My understanding is that classes in Classic require a lot more overhead than they currently do on Retail. Hunters have to carry/buy ammo and have to feed their pets to keep them around (Tamagotchi?). Warlocks have to carry/farm shards. Rogues might(?) have to produce or buy their own poisons. Considering that bag space will be limited, having to carry around extra stuff all of the time becomes an issue.
So, which class requires the least overhead in that regard if you are not going to be raiding on it? I mean, which one can you just login and start playing it without having to do a lot of maintenance on the side?
Mages are all around well designed and rather self-sufficient. Of course when raiding, you’ll be expected to bring your own consumables, especially for guilds that are serious about experiencing all of the content. You won’t have as many things to farm as a Melee, that’s for sure. You’ll still need to bring flasks, magical resistance potions, food buffs, wizard oil, etc. I don’t think there’s any Jujus that are useful for casters (I’m not sure) and I’m unsure if you need to use Demonic Runes or the consumables from Un’Goro or Blasted Lands. Edit: IF you’re a troll mage, maybe using a DR to boost the beserking racial will be worth it. I don’t know about that either.
I would say hunter still sits at top. You can make your own ammo with engineering and your pet will avoid you from stoping between mobs to eat and/or drink. And depending on your pet, you can get their food from the beasts you kill. I think bears or boars ate everything.
The only class that doesn’t have materials to use their abilities is Warrior. Hunters have the highest. They need food to feed their pet and ammo for their weapon, taking up a good 1-2 bag slots just for that. Mages can sort of get by without mats, and can make their own food, but they’ll want to carry a fishing pole for sagefish, should cart around a stack of light feathers, and probably should hang onto a stack of Runes for portals.
what over head? It’s class flavor. I mained hunter in vanilla and buying arrows and keeping food for pet was never a real big deal. I do agree warlock soulshard farming can be PITA.
I’m maining a war this time around and I’m much more concerned about war repair bill than hunter “maintenance”.
Overhead: Items needed to cast spells relevant to your class.
Warlock, Hunter, Mage, Druid, Rogue and Shaman for sure had at least ONE item.
Any class that had a gun (Warrior, Hunter, Rogue?) would need ammo, obviously.
Warlocks and Hunters were probably the worst, with Warlocks needing bag space for shards and Hunters needing whole bags designed specifically for holding bullets/arrows.
I don’t recall if Priests or Paladins had anything, but I honestly didn’t play either class much back then.
Priests had candles for Pray of Fort and Pallies had reagents for buffs. But why are they over heads? they are part of the class. Is getting gear also over head?
I mostly played priest and warrior. I never had much problem with overhead costs. If you do just a little farming here and there, and sell some things on the AH, money comes kind of easily.
Warriors with bandages and a little effort with fishing and cooking is smooth leveling.
Priest can heal. If you take the shadow talent to get increased spirit after each kill, then your drinking down time is minimal while soloing.
Well, the OP was asking about classes with the most overhead and gave examples of what he was considering it to be. Some classes have more material expenses and considerations than others and is what we’ve been asked about. Complaining about people responding to the OP’s question with answers pertinent to the question is silly. Yes, the overhead we are discussing is both flavor and a feature of the class, but that’s irrelevant to answering the question.
And, to answer your question, no, gear isn’t overhead. It is quite possible to level a character up into the 40’s with no additional gear than what random things drop.
Or maybe it’s someone who values his time, knows what he find to be fun in a game, and is trying to plan accordingly for when he quests in Classic so that it is a more positive experience for him.
Having to farm materials on the side to just quest on a class normally is something I’d rather minimize if possible. I had my fill of tedious and unforgiving video games back in the 1980s before many WoW players were even born yet.
Paladins have a free mount and mages have to buy one. The only other class that gets a free mount is warlock, but he has shards to collect. Shamans can run faster as a wolf too, but it isn’t as fast as a mount.