism). i could do the same when it comes to anything else and use an incorrect and illegal server to do it but (as with the hunter example)- a real vet doesnt want or need to do such a thing.
and i will continue to call it out.
i could do the same but sadly, blizzard screwed over my account when my original characters got deleted. so the dates on my achieves are off. reset to the oldest character i have. i even have achieves that can ONLY be obtained in vanilla but now have dates that are incorrect. that is my regret, for deleting them.
but- as you say. believe what you wish.
here is my main (had since BC) and you can see my achievements. as i said, the dates were altered because my vanilla characters were deleted.
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/character/hyjal/finalchaotic/achievements
like this one
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/character/hyjal/finalchaotic/achievements/legacy
i had gotten this way back pre BC. on a vanilla, night elf hunter main. but it was reset to post BC- because the oldest character i have is BC.
There's a lot of inaccuracies in the OP. Too many to really even list.
11/09/2018 12:22 PMPosted by Moonblade
how about we stop trying to give misinformation, for the sole purpose of creating viability for a preferred class (aka favoritism). i could do the same when it comes to anything else and use an incorrect and illegal server to do it but (as with the hunter example)- a real vet doesnt want or need to do such a thing.
and i will continue to call it out.
i could do the same but sadly, blizzard screwed over my account when my original characters got deleted. so the dates on my achieves are off. reset to the oldest character i have. i even have achieves that can ONLY be obtained in vanilla but now have dates that are incorrect. that is my regret, for deleting them.
but- as you say. believe what you wish.
Misinformation? What have I said was untruthful? I've done testing and cross referenced it with vanilla videos and found private servers to have accurate armor calculations meaning whatever is done on there is correct information.
Other people have as well. Not my report in specific, but the information was found in the same manner.
https://vanilla-twinhead.twinstar.cz/?issue=11584
You can read this if you want and STILL cover your eyes, it doesn't make you anything but a naysayer.
How many fallacies are you going to use to patch up your garbage arguments? "No true vet blah blah blah". What a joke, I've got proof I played back then--you have nothing. My advice--don't bring up the "veteran" argument as if it brings any credibility to your side--it doesn't. The game is 12-14 years old at this point in time, and no one has a flawless memory, so all we can go off of is videos. When videos are used as evidence and used to reverse-engineer armor values on private servers, you can't just say "private servers are not evidence" without seeming like an ostrich with his head in the sand
11/09/2018 11:39 AMPosted by Moonbladeactually, Afflic (Dot) Lock was OP for raiding in vanilla. destro took that place in BC.
and ice mage was the skillful class for pvp. believe it or not.
dont take any psever as a comparison. if all else fails, there are tons of vanilla pvp videos on youtube and raiding. make sure they say over 10 years ago. there are ways to research deeper.
Destro was definitely the spec in BC, but affliction was not THE raiding spec in vanilla. Locks weren't even allowed to put damage dots on the boss because of the debuff limit. The raid spec was an aff/destro hybrid.
I agree with some of your points but I disagree with a few things. Mages do not have a high skill ceiling in PvP. Heck, they were one of the easiest classes to play. If you have half a brain you can be a decent mage. You really only use a handful of spells, no more than a hotbars worth and depending on your situation only use about 5-7 of those abilities. Why do you think mages are so popular? Its not because they are hard to play I can tell you that. I can vouch, I played one all through vanilla.
On the opposite end Warlocks are a much harder class to play well in PvP compared to mage. Not only did you have pet management but you also have multiple abilities that are very situational. Dont wanna blow your deathcoil too early. What pet do you have out? Dont forget to use your healthstone. My point is there is A LOT more micromanaging with a warlock compared to a mage.
I also want to point out that on paper it sounds easy. Fear, dot, and laugh. Or FB, Nova, laugh. In reality its not that easy to decide what to do when you get hit with a cheap shot and your health bar is dropping faster than the titanic.
If you want a real challenge in PvP. I still stand by my opinion that Druids are the hardest class to play effectively. I'm not talking about a resto druid who spot heals, or a feral that sneaks around and picks off lowbies/straglers. I'm talking about a full shift, use the best of my talents, using all skill tress Druid. They are a true force to be reckoned with but it requires a huge amount of situational awareness!
On the opposite end Warlocks are a much harder class to play well in PvP compared to mage. Not only did you have pet management but you also have multiple abilities that are very situational. Dont wanna blow your deathcoil too early. What pet do you have out? Dont forget to use your healthstone. My point is there is A LOT more micromanaging with a warlock compared to a mage.
I also want to point out that on paper it sounds easy. Fear, dot, and laugh. Or FB, Nova, laugh. In reality its not that easy to decide what to do when you get hit with a cheap shot and your health bar is dropping faster than the titanic.
If you want a real challenge in PvP. I still stand by my opinion that Druids are the hardest class to play effectively. I'm not talking about a resto druid who spot heals, or a feral that sneaks around and picks off lowbies/straglers. I'm talking about a full shift, use the best of my talents, using all skill tress Druid. They are a true force to be reckoned with but it requires a huge amount of situational awareness!