Priest or Mage!? Help me decide

[warsawcrew]

Ok a bit of backstory. I've been playing WoW since closed beta. I got a shaman to 60 at retail launch, took a few months break. Came back and got a warlock to 60.

Loved both classes for very different reasons. As a shaman it was great to pull out a heal in a pinch and save the group, also getting my face beat in and still being able healing my self was nice.

The warlock was the king of soloing, allowing for a thousand ways to destory any mob. I could output some very serious DPS both in PVP and PVE. Also damn near impossible to kill me.

I have taken a third break and am now comming back again (thanks a lot Blizzard). I've narrowed my choices for new class down to Priest, Mage or Druid.

I've gotten all three classes to at least 30 at one point or another. All were fun. But I just can not decide. So I was wondering if maybe you guys could possibly throw out some pros and cons of each to help me. (or if people have played both classes to 60, which they liked better and why) I'm leaning a bit towards the mage, but then the very next minute I think priest! argg!

[Herald of Doom]

IMHO, the biggest advantage to being a mage is the teleports and portals. I get everywhere about 10 minutes faster than everyone else,no matter where I am (unless someone has a stone set on our location :p ). And the money you spend on runes of portal is easily made up for with what you save on drinks. But then again,I've never seriously played a druid, I only know priests :)

HoD

[UndeadRogue]

I've played both a mage and a rogue to 60,
experimented with most other classes and currently getting a hunter to 60.

Each class is fun in it's own way in certain circumstances, but the reason I retired my mage is end-game.

Yes, a mage does great damage, but I so hated it that when I was still making water and food for the better part of the raidgroup (not enough mages) the MT would already start pulling mobs and everyone started playing... besides the ones trading me for water / food and whispering me for buffs.

After a while I felt my contribution was more as a water / food and buff machine (don't forget portals either) then anything else... raiding is what killed the fun I had with my mage when lvl'ing.

Don't forget the continuous whispers you get from ppl asking for food or water, not only in a capital, but everywhere (on a high-populated server)...

Besides that... a mage is huge fun to play, aswell lvl'ing as when you actually get to "play" in MC, BWL or others.

When I see my wife play her priest and druid, I think I wouldn't start a mage again, but instead try out a priest.

[bhroam]

I've only played my druid to 60... so I don't really know what I'm talking about... but if you played warlock to 60, why play a mage? Aren't they similiar enough that you already know whats going on? Warlocks don't do the huge DD that mages do (but they do other WAY cool stuff)....

I really like my druid. You basically get a taste of all the different classes, but aren't really tied to just one. You can play whatever is needed at the time. If you ever see a LFG request LF1M tank or healer, you know they've got a druid in the party =]

I personally think the leveling process of a druid is more fun than endgame. In endgame you'll mostly be healing. Most endgame guilds take some feral druids (and they're fricken amazing feral druids at that).... but for the most part you'll be healing.

Of course you get the chance to save the day from time to time... I've used all 3 forms in 1 fight in order to save us from a wipe (Started cat, switched to bear to save a squishy... when the healer died, switch to caster form to take over).

Of course if you plan to play your next character in endgame... you might go for the priest. As a druid you'll mostly be healing anyways. You've already played a support class before so you know what it's gonna be like (Shammys and druids are similiar in some ways like that).

So I say, go a priest.

Don't forget the added perks of playing a priest... when you find some chinese gold farmer botting, you can have huge amounts of fun mind contolling them =]

[Thedeadboy]

I played all of them ( not till 60 ).

Mages get boring quik IMO, you basicly need 3 buttons for every fight.
The portal and conjured food is a bonus but it doesn't make it more fun.

About warlocks I can't say much.

Druids on the other hand are very fun to play. They absolutly own in PvE, although it can be hard in PvP.
They got a lot of diffrent spells and abilities they can do, I can go kill an enemie with only spells, or use some spells switch to a bear or just go bear and kill them.
Excellent for soloing and for grouping, but if healing ain't your stuff and you preffer PvP and damage above all else pick a warlock or mage.

[rgirty]

My main is a 52 shadow priest.

My wife's char is a lvl 50 mage.

I play both char's pretty reguarly so i'll give you my opinon.

Solo Grinding, priest is greater than the mage I can kill mobs 3 levels above me and chain pull without ever stopping for drinks.

Grouping or in instances the mage is much more fun to play. The mage gets to crowd control, damage control conjure food/drinks for party members port the group if needed. The mage also gets to get some kill shots in on the mobs, do a considerable amount of damage and learn/enjoy the instance.

