Priest / Warlock / Mage - PvP Experience?

[Faeroon]

Quick and nasty poll ahead:

Mage , Priest or Warlock!!


I've rolled all three classes on Krag'jin (EU PVP)
and I can't f*cking decide which one to take!
All chars are Undead (for the nice WotF bonus , yai! ^_^)
and lvl22. Leveled them side by side to see which is better,
but until now I haven't decided.

Mage:
Jump, blink , nuke, blink, run, flame... cute and a
bit stressful, but worth it in the end.
<<BG experience: died alot, Rogues eat me for breakfast
(especially those with Crusader weapons at lvl19...damn twinks)
but had enormous fun freezing Warriors to the ground and
sheeping hunters.

Priest:
Haven't used Mind Flay in PvP yet, due to me now being
lvl20+ and I won't enter WSG again until Lvl29... f*cking
hate those twinks. Shield is great but not much to say
damagewise... not much on the instantcast side either.
<<BG experience: loved to shield and heal, didn't kill
so much, just jumped around shielded, desperately trying
not to die. From time to time threw Mind Blast or Smite ^_^
AoE Fear is great - RUN YOU FOOLS, RUN!

Warlock:
Great Character. Love the Succubus and the VW. Hate Soulshards
(but who doesn't *G*) - love to dot, love to fear, like to
throw shadowbolts (they crit awfully often... nice :-))
<<BG experience: First character on Krag, leveled him to
lvl20 without thinking about checking WSG... so no PVP experience
with this character.

What about the WL? Does he die as easily as the mage (yeah, well,
I know... you won't die as much if you have skill :-P Gtfo...)?
I bet he does... but the Succubus and Seduce + Fear should help,
right? Or is Seduce worthless in mass pvp?


I want to finally get over this whole "I can't decide - have to
level them ALL!" thing. If you have any insight to share: plz do!




You are lvlx Priest and think that he melts faces in PVP, regardless
of how many people bash you in the face: post or vote!

You have a lvlx Mage who just rocks and blasts everyone to smithereens,
while he blinks, polys and many other fun things: post or vote!

You put fear into the heart of honest players, shadowbolt them to death
while they get their heads riped off by the Infernal: post or vote!




If you hate this threat, hate the whole idea of "which char rocks more"
or "tell me which char to play", feel free to leave.



Thanks in advance ;-)

[Richakin]

same boat as you.

got a 60 priest, disc/holy..about to spec shadow though.

than 42 lock, 25 rogue 25 mage....cant decide which to lvl up to massacre the BG's

[Wingcell]

Hehe - well done mate :P Got ourselves into quiet a stupid situation here....

What about the priest? Can holy priests dish out dam like their
shadow counterparts?
The 42 lock - how does he hold up against other chars in BG?



Not many hints / tips 'til now... hope some more people'll drop in soon :undecided:

[Gyoza]

54 Undead Shadow Priest.

It really depends on if someone gets the jump on me or not, but I can hold my own vs any toon of any level tier .5 and under (or the pvp equivalent) and usually still win 75% of the time.

Only other shadow priests really give me any trouble and once I hit 60... wow.

[Metatron]

With my 60 Lock I tend to try and keep myself in the big background as most of big damage spells have a longer casting time than I would like. For smaller bg's I like succy so I can crowd control people with fear and charm and then nuke down a 3rd. Nothing nicer than having 3 corpses at your feet and one successfully defended base.

However in the big 40 man bg place I take out Fel Puppy and hide behind a load of melee classes spamming shadow bolts at anything that gets too close and just let the MD bonus from the Fel Puppy deal with casters. Heck. I'm a lazy pvp'er in the big one and it shows. The little bg's are where I like to play :)

My priest is 39 and Shadow specced and addicted to wsg. I can waste people so fast him it's kind of silly. Think I have about +65 shadow damage / spell damage combined on him as well. Infact. I can waste people so fast, it can be almost boring... Only downside to the priest is he can't lifetap. And shadow is terribly mana ineffcient. But he can play a key role by being able to heal when neccessary. Grab yourself a mage and run to the flag room together and you cannot be stopped! Shield Mage, Frost Nova, poly biggest threat, mage grabs flag and blinks, reshield, psychic scream run! Run like the wind and keep them renews and shields up! And she just blinkie blinks all the way home!

[smartshot]

56-57 shadowpriest,
Love it, can take almost anything one on one even if they get the jump on me and I'm talking level 60's. One on 60 I dish out all types of damage killing, hunters, warriors, and rouges. Have alittle trouble with locks, and mages... but that's due to no frost protection, and very little shadow protection...

