roll mage or lock?Follow

With warlocks, they can outdamage mages easily, but it depends on how long the mob lives. DoTs add up, but if they die too fast you won't get alot of damage. With mages, you do alot of damage, but if the mob lasts too long you'll probably run out of mana and start attacking with your wand. I've played mages and warlocks, but personally I like warlocks better because of their DoTs. I guess it just depends on your playing style.

If you're soloing a lot, or even if you find yourself solo farming at seventy.. Warlock. Mages I find.. can't go forever. They have to sit down and drink, often. If they end up oom with another add, they're running and all they can do is hope. Warlocks.. I just find to be a lot more survivable.

I've taken out four mobs my level (all of them were on me at the same time, lawl) and found myself at half health and 1/3 mana. A mage in that situation? Would've been wtfpwned.


Honestly, it's playstyle. I like locks because of their ability to go and go and go, without having to stop for 30 seconds to eat/drink after every mob.

Ok, you do know your asking that in the warlock forums right? Alot of warlocks tell you warlock, because they play the class. Or they'll tell you to roll a mage because they/we don't want more noobs playing warlock (NOT saying you are one).

Banatu, not all mages would die in that 4mob situation. There are still alot of Frost Mages out there since Frost Nova was not nerfed. A Frost Mage well-trained in AoE grinding/farming arts would take about...what? 5x more than that?

Mages have a somewhat better CC than warlocks, but only one as warlocks have two-Fear & Seduce. Fear and Seduce last a great deal shorter and to add to that they are on the same Diminishing Return. Polymorph DOES last longer but allows the enemy to regen health at more than twice the regular rate.

Mages are all about burst damage or sustained damage over a long period of time on a boss and such. Warlocks (Destruction) are like mages, burst damage. The other two trees are mostly sustained damage more so Affliction. Demonology is more about your pet, but it can keep your damage rate high.

Mages have more AoE Crowd Control ability like Frost Nova, Cone of Cold for slowing your target, Imp. Blizzard, and such.

Mages vs Warlocks in soloing and survivability depends on your build. Frost and Demonology have the most survivability rate.

It all depends on HOW you want to help your group.

Honestly i think an affliction lock has a higher survivability rate than a demo, in demo if ur minion dies then u will most likely meet the same fate, even if u summon 1 in like .5 secs lol insanley fast, by that time you have so much hate built up ur pet won't be able to take over again maybe Sac VW and bounce. Affliction lock if played right u can start a 3 mob pile up with 1/4 of hp left and survive, 6 secs of dots, instant howl of terror drain life the last mob and u should be back to 60-75% if u have enough spelldmg. A warlock is also a much better grinder in outland due to the mobs not really being bunched up like in the pre-BC. Locks have many ways of crowd controlling. You can banish elementals, seduce, enslave demons then release after your grp is done killing the rest, throw in VW for OT, with 10k armor he can take a few hits.

It depends what lvl ur going to be grouping. A warlock can deal as much dmg as a mage or more. A mage has an easier crowd control deal the sheep, a warlock has to be re-seducing taking away some dps. A mage can give arcane intel to priests or any mana user, give food and water to group, port around to make moving much faster to certain instances or porting out. a Warlock can hand out HS, pet buffs like paranoia from felhunter imp stamina buff at lvl 70 i think its like +96 stam if improved imp, a minion basically some extra DPS, SS the priest for a faster recovery incase of a wipe. Thats basically what is is i suppose in the end it really come down to what u enjoy playing.

Edited, Mar 26th 2007 10:55am by igknot

I realy do like ths sound of a lock. I just feel that by not being able to sheep, frost nova (and other aoe) as well as fast damage, I might be missing out. I also dont like the idea of spamming shadowbolt when grouped. Your thaughts please...

The way it sounds the polymorph and frost nova abilities will be really useful to you in your group. If you did choose a warlock, you would not be sacrificing mage-like burst damage if you spec destruction. I've played around with both affliction and destruction specs on my lock and I love both, I can switch between a lock and a mage if I really want. One thing I couldn't stand about my mage, though, is that they are just so damn squishy. Since you aren't soloing or pvping though, I'd suggest you roll mage.

Just to be my simple self here, from your posts you want to do what is best for your GROUP! pick the Mage. I have a 70 'lock, very fun, but when ppl in a group have a choice of taking a Mage or a Warlock, believe me they will pick a Mage every time. And for good reasons, all have been in one form or another answered in the above posts, if you can read between all the "love" of their chars, lol.
Your question involved a "GROUP", the better char for that is the Mage. Just don't come to the Outland and try to outdo me 1 vs 1, I will send you away cryin'. Just kidding, had to throw that in there for my fellow 'Locks.

Pick the Mage my friend, your "GROUP" will be better off.

I think this nails it.

As some one else said, your party is already quite dps heavy, so other options like Paladin and Druid (although you obviously don't want to play them, or they would have been added to the choices) are there. Both a Warlock and Mage can fit into the party setup, its just the tactics of the group will have to change and adapt accordingly. Therefore it comes down to preference. Personally, I would go for a Mage in this situation, just for the CC that they offer. But the fact that you haven't posted the same questions on the Mage Forum would seem to indicate that you're leaning towards locks. If that’s what you want, go for it, it'll work.

