I just can't decide between the two.

Human Mage

+ looks better
+ better starting area
- bad racials


Gnome Mage

+ best alliance mage class
+ good racials
- ugly
- small (I still don't know if Classic uses old or new height models and running animation)

In the long run, I want to make a human warrior main so if I roll human mage now, I will have 2 humans which kinda bugs me. Can you guys convince me to roll gnome? They are just better because of +5% intelligence and escape artist.

Thanks in advance.

All the ugly armour won't look as bad on a gnomes as a human because it's smaller, also great beards

Humans are boring, gnomes are kinda cool!
Plus you can hide behind bushes

Gnomes are great mages because 5% int is amazing and cant be beat!
Ironforge is the best capitol!

I just think it will be hard to convince you considering most of the things you are saying is preference and opinion except for the racials part.
I would go what you will enjoy in the long run.
I am rolling a warlock the first time in classic and census says go orc over undead but I just cant say no to undead.
I like everything about undead, starting area, looks, lore...orcs are alright but wont be able to stare at them once i get to MC BWL...
And not a fan of the orc feel and style...

So I say human since you love them and will deal with your mage for a long time.
Forcing yourself to be a gnome may not make you happy in the long run.
But then again maybe gnomes will grow on you!

If you don't like the look of gnomes, 5% int won't make up for you staring at his/her backside for hundreds of hours. Personally I prefer gnome mages' aesthetic, but I see why many don't.

Enjoying your character is far more important that min/maxxing that little bit extra.

Some ppl think that mage clothing looks ugly, so on gnomes the robes are smaller and it looks less bad :D

I'd personally go human mage, because:

There is a similar dilemma for warlocks. And if you compare the advantage of gnomes between these classes, the gnome is WAY better for warlock and just a bit better for mage. Humans can benefit from their racials as mages and have almost no benefit as warlocks. Because warlocks already can detect stealth and mostly generate mana from their skills, so human spirit buff is less useful for them. I know it might make sense only if you want to make both a mage and a warlock, but maybe that'll help you out a bit. Also I think human disadvantage will be less noticeable in PvP, and you can even detect rogues better.

Don't forget that gnomes look great on the saber mounts

How difficult is it for gnomes to get another mount? I HATE these robot birds. I read it has something to do with faction reputation?

Yes you have to be exalted with another race, which isnt too hard with Classic since it will be the 1.12 with the cloth turn ins for rep

This is a classic case of denial. You say you are considering gnome, but let's be real, are you really? Stick with your instincts! I don't think gnomes are for you and no one here is going to offer you anything that will change the way you feel about them. - a painful truth is always better than a lie, my friend

Look at how mighty my hooman priest looks below. Do you want this in a gnome body? - I certainly don't.

Alnir wrote: ↑

5 years ago

This is a classic case of denial. You say you are considering gnome, but let's be real, are you really? Stick with your instincts! I don't think gnomes are for you and no one here is going to offer you anything that will change the way you feel about them. - a painful truth is always better than a lie, my friend

Look at how mighty my hooman priest looks below. Do you want this in a gnome body? - I certainly don't.

The problem is... although I think gnomes are ugly, human mages are too muscular to be mages...and I hate the dress-like leg armor they have. Furthermore, I imagine it would be fun to play a tiny gnome that deals massive amounts of damage.

Magezi wrote: ↑

5 years ago

The problem is... although I think gnomes are ugly, human mages are too muscular to be mages...and I hate the dress-like leg armor they have. Furthermore, I imagine it would be fun to play a tiny gnome that deals massive amounts of damage.

Just choose what your gut says to you. Remember that you have to look to your model and since you're no fan of gnome aesthetics you probably might go human. Maybe you can lvl both races to lvl 20 for the coming weeks and see what you like best. Maybe Gnome isn't that bad either for you. You'll never know.

Personally, I would never roll a race if I didn't like the appearance.