[Underling]

56-57 shadowpriest,
Love it, can take almost anything one on one even if they get the jump on me and I'm talking level 60's. One on 60 I dish out all types of damage killing, hunters, warriors, and rouges. Have alittle trouble with locks, and mages... but that's due to no frost protection, and very little shadow protection...

Back in my days of warlocking, I would pwn any priest of that lvl bracket, shadow or not. Maybe I never ran into you? :shocked:

[alysenne]

Out of the three, mage is easily the weakest. They are total glass cannons...maybe even more fragile than glass.

It's hard to directly compare warlocks because there are vastly different builds that can totally change gameplay. An affliction build, SL build and destruction build all play really differently.

Just because of their versatility, I'd pick warlock over the others. If you get bored with one build, respec and suddenly it's like playing a whole new character.

[Faeroon]

Thx for all the replies so far :D
Judging from the poll I'd say there's an obvious
winner: Warlock!

And that's just the class I've played up until now ^^
I decided that if could tank lvl30 mobs while being
lvl25.. wow... I tried the exact same thing with my
mage, god, did she get wasted!

Up until now I had A LOT of fun in BG's and only 5mins
ago I killed a lvl34 warrior and a lvl33 mage (she ran
into me two times... bad luck ^^) and I just got to
lvl30. Amazing how easy the lock cripples chars with
dots, leaves them running around in fear and enjoying
the occasional shadowbolt / shadowburn from behind.

I guess I could still go on playing my priest (now
lvl29), due to the fact that I'm addicted to Fear!
I can't stand sheeping - it looks cute but the healing
going on in between..... If frostnova's not working and
I just want to gain some distance, what good is sheeping
when the player is down to ~50% health. I don't enjoy
running away oom and giving him some free time regenerating.
But that might be just me - I know many good mage players
and see dozens of Seargents and Senior Seargents or whatever
running around.

Priest is reasonably good fun but is it not a bit repetetive,
just spamming MF and watching him beat himself senseless on
my shield? I mean: gathering honour is working like a breeze
with him! Just spread SW:P and then start to pick out, who you
like to go down next. But, at the end of the day, you're still
using only 3 or 4 spells over and over again... dunno, maybe
it's just my feeling again. With a lock you have your standart
casting order too, but I feel so much more dynamic.

So... mage is out (I eat those everytime I stumble upon one...
might be just bad players, might be luck or I am good with my lock,
who knows) but priest could be a worthwhile alternative. Sometimes
I have some kind of "social day" where I just want to stay in the
background and look after my folks.

Maybe it'll be Warlock AND Priest after all.



Any more comments? Opinions? I'm still going to listen eagerly ;)

[alysenne]

Priests are a fine choice. Of course, shadow priests are well known for their pvp ability. But I do agree with you that warlocks are fun...they have a much bigger 'bag of tricks'.

But hey, remember a priest is supposedly a healer too. You don't have to be shadow. Healing in BG's can be a total pain sometimes, but it can be really, really effective. Oh, healing at lower levels can be kinda frustrating though, unless you're heavily twinked. I used to go OOM so quickly and didn't feel that effective as a healer.

[alysenne]

One more thought.

The equipment for a warlock is the same for PvP and PvE. It's all about the stamina/health.

For priests, PvE is all about spirit and intelligence to a much less degree. But in PvP, spirit doesn't help at all.

[Mallstrop]

I'm going to go against all the things that have been said so far and suggest the mage. I've not got a 60 mage (yet) but I've got a lock and priest.

Warlock: Fear kiting might sound good in theory, but as soon as you meet any one with even a little PVP knowledge they're going to get around it and take you appart quite quickly. The only other way to do it is to Dot Up as many people as you can with instant dots and try and stay alive long enough for them to do their jobs.

Priests: At the end of the day you're a healer. You're not going to be allowed to do damage in a raid unless you've been with the group for a long time, you may be thinking that has nothing to do with PVP, but every one has raid gear these days, you'll be handicapped if you turn up in pre raid gear.

Mage: It's all about taking control of the fight, then Nuking them down before they can do damage. Sheep - Pyro blast and then run circles around them until they're dead. You have all the tools you need to control the fight, Blink, Frost nova, Cone of Cold, Counterspell, Iceblock (tallent), Polymorph. You have some Big hitting spells to start fights, Fire ball can do a ton of damage, but the main strenghts I find from my mage are the instant casts

[Faeroon]

And there's always this thing lurking in the background:

"You have to heal later on! Haha... don't think you can
let this Chalice pass from you!"

