Warlock or Mage? Mage or Warlock?

[Drain]

"This is my big fear. My guild is rolling Alliance and I want to be able to PvP *and* PvE with them and be able to do pretty well. My biggest hangup at the moment with Warlocks is playing against Will of the Forsaken. How much of an issue is this with BGs and WPvP?"
It's no issue at all in BGs. Playing against the Alliance is much worse. Alliance tarts like that other joker don't realize how easy they have it. Yes you can get screwed by a 1vs1 matchup vs Undead, but this doesn't mean squat in BGs. Stop tunnel visioning on 1vs1, because this doesn't mean anything. Warriors/Rogues already stomp the piss out of Warlocks, forsaken or not. Unless your BG has 0 Paladins, which never happens, you have everything going for you as Alliance. You also go into raids and get Blessing of Salvation, something Horde Warlocks struggle without.

[Lifealert]

You act like horde doesn't get purge or totems which are objectively more useful than anything in a paladin's arsenal. Do you really have to shill for a position that is factually wrong?

[Drain]

It's not factually wrong. It's been common knowledge or proven fact for most for years. If you think the Alliance are generally worse than Horde in Classic, most would call you ignorant. But I'm not going to keep enabling the derailing of this topic, as I've been doing enough of lately. It is supposed to be about "Mage or Warlock" (note the title), not "Alliance or Horde". Feel free to make your own thread about this.

[Darkwinjax]

Only place paladins are better is in AB

Shamans do just fine in WSG, anyway drain why you give pvp tips when you problably have 6 keybinds and play with your elbows??

[Arucado]

It's not factually wrong. It's been common knowledge or proven fact for most for years. If you think the Alliance are generally worse than Horde in Classic, most would call you ignorant. But I'm not going to keep enabling the derailing of this topic, as I've been doing enough of lately. It is supposed to be about "Mage or Warlock" (note the title), not "Alliance or Horde". Feel free to make your own thread about this.

Horde is much better than Alliance in BG because of the racials. Orcs +25% resist stun, Taurens +5% total hp, Shamans (WINDFURY), Trolls +% casting speed, undeads anti-fear.

Are you even comparing with Perception, Escape artist or shadowmeld? KEK.

And btw Shamans have purge+ windfury, besides a properly geared elemental will 3shot the plate wearers. However Paladins don't get really strong untill late vanilla (when they have a 65% physical reduction dmg + bubbles make them the perfect class with Warrior), but in patch 1.9 i think there is not much to argue about.
Ret works on RNG and Hpally has way less utility than Sham

And the most hilarious, Shaman can purge BoP, any other blessing and seals, and avoid HoJ with Grounding Totem

[Undertanker]

Also note Undead Shadow Priest - Devouring Plague.

[Ravni]

Mage and lock are both excellent picks for leveling, solo play, farming gold, raiding, & group pvp - can't go wrong with either. The biggest difference is that locks are much easier to gear up to an acceptable level in pvp with tier set gear if you don't want to do the awful r13 grind (most mage tier is shit for pvp relative to lock).

Also, regarding alliance locks, the real problem in organized pvp is tremor totems, not so much wotf. Tremor has 40 yard radius (50 with T1 3pc!!) and clears ALL fears the very instant you drop it and it then continues to tick every 2 seconds thereafter - it's broken as hell but most pug shamans are too shit to even use it.

If you do decide to play on alliance (whether lock or mage), I'd strongly recommend gnome over human.

[meddlingmage]

Food for thought:
Mages get portals and can set their hearth anywhere, warlocks can summon anyone anywhere with two others present.
Mages spam frostbolts and CoC, warlocks spam shadowbolt and keep corruption up.
Mages make food and water for everyone, warlocks make healthstones for those who ask and use imp to give stam to tank
Mages farm DM East, warlocks farm Mara.
Mages can mass grind mobs for xp and loot, warlocks have pets to help them in leveling/pvp/pve.
Warlocks get a free mount at 40 and a cheaper mount at 60
Warlocks on alliance are not very common. Warlocks and mages are super common on horde thanks to drakedog and vurtne.
Alliance warlocks are gimped in pvp due to every horde being undead.

I have never played mage so I cannot speak on their behalf too much.

You have time to make your decision. I suggest that once you start playing you do not look back. Stick with something.

Thanks for the breakdown, really simple and to the point.

Warlocks get a free mount at 40, is this obtained via a quest? Chain quest? Also when you say "cheaper" mount at level 60 what are we talking gold wise. So how much would say a mage/warrior spend on a mount versus a mage?

When you say warlocks are "super common" on the horde side how common are we talking? I don't really want to be one of the most played classes. I just like the idea of essentially being uncommon on Alliance. Also, I have no idea who/what drakedog/V is? Can you please elaborate?

Whats the deal with alliance warlocks being gimped in PvP against undead?

[Dodgemade]

my god man just pick one

[Padarius]

I play the class that I feel I will be most immersed in. People tend to forget that Classic wow is not about the end game. Play what you feel you will be more connected too. Not what will have slightly higher numbers and will be needed more. This isn't legion...it's not a speed run. Take a breath, think about what you enjoy more personally, then roll with it.

I promose, you will enjoy the game more. Don't be in a rush