beh, i loved my shadowmage, then for fun i started a sorcy and i love her more I have another lowbie sm for when i get bored or cap my sorcy... I should start leveling her up more. Though i do love the dual-side of the classes, dont know much about warrior and pallys but in the magic users themselves you can opt for pure priest(SM) pure DOT-mage (SM) Pure warlock (Sorcy) Pure blast-em up Mage (sorcy) or a a personalized Battle priest (SM) and hm... I guess the name would be... a personalized Sorcy (yes, epic fail on the style name) just out of two classes with the skill trees you get at least four diff spell types of toons. I'm sure it's the same with the warriors and pallys.
So in the sense of OP, thats just on how you set your own toon up... I'm sure I've run into other sorcys the same level as me that would be considered OP to my own sorcy because of how they chose to skill and stat them. In fact, I once took on the Beserker quest with another sorcy my level and she was definately stronger than me.
As for the lag issue... meh, some computers can handle it others cant, my advice use min spec mode, set your thing up to where the only names that you see are the mob names, there is an option dont remember where where you can turn off shop signs, you know when people open a personal shop and all the ads on the screen will lag you down, I also personally dismiss my mount and ele while in town. I've even tried running nakie while in town, that doesn't do much tho, other than get strange looks and catcalls lol.
and for... wait what was the other question? ...oh nvm, already answered that, dont know about the pally, now if you were refereing to how the spell looks when its being cast, thats an option you should also disable to help reduce lag, spell effects. trust me, helps ALOT. Unless of course youre trying to get a ss of your character casting a really cool fireball, like i do on occasion.