Class selection

Guides New Player Help and Guides
1

What class/classes would you suggest?

Yesterday a number of people were kind enough in a thread to provide information about leveling and realm selection. Now it is time for me to pick a class and start leveling, thus I am looking for suggestions.

To start, my plan is to level a character normally. Then use the 110 boost on a second character. So please feel free to suggest one each.

I have tried all the classes at low level except DK and DH. DH holds no appeal to me but DK I would have to try.

All the classes seem straight forward enough. In my past experience (mostly LOTRO) I played tanks - Warden (very complex) and Guardian (simple) though often solo. However, I read that tanks in WOW often kite. Circle kiting is my one combat weakness - hitting while moving backwards on ranged classes is much easier for me. Thus I doubt I would tank here.

Group healing might be fun to try and most everyone likes to do some dpsing.

For race my favorites are night/blood elf and human.

Some classes of interest include Paladin and Druid. Looking over WOW stat sites both look like strong classes.

With Druid I would need to get the device that changes the appearance of the moonkin form. The night elf racial skill into cat stealth looks quite helpful.

I also like …
Priest. Disc priest looks best for leveling and its shield (if it scales) is unreal and very valuable in a number of situations. Plays at low level as very survivable but takes a while to defeat enemies.

Hunter. Fun to pew pew. Pets seem legit however very little self healing. I would guess that without pets trained I cannot see all the class offers but so far that lack of healing will lead to downtime.

Mage. Pet with strong crowd control (frost) however I see no self healing in the spell book. The stated (forums) ability to port around is tempting.

The WW monk is fairly fast with self healing but I am unsure if in longer fights its mana mechanic will prove frustrating. I can only get off a few hits before I need to wait.

Notice I prefer classes that can self heal. Especially in WOW where the healing food requires a lengthy sit down (at least in early levels)

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

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2

Picking a class starts with identifying what PvE or PVP role you want to perform at end game.
Tanking,
healing - single or multi target,
or DPS - Melee or ranged, single or multi target, burst or sustained damage.

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For the most part, there is little to no downtime while you level a character to max level. Classes like paladin, druid, and monk are versatile class as they have a tank, dps, and healing specialization. If you ever run dungeons with these class, you can choose to be a tank, be a dps, or be a healer.

Tank do not kite in fights. Whether you are running a dungeon or out in the world doing quests, you will be up and close to the mobs fighting.

Hunter is probably one of the easiest and fastest leveling class in the game. Your pet will be the only thing taking damage for you as it will be tanking during every fight so rarely will you ever take damage. You have an ability to heal your pet so they usually will never die. They have a high dps and pet tank which lets you pull mobs after mob quickly (chain pull) and finishing quest quickly.

Paladin, druid, monk, and priest have self healing ability while even in dps specialization.

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If u end up going horde give me an add, looking for new players to run with. @gixxerkid702#1640

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I wouldn’t get too hung up on self healing for PvE.
While healing is one mechanism for dealing with damage, other classes have other mechanisms to either not take damage to begin with, or to escape, evade, or mitigate damage. Self healing isn’t as big an advantage as new players think it will be as there are other mechanisms available to other classes.

As far as pvp goes, other than some warmode world PvP, most PvP is group PvP where having a ranged ability to save a group healer is more important than healing yourself,

Don’t overthink class selection. You don’t need to make a perfect choice for your first characters. The game will not be ruined for you.

Find a class playstyle that appeals to you and you’ll find a way to make the class work well for you.
E.g. BM hunters can do everything on the run. Frost mages are all about keeping mobs away from themselves as long as possible. Rogues can sneak past stuff you would otherwise spend a lot of time fighting. Etc.etc.

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I don’t have time for a lengthy reply on specifics heading out. Since you bought BFA, the best and ONLY way to find out what classes you like is to test them on Trial 110 characters. You can make as many 110 trial characters as you like and test all the specs. use the icy veins class guides for rotations and talents. I would never boost a char I didn’t play test. you could easily boost a character you don’t like and flush a $60 value down the drain.

They start you with a short tutorial on a boat, and then give you a training dummy to practice. After that, they take you to a 15 minute battle scenario. I think it’s also a good idea to level at least two to 30ish to see what you like before committing to the run to 120. You’ll have your core kit by then and have run several dungeons trying all the specs.

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Warlocks also have two forms of self healing and are one of the top two solo questing dps specs along with hunter.

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Thanks for your offer of a more lengthy reply re: class selection

I have not yet bought BFA. A number of forum posts suggested to wait until the leveled character reaches 110. However, you may have provided a reason to make the purchase sooner rather than later.

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WW monks don’t have to wait they are very fast and always have a button to press. you get alot of talent skills at higher levels, and haste makes classes faster. WW uses a chi combo point system similar to rogues, and also have energy.

