Priest or Mage

Community General Discussion
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Greetings,

I am interested to start my journey in retail and to prepare myself for the next expansion. I would like to put my hands on one of these two classes but I am a bit undecidable, since I like them both thematically and aesthetically. I enjoy very much in supportive roles in the games and on the range. Like to be able to help other people. I found out that what ever I play I usually have problem with tanking and doing decent damage so most of the time I am at the bottom of the charts because I will rather press dispell/decurse then one more damage spell :slight_smile:

I looked a bit at these two classes, rotations, specs, playstyles, etc. and mage (frost) seems less complex to play then other range DPS classes and priest (holy) is pure healer but other specs seems much harder to learn.

I was also considering Paladin and Monk but melee weaving is not my playstyle. Also druid comes to my mind, but Balance druid looks clunky,but restoration seems fun.

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I always recommend trial characters if you can, it’s a great feature.

If you are enjoying pala then priest is also a hybrid spec whereas mage is pure dps. As mage you are considered main dps, idk if that would satisfy your interest in support. They have portals, cookies, a passive buff and some cc obviously… but it’s not a support class.

As for druid, I don’t think balance is clunky. The rotation and playstyle is very simple while also always being good and wanted. Resto is a lot of fun, pressing Tranquility and then watching those numbers never gets old. It’s not the simplest healing spec though as their spells are HoTs.

2 Likes
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sinecerely. if you are goin to begin to play with retail go for hunter (MM or BM). its simple in open world.
Mage is really fun but sometimes the rotation could be “tricky” (frost and fire, arcane is just unfun lately).

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Priest is a fantastic class. It has great mogs, both healing and dps as a shadow priest so u can try and play both. And, there are lots of races to choose from!

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I’m biased for priests, but trust me, the class is that great, at least Holy spec :laughing: but Disc too is nice to play. Steer clear of Shadow.

Frost is similar to the LK spec, proc based gameplay but can be fun. :wink: But no idea which spec is the strongest, OP.

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MM has one of best talet trees currently in alpha …
but most crazy talent tree when it comes to damage is sub rogue talent tree will be intresting to see if Blizzard can even balance it all …

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Shadow priest in Classic is more supportative spec then just pure damage, that’s not the case in retail, right?

By looking at the playstyle, disc seems a bit hard from newcomers perspective, and holy is the most similar to healing in Classic.

I see people suggesting hunter, didn’t consider it same aswarlock because of pet mechanics and menagment.

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Dwarf priest

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Personally I think mage is a great thing to get into if you’re down to multi spec. Curse dispell, barriers, ice block, portals, alter time. Just a great toolkit for both open world and instanced content.

Theres always gonna be a spec that will perform decent for mage.

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Indeed. It’s a full DPS spec (and… has actual AoE compared to classic) but its AoE is one of the clunkiest. Talk about having to react to 2 procs, keep 3 abilities on CD, dump Insanity, pop cooldowns, one of them with a cast time, keep dots up… no thanks. :frowning_with_open_mouth:

Yes, Disc is hard to learn but can be enjoyable. It’s better for dungeons with tier set now, as I get instant shadowmend procs. :ok_hand:

And holy is sort of like in Classic, only you have more spells to use. Things like Holy Words, Divine Star, and 2 powerful channeled heal CDs, and you have power infusion every player will pest you for. :joy:

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Goblin for sure

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Holy = good solid healer.
Disc = healer but its also good in PVP too, DPS not very high is the Disc specs only downfall, prefer Holy for healing though, it’s easier.
Shadow = I’d rather roll a Warlock, never played shadow, there’s better DPS classes out there.

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After that new dragonflight mage tree came out I believe the answer is anything but mage:P

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If you’re going to play Priest, just beware that the class is very immobile.

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This. Take your time to try specs, look up the wowhead rotations, and see, if you like it.

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Thank you very much for the answers. I created both classes and did few dungeons and a bit of questing with both. Leveling in retail is a joke especially with this boost. But I am getting spells pretty fast and it’s not easy for remember to use everything :slight_smile:

I made Night Elf Priest, went as holy and it really seems like in Classic. Didn’t try other specs, but even in Classic I never used Shadow spec, always leveled in Holy/Disc. So far I like it.

Also created a Draenei Mage (trial). I played a bit of frost mage in Classic as well but here mage looks awesome. Slowing enemies and use ice things to burst mobs down. Doesn’t seem hard, few core spells and waiting for procs, plus it has decent utility, which I like. But I think I should make another one as Female Human (from level 1 of course) since goat looks a bit slappy when runs. Not big fan of Humans either, but they look better :slight_smile:

Even if I am not good (tried few times but I was terrible as melee DPS) will try to make a melee class (maybe Paladin, I played it as holy/ret in Classic), just to see how it looks like here, I love hybrid classes and to be able to cover more role, and also hybrid classes has a bit more support tools then others.

1 Like
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Sounds great, have fun :grin:

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I am also a person who tends to be behind on dps, I main healer, and have 5 (soon 6) max level healer alts and none of them are paladins. Yes there’s some duplication in there. It does colour my advice when I say that healer is how you do support tasks :joy_cat:

Priest then. Mage is all the things you aren’t good at and don’t enjoy :smile_cat:

The only down side of priest is it’s defensives. You have a lot of tools to help other people, and very little to save yourself. Hopefully Dragonflight will bring a few extra options they can spec into, but right now, it’s a class that you have to play quite well to make it work - but when you do, it is strong.

Actually I find balance druid is both quite simple and good fun. With the right talents it is a highly mobile caster, with lots of utility, but only 6 buttons in its major rotation; and you could macro 2 of those into 1 if you really wanted. With Restoration Affinity, you can prop up a group for 10 seconds when a healer goes down - or just resurrect them because druids have that.

Resto is enjoyable, but it’s major curse is that you have to anticipate damage spikes and have HoTs already on the group when they hit. Attention to DBM’s timer bars is important to optimise, else you get caught out and can’t catch up. That aside, its hps is strong, as is it’s toolkit. Soothe, combat res, knockback, root; do not underestimate the power of these things! And obviously just enjoy being super mobile while still laying down heals.

If there is a more supportive healer than resto druid… it’s probably resto shaman. Different tools; fear breaker, bloodlust, spirit link, single target slow. Also roots if talented.

Frost mage is very funny in random BGs, I must say. The amount of grief you can inflict on a group of enemies is entertaining. My favourite is pulling DHs out of the air when they try to fly away for heals :joy_cat:

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If you like being support and don’t like doing damage just make a priest and be done with it lol

Mage is focused on damage. Big time. And control.

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Thank you for the reply. It’s always good to hear some opinions from people that like similar things as you. :slight_smile:

Since you played as you said almost all healers, which one you like the most and you find it fun/easy/good overall (open world, raiding, dungeons) which one would you recommend and which not?

You throw me the bone for druids again, lol :slight_smile: