I wanted to offer my thoughts on classes from a dungeon running point of view.
I play horde, shaman. My spec is restoration for leveling with 7 points in Enhancement for 5% more mana and improved Ghostwolf (for qol). I usually heal dungeons, but occasionally I’m only asked to dps.
*This commentary is from a leveling shaman that primarily heals.
*Please be considerate of others’ opinions, even while offering your own.
Druid:
- Best Dungeon Tank (pre 40); still solid tank for 60 dungeons.
- Capable Healer. I’m not fond of relying on Healing over time focused heals.
- Off tank. Can off-tank in any spec if things go south.
- DPS - Adequate dps.
Hunter:
- Good ranged dps. Consistent, and occasionally bursty.
- CC options. Can snare a target, pet can off-tank, traps, and kiting.
- Feign Death, when working, is an awesome aggro management tool.
Mage:
- Best caster dps.
- Good combat mobility. Snares, roots, freezes.
- Great cc spell, Polymorph (beast/humanoid)
- Arcane intellect. Conjure food/water. Portal back to city when finished.
- Decurse is awesome.
Priest:
- Best healer kit.
- Direct heals are good. Group heals are good. Renew is good.
- Bubble. This should be cast on errant dps (preferred), or tanks (last resort).
- Good dps, but mana hungry.
Rogue:
- Solid melee dps. (not as good as dps warrior, but close)
- Emergency off-tanking. (Evasion tank)
- Lots of cc (stuns) (and sap if specd for it). Kick/interrupt.
- Vanish is a great aggro dump.
Shaman:
- Solid healer, but mana hungry.
- Decent caster dps, but mana hungry.
- Adequate melee dps, and still mana hungry.
- Can off-tank if wearing shield (enhancement even get to parry)
- Totems for every situation. My favorites (Stoneskin, Strength, Searing Totem, Poison/Disease Cleansing, Tremor Totem)
- Lack any cc, but have Purge.
Warlock
- Solid, steady dps. Lack an aggro dump however.
- Sturdy caster class due to life drains.
- Can off-tank if sacrifice voidwalker is available.
- Soulstone, healthstone. Can decurse if felhunter is available.
- Good cc options. Especially against demons/elementals/humanoids.
Warrior
- Best tank, (especially damage mitigation tools)
- Great melee dps. I’d say the best dps, but they lack an aggro dump.
- Great off-tanks. If a pull go south, they can step up with any spec.
- Some cc (not much). Can become immune to fear with a certain cooldown.
TL;DR: There is no bad class for leveling/dungeons. Everyone has something to bring to the table.
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Except for paladins, apparently.
Just kidding, I know you’re horde and probably forgot / have not played with one. I think that’s a pretty good list!
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Indeed, there is no bad class period. The problem is that there is this stupid notion of carrying players and that some are weak and others are not. The reality is the days such as EQ there were no meters and players just wanted to adventure and have fun regardless of the class and EQ had way more classes and races. Point is, any tool that allows you to judge others destroys communities, fun and RPGs, because RPGs were never designed or meant to be min/max game. They were designed for adventure and fun. This is where Blizzard went wrong and why Retail is in the state it is.
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Thank you. You’re right that I can’t speak to experience with paladins in classic.
I noticed many people talking about various perfomance issues with different group compositions. I wanted to share my experience and thoughts on the classes.
I hope others are having great experiences like I have had, and maybe celebrate how great this game is (flaws and all).
Looking at your list and the lack of a Paladin on it, i’d say you’ve never run with or used a paladin.
There are classes that completely suck while leveling, some that suck in dungeons more so than others, some that only find their place when 60. Ironically pally ticks all those boxes too.
I agree that some classes have features that make them more suitable for certain content than others. But, at least in the dungeons I’ve healed so far (level 30), things have been great when the players were great. The class mechanics are important, but it’s the player that matters the most.
The point of my post is to show my thoughts on each class on horde side. To say that I feel everyone can be valuable and contribute to success when running dungeons in classic.
Does your analysis for the healing account for downcasting heals? I played Priest back in Vanilla, and I’ve not gone Resto yet with my Shaman to make a true comparison of Priest versus Shaman for heals.
My current assessment would be in agreement to an extent, but I remember Priests always getting a better ROI from Spirit for mana regen. Plus you know, still haven’t done a resto build to see if that helps.
Down ranking spells works best with +healing gear. For leveling I only have int gear. I have lesser healing wave, max rank healing wave, and a down ranked healing wave on my bar.
My down ranked healing wave is what I spam. It’s not my strongest heal, but my max rank healing wave I reserve for the tank only.
I usually cast several down ranked healing waves, and it is more efficient. When I have +healing gear, down ranking will only be better.
For healer qol, I recommend the cast time reduction for healing wave. 2.5 instead of 3 seconds is big.
sounds like you haven’t run with any paladins either.
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