I havent played in quite while. Im going to play as new vulpera when they come out (still work to do there) and i been looking at their class options. 3 i narrowed it down to was hunter rogue and lock (maybe warrior dunno). How do they compare soloing and in content where its bit tricker to survive? Pretty casual player, i just was curious which has good time doing content that doesnt have alot of down time or can handle trickier situations.
Hunter and lock are the two best dps solo questing classes in the game with pet tanks. Lock is the least likely to die because they have on demand healing with healthstones and channeling drain life. Locks can take down elite bosses that would kill all the other dps classes.
Rogues are okay but not nearly as good as locks and hunters solo questing. Rogues get to sneak past mobs to quest objectives so that’s a bonus. Stealth is fun. Rogues always have at least one top tier spec in end game dungeons and raids.
I love my lock and rogue they are very fun and two of my mains. Hunter is easier to play well compared to lock and rogue, so I find hunter a little boring. They Will redesign classes in the new expansion in a year or so.
Read through the icy veins class guides talents and rotations to see what looks interesting. Check out the you tube video guides too. If you buy BFA, you can also make 110 trial characters of every class to test them.
BM Hunter is a good choice for a solo class, especially once you get the ability to tame “exotic” pets and can grab a Spirit Beast, which comes with the 30s cd “Spirit Mend”, and the Tenacity defensive talent “Survival of the Fittest”, adding a high level of survivability to the class. Between those, as well as the class’s own defensive Aspect of the Turtle and self-heal Exhilaration, plus their uniquely high mobility (BM Hunters are the only rdps class who can consistently cast while moving), BM Hunter is probably the #1 recommended class for solo leveling.
Warlocks are also a good choice, with their Voidwalker pets for tanking, and the ability to siphon life from their enemies. Their biggest strength is their damage over time effects and burst damage, although the latter relies largely on abilities with lengthy cooldowns.
Rogues have never been one of my favorite classes. They have a comparatively high amount of downtime in their rotation, and their self-healing is incredibly limited, even compared to Warlocks. Their strength is their front-end burst damage, utilizing sneak attacks to quickly incapacitate their enemies before opening up on them. This is also a weakness, as any enemy that doesn’t die within the timeframe of the Rogue’s opener is liable to kill them instead unless there is someone or something else around to take the focus off of the Rogue.
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Between hunter and lock, I would give the nod to lock by a not very big margin.
Locks have a turret play style. they stand in one place and cast while being very tough to kill.
I dearly love being able to do all my dps on the run as a BM hunter however. Seems to make the game go faster.
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Thanks for replies, got me to know little more of the 3. Yeah and its on sale i think 20 off so be good time to get it. Yeah for hunter it would be bm most likely. Also i agree when i seen others in group lock looked cool with all the spells and demons flying over place, and i seen quite few bms in legion cause i always seen two pets. Rogue i know least bout but i have had friend (he quit) who mained a rogue. He always did this wierd fly up in air skill xD. Yeah soloability is something i enjoy. Also stealth was tempting as well cause if i need to kill something at x it would save me from killing 4 y’s lol. However no pets i figure would been harder. Wish i had time to run more than 1 class, thats what made me have to stop, with other stuff i just couldnt bounce between classes like i used to.
Affliction locks have 3 instant cast dots (agony, corruption, siphon life). We run around the zone doting all the mobs, and eventually stop (so they don’t get out of their spawn range) to finish them off. Very good mobility.
We can handle a bigger pile of mobs than a hunter because they will be half or almost dead by the time they get to us. We can also tank mobs better with drain life while pet is dead.
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I mainly play outlaw, and always do so in the open world. We are the best spec in the game in mythic + dungeons. The top dps by a large margin (see Warcraft logs). We don’t rely on any stealth openers and have amazing aoe with blade flurry. Outlaw is one of the top fastest specs in the game in terms of attacks per minute. No downtime while in combat. Great mobility with sprint and grappling hook.
There is so much utility to escape any situation, you have vanish (stealth in combat), stuns (gouge and between the eyes), blind (1 min cc like a sheep), distract, etc. we also have a crimson vial heal, cloak of shadows, and evasion, but the heal is a 30 sec cd.
I forgot about affliction Ana. Been having fun with Destro this expansion which also has a couple of moving spell casts.
Which is why I qualified my statement with the term “consistently”. Aff Locks still have to stand still to cast their non-dot spells, a restriction that does not apply to BM Hunters. All caster classes have at least a few instant-cast spells or other abilities which allow them to temporarily move while casting, but only BM Hunter is completely free of the restriction of cast times on all of their abilities. My BM Hunter can literally do backflips (Disengage) out of range from a target, and still be attacking via her pet.
In terms of overall mobility, Hunter is the #1 rdps, hands down.
