Wotlk Fire Mage or Destro Lock (PvE)

Hello, decided to give a try to some straightforward nuker, but as I'm still very noob in WoW, confused about who exactly would be more enjoyable. I mean I like Warlocks flavor, but so far my research on this topic tells me, that apart from flavor Locks fall behind Mages in almost every aspect.

Both are very similar, with almost identical four button rotations, but Mage has 3 instant cast spells and Lock has only 1. Also Lock needs Immolate to be on target to deal damage with other spells while Living Bomb is just pleasant bonus, it's not a big deal but kinda annoying.

Lock has demon (even if it's imp, lol), which should be a plus, but it seems that Mage outdps them both combined (which is strange in my opinion), and has built-in slow in addition.

Curse of the Elements is a good thing to have, but it's single target so not that practical aside from killing bosses and can be partially replaced by other classes (DK etc). Same true for replenishment - not unique enough, to be proud about it.

Lock has Life Tap and Mage doesn't... and feels well about its absence, so in fact it's more like a Warlock's drawback.

Portals sound to be more useful then Summoning.

Health/Soulstones - good, when everything is bad, Food - could be useful always.

Also Mage has powerful cooldowns, both offensive and defensive, while Lock "constantly stable".

Last but not least, Trolls can't be Locks :P

So am I missed something crucial or indeed Destro archetype is just "bad" mage? Would be nice to hear opinion of more experienced players.

PVE: Fire mage >>> Destro warlock
Destruction isn't an endgame spec. It's a nice started dungeon spec, but not quite good at endgame.
Fire mage is considered one of the top dps specs ingame.
PVP: Fire mage is fun, but destro is actually good.
Destruction spec has a lot of utility talents and with voidwalker can be quite deadly 1v1.

Sorry to tell You it, but destro lock will never outdps fire mage, specially in end game gear. And mana problem isn't problem for them both in 25 raids.

Warlock has a bit harder playstyle, more thing to maintain (corruption/immolate/curses/pet), when mage is quite pew pew and Your insta-cast pyroblasts hits like truck.

Mage will always be in top 3 dpses endgame, while warlock wont. That doesnt mean he is unplayable. So i'd say, if You are really really into dps meters, go for mage. If locks brings You more fun, go for it, he is still viable.

For pvp, in bgs warlock destro is very fun to play, I'd say more than mage. In arenas these are still very good, but usually its frost mage and affi lock (some destros doing well too).

In the end, play what You want :)

PvE - Mage, But don't understimate the damage from a bis Affliction, And Demo warlocks is a must in every raid and there's almost NONE.

for PvP its very situational, like do you go frost, fire or arcane? They all have pros and cons, like Arcane in BG's is the most deadly specc ever but you cannot survive even closesly as good as a frost mage, and PvP is about surviving.
Affliction specc for pvp is much better for 1v1 and surviving while Destro is a hard nuke specc that takes targets off guard, the reason Destruction dosen't have a cd is because if they had they would be INSANE, the constant burst damage from destro is really high as it is, Destruction feels like your constantly bursting which I personally just love, Kinda like arcane mage but for arcane you stress to keep the arcane blast procc up.

I would recommend warlock, it was my first character on warmane when I was a noob too (in 2009) and until this day it's my personal favorite dps character.
It's allways fun to join some pug raid and se people supprised about how high damage a Affliction warlock can actually do.

Thx everyone for responses. In the end I decided to create... both: Troll Mage and Undead Lock :D Through I guess eventually would pay more attention to Mage, as he's a little bit more diverse: can dispel, interrupt etc. Or maybe not, Warlocks definitely has mu sympathies.

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Originally Posted by DrZaorish

Through I guess eventually would pay more attention to Mage, as he's a little bit more diverse: can dispel, interrupt etc.

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So can lock with Felhunter. Both classes can do a lot.

O, good point, had overlooked this. Pity that summons "bond" with archetypes.