I'm not wild about being pushed into a corner and told
what to do. I've talked to many 60 priests and not ONE
of them was specced shadow - they all respecced to Holy,
due to the fact that if you don't want to pvp ALL the time,
you have to respecc! There's virtually no guild that will
take you in shadow-specced. So there goes you chance to
get into the big instances like BWL, MC or AQ40. :undecided:

I rather dot from behind, spam shadowbolt and pass
health- and soulstones around...

I guess that's the endgame content I'm looking forward
to. Can't get that with a priest - I played healer in
some smaller instances and even with the help of ui heal
addons, where you can heal with STRG/Alt/Shift + mouseclicks,
it's hell! If you have a random group full of people you
don't know what to do and don't care a flying f*ck what you
tell them: :duh: wack-a-mole and endure the "GOD!!HEAL! N00b-PRIEST!!"
when playerX decides to jump into the middle of a mob-pool
and suddenly realizes that I'm not managing to heal him
quickly enough :wink:

Priests are fun but it's a hard life! :cool:

[Faeroon]

Quick repost:

@alysenne:

Yep, Spirit Tap is really usefull in pve but it procs only if
a) you've attacked first
and b) if you land the killing blow.
For me it didn't proc enough to be noticeable. So you're absolutely
right. Priests have to have swappable gear...


@Mallstrop:

I don't know if I have the right to pass judgment on mages... but
as far as I'm concerned, they are glass cannons and of the worst
sort! In bg I got ganked first (well...background pyroblast anyone? :wink:),
in PVE I had no chance against mobs +2-3lvs above me, where my 'lock
laughed, dotted , send the vw and burst damaged him to death with shadowburn.

I've played a mage up until lvl26 and so far I was a bit unimpressed.
Of course: there are amazing players out there, I played against some
really good ones in BG (out-geared me too... ) and its in a party that
they really shine. But 1on1... I have to say that I found them to be
a little squishy. Maybe I haven't met those people with a bit "pvp knowledge",
but I'd say, killing a +4lvl mage in the wetlands 3 times is rather ok...
and with the rank of "Sergeant" or "Master Sergeant" he should have had
enough pvp knowledge.

Just my 2c - maybe it's all about luck with me :wink:

[TheBlackestDrake]

Shadow priests are good in PVP. You can stand your own against anything except a good warlock, who will own you (Its not about the damage, they do similar to you. It's about the felhound eating your backside, your mana, and your hopes of winning). Mages are a traipse (Silence, lots of damage, they just shatter).

Warlocks are amazing. Multiple fears, Felhounds (can solo mages), etc. I've seen my friend with them, and its all good times.

Mages are a little fragile, but good characters overall. The warlock seems better (comperable damage in the destruction tree, plus pets, plus great buffs, plus voidwalker shield).

If you really want one to stick to through 60 I say Warlock (as a shadow priest). Shadow Priests take more flack from their party, most of whom think priests should heal, and healing is easy.

[Wingcell]

Warlock... definitely... ^^ Go go go Fear!

[Faeroon]

The decision to play the 'lock has been made permanent. ;-)
Tested my mage and priest again this weekend..god... if you've
played another class long enough, there's such a gap between
the gamestyles, I couldn't change even if I'd wanted too.

Right now I love my Wl long time :wink:
He's at lvl 35, going for 40 (mount! finally) and he's eating
alliance and mobs as if there's no tomorrow. Yesterday evening I
killed rougly 40 alliance in Stranglethorn (ok.. got owned like
15598 times by some lvl60 gankers but that's just Stranglethorn, right?)
and I had so much fun killing the NE hunter for the 13th time... yep...
he came coming, 2 lvls above me... don't know if he was drunk or just
a bad player but he didn't stand a chance.
Then there was the paladin, 2 lvls below me, owning my ass.
And the mage - I hate Gnomes and especially Gnome mages. *grml* Blink
blink blink, nuke, sheep, iceblock... oh the humanity!!!

Sooo - right now it's all about maximizing potential for me.
Currently I still play with VW only, I have no clue how to use
Succi vs mobs effectively and Felhunter... that beast still eludes me.

What about some strategies and hints regarding those two?

Right now my build's looking like this: 11/0/13 (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IV0fcZZxxMz)

At 40 I'm thinking about switching to Demonology, as hinted by
kcma in this thread here (http://forums.worldofwar.net/showthread.php?t=372235).

Hopefully there'll be some shadowbolt crit-moments. Friend of mine
critted 790dam yesterday, without any +dam gear. I was mildly impressed ^^


So... I just keep on posting in this thread, better than started a new one
and cluttering the board more and more.


