Need alt help (roleplay/immersion related)

Cenarion Circle and Sisters of Elune
1

Hey folks: Once prepatch/servers are finally back up I was planning on making the first of my Shadowlands alts. As a tiny bit of background I’m planning to make alts for every spec in the game, across as many races as I can while trying to match races/specs together as best I can. I am also matching races/specs to a leveling experience and I am doing those leveling experiences in order: cata --> TBC --> wrath… This is no small feat to plan, and I’m sort of stuck on what to make first for my alliance characters.

A few stipulations: I don’t have any Alliance characters yet, and I’m starting fresh on a new server. I recently decided that the human frost mage I had planned works a little better to level in WotLK, so I need a new initial alliance character.

  • Ideally a spec that solos reasonably well, as I will be needing to do some of the Allied Race unlocking on it.
  • My initial Horde alt is going to be a Highmountain Guardian Druid
  • If possible I want to alternate between melee and ranged specs and group roles between my alts. My second alliance alt is going to be a holy paladin.
  • I need to be able to justify the class/race in the vanilla/cata zones

My options:

  1. Night Elf Mistweaver Monk
  2. Night Elf Resto druid with balance flavor
  3. Worgen Assassination Rogue

The rogue is somewhat uninteresting to me, but it’s the last one I have slotted for cata leveling on alliance that doesn’t require allied races to be unlocked.

Questions:

  1. Between the druid and monk, which will have an easier time questing at higher levels? (not at all concerned about speed).
  2. Between all three options, which is more fun to play while leveling (dungeons/soloing/BGs). At heart I’m an old-time wow player, so I don’t like classes that are too simple - I like challenging rotations and gameplay.

Thanks for any advice!

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I don’t know if you have made any decisions yet, but I find the easiest classes to play are the ones you enjoy. Also keep in mind that some things have changed, so all the classes are going to be a little bit different. Why not do one of each and decide which one you prefer?

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Well there’s a few issues: i haven’t played in 8 years, so i don’t really know them. Also, I’m making one of each spec - this is just about what to do first.

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BLUF: No matter which you choose, if your content is just leveling, the content will not feel supremely challenging, as the game is now based on endgame. You’ll need to find your challenge through role ambiguity (i.e. dealing damage as a healer). Fistweaver monk will provide the greatest challenge. Druid will have an easier time questing at higher levels due to their form versatility. Between monk, rogue, and druid, all three specs you’ve chosen are complicated, but I think you’d have the most fun in group content with the druid, again due to versatility and the expansiveness of their toolkit.

DISCUSSION: I haven’t delved too much into druid these days, but my main is a monk. Both Mistweaver and Resto Druids do very decent damage output despite being healer specs, so questing won’t be too slow. The druid gives you a wide range in toolkit if you want to change things up with their different forms, and being able to quest while in flight form is a huge bonus. Being able to stealth while in War Mode is also an excellent tactic to escape gankers (it won’t always work, but it’s better than being in plain view).

The druid with balance flavor is going to be difficult to master, as their healing style requires pre-emptive HoTs without burning through mana (iow, you need to know when damage is coming. It does not specialize in reactionary healing).

Monk is more melee focused instead of the ranged resto, and if you’re looking for an extra challenge, you can attempt the Fistweaving healing style, which requires you to handle HoT management on your allies while dealing damage in melee range and avoiding melee mechanics. If you’re not great at the melee dance, or a fight continuously requires you to get off the mobs, you won’t get your kicks in to replenish your mana.

Sin rogue is all about bleed and dot management, so it is a spec that requires a lot of attentiveness, especially in dungeons with AoE. I loved rogue for open world questing, as I found I could skip a lot of needless killing just by sneaking around things, sapping them, and taking what I needed.

1 Like
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Thanks for the thoughtful reply! I am going with monk first i think, because i need to play through bfa on alliance to get allied races (and the resto druid is slotted for cata leveling).

That’s all really good to know. I’ve been healing since i started wow in 2005, so i think I’ll give fistweaving a try. I have zero experience with monks really, so it’s very exciting