Mage, warlock, or spriest?

[xtiiina]

Which is the easiest to own with in pvp right now?

[Deleted]

spriest maybe?

roll mage for longevity.

[Lulbalance]

spriest maybe?

roll mage for longevity.

lol ..

locks are always good.. have always been good. [in 3s]

after the rework to priests that came in MoP - they're not going anywhere bad.

none are terrible choices.

[Shadewind]

- Shadowpriests are overall very strong atm (2's, 3's and RBG in my knowledge). Good burst, great utility (offhealing, life swap, mass dispell, grip) good survivability.

- Locks have strong 3's comps and are top range in RBG's imo atm (top rated RBG teams seem to share this opinion, as they are bringing 3 locks some times). They got great on demand burst (Havoc, Chaos Bolts with Dark Soul can rip a target apart), amazing CC and very good survivability. Less utility than shadow priests though.

- Mages are in a bit of a weird situation as we speak. Mages have worse survive, utility compared to locks and spriests, and also worse CC compared to locks (yes, pom ring is very good, blood fear is amazing). What compensated for this was the insane, over the top, on demand burst they could dish out untill a week ago. They could literally blow someone up every 10 seconds, and solo healers. This got nerfed to the ground though. I suggest on waiting for the dust to settle. Right now I am not sure where they are going. The old playstyle isnt super viable anymore, especially in RBG's, with the setup it takes for a 120k crit, which can be dispelled quite easily. Knowing Blizzard however, Mages won't get a small piece of the pie, so I doubt they will ever be bad, I think people are just figuring stuff out a few days after the nerfs.


Hope this helps!

[Aethias]

While I'm no expert I was able to jump into BGs on my destro lock on my way from 85-90 and pull my weight. Since I've gotten some decent gear that's continued in normal BGs and I know people who play competitively do fine with locks. I can't really speak for the other classes, but warlock is never a bad choice

[Nicola]

Am I dreaming or are people saying lock is better than shadowpriests and mages right now?

Mages bring amazing control and on demand burst, in addition to great survability and plenty of escape mechanics. Mages have stood at the top of PvP for years and that likely won't change, so in my opinion it's the go-to class.

Spriests on the other hand bring some great burst as well, in addition to the ability to multidot, bringing great amounts of pressure. While their cc is less imo, it's more annoying and being a hybrid, they bring some nice utility as well.
Now since the healing nerf, their utility is reduced by a bit, but they still bring more than enough to be a strong spec in pvp.

Warlocks, they bring healthstones and that's pretty much it. They can crit high with all cooldowns up, but in arena, it's very easy to prevent them from casting during cooldowns. Without cooldowns they bring close to no damage.
While they have been at the top of pvp since s2, the whole revamp made affliction very weak at the start of the expansion.
However, since the healing nerf, dot classes are becoming stronger and affliction is coming back due that, however, it's still considered to be weaker than shadow.

[Shadewind]

Am I dreaming or are people saying lock is better than shadowpriests and mages right now?

Mages bring amazing control and on demand burst, in addition to great survability and plenty of escape mechanics. Mages have stood at the top of PvP for years and that likely won't change, so in my opinion it's the go-to class.

Spriests on the other hand bring some great burst as well, in addition to the ability to multidot, bringing great amounts of pressure. While their cc is less imo, it's more annoying and being a hybrid, they bring some nice utility as well.
Now since the healing nerf, their utility is reduced by a bit, but they still bring more than enough to be a strong spec in pvp.

Warlocks, they bring healthstones and that's pretty much it. They can crit high with all cooldowns up, but in arena, it's very easy to prevent them from casting during cooldowns. Without cooldowns they bring close to no damage.
While they have been at the top of pvp since s2, the whole revamp made affliction very weak at the start of the expansion.
However, since the healing nerf, dot classes are becoming stronger and affliction is coming back due that, however, it's still considered to be weaker than shadow.

Untill a week ago I would have agreed with you. Mage burst has been brought down significantly, and frost bomb isnt even viable anymore (proof is the top arena and RBG mages running with Nether Tempest and ffb procs). Arena I agree that shadow priests > locks, due to sheer utility. RBG's, locks are a lot better. The proof for this is the top RBG players on BG9 running with 2-3 locks, no mages and maybe 1 shadow priest.

[Nicola]

Untill a week ago I would have agreed with you. Mage burst has been brought down significantly, and frost bomb isnt even viable anymore (proof is the top arena and RBG mages running with Nether Tempest and ffb procs). Arena I agree that shadow priests > locks, due to sheer utility. RBG's, locks are a lot better. The proof for this is the top RBG players on BG9 running with 2-3 locks, no mages and maybe 1 shadow priest.

Yes, but that's because you get insane pressure when 3 affliction warlocks are dotting everything. However, a single warlock simply doesn't cut it.
Having 3x ua on every target makes dispelling extremely dangerous and with 3x fear there's a lot of cc going on. But again, it's because of the combined strength they are so strong.

Even now mages are nerfed, in arena they remain the top caster, above shadow priests, followed by warlocks.
When talking about RBG, I'd say stacking warlocks > stacking shadowpriests > stacking mages however when not stacking classes I'd say a single mage > a single shadowpriest > a single warlock.

[Shadewind]

Yes, but that's because you get insane pressure when 3 affliction warlocks are dotting everything. However, a single warlock simply doesn't cut it.
Having 3x ua on every target makes dispelling extremely dangerous and with 3x fear there's a lot of cc going on. But again, it's because of the combined strength they are so strong.

Even now mages are nerfed, in arena they remain the top caster, above shadow priests, followed by warlocks.
When talking about RBG, I'd say stacking warlocks > stacking shadowpriests > stacking mages however when not stacking classes I'd say a single mage > a single shadowpriest > a single warlock.

Well, I am talking destruction warlocks, not affliction. Chaos Bolts burst a lot more than mage burst (about 3x more damage than frostfire bolts). Honestly shadow priests are better than mages in arena now, but thats in my experience, I am not that scared of mages anymore. I, however, do agree with your stacking point.

[Nicola]

Well, I am talking destruction warlocks, not affliction. Chaos Bolts burst a lot more than mage burst (about 3x more damage than frostfire bolts). Honestly shadow priests are better than mages in arena now, but thats in my experience, I am not that scared of mages anymore. I, however, do agree with your stacking point.

Hmm chaosbolt hits hard with cooldowns, but in terms of burst it's actually not that great due the 3sec it takes to land one ( It's about 160k damage after 3sec and another ~40k over 3sec). It's big damage in one hit, but it's also easy to heal when you survive it because it will take another 3 sec for the next chaos bolt to land and between the chaosbolts, there hardly is any damage.
And with the rain of fire nerf + the shadowburn fix, there really isn't a good reason to take destruction warlocks for rbg anymore.