Spec-race combination help - I'm stuck

Community General Discussion
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Background: I am a longtime WoW player who quit about 8 years ago and am just coming back to the game. I am also coming back as a very casual player - I’m not interested in mythic+ or raiding. Given my playtime I want to experience leveling the classes, and some light PvP, dungeons, etc.

In SL I am going to organize my alts and also expand to playing alliance. I also want to utilize the allied races, but I have never played any of them. My goals are as follows:

  • Make one of each spec with roughly equal number on each faction - especially tanks/healers
  • Match race/spec based on racials*, appearance**, lore/roleplay***
    (* indicates how much i care)

General constraints

  • Avoid having the same race more than once for each class
  • No new Blood Elves (I have too many already)

Example: I am going to faction change my druid to NE - because A NE resto druid fits really well aesthetically and lore-wise. I have about 80% of my characters planned out - but am struggling with a few specs.

Since we’re all just waiting for the prepatch, I thought some people from the community might have some opinions. Below is what I am struggling with. Thanks for any advice!

Shadow Priest:
Constraints: Not BE
Current thoughts: I am stuck between Forsaken, Worgen, and Void Elf. Forsaken and Void Elf both work for the darkness factor, however I do already have Affliction warlock set for Void Elf (which is similar in that regard). I also don’t have any Worgen solidly planned.

Holy Priest:
Constraints: Not BE
Current thoughts: My first character in WoW (and longtime main) used to be a Forsaken priest (roughly holy through the years). The character still exists as a Blood Elf though, but this could be a tribute to her as Forsaken. Otherwise same as Shadow priest.

Frost Mage:
Constraints: Not BE, not Nightborne
Current thoughts: I really have very few ideas here. I played a Forsaken mage in TBC, I could remake her.

Assassination Rogue:
Constraints: Not BE, Not Kul’Tiran
Current thoughts: Basically zero ideas - I have never really gotten into assassination.

Ret Paladin:
Constraints: Not BE, not Lightforged Draenei, not Tauren
Current thoughts: No ideas, I don’t think I enjoy them much as a spec.

Resto Shaman:
Constraints: Not Dark Iron/dwarf, not Zandalari/troll
Current thoughts: I was thinking Vulpera, and I think that works lore wise right? Nomads in the desert would be in-tune with the elements, especially rain, hence resto shaman.

Monks - all specs:
Constraints: One spec will be panda at least.
Current thoughts: I just… Don’t really like monks, but I will make all 3.

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Void elf is a natural fit for shadow priest. Zandalari are fantastic Paladins with their customizable racial trait, pterodactyl helping with mobility, and just generally looking awesome. Those are the ones I have an opinion on, otherwise I’d just be listing troll for everything.

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My input is in regard to your shadow priest.

My recommendation is that you select Void Elf as you’ve advised it matches the class thematically, but also tends to be a stunner when it comes to how they appear with cloth transmogs.

Just as a general note; no such thing as too many blood elves. :wink:

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Memes aside, give Human a try, if you’re approaching this from a lore and RP perspective.

Despite how most people boringly roll Paladins for their Humans, Humans are a very diverse race you could easily tie to any class in the game.

And both genders look great in armor. Male Humans look good in everything, because all armor in the game is designed on Male Human models.

My Human is a Hunter. She was born right after the second war to a family of hunters in the foot hills of Elwynn. Since the area was still hostile due to the fleeing Orc bands, she learned how to survive and respect the wilds. Thus shes a Hunter to me.

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I do really love Blood Elves lore-wise, looks-wise, and TBC was when I really came into wow. As it stands right now though, I have 5 Blood Elves…

If I made the spriest a void elf, I would probably not want to also make a void elf affliction warlock - thoughts on that?

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Affliction warlock would be lovely for void but can thematically be applied to many other classes.

Orc particularly I feel has a strong affinity for affliction. Perhaps an Orc or human that was previously within the Shadow Council, still has a knack for inflicting pain but has chosen a new lot in life.

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I’ll admit that I’ve always been interested in humans as a race, even back in Vanilla days. I do like their females, because they look more “real” (like… closer to my body type).

I suppose I didn’t think of it, but Assassination Rogue might fit really well with what is it, MI:6?

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How do you plan to play so many characters and also casually play this game?

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Personally I wouldn’t make a Worgen any kind of caster. It just feels wrong.

Of the three you’re leaning to I’d say forsaken. Shadow is their primary religion and they look sick in robes.

Void Elf. Drown out the whispers of the void by bathing yourself in light.

Either kind of Draenei works here. Draenei have been using the arcane since before the races of Azeroth even existed.

And I’m not talking about the species as a whole. I’m talking about the specific individual you’re playing.

Assassination is all about poisons, bleeds, and generally slow death. If you don’t gave any other opinions, then a Mag’har orc with a shattered hand skin works.

Zandalari. They look great in plate and aren’t a standard issue Silver Hand paladin

Any race class combination available in game (and a few dozen not available in game) works fine. I would do Vulpera anyways just because a water based shaman in the desert sounds rad.

Wind Walker: Forsaken. Punchy dead guy is just too cool a concept.

Brewmaster: Pandaren. Normally I wouldn’t do panda monk at all but you insisted and brewmaster seems the most fitting.

Mist weaver: Orc. Female Orcs look great in leather. This is just a fact.

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SI:7. Stormwind Intelligence.

And yes, a Human Rogue would fit in perfectly with that theme. The SI:7 are the spies, assassins and saboteurs of The Alliance.

And are responsible for a majority of The Alliances military success.