THanks for all the help so far, keep it coming please :)

[Narak]

Well it seems that you have made your mind up but I will add the following:

60 UD Mage; 60 gnome warlock (PvP'ed with both up to rank 9)

The Warlock: Superb PvP class, whether BG's or 1v1, 1v2 or whatever. Total ownage against most classes once deathcoil got buffed. Being an alli lock I had problems against UD but very rarely lost any fights despite WoTF. However, it got a bit too easy and frankly it got boring. The only thing that made it really interesting was when DC was on cooldown. I was even specced as SM/Ruin which left me without the stamina buff, I had 3 MC epics and a few ZG blues and only about +320 shadow damage but it was still relatively easy against full tier 2 players. What summed it up was watching another lock in our guild duelling a warrior, he never even moved from the one spot throughout the duel and still walked away with 50% hp as an SL lock with fel hunter.

The Mage: I rolled this after getting bored with my warlock, ground up to 60 in 8ish days /played and have PvP'ed with him ever since. Yes, we are a glass cannon but, for me, thats all part of the fun. I find that mages need to get that timing spot on, be a split-second late with a cast and it can be the difference between a victory or a loss. I have so much fun with my mage, I know I'm not going to win every fight (in fact the way I'm playing atm I lose just about every fight) but when I get it right I just can't stop smiling. It can be frustrating especially when tired and a silly mistake costs you a trip to the gy but the good times more than make up for it.

In conclusion: If you want an easy class to own with in PvP, pick a warlock, if you want a challenge in PvP, pick a mage. If you want to melt faces, pick a shadow priest.

[Faeroon]

@Narak:

Yep, that's exactly it - had the same feeling while lvl'ing up
the three chars side by side:

Mage can be a lot of fun, especially when you get it right;
freeze, blink, shoot, blast, whatever, nearly endless resort
of spells to cast. Had a blast (pun intended :P), but in the
end I started to hate running from gy back to my corpse, everytime
I came upon a lvl3-4+ mob or equally lvl'ed player...

But once you get used to having LifeTap, you just don't want to
loose the flow - at least for me. I like to run around at 70% health
all the time, cast, tap, heal with bandages while enemies flee -
with my mage I had quite a bit oom-time, just sitting around eating
and drinking. Maybe I'm a lousy mage player *shrugs*


Priest is awesome! I have roughly 500 kills with my priest and he's
just lvl30'ish! Shield, MB, MF... God... I love it - but again: the
look into the immediate future tells me that I'm going to end up
speccing for Holy... nah...
I mean: I love PVP, but I love a good instance run from time to time, too.
And I can't stand the thought of having to heal / decurse all the time (
especially with the UI changes coming up, manually decursing can be a
pain in the ass :P ).

[Dark Knight]

A well played warlock in 1vs1 isn't even funny. >:-)

[rkofthering]

Ive played a mage 2 49, doing BG fro every lvl range. and I can say a few things.
-whoever said mages are glass cannons is right. they do have so little health and die easily, but if ur careful in BG, and u stay in ur grp, u can get first every time. every BG ive done in the past 3 weeks i have come 4th or better, cuz mages get all the KB's. I say that i do hat warlocks and shadow preists mor than a litle. silence+fear is the gaysauce :(. But i can also out DPS both of them by far. in under 2 seconds w/ my spec(21 arc, rest in fire) i can do 1k plus damage, and like 1.5k if i crit. I take out every class xcept 4 warlocks and preists, but w/ the right spec, both are anti-casters. Huntesr i could not take until i got PoM pyroblast (around 41 w/ my spec, but then i take them out when im bored. but mainly if u stay w/ ur group in AB or WSG, as a mage, i dont think theres a better class. But if i had 2 xhoose another one of the choices, shadow priest would be it

[Faeroon]

I could just open another thread but I guess the board is stuffed
to the brim already, so I add a wl-specific question here:

Right now I've rolled a new Orc WL (couldn't take another look at
my UD for my mother's sake... I got soooo bored by his looks -.-)
and I'm wondering about the endgame spec:

KCMA told us in his thread here
that one should best use affliction up till 40 and then respec demonology,
either putting the last point in SL or in MD/Ruin.

I would just like to know what you think about that - I always read that SL
Locks are deadly in PVP and can outlast almost anyone. Succ does the damage,
I suppose? What about SB, dot's? How does one play the character at this stage.

Right now I'm throwing 3 dot's and then wand/sb/shadowburn the mob to death.
How does one play the warlock with SL?

What about this spec (of a good friend of mine): [url=http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=AiMbhRZbZxx0tr0tt]17/2/32 (http://forums.worldofwar.net/showthread.php?t=372235)
He swears that there's nothing better than this , that he crits madly and
does not want to rely to heavily on his pet; "If you loose your pet, you're
f*cked!"



So... what do you think? :)


PS: Oh I love my lock ^^