1st of all to the post before me, no crowd control in scholo with that given grp? lemme see, Sap the humanoid and shackle undead. As far as stealing aggro from priest its cake for a lock just spam some searing pain (high threat). As far a mage stealing aggro probably get 3 shotted with a low HP pool. Locks are known to have a way bigger HP pool due to lifetap, Also a warlock can drain tank a mob and hold it off for a while too while DPSing. Warlock vs a caster curse of tongues and they will get pwned. A mage counterspells and then they get pummeled.

For a druid, he can be moonkin type (caster) and add ranged damage or change to bear and feral for offtanking and squishy guard. (and let the shaman and rogue concentrate on their dps or dps support jobs) As moonkin, you'd be one of the highest spellcaster support positions (+5% to spell crit or damage/healing I forgot) if not he can also add to the group's total dps through leader of the pack and mark of the wild. (not including his own dps) one more can opener. (fairy fire) and serve as offhealer (though the shaman can also take that role.)

Even better, so long as you're not the last one to die, you can always battle res the shaman or priest to save one long run (although shaman also has an x min rebirth.)

for offtanking, shamans are too weak at 40+ instances to do so. They are regulated to healers/offhealers, dps and squishy guards. Their armor potental is the same as a warrior sans shield. If you're looking for squishy guards or offtanks, they can handle tanking 1 to 2 mobs at most while def spec warriors handle 4-5+. Prot spec paladins and feral druids can handle 4(or 5+ if good player/gear) mobs abet with less ease. a non feral druid or paladin will still have a slight advantage over the shaman for tanking (so long as they have the appropriate gear) and are able to handle 3 or so unspecced.

ps. Bluecorsair don't give bad advice. You focus on one mob at a time. ie rog saps one, use other cc if available, warrior grabs mobs, shaman, warrior, rogue and other bang on the most dangerous mob then bang on the atm lowest life mob and onwards down the line. If anyone breaks from the warrior, sap breaks eariy ect. shaman can try to pick up, or rogue can gourge then kidneyshot the mob so warrior can pick it back up as soon as he gets there. (or in the case of pala or druid they can taunt and pick it back up, hunter can distract shot back to warrior, send his pet or ice the mob if it's not immune.)

The cc available is as follows. Rog has sap (and to a limited extent distract to give 10 extra seconds to delay patrols.) Priest and paladins have shackle undead, if beast or dragonkin a druid can hybernate, if beast or humanoid, mage can sheep, hunter can icicle non ice immune mobs and has an x second cooldown to setting a second trap. Warlocks can seduce humanoid mobs with succy and banish elementals. hunters and warlocks can also use their pets to offtank. beast master(hunter) and demonlogy tanking pets have slightly less life/armor than a fury spec warrior with good gear. ie all blues his level or sometimes better life/armor than a not so well speced warrior)

Strengths of druids and paladins.

They fill whatever role that is missing with the right gear.
ie they can tank or heal (though paladins are weaker in dps potential)
Paladins can't really range dps but druids can(moonkin).
Paladins are better healers under fire than druids or priests.
Druids have hots (heal over time) that can be cast when you know x person will get damaged but not just yet ie before combat, or when there are timed aoes.
druids can remove curses which priests can't and poisons which priests can. (sfk last boss has a curse which controls one of your party members to attack the others. warlock remove curse cannot remove that as he is not in your party for that curse.) Paladins can remove all non beneficial effects on party members. (including curse)
Paladins have their famous bubble making him immune. Usially cast on priest or himself though it has been known to be cast on druid when it's a confirmed wipe (so he can res the priest in the middle of battle so the priest can release and res everyone else once the battle is over.)

Paladins like warlocks have a spell that stops people from running. (curse of recklessness/seal of justice)
if feral, druid can in bear form, charge (immobolize/interrupt spells of that school for 4 seconds with 8 second cooldown.) and bash for 2-3 seconds.
paladins have their hammer of judgement I think for 5 seconds or so.

Feral druids like hunters make good squishy guards because of the charge + taunt combination. Charge immobilize the mob so the other guy can move away and then taunt which gives him = highest current hate. Hunters have distracting shot as I said earlier,concussion shot to slow them, wingclip again to slow, pet and ice. Paladins are similar with hammer and run up to taunt.

Shamans have their high aggro earthshock,(similar to distracting shot) frostshock, earthbind totem, taunting totem (forgot name). However after 40 seconds of combat, shamans and hunters will need roughly 2+ distract/earthsocks + dps to peel them off the priest if they have 0 hate off that mob. Good thing it's only on an 8 second cooldown. Taunting totem at that point is of no more use.

Paladins have a buff that reduces the hate gained by other classes by 30% (though I think it's for dps only and might not work for priest)

lastly balance druids are spellcasters and do allot of damage ranged while besides the priest and can shift and handle other roles as needed. as he/she is besides the priest and not in the midst of combat, he/she can monitor the combat and shift to fit the needed roll at that moment. ie dps, healer, squishy guard.

pps. hunters are best at directing combat as they can hunter's mark the person to die. It's really lovely since it's easy to appy and the dps people will be hard put to ignore a big glowing symbol hanging above a mob. (even if they ignore the chat screen)

Mage can sheep - huge advantage in instances.

Except not all mobs are sheepable.

Locks can banish elementals and demons.

And locks can off-tank w/ vw or felg. You have two healers in that team - seems to me they can figure out how to keep your pet alive while offtanking.

Mages are great for summoning water and food, however. Never overlook that.

Locks can Soul Store and give wipe insurance, but shaman can ankh.

Again, thanks for the responses. The reason i dismissed a druid was because i believed a full out ranged caster was needed, but obvoiusly not. I just hope that my group will be allright with me as a druid.