Thanks guys. The problem is I don't find gnomes ugly in a way that it would prevent me from rolling one. I just like the appearance of humans more. However, I don't hate gnomes enough respectively I don't like humans enough to make a clear decision. I think I will wait for some kind of divine inspiration, lol

Magezi wrote: ↑

5 years ago

The problem is... although I think gnomes are ugly, human mages are too muscular to be mages...and I hate the dress-like leg armor they have. Furthermore, I imagine it would be fun to play a tiny gnome that deals massive amounts of damage.

Just think back on how many posts you've seen from the horde side bitching about how much they hate getting killed by gnomes. How much they hate gnomes in general.

Roll gnome and dip your tiny little sack in their face every time you kill one of them, then giggle while bunnyhopping away from their dead body. You can almost hear the filthy horde players throwing their mice and keyboard against walls in anger every time.

100% worth it fam.

Magezi wrote: ↑

5 years ago

+ good racials

Looks has always been very important to me, you're not gonna be able to play a character until naxx and beyond if want to be human but forced yourself to be gnome justbecause of some stupid racial. The only time you should pick racials over looks is if the advantage of the racial is very great. A good example of this is Shaman or Hunter on the Horde side, Orc racials are gonna make you a lot more powerful in PvP.

Kare wrote: ↑

5 years ago

Looks has always been very important to me, you're not gonna be able to play a character until naxx and beyond if want to be human but forced yourself to be gnome justbecause of some stupid racial. The only time you should pick racials over looks is if the advantage of the racial is very great. A good example of this is Shaman or Hunter on the Horde side, Orc racials are gonna make you a lot more powerful in PvP.

You have convinced me, I will roll human mage. If someone is interested, long ago I found a comparison between gnome and human mage regarding dps differences. TLDR: gnome has slightly more dps and human goes oom a bit earlier.

stats in the exact same gear (t2), self buffed, no talents.

In that gear you are losing 27int, 0.46% crit.

(obviously lesser gear with less int - you lose less, higher gear - you lose more) (apart from 5%, gnomes also have higher base int). in a raid you also have all kind of buffs, kings, elixirs, world buffs etc. so it would be even more, more int = more difference.

by theorycraft addon an average frostbolt (including crit) will hit for 849 for gnome, 847 for human.

~

with a standard frost/arcane build (without clearcasting so it wouldnt affect testing) with mage armor.

gnome mage did 45 frostbolt casts before going full oom

human mage did 43 frostbolt casts before going full oom

gnome - 7248 max mana
human - 6843 max mana

dps difference in that given example was

378.9 dps - gnome

376.3 dps - human

though obviously it depends on crits/resists procs. gnome is definitely critted more than average there, though it got 1 more resist, so it quite equaled, though it can vary.

but on average it should be few points of dps difference to gnome ofc(cos it got +0.4% crit). by theorycraft addon, gnome expected to do 373 dps, human 371. pure frostbolt spam without anything.

~

so summing up its a few point of a dps differences (cos of a few extra crit), plus human goes oom couple of casts faster than gnome, cos gnome got extra mana.

You would want to roll gnome mage if you are going to PvP.
Escape artist is just way more powerful than perception, especially when you are a mage since Arcane Explosion (rank 1) pretty much replaces it.

As a gnome you also have the added benfit of being a lot smaller than human. As a gnome you can for example fit into the fence of Dun Baldar ram ranch building in Alterac Valley, where no other races can fit. Great for PvP.

Another little thing to add is that you won't face any gnome mages in PvP, except for duels :D

Roll human if you are going to do alot of rep grinds, otherwise gnome is better for everything. Humans get 10% Diplomacy and Gnomes get Escape Artist, , +Int and +Engineering.

vanillalad wrote: ↑

5 years ago

You would want to roll gnome mage if you are going to PvP.
Escape artist is just way more powerful than perception, especially when you are a mage since Arcane Explosion (rank 1) pretty much replaces it.

As a gnome you also have the added benfit of being a lot smaller than human. As a gnome you can for example fit into the fence of Dun Baldar ram ranch building in Alterac Valley, where no other races can fit. Great for PvP.