Is there a significant dps difference between Mage and Locks?

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Post by 175314

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Post by asakawa

nothing significant no
...also it's a very poor reason to choose a class.

Post by 175314

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Post by 188341

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Post by Modibybob

From what I have experienced...

Equally geared, mages will out DPS warlocks on shorter fights due to their powerful cooldowns.
On longer ones, a skilled demo lock will destroy them.

Post by 175314

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Post by Onijitsu

I getcha. Warlocks get the spellcasting ability of mages, with the pets of hunters. That's a gross oversimplification, but it helps some folk.

Warlocks usually don't kill single-targets quite as quickly as Mages -- especially, pitting an Affliction Lock against an Arcane Mage -- but they have their advantages. (This is also a gross oversimplification)

I would consider Warlocks more versatile. Both, in their single-target damage, and in their AoE attacks. They can be a very complex class to play. The multitude of damage-dealing options, early on, can overwhelm some newer Warlocks. But, like a good chef, a Warlock can decide whether to cook his enemies slow or fast. And he has the best escape spells in the game, IMHO: Demonic Circle, plus three different fear options.

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Post by MegaVolt

Dps is comparable but I prefer Warlocks for the higher utility they provide. The raid buffs are better (e.g. Demonic Pact) than what other classes can provide or they come easier for the Warlock (e.g. Imp. Shadowbolt versus Imp. Scorch). Warlocks are also more mobile, offer more self healing and take less damage. It's not the damage that makes me like Warlocks, it's their awesome utility. In a raid group with all important buffs covered and a few free dps slots I'd fill those slots with Warlocks and shadow Priests.

Post by USMCDiablo

I'd take Iceblock over Demonic Circle any day tbh, but I do vastly prefer Fear to Polymorph :)

Post by Onijitsu

I'd take Iceblock over Demonic Circle any day tbh, but I do vastly prefer Fear to Polymorph :)

I do envy them Iceblock. But if they remain iceblocked for longer than a moment -- it's really most useful as a self-dispelling cast, from what I understand -- then they can be surrounded by enemies. Sure, they can try to Blink out of it, but you can guestimate the area which they might blink into. A really good Hunter will drop a trap there.

I'd much rather dynamically pick my destination, and pop out of their sights.

In some ways, it seems to me that teleporting would have more naturally fit Magi, and creating multiple copies of ourselves would have fit the Warlock shtick. But, I'm not complaining. ;-)

Post by USMCDiablo

Post by asakawa

I like it cause it drops threat.
lol #1
Often times I can out DPS so greatly that even a Soul Shatter doesn't save me
lol #2
but I'm part of the highest end raiding guild out there
lol #3

3 lols in one post. you win a prize!
you win.... a complete loss of my respect!

Post by Onijitsu

I like it cause it drops threat. Often times I can out DPS so greatly that even a Soul Shatter doesn't save me ^_^ Surely this is just poor tanking on my tanks part, but I'm part of the highest end raiding guild out there so much is to be learned from us all.

Plus it's annoying as hell in Arena.

Iceblock doesn't drop threat. It just... postpones a mage's threat, and allows a tank a little time to hopefully get MORE threat, in the intervening time that a mage is iceblocked.

And yes, Mages iceblocking in PvP is awfully annoying. Not even Chaos Bolt can pierce it.

(Don't take Asakawa's LOLs too harshly. He really loves you. Really;-) )

Post by 104412

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Post by Onijitsu

Shattering throw can :D However, since the warbringer nerf, it's back to being a case of break your keyboard when playing a mage team.

Aye... channeled nukes are crazy-deadly.

Much as warlocks and mages are both casters, the 2 classes aren't really similar at all. Warlocks have pets, they have drains (life, mana, soul), can easily replenish mana or health, have specs that use massive burst, specs that use slow draining dots, specs that focus on pet... Warlocks provide excellent raid utility with healthstones, soulstones, summons, demonic pact, banish, enslave demon etc etc.

Mages don't have pets, are less reliant on staring at timers, are more based around BIG numbers, have more mana management issues, have cool shields (with incanter's absorption can also wtfpwn) and are amazing at pvp - the exact opposite of locks, they are the bane of all melee pvpers.

Maybe if you specified what you want from your character...

Edit: Hardly counting elemental as a viable pet when the spec that relies on it most isn't raid viable and, even then, it requires a glyph.

I was going to point out GoEW, aye. ;-)

And you really feel it's non raid-viable? I've seen frostmagi do more than acceptable DPS with it, even if Arcane is the spec du mois.

And no... we're not identical. We're casters which take very different approaches to the same problem. The light and the dark. Mages have been QQing about us, and nearly everything else, forever. I don't mind them doing a little better in some situations now.

If anything, from what we've seen in recent class-balance discussion, the debate really ought to be about caster-DPS vs. melee DPS. Or, pure-DPS vs. Utility-class DPS. We and Magi ought to be buddying up.