Mage vs. Lock

[Destron 2]

I'm new to the Vanilla realms, my first gut for my first class to play was a Lock. But I've been thinking about playing a Mage lately, the Soul Shard stuff on locks doesn't appeal to me much. Ports on Mages seems nice. Free Mount on Lock seems nice, but not long-term. 

 

I'm wondering if anyone here could provide some contrast on the different gameplay styles for the two classes in the PvP realm. I know Warriors and Mages are probably the two most played classes, which doesn't bother me a ton. 

 

 

[Destron 2]

Which class has more depth on the PvP scene?

[Av_vA 3044]

Lock "stronger", but Mage more funny and mobile, but anyway it's depends on your playstyle

[Leaft 0]

Almost impossible

 

Lock very strong. Antі class for mage.

 

 

Лока почти не возможно победить магом ибо он антиклас всем кастерам кроме друида рестора.

Edited November 25, 2016 by Leaft

[Monroex 1]

Depth => Mage

 

Strong 1v1 => Lock

[cowking 5]

mage so you can blink out of the 70% rogue population

[Lootolf 0]

Mage plays a lot more versatile and mobile, especially with Frost it revolves around kiting and scoring those sweet timed crits. Grab engineering and you are in for a treat.

 

Warlock is a lot more straightforward and arguably stronger in most 1v1 as his dots hit hard and a constant cast of fears, harrasment via succubus/fel hunter, makes him a general pain in the попа. Not really a playstile with depth, atleast in my opinion.

 

Both strong in PvP, just pick according to your flavour.

[Destron 2]

Thank you for the responses. 

[Xom 8]

Tough battle if you're the Mage. Focus on putting up Flame Ward/Dampen Magic up ASAP and trying to use your Counterspell for Shadow only. Failing this, try to Blink behind while they cast Shadowbolt. You can use Sheep/Fireblast combo to interrupt casts as well without healing them and disorienting them. Main thing is to keep casting since the longer the battle lasts the more likely they'll win. If a Warlock gets a drop on a Mage, fully DoT, a Fear off and free casting? usually spells the demise of the Mage - or really almost any class.

 

Mages shine vs Melee, while Warlocks have many more anti-caster abilities and self-healing methods making them able to soak up damage Mages aren't able to, so Mages have to try to shut the locks from their DoTs while casting as much damage as possible. Killing the Succubus is usually worth it, while if a Warlock really knows how to use their Felhunter the Mage might have some pretty rough going. I see it as being a slightly lopsided battle to begin with, but if the Warlock really knows their фекал then the Mage's best bet is to kill the Warlock and have the DoTs almost kill them if not actually finish them off. It's pretty useful to fakecast your non-dominant spell school to draw out the Spell Lock and allow yourself to freecast your preferred school. Actually if you already have used your Counterspell and you get a Clearcasting proc it can be really useful to try an Arcane Missiles cast, since if you get spell locked it doesn't matter much since you fall back on your better spells anyway - and if they don't stop that full set of Arcane Missiles that's a decent chunk of mana-free damage you just did.

[Muhsogyny 2]

For solo pvp, mages and warlocks have different strengths and weaknesses. A geared soul link warlock is stronger against more classes with no real counter. A good frost mage is really good against some classes but has counters such as priests and soul link/felhunter warlocks.

 

For group pvp, warlocks are great for fear and curse of tongues, but frost mages are one of the best group pvp classes, which is why you always see premades (especially on alliance) running at least 3. A good frost mage is always valuable in group pvp, and when supported by a good holy paladin become pretty retarded, especially if you are a gnome mage with efficient use of escape artist.