Draenei or Gnome?Follow

I'm fairly new to the game, and can't decide whether I want to make a Draenei or Gnome mage. I'm leanings towards the former, but, how much of a difference will race really make? The Gnome +5% Intellect seems like... kind of a big deal.

And, while on the subject of my newbishness, any randomy suggestions for specing?

It comes down to what you like to look at the best. Throw away racials for now, their just a bonus to the looks. Seriously you'll be staring at your character for 70 grueling levels, the least you can do is like to look at it.

Edited, Oct 5th 2007 5:07pm by Enigmen

Though I will agree that racials usually are not game-breaking, there are certain situations where they in fact are. For instance, in a duel between a mage and a warlock, the mage will have a far better chance of winning if he/she has will of the forsaken. In fact, the matchup is so far in favor of the warlock (closer to equal if the mage has ice block) that it can be nearly impossible to win without this ability. As proof of this claim, you'll notice that a large number of competitive mages have remade their class using undead if they did not do so originally. I am among them, and I assure you that it is almost necessary to do this if you wish to beat a highly skilled warlock in PvP.

I found the rating in this post kind of odd. Saw nothing ratedown worthy about Enigmen and MetalM's posts, so I rated em back up.



Which character just sounds like more fun to you? Pick that one.

That said, for PvE, the +hit Aura of the Draenei is awesome. And there have been times that my human mage was sitting with bandages on cooldown in a raid just wishing I could HoT myself.

For PvP, Escape Artist is probably the greatest ability available to an Alliance mage. But it's not game breaking to not have it. Hell, there's no racial that is just so overpowered that I'd say you can't do without it. WotF comes close, but I just accept I'm gonna get killed by Warlocks. They're the Anti-Mage.

The intellect increase is nice, but isn't worth worrying about enough as you can do just fine without it come endgame.

Here's another thing about gnome mages...I was doing SM on my warrior the other day, and I was waiting for our mage to show up (we'd finished armory and ran to cath but I didnt see the mage). Well, after about a minute of waiting I see the mage say "What's the holdup?" and the speech bubble appears right in front of my guy...the mage wasn't lost, just hidden behind me.

You could also consider human (if you're alliance). They get spirit increase (not int, but helps) and get reputation increases faster. While they may not have the solo power of the draenei racial (which is probably about the best soloing racial available), a lot more people like humans than like gnomes.

I'm biased. I hate gnomes. Hate em. Never played a mage, cause I hate gnomes, and humans had other choices that interest me more. I rolled my first mage w/ Draenei, and think they pwn. AOE grinding can be helped by that HOT. Drop in on your self, blink into a gnoll camp, and AE away. It's on a two minute timer, and it's priceless. My mage is now my favorite character. :)

My GF and I both started a Mage. I chose human, she chose Gnome "ahhh isn't mine cute". It all went swimingly for a while, until the curses crept in from both of use as the levels went by....
0-10
"haha, look at me hiding in this crevice"
"Ahh you're so cute"
10-20
"Where are you? I could have walked there and back by now"
"I'm right next to you"
20-30
"Where the HELL did you pull four of them from?"
"It's not my fault I couldn't see over the ridge is it?"
30-40
"WHY WERE YOU THERE? I'VE JUST DIED BECAUSE YOU WENT STROLLING IN THERE, I'M SICK AND TIRED OF TRYING TO SAVE YOUR STUPID LITTLE BEHIND"
"STOP SHOUTING, I ALL I COULD SEE WAS LEAVES AND GRASS, I HAVE TO GUESS WHERE YOU ARE".