[Branaddar]

I can't speak for the current balance of the game, as I haven't played either yet. But my original character from Velious-GoD era was a wizard.

Disclaimer: I'm not stating any of this in an anti-mage way. I don't want to start a class war. I'm just stating what facts I am aware of in the pre-Luclin era.

In my experience:
- Wizards get fewer resists
- Wizards (depending on expansion) had better damage/mana ratios
- Wizards can nuke on the Ice resist
- Wizards get faster casting nukes
- Wizards get Bane nukes (anti-Giant and -Dragon)
- Wizards teleport, evac and decession (targeted evac) are useful for raid mobilization. Decession is unique to wizards, druids can do the rest too.

- Mages get pets (which are situational and in some/many raids not allowed)
- Mages get modrods... that's like +100 points right there
- Mages have more utility
- Mages get Call of the Hero
- Mages can sustain DPS longer because their pet can be whomping while they're medding

In the end, it boils down to Wizards are good for spike damage, resistant mobs and teleportation. Mages are good for utility and sustained damage.

PoP was a real kick in the nuts to Wizards. Mages were given nukes that were equal or better than Wizard nukes in terms of mana/damage ratios and cast speed, their pets were beefed up a ton, etc. I lost a lot of urge to play at that point. That's when I played my monk alt a lot more and discovered I liked that class more :P