When playing the priest, I have to watch the fort buff and stare at 5 health bars *more if there are pets* and make sure everyone stays healthy. If i slip or lag or someone over aggro's and dies i typically get blamed. I rarely get to actually see/enjoy/learn any of the instance however just stare at the health bars and follow along.

That being said, I like the priest better because i like to heal but the mage is much much much more fun. You rarely get /sigh if you are frost or fire mage but when you tell someone you are shadow spec you often get /sigh.

[Baboon]

Grouping or in instances the mage is much more fun to play. The mage gets to crowd control, damage control conjure food/drinks for party members port the group if needed. The mage also gets to get some kill shots in on the mobs, do a considerable amount of damage and learn/enjoy the instance.




That's funny, you mention giving drink to a party as an advantage. That's the key part if you decide what you want to be. Usually healers like to support the party, want everyone to be buffed up etc. I know a lot of mages who absolutely hate everything about buffing, making drinks.

So, my point is if you think you want to make your party better, you are in fact a healer type of guy, and if you shiver at the thought, you are not a healer type and will hate those parts about the mage. So you might even want to choose something else then mage. A dps warrior muahahahaha :)

[skazz]

My take: I've played priest and druid to 60, and never even tried the mage :D

The priest is fun to level as shadow, fun to PvP with as shadow. If you want to get further in endgame, expect to spec holy and heal fulltime. I enjoy healing, so my priest has been holy for ages now. However, I only ever get that priest out when the raid group has formed and we are short on priests, or to help out friends. Grinding or solo questing with a holy priest is not something I'd ever want to attempt (although it's probably easier since 1.10 patch - not bothered trying to be honest).

The druid is a wonderful character to level. You get to be rogue/warrior/healer whenever you want and switch constantly between roles as needed. 5 man instances are made for feral druids - you are constantly switching roles and filling in all the gaps. Druids are also great at grinding for the same reasons - high DPS as cat, with no downtime due to selfheals, plus you can stealth run instances like a rogue if you want. Druid gatherers are amazing, since you can stealth round annoying and time-consuming mobs, you have hibernate and sooth animal to prevent having to fight and waste time, and you can pick plants while in travel form for fast getaway.

In endgame, druids are generally healers. I've had the odd run where there were enough healers so I could go cat/bear for the entire run, but generally it's limited to going feral on trash mobs, and for the serious fights you are going to be healing. However, I find the combination of raiding as healer and 5-10 man stuff as feral to be satisfying so far.

One point to compare to shaman: It's very possible to build a druid specced something like 30/21 feral/resto and to main heal raids while really being able to deliver good dps as a feral. I get the impression that most shamans are forced to go 31+ in resto to heal raids, and wanted to point out that druids are not quite the same.

Mages, in comparison, feel like much less fun to level. All that stopping and drinking puts me off even trying them. By endgame, however, the mage becomes pretty much indispensible. I'll leave the exact mechanics of mage play to those who know the class.

[Namer18]

I play a 60 mage as my main and have ample experience end game raiding on a priest, rogue, and hunter as well. Leveling I would say mage was by far the most annoying and slowest. For end game raiding for me it depends on the instance. I find the hunter fun for almost all of the end game raids, although minus tranq shotting it does not differ a ton. My hunter is also the only character where I feel fine just afking in the middle of non-boss fights. I like the priest a lot once I know the instance from another class, but minus mind controlling in nax everyone's health bars look similar no matter where you go. Rogue I like for AQ20 and ZG, not as much for BWL and MC (no chance to bring the rogue to naxx yet.) In the 20 mans its ana ctive encounter while in the 40 mans its msotly run in dps, run out, run in dps, repeat. I also find that rogues tend to be much harder to get into an end game raid most of the time. I love playing my mage in BWL, MC, and Naxx; and I absolutely hate running zg with my mage. I find in the 40 mans there is a good variety for mages to do in the fights decurse, dps, crowd control, detect magic, buff, aoe, make water :(. Also particularly in BWL and AQ20 mobs start to have variable resists so you have to pay attention to what your using for your dps. The reason I hate ZG is that often people try to bring only one mage and I often find I'm getting requests for buffs, while sheeping something, and between sheeps I'm trading water out. Actually overall as we move through instances faster I spend more time making water and buffing and less time in combat. Anyway I would say if you want a more active and varied role try a mage, if you want a more mellow role and like being support play a priest, and if you want to pvp play a shadow priest.

