Mage or Lock

Without knowing anything about you, what playstyle(s) you prefer, or what your skill-level is...

- Mage (Arcane) if you want a spec that you can literally be braindead and still top charts/KBs while pressing three buttons or less (not even remotely exaggerating). You can play Frost or Fire, but you’ll just be gimping yourself and your team.

- Lock if you want a little more variety and three’ish viable playstyles that are different from one another.

You can be infinitely more valuable to your team if you can learn to effectively Cc with whichever one you choose.

 

As I had said before, locks are cool.

I disagree. Destro is also cool.

 

If you want a brain dead spec roll Arcane mage. They are very bursty but run out of mana

Frost in the other hand, requires a good front line to spam frost bolt. Very rewarding with combo system with ice lance and flurry.

Fire, to much spells and little reward.

Cant say much about locks

 

Contrary to the assumption mage is a brain dead spec, arcane actually has a very high skill ceiling. Abusing its utility in this bracket can be one of the most rewarding activities. A list of its utility is: Mass-invis, Counterspell, Alter Time, Blink (positional), Frost Nova, Slow, Frostbolt, Polymorph, and its barrier (defensive). It's unlikely to get bored of this class unless you play 8 hours a day; it's also unlikely to ever be 'useless' in a BG where your team may be the underdog. Overall, mage is a better class than warlock. But, as with shown by the opinions in this thread, warlock's damage output and way it does damage is simply more interactive & fun than arcane mage's damage output is. Additionally, warlock offers two extremely strong specs whereas mage really only has arcane (frost is 'okay'). While warlock has good utility, it is very hard to position and use this utility that mage can do easily (with more). And, as with the public opinion, warlock is very cool. I hope this helps with your decision .

As a note, warlock has a lot of losing matchups in 1v1s if the enemy has any clue what to do against you- whereas mage stands much higher up.

 

I disagree that frost mages are bad. After duelling @migli he could 3 shot my holy paladin with 2.7k hp.

If I was going to play warlock Affliction all the way. They do massive rot damage and burst with Malefic Rupture. Affliction is always slept on hard.

 

If we’re going that route, then one could viably argue that Marksmanship actually has the one of the highest skill ceilings of any DPS in the bracket. I honestly think playing it at the absolute highest potential possible i.e. pet management, kiting multiple enemies, Cc’ing/interrupting multiple enemies, using Feign Death/Turtle/Exhilaration at the exact right moments, strategic Disengages, not overusing/underutilizing Focus and knowing when to pool a bit or just nuke, and keeping people at bay just within max range to demoralize them so they can’t touch you is an art form.

Or, just like Arcane, you can simply bind three keys and still top charts and do big peepee damage. This is why these two specs get a bad rap — it’s not that they don’t have a high skill ceiling, it’s that you don’t need to play them that way to wipe the floor with most opponents in a BG setting.

 

Just make both in mediocre gear and run tests.

I got both ( Mage & Warlock ) on both sides ( Aliiance & Horde ) => 4 Toons. Love them all for their own Reasons.

(if I count in my US Adventures they are even 7 toons...)

 

People that say that frost mages are bad are bad at the game. Prove me wrong.

Arcane is superior in terms of utility, constant damage, whatever name it, but the frost burst is untouchable. Hitting 2k aoe cones into novas is the shit. Imo level 20 is all about getting the most fun out of it and its definitely not spamming slows and sheep the entire game/missile/blast playstyle. I build my character around one shotting people every single expansion and right now, frost does it best. Makes me think of WoD BM/WW monks. If u want to go full haste and spam sheeps, you're welcome to do it, but how about u come play some 3k arenas with me if u really want to tryhard instead of thinking you're good getting a full alter when half the bracket doesn't even know what the spells does. Lmao.

 

As a mage I can confirm it
Sad, but true

 

Yes, but can you do that with regular BiS’ish gear, or do you need GF’d stuff that’s not currently obtainable?

Not doubting you, but if it’s the former, I’m confused why no one else in the only twink bracket that exists in the game has figured this out yet except you!

 

If you don't have ilvl 49, invest some time and gold to find someone that has the Brilliant Wizard oil recipe and swap between 2 good on use trinkets when one is down. U will get REALLY close results to my mage. The reason is that frost is not really that consistent is my guess but in my opinion when it is played well it is super fun, you also have 3 schools of magic compared to arcane you're donezo if u don't fake a kick.

But yeah, arcane still prevails for most of the mage gameplay don't get me wrong :/