Balancing between Mage and Warlock which one to level from 0-110 :)

[Helgrim]

Hello all mages ! Time to join da club of the portals and cookies masters I stopped playing my mage at lvl 85 if I remember correctly. What spec do you recommend for leveling at my time frost was the spec for solo leveling while arcane was the go to spec for single tarrget for raids. I was raiding at dragon soul if i remember correctly.
So can you tell me a quick overview how is mage atm doing in raids and dungeons enviroment and few tips for the beginning in Legion as a mage ? Thanks mates ! ( one last note I was also thinking about leveling an affliction Warlock so basically I am merging between these two classes ).

[Sam the Wiser]

Let me save you some time. Roll warlock. There's currently no reason to play mage over a warlock.

[The Archmage]

Hi, and welcome back to the game.

All mage specs are pretty on par with each other. Some could say pick frost for levelling, but the truth is that with some practice you can effectively do it with any spec.

As for overall strenght of the class in raiding environement, we are not in our strongest moment as of nowadays. This, however, can be said for all ranged specs of the game, save for Shadow Priests that are shining particularly brightly.

You will still be able to play at all level difficulty as a Mage with enough effort and time investment, that i can guarantee you. But if it's pure dps output evaluation, currently Warlocks are able to provide a little more.

Hope this helps. Have fun!

[Nevianx]

Let me save you some time. Roll warlock. There's currently no reason to play mage over a warlock.

You mean no reason other than enjoying the class more, right?

Anyway, pick any spec, really. It doesn't matter. Balance and mechanics change all the time. What's strong today might be bottom-tier tomorrow. Frost is great for ST and small cleave, Fire has less ST damage but shines on heavy AoE fights, Arcane is somewhere in the middle. But the actual difference (~5% +/-) is not really noticable unless you're a hardcore raider. So it all boils down to what you enjoy most.

Warlock is also a great class, just like all other classes in WoW. However, I don't play Warlock (because I don't like the demonic/corrupted/fel theme of the class) so I can't help you with this one. That said, I do know that Affliction is a good leveling spec for sure. The fact that it also happens to be a strong spec for endgame content at the moment is nice too. But that changes all the time.

[Deleted]

wel i started to lvl a mage (102) when my 4the legendary ,on my lock, is again a useless one. I just swap to mage and pray that the first legendary is a good one on that char.

It's a stupid idee to balance spec and how the spec play's around 1 legendary...

[Deleted]

Let me save you some time. Roll warlock. There's currently no reason to play mage over a warlock.

Warlocks do slightly more dps.
Mages have blink, ice block, cauterize. Actual mobility and survival. Mages are in a good spot now compared to warlocks.

[Amaterasu65]

As already stated, mage is weaker than most specs at the moment and warlock outperforms it in raids. If you enjoy the playstyle more, then go mage but make sure you start playing it with the knowledge that we are mediocre at best, that we need at least one BiS (wrists) to compete in ST and (helm) in AoE respectively in order to be semi-competent and that you may not even get those. This applies to the most commonly used spec atm, Fire. Talking about specs, don't make the mistake most of us did in the beginning and went Fire to be competent. Pick whichever you prefer, and play it.

[Helgrim]

Well this is not pointless thread. Actually will save me from many days of pointless exping wrong class. Incredible how simle you just try to point that this thread is trash. If you read all the reply you will see that actually members helped me here. Jeeez ppl these days...

[Zardam]

Let me save you some time. Roll warlock. There's currently no reason to play mage over a warlock.

This. Mages have been shafted this entire expac, with no change is sight. It took 5 bloody months to have more than one viable spec, and now all are still underperforming. There appears to be some dev interest in locks however, seems like a much safer bet.

[Celadir]

In another thread, we have posted visual representation for current class performance in a ST setting. The charts I linked are for a specific ilvl range and the next one down someone else linked is for all ilvl ranges. Both show the same message. Again, keep in mind the fight we both chose was Krosus; a good ST metric in NH.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-is-over/page7

[kheath812]

Warlocks do slightly more dps.
Mages have blink, ice block, cauterize. Actual mobility and survival. Mages are in a good spot now compared to warlocks.

dps is what matters. warlocks do way more damage than mages. warlocks are better.

[Yunaqt]

Interesting you put this thread here and it's Warlocks are great, better than mages!
Put this thread in the Warlock forums and it's the opposite "We're trash 0 warlocks brought to M Gul'dan, 2 Mages" "Play Warlock if you want to compete with the tanks in DPS and enjoy long relaxing times on the bench".