I agree BM hunter is the only 100% mobile spec. I forgot to mention I can cast my dots at mobs while running the other direction there is no facing required. Huge pulls. So I can dot in all directions while running and you can only aim one way.
If I’m running away with a mob dotted it’s kinda like you disengaging with your pet still attacking.
My three instant dots will usually do 80-90% of the damage. I pump a few fast cast unstable afflictions into them when I stop near the end. Drain life if they are beating on me. I don’t need to use shadowbolt (cast time and low damage) in the open world unless it’s an elite.
I think it would be cool to see how an affliction lock and BM hunter compare in an open world test.
Thank you for all replies, i been in ptr playing around ( and trying vulpera eeee lol). Of classes i tried, plus few others they had two i ended up liking most was lock and shaman surprisingly lol. Hunter was ok but it just felt, unconnected to me. I mean i did fine it wasnt like it was exciting, even with pet 6 times my size xD. But those two had a kitsune feel to them which really help me connect with the character. Is both of them pretty good end game, or stay decent patch to patch / expansion?
Lock has three different specs that play very differently so great variety. Locks and hunters are the best solo leveling class in the game. In raids. Affliction lock is currently top tier. Elemental shaman is top tier as well. In dungeons, demonology is currently the best lock spec, and elemental shaman is top tier. Keep in mind rankings change with nerfs and buffs.
Shamans are kinda squishy so not nearly as good solo questing compared to locks. It’s still fine just not as easy as lock.
If you know you only want to dps and not heal, lock is probably the better choice because you’ll have 3 dps specs instead of only 2 dps for shaman.
If you know you only want to play ranged dps, elemental shaman is the only option so lock would be better with 3 specs. I find Elemental shaman and all the lock specs fun. Affliction and demo are my fav lock specs. Haven’t played much enhance or resto shaman.
The more specs you play on a class the more variety, the more nerf protection, and the less chance of boredom. Learn all the specs while leveling.
You could level both lock and shaman to 30ish to see what you like best. You’ll have the rotational skills by then. Doesn’t take too long to get to 30. Maybe someday you’ll have both at 120 like me. You can also watch some you tube guides on both classes.
In addition, i recommend the nug combo bar addon for tracking soul shards, runes, combo points, icicles, chi, etc. google “nug combo bar” first link from curseforge
It’s a small hoizontal bar with 5 circles that light up indicating how many soul shards you have, and you can move it. I dragged it directly under my characters feet.
I recommend weak auras 2 for tracking dots, buffs, cd’s, resources, etc. it’s one of the most popular addons in WoW.
I made horizontal bars of different colors for tracking dots. Here is an example how to make them we’ll use the agony dot. It’s fast and easy.
/wa to open weak auras 2. then click the following
New, from template, horizontal bar, debuffs, agony,
Pick your bar color, scroll down and change the width and height. I use 220, 15
Drag the bar under your chars feet of wherever you want.
Repeat for all your dots. For affliction, I have four dot bars under my character. Unstable affliction, agony, corruption, siphon life. Although you don’t always have siphon life in your build it’s a talent.
The bars allow you to immediately see how much time is left on each dot on the enemy you have targeted, you see the colored bars draining down, much better than Icons IMO.
For destruction lock immolate. Elemental shaman flame shock, BM hunter barbed shot
I also make resource horizontal bars for every character. Click resources instead of the other categories in the weak aura creation process. . when your making the weak auras . Elemental shamans would be maelstrom, dk runic power, mages, locks, and priests Mana, rogues and monks energy, warriors rage, etc.
Thanks for all help. Yeah i have no intention to heal, i been on ptr testing bout all classes they can be. Kind of fun seeing how all classes feel and act. All classes i used play in past they cant be xD so im treading in open wayer, esp with changes since legion. Shame i lost out on so many mage skins but lifes first.
There is a possibility dks might open up for them too which thays case i might roll that but nothing confirmed. I know so far what i tried out, monk seems like fun tho its only 1 dps spec and i know that can sting when going patch to patch. Tho ut was fun watching a 2ft character fist fight something 8 times their size i was rolling in laughter. Hunter is ok with pet, i love pets which was main draw to hunter. So like mark i wouldnt do cause i heard it pushes a lone wolf. Survival tho, it feels wierd. Lock i actually didnt like affliction much, it seemed like too much to micromanage which is one of reasons i dropped feral yrs go, and it didnt really feel fun. Tho demo was fun as heck and destro had nice rhythm between chaos and incinerates. Rogue was tricky one,like sin i did fine, sub completly lost me xD, and outlaw felt rng like ill be fine one second then next im fighting to do rotation. Im sure its probally new class rookieness kicking in. I guess tho every class has that one spec im like eh to playing which i dont know if that will hurt in long run, sometimes i hate how picky i can be xD.
i like hunter!