Druid/Hunter/Paladin/Shaman

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
1

Sup,
I have narrowed down my classes to these 4 for classic.
I would be fine with playing any of them- I just want to be reassured so I don’t waste time since I don’t have infinite time to play the game like I used to back in late vanilla when I started. Hopefully my points will help myself and anyone else debating between these classes actually decide, it’s a long road to 60 and no one WANTS to re-roll if you have time to reassure yourself! If you wouldn’t mind, help me choose and tell me your reason for which you would pick based on my points. Also let me know if there’s anything notable that I missed, I’m only one person with one perspective!

In General:
-I love PvP, all sorts. group/solo/world/1v1/1vX
-I do PvE for the gear, let’s be honest. Raids are fun for a few weeks then get dull when full clearing on farm
-All these classes have the ability to be self-reliant - if I want to go world PvP or solo pvp in bgs and not die, I can play any one of these classes just fine (hunter being the worst of them cause no heal, obv, but it’s close enough due to kiting and outplay potential)

Druid Pros:
-Easy leveling
-For PvP druids are fine. All specs work and can still be versatile. You can be resto/feral hybrid with resto gear. Or resto feral with feral gear. Or Balance/Resto, or Balance/Feral/Resto with T2.5 and higher… Lots of build versatility for PvP
-Gearing is easier considering not that many druids. So tier gear gets basically handed to you
-Mobility is amazing
-Very High skill cap (pro and con)

Druid Cons:
-Tauren hooves
-I HATE the stigma that druids get. I understand it’s mostly PvE based, but still it’s annoying that the community still trashes druids even though people like Shedo have proven all the naysayers wrong
-Very High skill cap (both pro and con)
-Powershifting if feral is a HUGE annoyance (probably the biggest con for me on this entire post)

Hunter Pros:
-Easy leveling, no argument
-Pet can attack in PvP even when you’re CC’d
-If you’re good enough with pet management you can have your pet eat other hunter traps… good luck though
-USES A BOW… +5… AND dual wield/2h
-Mail isn’t used much
-Scatter,FD,Trap and FD drink in a raid
-Can get big crits in PVP with Aimed Shot/Multi/Arcane combo
-Happiness/Food/Arrows (could be pro or con)
-High Skill cap

Hunter Cons:
-Pet… pathing is terrible and you rely on having Lupos or Broken Tooth
-Low PvE DPS / Huntard stigma
-Happiness/Food/Arrows (could be pro or con)
-Dead Zone, annoying
-Gear competition is very high since EVERYTHING except swords and wands are hunter loot
-High Skill cap

Paladin Pros:
-Overall cool gear / shields
-Amazing PvP and PvE healer
-Free Mount, good for fresh start
-Crazy utility and buffs
-Good 5/10m tank

Paladin Cons:
-Terrible Specs in general… you can try to build shockadin specs to have one more active ability on a 30s cd… really? 30s for holy shock?.. really Blizz?
-Terrible 40m tank, no taunt
-Bad-ish ret DPS, even with full BiS, you still rely too much on reckoning to PvP
-Alliance Only
-No abilities… I named my first paladin Nobuttons… you press like 10 buttons a minute if you don’t need to heal

Shaman Pros:
-Ghost Wolf and Self Rez
-Horde premades LOVE Shamans
-Utility
-Unbreakable dream
-Shields and Mail
-CRAZY BURST in PvP… elemental and enhance (if lucky)
-Chain spells are cool and unique to the game

Shaman Cons:
-Horde Only
-20 bazillion totems
-Low DPS early (high-ish later on with Elemental, but high mana costs)
-High Mana costs

Thanks for reading, and please let me know if I missed anything important… I really would love any of these classes. The cons are mostly alright to me, every class needs weakness. Let me know what class you’re picking and why!

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2

Good write up. I am playing a Paladin for the utility. I would play shaman but that horde Con is too big of a Con.

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3

Roll 1 of each and keep them at roughly the same level. I know you said you don’t have that much time to play anymore but by rotating them and always hearthing before you log out, you’ll maximize the benefit of rested exp.

Just remember, pink haired gnome warriors always have top priority for heals/buffs.

Won’t take long for you to organically develop a favorite. Then just go with that one and use the others for supporting professions.

4

If you want to get into any group you apply to, roll Paladin. Healdins are arguably better than Priests in a lot of ways, and their buffs are incredible.

If you want a class thats easy to play and hard to master, go with Hunter. Bad Hunters were group-breaking, but good Hunters were a godsend. I would pick a great Hunter over an overgeared Rogue or Mage every time.

