What makes warlocks more fun than mage for m+?
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I wouldn’t know.
Demons are dope?
This is true, I’m leaning towards Demo if I play lock tho.
NGL the reason I’m leaning lock is cause demons
Historically, Mages have been a better class for M+ while being similar to Warlocks for raids.
So, given that the utility for warlocks in m+ is more limited than Mages [who offer AI and Timewarp] i believe you will have a better time pugging as a mage in most seassons.
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Don’t roll a warlock. Their talent trees are garbage and they provide maybe 2 spells for the group (soul stones and demonic gateway) and most of the time people don’t even use them when provided.
Roll a mage. They have a party wide buff, food, and timewarp
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Thanks for the honesty! I think I’ll take your advice on rolling mage even though I definitely like the warlock fantasy more.
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I’ve played a mage since WotLK and used to love the class. Now, It’s just such a chore to put out decent numbers. They still refuse to get rid of Rune of Power, despite the hate for the talent.
Finally came to the dark side with a tank pet and I’m never going back. Warlock is just too much fun so far. I can solo things with my demon that took twice the work with my mage.
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Like, it’s not that warlocks are an awful class.
I enjoy it quite a lot, it’s a sturdy dps class with quite a few interesting spells.
but because you asked about m+ the thing i first considered is the pugging experience.
And as a warlock you will struggle more to find pug groups for m+ than as a mage.
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they’re both great picks and with three specs that deal damage differently they both have a great shot at being strong contenders.
which is more in demand really depends on tuning - both for us, and for our teammates. if hunters or shaman or evokers are strong (all of which are true this season) it’s going to be hard to justify taking a mage for time warp when other classes that bring it hit harder. likewise, if there is a higher damage battle res class, or a tank/healer with bres happens to be meta, that might hurt locks.
The might is because battle res redundancy has some good value while heroism redundancy is typically worthless.
But to play along with the thread:
- Warlocks can interrupt without stopping their current cast, unlike mages who have to break cast to do their job
- Non-Demo warlocks can purge without stopping their current cast, unlike mages who rely on spellsteal which breaks a cast. Sometimes spellsteal is dope, but many of the things you “can” steal this round of dungeons have some downsides (shields that cut your health or kill you…)
- Non-Demo warlocks can dispell magic, particularly powerful this season on the last boss of Jade Temple.
- All warlocks can banish, particularly powerful this season on the last pull of Jade Temple.
- Hard stops are the name of the game in higher keys. Mages only aoe hard stop options are blast wave, dragon’s breath and mass-polymorph, and those suck (in some cases awkward talenting or getting into melee range). Especially compared to warlocks bringing shadowfury, which does not suck ever.
- Mages only option for a single target hard stop is sheep. Warlocks offer fear (soon-to-be-fear-in-place!) and mortal coil, which is instant and heals you! Demo warlocks also have Axe toss!
- Mages are very tanky with alter time, mirrors, a 2min 60% DR/vanish, and either double iceblock or a single block + cheat death (lets assume arcane will stop existing like it always does). But Warlocks? Woah buddy. +20% health all the time, +10% soul link DR all the time, +another 10% automatic DR when something could actually kill you, +40% DR w/ stun, silence immunity, +healthstones, + soulburning (drain life gives a shield, health stone gives you more healing and more max health), you can drain life whenever you want, and if you are affliction with inevitable demise stacks or soul rot that’s a massive on demand heal. Strong passive healing via Soul Leech (and depending on your group, Sweet Souls). And, of course, the big one: a 45-60sec CD shield for half our massive health pool. It’s generally better than Iceblock just because of how frequently it’s available and the ability to continue DPS’ing while in god mode. There’s also some crazy stuff like saccing your voidwalker on a boss with a big damage phase (2nd boss of HoV for example) and just using it’s Shadow Bulkwark to have 30% more health for a long damn time (which also makes your healthstones heal more and your Dark pact shield even bigger).