120 WW monk and rogue are my favorite melees. WW has the best visuals of all melees and top two in mobility. I like having to manage combo points and energy. Feral druid also has combo points and energy. Although it’s less actions minute waiting on energy compared to rogue and WW.

I would definitely get the nug combo bar addon from curseforge if you play mage, rogue, monk, dk, feral druid. It’s a small horizontal bar with circles that light up indicating how many resource points you have, and you can drag it under your chars feet.

I would figure out what roles you want to play, and that will help determine the classes that allow you to play the most specs. The more specs on a class you play, the more variety, nerf protection, and less chance of boredom. Keep in mind they rework all the specs each expansion, and we have a new expansion coming in less than a year.

Lastly. you can make a lvl 98 DH after you have a level 70 on the server.

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I noticed in your other thread you only play 1-2 hours a day. Another option is to buy BFA, use the 110 boost, and play BFA first. There are many new WoW players who do that. There are some huge advantages:

  1. The action is in the current content. Better graphics, sound, topography, high populations,
  2. End game systems, raids, world quests and bosses, warfronts, island expeditions, zone invasions, mythic + dungeons, Skill customization and modification via azerite gear and neck essences.
  3. You’ll make a lot of gold.
  4. You can buy Account wide heirloom gear for a 50% exp bonus to use on other characters. The gear level increases as you level. This will increase leveling speed for your 1-120 characters.
  5. Almost every WoW player has several characters. There is no shame in skipping 1-110 on your first, and then leveling 1-120 on alts later or simultaneously.
  6. Make a promise to yourself that you will level another character from 1-120. In fact, you need a 110-120 char to unlock allied races. Allied races start at Level 20 and you must level them From 20 if you want their heritage armor. Have you looked at the allied races? two more are coming in december.
  7. Your alts will start with 140+ bag slots (four 30 slot deep sea bags plus backpack) and be able to buy whatever they want funded with gold from your 120.
  8. You can get several cool mounts (ground and flying) on your 120. Mounts are account wide so your alts will be able to use them while leveling.
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That is an excellent suggestion, thank you. I did not realize the advantages of boosting a character at the start.

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I am just here to say you’re already playing the best race and class. :slight_smile:

Just kidding (not really). But to be a little more helpful, the way that I pick a class is by trying to choose something of which I like every single spec. It’s sometimes impossible, sure, but I love having that versatility. I’m a roleplayer, but even if you’re not, it helps to identify with your class personally, and get more attached to it.

Good luck!

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Personally I pick races that appeal to me visually, and classes that I have fun playing. Paladin (Retribution) was my go-to for a very long time, although now Hunter (Beast Mastery) is my main. I’ve also dabbled in every other class at some point or another, to various extents.

With regards to immediately boosting a character to 110 in order to play current content right away, I’ll just put these out here as “cons” to do that:

  • No chance to “learn and grow” with the class and spec. You’ll be at a disadvantage in terms of handling mechanics and rotation compared to people who leveled at least their first character the “long way”.

  • Missing out on the journey. I know this isn’t a concern for some people, but if you want to get “more” out of the game, the journey is as much a part of it as the “end game”. Not specific plot, but rather more the learning experiences - the ups and downs, the random acts of kindness and the pitfalls that become part of your story as a player. If boosting had been an option when I started playing, and I’d boosted my first toon, I would have missed out on a lot of experiences that informed who I became as a player.

Honestly unless your entire reason for playing the game is just to play the current expansion content, I don’t consider boosting a first character to be the best option.

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This is not true. If he takes the icy veins class guide and uses the rotations and talents he should have it mostly down by level 111-115 depending on his skill. Many players dont even look at icy veins , wowhead, and you tube.

He has all the way from 110-120 questing in the zones to learn the class before the end game. That’s a ton of hours for a new player. He will continue learning at 120 by starting on easy queable dungeons, raids, warfronts, islands, world quests, etc. Easy stuff first. I made trial characters of like 6 classes and learned every spec on the training dummy and 20 minute scenario.

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He doesn’t have to miss out on any of that. He can keep leveling lower characters while hes playing his 120. There are tons of end game weekly activity lock outs. That’s another advantage to boosting first, he can get the weeklies done while leveling another characters from scratch, and be way ahead than if he started 1-120 first.

His 120 can be gearing in weekly raids, mythic +, warfronts, world bosses, emmisaries, etc. while leveling another char. I’m actively playing 5/7 of my 120’s and leveling 5 other classes every week. I take advantage of rested exp.

This game doesn’t have a overarching main story like FFXIV. Each expansion and each zone have their own stories. The order you do them doesn’t really matter.

