What class / spec, if any, requires a little thought to do well?

I’m just burning out so hard on the game in recent expansions. Ever since WoD, class design has been different, with many classes I used to enjoy being simplified so much that they just become auto pilot and no longer fun (I also don’t find the raids or M+ particularly challenging) – I quit the game from WoD to DF for that reason, coming back because of the proper talent system.

That said, I haven’t played EVERY class / spec, so is there one that takes a little thought to do well on? Or something with so much RNG that you really have to be paying attention to do anything on?

I want to enjoy WoW, because no other MMO has enough content for me, but it’s just all auto pilot lately, and becoming unfun.

Two DPS I’ve found are decent are BM Hunter (frenzy stack monitor + beast cleave) and Demonology Warlock (5 dps skills and 2 cooldowns). Retribution Paladin ive heard is easy but I haven’t played it myself enough to know for sure.

For tank Guardian is not bad. I play Blood DK and find it pretty easy.
For healing Restoration Shaman is a good option.

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Uh, I’m looking for the opposite of easy.

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Oh i misread your title! D:

They all become easy after a bit - cause of muscle memory.
There isn’t a perma-hard spec IMO.

Any of the Monk specs?

Outlaw rogue, enhancement shaman, arcane mage, unholy DK for dps. On the tank side, I’d say brewmaster monk, but you really should play VDH this season.

For healers, I like the toolkit and versatility of the resto shaman, but I main one and I don’t necessarily believe it is difficult to play. I feel that healer difficulty mostly comes from the groups you’re in, not from the class itself.

For healers it’s Disc and Resto Druid imo. Both require you to plan and set up for damage ahead of time and that requires a fair bit of knowledge to make use of. Not that the other healers don’t, but you don’t live and die by it on a Paladin or Shaman the same way Disc and RDruid do.

WW is pretty easy, there are just a lot of buttons and the caveat is you don’t want to use any ability twice in a row if you can help it

Every spec requires a little thought to do “well” imo, it’s just more relative to your idea of where “well” is (IE: do you think a blue parse is doing well or do you think purple is the benchmark of well? Personally I think well starts at purple and everything before that is pure learning/gearing phase).

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Disc was hard but this and last season made it pretty accessible. Atonement’s a lot easier to keep up.

Resto druid I admit I haven’t tried in a bit, do they still play the treant set? If not I found them initially hard to get into cause layering

And yeah rogue I guess would be the hardest of dps to madter

only dps I’ve ever found hard in this game is snapshotting bleeds on a feral druid, nothing else is even close

Fire mage is very high skill and takes a lot of time to learn.

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Well I’ve found Subtlety rogue takes some understanding to play. I mean i can play outlaw and assassin and understand what I’m doing real quick but Sub rogue…yeah no clue

I think most Class/Specs have an Easy Mode where you can get by with pressing only two or three buttons for people who prefer that type of game play.

I also think most Class/Specs additionally have a hard, difficult-to-master, Detailed Mode for players who get bored easily and prefer a more active and challenging play style.

Resto Druid and BM Hunter are both great examples:

  • Resto Easy Mode has Moonfire and Sunfire, two great DOTs that you load on a target, then throw some heals, then re-load your DOTs, rinse, repeat.

  • Resto Hard Mode: Load your DOTs, add DPS like Starsurge, etc, then shift into Feral and swipe-claw their face off before shifting back to reload your DOTs, add healing into the mix and you’ve zero down time.

  • BM Hunter Easy Mode: Pet on Auto Cast on all active talents. Rotation is Barbed Shot, Cobra Shot, Kill Command.

  • BM HUNTER DETAILED PRECISION MODE: Turn all pet’s Auto Casts OFF and put them on it’s Action Bar so you can use them At Will, basically using your pet as a weapon (because it is.) Take as many Active talents as possible like Murder of Crows and Barrage (which is a precision skill to use correctly/situationally), while also taking Pet Command Boosters. Macros are helpful because there are tons of active talents to keybind.

Figure out if you want to Tank, Heal, or DPS, then go look at the Class/Spec ACTIVE talents and go with the one that has the most variations and actives. Then play the one that sounds the most challenging and fun.

BM Hunter is also crazy fun because it’s 100% mobile.

I’ll offer up shadow as a spec that can be tricky to manage, and from what I hear monk in general has a fairly high skill ceiling.

Really squishy at higher key levels, though, and not much group utility.

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Priest, either shadow or disc IMO. Arcane mage. Maybe boomkin if you turn off the weakauras for tracking eclipse.

Or just turn off all your weakauras and combat tracking addons in general.

I would try an enhancement shaman.

Or I would play as a purist.

Demo warlock requires some thought, but also isn’t too complicated. The complicated part is summoning an army of demons and then extending their duration with tyrant.

I’ve heard Arcane is nutty to manage.