- Sometimes people need to get out of dodge. Mages are good with Blink – but only if they do not take shimmer. Blink’s ability to break stuns is incredible. But… warlocks can on demand even-while-casting trigger burning rush which makes us sprint and unable to be slowed, which is incredibly useful for dodging mechanics or ignoring snares (think last 2 bosses of AV). Demonic circle clears snares, which allows you to purge bad abilities that include a snare. Think about first boss of CoS where clown mages have to jump to stay alive, or the painful bat poison in SBG. Circle also has a longer range than blink, so you can laugh at the mage when they get vaccumed up by the last boss in Academy after failing to time their Alter-time. Demonic circle that crap. It’s also precise, making it safe to use in tricky situations like the water boss in Jade Temple.
- You know what else sucks about Blink and Shimmer? It only saves the mage. With Demonic gate, we can get our whole party across the room for mechanics on 4 of the HoV bosses. And in many seasons, there are pull-skip tricks using Gate! Also great on the last 2 bosses of AV, the water boss in Jade Temple (go around not through him), or getting over a pacific ocean of lava on the last 2 bosses of RLP (remember, can be instant with soul burn!).
- You know what else sucks and results in group wipes? Tank dying. You know whats great? Pre-soul-stoning the tank so that never happens to you ever again.
- You know whats better than giving your party stale cinnamon buns and milk that only the healer gives a crap about? Healthstones. Everyone will like you. Especially Hunters who probably would die if not for you specifically.
- You know what bricks keys? Mages dying and releasing when they definitely should not have. If I had a nice piece of a gear for everytime someone died and released and we got back to work sooner because the rest of us lived and the warlock summoned, I’d have a lot of nice pieces of gear. Warlock summons time keys. Mage portals only make it easier to quit.
- Lets be honest, Fire and Frost are what is usually the most viable specs for mages. Frost is an annoying spec during sanguine because of the snares and Fire is an annoying spec during every affix because the whole thing revolves around if you were a good boy during your 10 seconds of combusting and neither of them are very complicated on quantity of spells to press. Warlock specs have better burn cycles rotationally and more diverse damage profiles and because of the latter are more likely to have a boss that one their specs really dominates on. Because of the former, they are simply more fun to play.
- Have we mentioned the transmog? Not even Death Knights come close to how awesome Warlock transmog is. You know, back when Blizzard made class themed stuff and the gear actually was something you wanted to wear. The only meter that really matters is who looks the best.
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None of what you said is strictly untrue, but it’s written from the perspective of a bitter mage trying to minimise any of the (many) advantages mages have over warlocks in M+, while trying to make warlock abilities sound amazing.
You basically lost me when you tried to pretend blink was bad compared to (lol) circle.
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Traditionally mages have almost always been a better pick for M+ (at least until Destro takes over the world in the final patch of the expansion), but Demo has been doing pretty well this season and no mage spec in particular is in high demand, so it’s a pretty good season for locks, comparatively.
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Warlock has felt quite annoying to play in DF despite the numbers we may pump. It’s still missing something.
Id say roll mage over warlocks, because mages at least have more consistency.
I love my mage. It’s written for an OP who requested an argument in favor of warlocks.
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Mages are suffering much the same as warlocks (and most ranged) right now in world of meleecraft. ROP is still terrible, arcane has an annoying rotation etc - but strictly on a utility basis for M+ they are still more desirable.
Biggest difference though is that mages can cast while moving, heal while immune and blink out of stuns. On Top of poly, ice ring, fire ring, etc.
I ended up going with mage, I’m 391 and trying to hit 410 this week 
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You get to pass out cookies at the beginning and then get screamed at for not getting a brez off in time while you dodge mechanics non-stop, because someone else died while they were also trying to dodge mechanics non-stop.
Do summons work again this season? Last time i tried I couldn’t summon.
This summary almost brings the vanilla spark back that I had when first picking the warlock class lol, ty for these highlights.
I am really enjoying df warlock in M+. I haven’t been on the mage much this expac so i can’t really speak to it. A few key things that may have been missed by other replies.
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Amp curse with curse of tongues is highly valuable on the dangerous caster mobs, especially in pugs where interrupts aren’t reliably cycled.
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45 second aoe stun with shadowfury is usable on almost every pack.
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10.0.7 allows you to take an ability to fear an enemy without causing them to flee, adding another valuable tool to the kit.