Hey ya’ll so I haven’t been active much on the forums or in the rp scene in general on MG. I have done a little on WrA, but my main server is MG. Anyways what is your thoughts about people rping something that is different from their class? For example I have a character idea in my head about making a character who is an ice cream vendor. Probably wouldn’t be on my hunter though, would probably be on a mage I am leveling up, but still. I also have a character who is a tailor, but is played on a warlock. Who ic she isn’t a warlock, but I have had people try to shame her IC for being a warlock if I have her demon out for one reason or another. So like even if there is a note in the profile that says like not a warlock IC, is it just assumed that because someone is a set class that they have to be ic that class?
I go by the class people put in their TRP profile. Hell, at this point half the fun of making a profile (for me) is coming up with a class. My profile’s class is never the actual class just because the game is so old that I find that a bit bland.
For example Sefa here is a ‘thief’ while my WrA version of her has always been a ‘preservationist’.
I wish there was a proper thief class but there really isn’t. Rogue is close, of course.
My goblin shaman is a ‘spirit broker’ and my KT druid here is a poet. The Goblin has their shaman training but their main gig in life is grifting people. The Kul Tiran has been a druid for decades, served his people fighting in Drustvar etc. but they made their fortune in the arts.
I say do whatever you want, you can sure as hell be an ice cream vendor on MG – everyone loves ice cream :0
I find it boring when people don’t roleplay something unique. There’s no reason you can’t be a class your character isn’t; imagine how boring it’d be if we restricted only to the main classes and didn’t have tailors, barbers, nurses, etc.
People who get mad that your character IC is not your character OOC should be put onto an iceberg and pushed into the sea.
TRP (if thats what you’re using) has the option to put in a custom class for a reason, go ham! If someone is trying to shame your character for being a warlock either they didn’t read your profile first or they ignored it, and either way they’re a jerk.
I use Myroleplay which isn’t as advance as TRP, but it does have the option to change the class on profiles. I have used it for years, never could really get the hang of TRP. In any case I am glad to see rping as something not your game class is something people do and seems like it is the norm? I just wanted to see what people thought of it.
RP wotchu want. Anyone who says anything negative about it can go pound sand.
The classes, even when they’re specifically acknowledged in the game, are above all a product of game mechanics.
I’ve always thought calling yourself a “warrior” or a “rogue” like it was an actual profession and not just a description that could fit anyone was a bit silly. We’re pretty much all warriors. Many of us are rogues. Whether you’re a sturdy sort that swings a big sword or a sneaky sort that prefers daggers isn’t really what defines a character, so feel free to specify that you’re a thief or a gladiator or a pirate instead.
The classes can also be limiting with their rigidness and lack of overlap. Over the last almost 16 years, Talanor here has been a priest, druid, and (currently) monk (I literally have three versions of him spread across two servers), and I’ve always RPed him as a sort of loose hybrid of those concepts, so in TRP I call him a “sage”, for lack of a better word.
What do you mean not my class?
Do I look like some rainbow haired warrior who doesn’t wear plate armor and casts and uses shadows to her advantage!
Herecy! /giggles
I actually have a frost mage ice cream vendor myself! 
People really like the gimmick and there’s definitely a few of us “snackromancers” kicking around! My main RP toon is a bard who’s a priest and most people have no clue what class he is mechanically until they ask or see me use a spell.
If you’re not too fussed with doing content on your character I say go for whatever class has spells that compliment your RP best. Frost mage is a perfect idea for your ice cream vendor because you can make tables to sell your goods, make it “rain” ice cream with a blizzard spell, show that your character is freezing with an ice barrier, etc. etc. Get creative and see what cool ways you can use toys and spells to really make your character pop!
Absolutely RP what you want. My main is a noodle shop vendor and caterer. She has a background in being a monk (all Pandaren learn the martial arts) and can throw down if need be. But she is essentially an NPC vendor.
Most of my characters fall into this category. There is nothing wrong with RPing your class, and there is nothing wrong with going far off from that. Having an add-on like TRP3 that allows to to change this description for other RPers to see (most RP realms use this for RP) is a big help.
Class is just an aid to the fantasy. A warrior class can be role-played several ways: private auxiliary, local militia, independent adventurer, mercenary or serving soldier, for example. Or you can be a baker who’s just damn good at cracking heads with a rolling pin.
And I for example also have a priest who I role-play as a doctor. Like, not a healer from a holy order, but a private practice doctor. Its just priest had not only the spell flavour but the mogs to make it work.
Adding onto what the others said, your character doesn’t have to have a ‘class’ at all. ‘Class’ is a system based on the video game aspect of WoW but roleplay doesn’t abide by systems. Instead, it’s meant to be a representation of day-to-day society in the Warcraft Universe, where the vast majority of people wouldn’t even qualify as one of the class titles (Warrior, Mage, Hunter, etc).
At the end of the day, the vast majority of people roleplay as a class because they want to live out that fantasy – which is why we see so many Illidari, Ebon Knights, Warlocks, etc, in cities but the reality is that most of these hub locations would most likely just be filled with civilians and laborers and most people aren’t interested in roleplay as or with common folk.
So, as others said, you should just roleplay as whatever you want. Some people may not like it depending on what you choose, but roleplay is limited only by imagination.
My Class: Commoner! Just your average, run of the mill citizen with hopes and dreams and so very thankful to live in a world of heroes who fight to keep us all safe!
My character is a Marine - but I play him on two different toons/classes: my rogue and my warrior. I attribute the difference in gear to just differences in kits/load outs depending on the mission.
Id probably add Hunter to that (no reason a Marine wouldn’t also be a proficient Marksman), but I really enjoy the gnome tinker RP that I do on my hunter and don’t want to level that separately, so I just carry a rifle with me on my Warrior if I ever want to shoot a deer or a fox or whatever.
I also RP my Mage and Priest both as Tidesages. I wish Blizzard would give us glyphs to change spell animations to water/lightning effects.
See I’m over here playing my shaman as a more martial focused frost mage
But you know, dps queues man
All my characters have “unique” classes. I feel like wow is too big a world for everyone to just be a hunter or a mage or something, which there’s nothing wrong with that, I just like to create something ‘new’ per se by either combining classes or going off of lore to create a different spec. For example, my character Autumnmist is an Astromancer. My character Windsinger is an Arcane Huntress (sort of like spellblade alluriel but ranged) etc. it’s fun to mess around with new ideas and create stuff that people might not have seen before. Sure I get messages saying “that’s not in lore blah blah” but I ignore those people because they don’t want to let other people have an imagination (((: there’s nothing lore breaking about a hunter that also knows arcanomancy, and there was literally an Astromancer boss in Legion! As long as it isn’t game breaking like making your character a literal Titan, it’s all fair game imo.
We have plenty of people in our guild that have more than one class for their character. It doesn’t make sense to me that as a Paladin I could never pick up a bow and learn to use it. Plus, MOGS! So yes, sometimes my Paladin is on a warrior. But in events, she is still using the Light. We have people that have been unique classes, like Battlemage. But they have RPed out a lot of training to learn magic as a warrior. It doesn’t happen overnight.
My only suggestion is to stick with what you are trying and give it a solid effort. I think people make up these ‘unique’ characters to try and get interactions and when it doesn’t instantly garner walks ups or whatever, the toon/concept is tossed away.
And there is nothing wrong with being a boring human paladin or other standard class either. You may find that those characters exist because they have been around the longest and do have some of the most unique stories to tell because they RPed through it. It wasn’t just made up at character creation.