Less than a week and I still have no idea!
Things I value:
-self-sufficient leveling
-ability to farm gold
-desirability in raids
-engaging rotation
-ability to compete in raid damage and all aspects of PvP
-easier time gearing for raids is a plus but not mandatory
-not particularly interested in healing, tanking I could do but I’d rather DPS
Mage.
/thread
I humbly submit that warlock fits the bill best with the exception of having an “engaging rotation” in raids, when you’ll just be shadowbolt spamming. Fun in PvP though.
Hunter Mage or Warlock
Easy. Mage.
Mages are the worst class in the game for the worst kinds of people, if you’re gonna wear a dress, be a warlock
Mage, Rogue, or Warlock.
Engaging rotation in raid doesn’t exist for dps. Healers it somewhat does, since at least then things are dynamic for you.
The engaging rotation thing I am not so sure about.
With warlock you can essentially just put shadowbolt on a key and press that key during raids.
Of course mage doesn’t seem that engaging rotation either with frost.
I guess rogue or dps warrior would have a few more buttons to mash?
Mage or Lock but this is not an engaging rotation as far as PVE goes lol
Mage is the correct answer. Though it doesn’t tick off engaging rotation. It hits everything else. No other class will come close. Whatever you do, don’t listen to people telling you warlock. Warlocks are terrible until they get amazing gear, and even then they’re still average at everything they do.
warlock is the best for raids and some dungeons with utility, healthstones, summoning, voidwalker for leveling, cc for dungeons with seduce.
Mage is the also good and some great dmg. Have to pay more attn while leveling cause no voidwalker but frost slows too. You also get to make your own water and port. For dumb gold you cna sell water and ports in town. I would also go enchanting tailoring or herb alch. enchanting and alch will be the best money making professions in classic.
Both these classes have good BIG HIT combos mages is better because you can macro it to one key. Warlock does great dmg with less gear compared to mage and some of their gear comes from fewer dungeons. Having a pet is super fun and makes leveling and mob hunting fun with dots and fear. you get life tap and life drain so you do not need much downtime for drinking. Warlock will be less played in raids so getting tier gear will be easy. Play what you want though. Those are my opinions.
I have chose warlock because you get a free lvl 40 mount and can do a quest for the level 60. Also farming elites and big mobs will be easier with the pet.
Enjoy classic!
Hmmm… 0.o
Warlock or mage if you don’t like farming soulshards
Blood elf paladin
So your input was what? Most if not ALL of his DPS choices are single skill spamming in Raids.
Don’t be a mouthbreather.
No need to be rude, Chete 
There was no weighting with regards to his criteria, so it’s difficult to say, but if “engaging rotation” is important, then he’d likely be better off with say any other class. Here’s a more comprehensive answer:
self-sufficient leveling
Hunter, Druid, Lock, Mage
ability to farm gold
Sort of vague here. I suppose since making gold via methods such as using the AH, or profession items don’t require a particular class, this would maybe be better phrased as ability to farm materials, so likely the same as above. Noting that druids do not have to change into human form to farm herbs, for example.
desirability in raids
Since DPS has been noted as a preference, then Mage, Warrior, Rogue would all be desirable for dmg, have good damange. Hunter damage doesn’t scale as well with gear in later raids, but may be desirable for utility. Also lock, shaman for utility.
engaging rotation
Somewhat subjective for what you find engaging, and I’m not familiar with all class and spec rotations. Also, I personally find shaman totems bothersome, rather than engaging, so I feel this is quite a subjective area.
I would imagine though that Warrior, Hunter, Lock, Rogue all have some engaging aspects of their rotations.
ability to compete in raid damage and all aspects of PvP
If raid damage is super important to you, then one thing to consider about mage damage, particularly when Fire is the top spec, is how Ignite works. It’s great if it’s your dmg that all the other mages are contributing to, but less great if it’s not.
Warrior and Rogue dps is quite strong for raids, and they are also quite competitive for PvP.
easier time gearing for raids is a plus but not mandatory
Hunter would be a lot less gear dependent than some other classes, and most likely to be ready for raiding with the least effort.
I disagree, a Warlock has an amazing tool-kit, you can be a glass cannon, outstanding damage and squishy or you can respec and and go head to head with a warrior at close range, sucking life as fast as he can damage and doting everything in the area. You have fears and slows, crowd control through your pets in an instance.
In addition a Warlock is an excellent grinder, most classes have to pause and heal up from time to time, to heal up a Warlock engages the next mob and sucks the life out of him. No down time at all continuous straight run.
You even get a soul Stone which a self rez and you make your own health-pots in the form of a “Health Stone”, made from the soul of one of your enemies.
Your void-walker is one of the best tanks in the game, your succubus is one of the best forms of crowd control in the game, you’re ugly dog does about a third of the damage that you do with the ability to suck buffs off your opponents, you’re imp kicks out fireballs at an astounding rate, also doing about the third of the damage that you do, your infernal is a temporary AOE damaging tank that stuns everything around it when summoned.
I’d say the guy wants a Warlock, I’ve been running this one since Vanilla and have been quite satisfied. Even in Vanilla I could do group quests designed for three players by myself.
I have some bad news about classic…
You don’t disagree with me sir, at least to the extent that we both think he should choose warlock, it is my favorite class and my original main.
It’s true, seduce is useful in instances, and actually especially in 5 mans I feel warlocks shine. It’s still the case that in raids the 16 debuff limit means, quite often, shadowbolt and rain of fire spam.
This is funny. Vanilla used to be referred to as world of roguecraft because rogues were so op and numerous, now i feel there going to be one of the lesser populated classes because everyones staying away from them because too many.