Like most people, I started out WoW as a DPS class. A hunter.
My second class – the one that eventually became my raiding main – was DPS as well, a Warlock.
As soon as I tried tanking I fell in love. As a natural leader it felt like the right fit for me, and I couldn’t imagine moving back to DPS as a main. I even ran BGs as a tank – running that flag in WSG, holding up attempted flag changes in AB with my swipes while reinforcements arrived … staying back with a small group of companions to make sure that IWB and so forth didn’t fall easily to the Alliance in AV.
My logical choice for a class in Classic then, is a warrior.
But.
I wonder if the sort of player who plays a warrior… and a tank … – the sort that does not seek the glory of the top of the DPS meters, the sort who doesn’t want to just mindlessly zerg around BGs in a circle while nodes are captured… might be the sort of player that is drawn to Classic.
I wonder if there’s going to be an unusual overpopulation of tanks.
I don’t see there being millions of Rogues and Hunters this time around.
Somehow I expect to see a mother lode of warriors and perhaps a lot of mages as well.
That’s my hope – and, of course, that of the ones that do tank, a lot of them won’t be particularly good.
I worry, though, that skilled players — in the way you needed to be skilled for Vanilla (patient and organised) – might be in an oversupply. I can’t see too many of the inept returning.
Of course, this will be a good thing overall for the community.
I have no plans to join a serious guild or to raid seriously – Ever since “retiring” from raiding at the end of Vanilla, I’ve managed to slack what remaining thirst I’ve had for raiding as a filler for guilds who were a tank down on a given night – befriend a couple of them and act as a mercenary.
With most of those warriors coming from classes that were previously promised the ability to tank but only ever allowed to heal. Hind sight will rob from the hybrid class populations and give to the warriors, making healers that much more rare.
A static class balance means the removal of the empty promise that someday their non-healing aspects would be fixed. No empty promise means no reason to stick with that class.
There have been long-term surveys done on reddit about this with respondents in the 10,000+ range and IIRC, there will be a mother lode of warriors but they all want to be DPS. Also warlock appears to be very popular this time and a lot more than mage.
I doubt these surveys will really be of any significance. I hope they are because class distribution seems relatively more even, but I doubt it. Northdale, Lightbringer Kronos etc all have class distribution lists of current players and they’re all almost the same. Warriors, then mages, then rogues, then hunters, then warlocks, then all the healers, with druid being last and priest being the highest, but about even with shaman and paladin considering not being faction locked.
I think you’re correct in the long run, because they only take the respondents’ plans into account, and many respondents won’t even follow through with their plans. Also, those surveys are limited to reddit’s readership, which is large (that goes without saying) but also skews hard towards private servers players and those who are very influenced by them. The surveys don’t take into account other people who aren’t as much under that influence.
Still, I thought it was an interesting thing to mention.
I find it really ineresting too because I always main heals/support to get groups in games easily, especially WoW. If things were more balanced I might end up playing something different. One thing I do think will happen is that we will see a lot more warlocks now that people understand how powerful they can be, especially soul link locks in pvp.
Agreed. Any role you wish to fill can be filled by a Druid. Tank, DPS, Heals, you got it all.
Or, roll up both and see which one you like better yourself. We cant tell you what you like, just our opinions.
Hunter will be most played, just like in Vanilla and ever since. Probably rogue next. War and mage will be right behind that. Warlocks follows. Those will be the most popular.
People basing estimations off private servers don’t understand the Classic playerbase will be radically different.
I think there will be quite a bit of tanks this time around till about 40, then it’ll drop off like how it was in Vanilla. Since warriors have such a high re-roll rate, and if you don’t tank, well no one is going to bring a warrior dps to a dungi if there’s a wariror tank there. So they’re gonna have to tank if they want to get in those dungi’s.
Warrior tanking is about gear, experience, clean pulls, averting disaster, and holding threat against whatever is in your party.
At high levels, players that just want to DPS tend to not be willing to take responsibility for the success of the run by tanking.
There will be a lot of Warriors. It’s kind of an interesting time for the class because you are both a Tank and a DPS for most of the leveling and early content. It’s what comes with the tanking that will purne a lot of them.
Experience is the one thing nobody can give you and you can’t buy. I predict loads of wannabe DPS Warriors, and a much smaller number of professional tanks (who may enjoy other things like PvP or even DPS).
Agreed. There will be a huge number of warriors and rogues at first because the forums have been telling people thats the way to faceroll their way to the top of the heap.
Then people are going to actually start playing and realize that without pocket healers, mages hunters and locks will kite them to death in BGs. As for raids, only so many will be taken. Personally, I will be dwarf priesting it up as healers make friends fast.
there probably will be alot of warriors due mostly to pserver people and people with a foggy memory of what a warrior is actually like who all want to dps.
there will be the usual lack of tanks .
i am not sure on the numbers but just know that tanking isnt what alot of people do.
also part of the reason some pservers and even live back in the day the character your creation screen defaults to is the warrior. so ya lots of people make bank alts warriors cause its just what is there.
Players who could not secure a raid slot the first time around are not likely to secure a raid slot by rolling an over populated class where competition for the same slot can be filled by a better player.
Only the absolute best of the over populated classes will be brought to the average raid because most of the people who’re going to main an over populated class are setting them selves up for failure by means of that over population of a certain class.
As a result these players who get benched again not because of their class (snicker) will now get benched because they were never again good to begin with.
Class demographic will be more or less the same as vanilla with a sprinkle of influence from the p-server crowd.
Warrior
Rogue / Mage
Hunter / Warlock
Paladin / Shaman / Priest
Druid
I’ll play DPS as I always have. Never went for healing or tanking, because seeing all the dung flung their way in dungeons and raids, I know with my temper it wouldn’t end up well.
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