I'm really wondering which class to pick and I need help deciding. I know both classes have good burst, and good utility. I've played mage before on retail WoTLK and I thought it was a blast, but I've never played paladin.
well, a good mage can beat a lot of classes. every class has its own counters though. for example, mages will own a paladin if they are good. but deathknights will own a mage. hunters will own a deathknight, warriors will own hunters, and so on. The best advice i can give is to try out a few and see what you like. Paladins are really good in arenas if paired with a mage actually. or a warrior. mages are good with a paladin or a rogue. these are just some common team types that do really well.
As for the differences:
Mages
- low armor
- low movement speed (except blink)
- low healing (except evocation)
- average damage
- great kiting, blink + freezes
- great cc, polymorph, stun, interrupt
- great utility, invisibility mirror image
- you can teleport bro. thats awesome
- ranged damage
Paladins
-choice of 3 specs, ill just talk about ret tho
-high burst. like really high,
- great healing
- bubbles yo
- great movement
- mostly just melee, judgement / hammer/ exorcism for ranged attacks
- deal half magic half melee damage
- hard to kill healers, no interrupt, just stun
- damage is moderate if not using wings
- can use blessing of freedom to get out of stuns
tldr pally
- main problem is that they can be kited and they cant kill healers well
- good healing and damage
tldr mage
- great cc damage and kiting
- if you get hit you die really fast / dots are bad