Mage, Warlock or Hunter?

[Umlautsam]

Right.. well... basically, i'm getting back into WOW when I finsih my GCSEs, and i've played it before, but this time i'm playing through with a bunch of friends, and we are gonna rot our brains over the summer holidays! :grin:

Well, there are going to be 4 of us, and they have all played WOW to 70 before, and have decided on their classes:

Enhancement Shammy (DPS and Heal)
Balance Druid (Moonkin and Heal)
Tanking/Damage Pally


Now, I've played WOW to the 50's or so before, with a dwarf rogue, but this time I'm really going to try and get to 70 and play seriously! But I just can't choose what class to be! I'm most likely going to be the ranged DPS in the group and so i've decided on either a gnome mage, a gnome warlock or a hunter. But other than that I don't have a clue..!

Which is best?
What are the different strengths and weaknesses of each class?
What proffesions for my toon (cos i get first pick on that! lol)?
And any other thoughts or suggestions?

Cheers in advance - I know this forum is awesome, so i'm sure my questions will all be answered! :thumbsup:

[elsegundo]

there is no best really. there's just what fits you best, or what you will have the most fun with. i would pick the warlock because i find it the funnest of the three you've picked. i've played all three and that's my preference.

as for profession, pick a gathering profession and then something that will benefit your team. you will probably be good with tailoring if you're sticking to a mage or warlock, since in the end, you'll want the BoP items you can make, which will give you a good start at the end game. pair this up with enchanting and you should be ok.

if you do pick the hunter, know that a leatherworking profession can give good gear to both your shammy friend and your druid friend. but in the end game, you'll get specific recipes you can use best, and they will have to either make their own or get equivalent gear through rep, quests, and instances. but gear isnt all that you can make, as drums, armor kits, and even riding crop awesome to have. if you match leatherworking with skinning, you'll most likely make enough money to survive until you get your flyer.

another thing to do would be to just ignore the above, and let your friends do it, and take mining with either jewelcrafting or engineering. with engineering you'll make a lot of things that's only useful for you, but there are some little things here and there that are useful for everyone else. though i dont think anyone will use ez throw dynamites. but making mote extracters and the engineering flying mount will make your mote farming days better. with jewelcrafting you can cut gems in end game. that's always necessary when you're continually getting new gear. you said you guys are serious about getting to the end right? well this is it i guess. haha.

then there's herbs and alchemy, which will benefit everyone in the group.
and there's BS... but i would leave BS to the pally if he so chooses to do it.

there are many combinations, but you'll find that if you have a gathering profession, you'll be able to support your crafting profession nicely.

[Umlautsam]

Thanks for all the advice!

Yeah, I was most likely going to choose warlock or mage... its just a question of whether i want really high DPS or DoTs and a pet..!

I still can't decided between mining and engineering or tailoring and enhcanting... i'd probably be a gnome eitehr way, so they get an engineering benefit, but the BoP cloth items sound pretty cool.. is that the sunfire set i've heard about?

[Zendarin]

Mage will give you high DPS, great AOE dps, the ability to create drinks for yourself, the shaman, and the druid. If you do go mage I suggest Tailoring (you can actually keep yourself better geared than what you can get from quests/world drops) and then take mining and sell the ore to provide yourself some nice cash flow.

Would be a very good fit for that group.

[elsegundo]

Thanks for all the advice!

Yeah, I was most likely going to choose warlock or mage... its just a question of whether i want really high DPS or DoTs and a pet..!

I still can't decided between mining and engineering or tailoring and enhcanting... i'd probably be a gnome eitehr way, so they get an engineering benefit, but the BoP cloth items sound pretty cool.. is that the sunfire set i've heard about?

spellfire set, i think, it enhances your fire damage yes.

frozenshadow set, it enchances your frost or shadow damage.

there's one last specialty, but you wont be using that at all.

there is also spellstrike set, which is different from the spellfire.

[Grakmarr]

With that group I would go Mage. While they're always good in groups, Warlocks and Hunters really shine in solo play. You as a mage in that group would be a huge asset, with your AoE damage and ability to make food/water for the rest of the group. Hunter or Warlock would both work just fine in that group, but a Mage would really shine.

But ultimately, whatever character you pick for that group, the group is going to be able to tear through 1-70 content without any real problems - so I'd pick whichever one you most want to play.

[Dhoum]

It is worth pointing out that none of your group are capable of much in the way of crowd control. Bearing that in mind, either a Survival Hunter or a Mage would be your best bet. While Protection-specced Paladins don't want many mobs taken out of the fight due to their reflexive abilities, they will want spell casters neutralised until they can get round to them.

Given the previous comments, although Hunters are great, I think that a Mage would offer more utility to your group. In terms of professions, the obvious pairing for Mage is Tailoring and Enchanting; while for the Hunter I'd recommend Mining and Engineering, as the ability to make your own ammunition, guns and sights is pretty awesome.

ETA
In terms of the specs your friends have chosen, it's worth pointing out that once you start looking at heroic mode instances, they will have to specialise into their specific roles. The Paladin will need to spec into full Protection, and either the Shaman or the Druid will have to spec fully into Restoration. If you all have dps specs then end-game content will tear you apart.

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

I tend to agree with Dhoum, however one little thing.... my Survival/Marksmanship hunter has been sought more by those who know her for instance runs than mages for utility. But that could be more style of play than actual hard build... That said, Survival-spec hunters and Frost-spec mages are the kings of crowd control.

[Dhoum]

my Survival/Marksmanship hunter has been sought more by those who know her for instance runs than mages for utility.

The thing that pushed me toward Mage was really just the summoned drink which, in a group consisting entirely of mana-users, would be pretty useful. In terms of CC I'd probably lean more towards a Survival hunter, but then I don't know much about the Mage class at the upper end of the game.

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

The thing that pushed me toward Mage was really just the summoned drink which, in a group consisting entirely of mana-users, would be pretty useful. In terms of CC I'd probably lean more towards a Survival hunter, but then I don't know much about the Mage class at the upper end of the game.

Summoning food & drink is definitely a plus on the Mage. From what I've seen, the Frost Mage has the most CC, Roots, Snares available, with the most boost to them over the various builds. This makes the Frost Mage a royal pain to fight in PvP scenarios, and can make them very loved in an instance for being able to manage mobs.

The Survival Hunter also has a number of CC's, roots, and snares, but from my experience with a couple different hunters, I think the hunter that splits between Marksmanship and Survival, picking talents that have CC, root, or snare effects, and then filling in with some DPS-enhancing talents as well, can make them just as frightening in a PvP environment. Honestly, before I made my Dwarf and got her up to 70, I would have never imagined a Hunter's melee DPS to be anything to be worried about. She definitely made me rethink my whole opinion of what Hunters are and aren't able to do. Throw in some Engineering goodies like the Gnomish Poultryizer or the Frost Grenade, and the flexibility with CC, root, and snare (or silencing) goes up, despite the... well... backfires. Then again, a Frost Mage Engineer would have the same advantages there.