[Loriel]

I wouldn't really categorize playing a priest in a raid as a mellow role.. Very few classes have the built-in option to wipe the raid if you go afk for as little as 5 critical seconds. In some encounters you really have to be on the ball and pay attention all the time. A Mage feels less important and not as stressful by comparison, even though it's a lot of fun to play - sometimes more so than a Priest. AOE'ing mobs in particular is a blast and a half - I love seeing all those yellow numbers light up my screen :)

FWIW, I have a 60 Priest and a 60 Mage - even though only the Priest has entered the raiding scene. One distinct difference between them is that the endgame itemization for Priest primarily boosts their core role, which is healing - making them no better for soloing and PvP. Mage endgame equipment, OTOH, is all about +crit, +hit and especially +dmg - which is great for farming mobs solo. So it's a tradeoff - dps classes can wear the same outfit to work (raid) and at home (solo), but they are in some sense less involving to play in endgame encounters. Priests are less potent soloers, but they are key to endgame raiding.

Suggestions? Eh, maybe do like me and play both? Seriously, I have a hard time picking one, as they are my two favorite classes in WoW and they both have their major selling points. I can't see myself dropping one class in favor of the other, which is why I am working to get to a level where I can raid with (and raid equip) both.

[bhroam]

Loriel made one (of many) very good point in his post... did you want to PvP with this new toon? If so, then you will wanna go mage. Priests kinda have to choose between maximizing PvP (Shadow) or raiding (Holy). Mages can do both well.

Oh and shadow priests can indeed do well in PvP. My wife (hunter) and my (druid) were both taken out by a single shadow priest yesterday.... if they get the jump on you, you're hosed.

Druids way suffer from the Loriel's point about priest itemization. All of our teir X raid sets are caster sets. It isn't until you hit AQ40 and Naxx that you really start seeing some real hybrid items which will make any feral druid drool a river.

[Wintrow]

I'd suggest a wild break and go for a warrior.
Learn to tank starting in the lower instances, Sunder-spam, Sword 'n board. It's a rush trying to gather as much 'attention' as you can knowing that, as long as they are all hitting YOU and you're Shield-blocking as often as you can, you're doing are kickass-job. And if you then still die because the healer(s) couldn't keep up then you know it was because you were against impossible odds.

Also, at first when doing Wailing Caverns I absolutely hated those Druids of the Fang that seemed to sleep a random party-member. But then I learned how to save my Shield Bash for exactly THAT spell and I now look forward to tanking that instance again.

Disclaimer: I know you don't NEED to learn how to tank at those levels, but I just love it so much... The idea of really toughening yourself up and saying "sure, hit me, but you're gonna break your arm trying to hurt me".

I once got a comment from a Druid who was healer in RFC. She said she loved healing me instead of the aggro-pulling hunter because my health always slid down so nice and slow. Instead of dropping like a brick.

[Loriel]

Yes indeed, it goes deeper than just endgame itemization - talent spec also plays a big part in this. As you can't heal a mob to death, all healing classes suffer from the disparity between what spec they need to be effective in PvP or solo and the spec they need to go raiding. The main healing classes -- Druid and Priest -- are especially exposed to this problem, as they would like to stay Feral/Shadow for solo/PvP but their guilds need them to go Resto/Holy for raiding.

OTOH, dps classes like Rogue and Mage have the luxury of using the same spec both solo and when raiding. Mages usually choose to respec Frost for MC and BWL, but that's about it - and it's nowhere near the respec juggling that Priests face every day.

The endgame itemization then adds on top of this and reinforces these roles, providing more +dmg for Mages and more +healing for Priests. I'm not complaining or anything, as this is the way the game is designed and I enjoy both classes equally (albeit in different ways). I just think it is a factor to keep in mind when choosing which class to play.

One possible option, if you have the time and the inclination for it, is to roll a Disc/Holy Priest which will be spec'ed and geared as a main healer, and a separate Shadow Priest on a PvP server. The former can rock as raid healer, the latter will kick serious butt in PvP. However, if you do want to PvP you should take note that the 1.10 patch introduced some serious buffs to the dps of Holy Priests, and even though they are inferior to a Shadow Priest in 1-on-1 situations, they rock as healers/backup dps in group PvP.

One final comment on the difference between these classes is that they have a very distinct, yet different, feel. For lack of a better word, I feel a lot more powerful when I venture into the unknown with my Mage, as I know for sure I can kill just about anything that might pop up around the next corner. On my Disc/Holy Priest I certainly feel safe, as there is very little in the game (outside instances) that can kill me - but I certainly don't feel as potent as my little Gnome Mage.

At the end of the day it has a lot to do with psychology, and it is a personal decision as to which role you prefer. Personally, I think Mage is a superior solo character but the Priest is more rewarding in instances and particularly when raiding - hence I play both.

Good luck :)