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I used to be very non-casual. I raided weekly on at least two characters Vanilla - wrath, and did a LOT of PvP on two others. I was never a true “tryhard”, but was always in progression semi-hardcore guilds. Almost all of my current 80+ alts were made late in Wrath or maybe early in Cata before I quit.

I had to stop playing in my second year of uni - I didn’t have time whatsoever. Now I’ve been out of college for a while and am married, etc, etc; I have some time to play on weekends and such.

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All the military might in the world won’t help if your intel is crap.

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I’d go worgen on the assassination rogue. Tess Graymane is a rogue and so is Lorna Crowley, and they just fit the theme of sulking around in dark corners and sneaking very well, plus since they have a wolf’s sharp senses, they make sense as spies.

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I am a casual player who mainly explores, quests, crafts, ect and ignores end game until I can solo it. These are my only strong opinions and they are based solely on what I think ‘feels’ right:

Shadow Priest: Worgen because they are all dark and moody

Assassination Rogue: Gnome because littleness=added sneak ability to me

Ret Paladin: I tried four different Draenei/class/spec combo character and ended up deleting all of them. One of them even earned two achievements from seven years ago for me and made it to lvl 65 but was still deleted. Finally a week or so ago, I created a Draenei Ret Paladin and everything clicked. Out of nine characters, she has already become my third highest (lvl 107) because I enjoy playing her so much. I strongly recommend the combo.

Monks: I tried this one (one of my Draenei characters and she was hot!) but the punching a bear in the nose thing just killed my suspension of disbelief and, therefore, my immersion. I recommend starting with one and seeing how the overall monk concept works for you first.

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Shadow Priest: Void Elf. Priestly void stuff is kind of their whole bag, the race was basically written to be a priest.

Holy Priest: Lightforged Draeni. They are literally infused with the light. Their little glowing sigils will match the spells perfectly.

Frost Mage: As you said, Forsaken. It fits perfectly. Before the Forsaken, they were from Lorderon, a human kingdom with strong arcane tradition.

Assassination Rogue: Human seems the obvious fit - pretty much every evil rogueish faction in WoW is human-dominated

Ret Paladin: Zandalari - first off, they look freaking awesome in Paladin gear, and also they are badass paladins of the last great Troll empire

Resto Shaman: You said Vulpera, but playing through Vol’Dun I don’t remember a single mention of elements or even a single clearly Shamanistic Vulpera NPC. Orcs are the classic shamans though - choose that. Thrall set the standard, you really cannot go wrong with an orc.

Brewmaster Monk: Pandaren - this is the only race that even remotely makes sense lorewise for a brewmaster. The only other race that makes any sense for this are the dwarves.

Mistweaver Monk: Night Elf. Mistweaving is obviously a very Pandaren thing, but Night Elf makes sense for it thematically more than other races

Windwalker monk: Trolls are always doing that capoeira dancing, so its safe to assume that they have some sort of background in the martial arts. Plus, their animations are really cool for this spec.

By the way, if you actually accomplish this you are insane.

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This would also let me use their skinning racial - skinning/LW works fine for a rogue I think, or even just skinning/anything/ AND it’s sort of like also doing a human rogue at the same time. I think I like this idea.

Plus Arugal in Shadowfang Keep is sort of a Shadow Priest + Warlock, but I think I agree with others; Worgen feel more physical than caster to me.

I don’t really know much about the Zalandari Trolls - do they actually have paladins lore-wise? I didn’t even think of Night Elves for mistweaving. One issue I keep having is, the original Vanilla races feel sort of weird being any of the newly added classes. Like, I am a huge classic/vanilla/lore fan, and there are no mistweaving Night Elves - they are pretty much druids, priests, and hunters.

I do actually intend to do this - it will give me a LOT to do in SL. What’s even crazier is that I am going to do each expansion, in chronological order (wtf do i do for WoD???) on separate characters, while also matching the spec to the expansion. For example, Demo warlock really feels like either TBC or Legion. Lightforged Draenei Holy Paladin is made for legion. Highmountain Tauren bear Druid for vanilla/cata zones.

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Zandalari Paladins have been in the game since Mists Of Pandaria - some of the Lorewalker Cho cinematics talk about them (they are called Prelates in Zandalari culture), and you can find relics about Zandalari Paladins. Their connection to the light is through the power of their Loa, who channels the light through them. In fact, because Zandalaris come from the most ancient kingdom on Azeroth, you could say they were the first paladins!

As for vanilla race monks - remember that the lore for any race that’s not a pandaren being a monk is that they trained under the Pandaren. I mean, you could make an identical lore argument about any non-pandaren race being a monk, to be honest.

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That’s a really interesting point. I’ll have to look into that more. I am definitely light on trolls, mostly because of looks, but also that I’m not as interested in their lore as much in general.

That’s also a perfect point about monks, and that would afford me another NE. Though that would give me two NE healers, that i would probably pvp with. If NE still have the quickness racial that actually fits well with monks.

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Understandable, but you excluded Lightforged and BE and Tauren - that leaves the Dwarves and humans. Dwarf paladins are really cool - especially a dark iron. That’d be my 2nd choice.

Another thing to understand about mistweavers in particular is that they are not only masters of their personal chi, but they channel the power of the wild gods (Loa for trolls, Ancients for Night Elves, and Celestials to Pandaren) to create the healing mists. So really, thematically any race that has a connection to the Wild Gods would be appropiate for a MW. That would include: Tauren, Night Elf, Pandaren, any Troll, and Kul Tirans.

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Crazy that this is a sentence that can be accurate, given most video games have a shelf life of like a few months for most people, or like 2-3 years for the ultra-dedicated who play nonstop until a sequel comes.

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