Each to there own what matters more is which you enjoy playing, personally I prefer Warlock myself. Find affi pretty fun, but I main a healer. So I think I enjoy affi for being able to just take 90+stacks on Cenarius and just self heal through them pulling 160k+hps... I feel like i'm doing it wrong :P

[Imaskar]

"We're trash 0 warlocks brought to M Gul'dan, 2 Mages"

Only one actually, the other is mentioned in credits, but was on a twink probably. And he is 250k (23%) behind 1st place, on the absolute bottom. Idk why he didn't switch to a twink.

[trm90]

@OP class balance is in constant flux. Ignore the butthurt weebs in this thread.

Mages were top tier for a large part of EN before nerfs/scaling put them behind. Frost (with leggos) is an above average DPS spec, Arcane isn't top tier but it's not shit either. Historically speaking, on average, Mages are better than Warlocks and receive more attention to their class balance, aesthetics, mechanics etc.

Warlocks are slow as fuck, but they're very tanky and all do above average damage, save for Destro who falls behind hard in pure ST. They were total garbage for the first part of EN, they frequently have their core kit reworked, and they have very cookie-cutter talent trees.

Honestly OP, I would choose based on these factors:

- Would you rather be more mobile or tanky?
- Do you like pets?
- Are you an edgelord?

I really want to emphasise as well that while Warlocks have had many tiers where they shine, ON AVERAGE, they are more likely to be in a shittier spot than mages.

[Fayenoor]

Hello all mages ! Time to join da club of the portals and cookies masters I stopped playing my mage at lvl 85 if I remember correctly. What spec do you recommend for leveling at my time frost was the spec for solo leveling while arcane was the go to spec for single tarrget for raids. I was raiding at dragon soul if i remember correctly.
So can you tell me a quick overview how is mage atm doing in raids and dungeons enviroment and few tips for the beginning in Legion as a mage ? Thanks mates ! ( one last note I was also thinking about leveling an affliction Warlock so basically I am merging between these two classes ).

I have been playing a mage since Molten Core. My initial inspiration behind playing a mage was Vurtne's insane PvP videos (the whole TOEP + ZHC POM Pyro 1-shot insanity which finally forced blizzard to prevent players from stacking on-use trinkets). I was pretty hardcore upto ICC and little bit of Cata. Then real life took over and been fairly casual since then.

Do not listen to mages who ask you to reroll warlock because they are superior DPS at the moment. These kind of people always chase the FOTM and never get satisfied with their class. Yes, mage DPS sucks right now - all 3 specs. At least 2 warlock specs dominate over us. However, this is not our worst tier. I have been a mage during Sunwell Plateau and survived the agony of being out DPSed by glaived rogues/warriors and locks pressing just 1 button -shadowbolt.

So hang in there. We are the most mobile ranged DPS - the most fun-to-play ranged DPS. We can blink, invis. Jump off from the Lumber Mill in Arathi Basin and slowfall down to the Blacksmith. We can port and even better - we can troll people by porting them to Old Dalaran crater to their unsuspecting deaths. #hehe

Not everything is about raiding. And to those hardcore raiders who asked you to roll a warlock -- there was no warlock in Exorsus' world first Mythic Guldan kill, but there was a fire mage (and they didnt just bring him for lust since they also had a resto shaman for that). There was no warlock in Serenity's world 2nd Mythic Guldan kill either. But there was a fire mage. So let haters hate and you just enjoy playing the mage class. Who knows, by the time you hit 110 and get geared, we might be back to being FOTM again.

Regarding which spec to play while leveling -- play all 3. It is very easy to respec nowadays. Try them all out and have fun. They are all equally fast and viable for leveling and dungeons with BoA.

[Istaria]

As already stated, mage is weaker than most specs at the moment and warlock outperforms it in raids. If you enjoy the playstyle more, then go mage but make sure you start playing it with the knowledge that we are mediocre at best, that we need at least one BiS (wrists) to compete in ST and (helm) in AoE respectively in order to be semi-competent and that you may not even get those. This applies to the most commonly used spec atm, Fire. Talking about specs, don't make the mistake most of us did in the beginning and went Fire to be competent. Pick whichever you prefer, and play it.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statistics/11#dataset=99

Mages seem to be quite in a good place dps wise. And other specs such as affliction and spriest can cheese the results a lot with fake dps.

What about gameplay. Are you happy with the mage class ?
For those who play multiple classes at high level, which do you prefer ?

[Salystra]

99th percentile ? more likely 90th percentile for most its much more realistic.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/statistics/11#dataset=90

[Jagroen]

Coming from a mage main, I would suggest a warlock. Good dps, lock rocks + summon portal will get you into groups.