Shamans are like Paladins but marginally worse in most regards. Cleansing Totem and a few other abilities are pretty spicy, but if you want to play a class that gets shoved into the healer role, go with Paladin instead.

Shhhhhh, let them be wrong. Dont try to correct them. I dont want more people rolling Druid and competing with me for my gear.

5

You plan on playing and maining druid when it rolls around?

6

Yep. My very first character was a Druid, and I plan on having my first one in Classic be one too.

7

Hunter:

Weapon Skill means nearly nothing during leveling and that’s when you’ll be using bows. Every endgame weapon minus Rhok’Delar is a crossbow.

Nitpicking but Aimed/Arcane share a cooldown. You can get the ZG trinket that resets cooldown on Aimed/Multi/Volley though, and that way you can chain up two multishots back to back for massive damage.

Pet AI seemed a lot better in the demo. Lupos probably won’t be doing shadow damage in Classic, and BT is only decent in PVP against casters.

You can be easily be top 5 dps in MC and top 10 in BWL if you know what you’re doing, as well as topping charts in dungeons because multishot in OP in there. Prove people you aren’t a huntard and that you are reliable to CC with trap/take pressure off healer/kite/etc.

There’s little competition in dungeons for pre-raid BiS and nearly none in raids. Most of your BiS items are hunter prio prior to Naxx. Don’t expect to get Accuria/DFT though.

Consider it a pro or a con. It allows you to do amazing things when you master the class.

–
Regarding the other classes, expect to heal in PVE as them. Paladin are always welcome due to their blessings, and shamans are always in high demand for raids.

8

Just to add to this, people didnt bring Hunters for their damage. They brought Hunters because they had incredible utility, and a good Hunter was able to make full use of all of it. Tranq Shot, traps, various pet abilities, kiting adds away from the group, Scare Beast, etc. Hunters had so much crazy stuff they could do, and just about every group was happy to have a good one, regardless of his damage output.

A Hunter who knew his class inside and out was worth two of any other pure DPS class.

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was saying +5 to the pros because it was a bow using class, not cause weapon skills. i would never play a troll, who tf wants their feet always showing

10

My first serious character ever was a Druid.

My first and primary character come Classic will be Druid primarily because I enjoy most every facet of the game. I will heal, tank and kitty my way to max level depending on what is needed and what I am in the mood for. The lore is deep, the leveling is extremely efficient and there should be very little gear competition at the higher levels.

Concerning raiding, I find that raid healing is a more engaging, dynamic and unpredictable experience than DPSing. While virtually every dps class is spamming one button, I will need to make split-second decisions as to which heal I need to use.

Then my heals will be sniped by a pally spamming flash of light, but that’s how it goes.

11

Reasonable logic. I am rolling Druid day one & therefore maining it. Like you, I enjoy the world aspect of Classic. As a druid, the world is your oyster. “Jack of all trades, master of none” argument is not accurate. Druids are masters of the world with their mobility, kiting, and healing. They are fantastic flag carriers which in its own merits an entire meta. They are extremely solid in WPvP and can hold their own quite well.
It is premier class if you want to party up and roll around with your mates. Paladins are neat, but when they are healing, they cannot do much else. A druid can still wreck even as resto whilst keeping your buddies alive. Who cares about PVE performance, really. Be the best druid, not the best class. Have fun!

12

it comes down to if you want to be a healer, healer, healer or dps.

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13

If you are unsure, roll them all and just play whichever you end up enjoying the most.

14

Ill be back playing enhc for sure. Joined a classic guild already and ive got eye of sulfuras reserved :slight_smile: hopefully it drops early on. Enhc was so satisfying to play in vanilla. Ill be hesling the raids tho.

15

I played feral druid all through vanilla. I think this time around I’m either doing a mage, shaman, or priest.

16

Not sure how paladin being alliance only and shaman being horde only is a con. I would say it makes those classes more unique.

17

Here is the stereotypes if you wanted those.

Paladin - For betas
Hunter - For idiots
Druid - For whiners
Shaman - For edgelords (should rogue be unavailable)

18

Ok. You want a self-reliant class with a mana bar, easy to solo or group, that doesn’t have sucky specs and works well in both pve and pvp and doesn’t have a “stigma” attached to it.

So you want to play mage. (Not joking)

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19

Just be reading your original post.
You had very few cons with shamans.
Your also pro-Horde it seemed.

Sounds like you already have your mind made up.

Shaman.

I think you didn’t give Paladins a fair pro/con ratio, but I’m pretty bias when it comes to Paladins.

20

Agree with this and.