16

Kiting is putting it very simply and downplaying the experience a little bit also never back peddle, please, just strafe even if your not a tank. :smile:

It’ll depend class to class and the difficulty of the content your doing but you will probably not just stand there like a target dummy getting whacked by everything around you. When your moving as a tank it’s generally because your executing a mechanic. Don’t get me wrong, there are mechanics both linked to the keystone for the dungeon or the trash pack which definitely involve kiting to avoid getting another stack of a debuff, like grievous for example, but even sometimes you have a predetermined strategy either with your group or it’ll be something you’ve formulated yourself that involve moving in a specific way. The tanking experience is simple but I don’t think its really that shallow.

Before deciding that tanking in WoW isn’t something for you I would 100% recommend just watching some tank players run keys (raid watching gets kind of boring) and you can find the players and the streams pretty easily broken down by class & spec on Raider io.

If you ever do decide to tank or give it a shot in any capacity don’t write the Vengeance Demon Hunter off. I’ve never done much PvE with mine but I will say that while the spec itself feels really weird to adjust to, Sigils are amazing gameplay, as are all of the demon hunters utility tools. I will never praise havoc but I can’t just let that DH comment slide when Vengeance might be involved.

Decide what type of gameplay your interested in the most and from there check out all the specs, not just a single spec, because the strengths of each vary. Food becomes obsolete at higher levels when you have potions available and combat just won’t take as long once you unlock your talents and abilities.

Windwalker might be S tier out in the world but in other types of content that varies greatly.

Frost Mage might not have much self healing but Ice Barrier absorbs a ridiculous amount of damage.

Druid specs are all really varied , in my opinion, and just because you like one doesn’t mean your going to enjoy the other (ie Balance & Feral).

Check out streams, vods on twitch, give the class trails a shot before you make your final decision.

We’re in a time where being a melee spec might unfortunately make it harder for you to get into PUG groups (with the exception of melee specs with immunities like rogues and demon hunters) so always keep that in mind.

While being able to play a healer, tank, or ranged off spec might help gear your character the interest needs to be there to play more than one spec in the first place if that’s the case.

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17

Learning and growing isn’t just about rotation. It’s very easy for experienced players to take a lot of stuff for granted that isn’t obvious to new players. There is so much to this game, that it can be useful to just get familiar with the systems more slowly while leveling the old fashioned way. A lot gets thrown at you systems-wise at max level, so having a better grasp on the basics can really smooth things over. Now, everyone is different so there is no single answer to how to best learn the game, but for many people the “fire hose” method of boosting right away just isn’t the right answer.

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18

There are a lot of boosted toons sitting on the bench because they didn’t feel right or the playstyle was not what the booster imagined it would be.

The old conventional wisdom to only boost a class you have experience with still applies for many players, particularly as a class trial training scenario is usually for only one spec of the class and that may not be the best spec for the player.

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re BM Hunter I have a few questions hopefully you will answer.

  1. This class has a reputation of being an excellent solo class and leveler. The sense I get from reading forum posts is that there is a general bias against Hunter in end game instanced content. Is that true?

Or are BM hunters welcomed in end game instanced content?

  1. It may have been a post from yourself, but I recall reading somewhere that a certain pet, once acquired/tamed, helps a great deal with survival. Is this true and could you elaborate? For example, I cannot recall the pet or how it helps.

Thanks

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BM Hunter’s tend to be middle of the pack dps for raiding. They do well up until about Mythic+ 12-15 and fall off a bit after that.
I haven’t seen any hunter hate in retail at heroic and mythic levels of raiding. Below that, new Hunter’s often don’t exercise enough pet control.

They are a fast, forgiving, class to level in both retail and classic and it’s easy to pick up bad habits that fall apart when raiding. In classic, they can also use almost every stat so they roll need a lot on items that most other classes could use which doesn’t lead to them being beloved.

For BM Hunter pets, ferocity pets do more damage and are actually tougher than tanking pets. At level 20, they also get Leach which returns a percentage of their damage as healing for themselves and the Hunter.

I grab a level 12-13 Kodo outside Rachet in the Barrens early on. They have a slow attack speed but hit like a truck.

At 65, you get Exotic Beasts and I ditch the kodo for either a corehound or a rhino/clefthoof for their family abilities. Corehounds are a bit smaller and their family ability passively adds damage so I prefer them for both solo and group DPS.

A spirit beast is also a good exotic leveling and dungeon pet. They have heal that can be cast on you, themselves, or a group member.

A pet with bloodlust would round out your basic stable for group content.

As you can carry up to 5 pets on your character, depending upon the group fight, a pet with a ranged attack ability can come in handy.

Wow-petopia.com is the goto site for all things related to Hunter pets.

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