Trying to decide which class to play in Classic when it launches since I never got to play it originally that much. One thing thats kinda cool to me is class flavor. The thought of playing a Rouge and having to make poisons is really cool. Or Warlocks farming soul stones, or getting 5 Warlocks together and having them summon that big demon, and it eventually goes out of control and kills everyone.
This and PvP are two biggest things im wanting from Classic when it launches. Does anybody have any suggestions on what classes I should look at? I wouldn’t mind being able to heal so I can get into raids but WPvP and that class flavor are my two biggest things.
In terms of flavor, in my honest opinion, every class has the same amount of flavor and you could argue that X class has the most flavor and make a solid point.
As for pvp/pve raid healing, I would have to say priest. Even as shadow spec you will always get groups for dungeons either to heal or dps as a priest. And if you want to heal raids you can always respec to a disc spec that also works for pvp and do just fine.
Another class to look at would be druid. HOTW spec is a great spec for feral Wpvp and you can also heal raids just fine as this spec as you get 20% extra int and druids do have a lot of class flavor obviously with how they are played.
Honestly any healing class would do just fine in pvp and pve, but priest probably would give you the least amount of resistance as you don’t have to farm two different sets of gear and you can heal just fine as shadow spec in dungeons, not to mention their Wpvp is outstanding.
IMO druids are the most flavorful. Cat, bear, moonkin, travel, and aquatic forms give them so much flavor. They’re the only class in the game that can perform four different roles: ranged DPS, melee DPS, healing and tanking. Of course only two of those are really viable in raids (healing and tanking). But some guilds may accept boomkins and kitties if you’re good enough.
And in PvP feral specs and boomkins specs can be very good in the hands of a skilled player.
If nothing changes with classes or respec cost, then definitely stick with Warrior, Priest, Mage, or Rogue. The other classes will be handicapped and it will be too expensive to switch roles.
For any class, you will get the most “flavor” out of the leveling experience and class quests at end game. Taking that into account and ignoring how they stack up against each other competivitly (in both pve and pvp), I think druids, paladins, warlocks, and maybe shamans are your best bet.
Druids because they get an entire zone exclusive to druids early game, and the form quests are quite involved.
Paladin and locks because of the epic mount quests. Locks even more so because every demon is it’s own quest, plus lots of fun flavor at end game (like summoning infernals).
Shaman to a lesser extent because they have quests every few levels to get a new totem.
The others have some flavor here and there, but aside from the warrior zerker stance/ww axe quest chain, all the other class quests pale in comparison to the above imo.
Respecing really isn’t that bad unless you are in a super serious min/max guild and you also want to be super serious pvp at the same time. Also, how are these classes immune to respecs? Warriors? Good luck pvping as fury or prot in a serious group. Mages? Yeah in early patches frost will do you just fine, but once ZG/AQ hits GL with all those respecs just frost to fire. Rogues also don’t pvp and pve in the same spec at all.
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by flavor, but classes in Vanilla are quite distinct; there is none of this “bring the player not the class” junk.
I would advise you to not pick a class based on its likelihood of being invited to a raid. There are 40 raid spots in Vanilla and DK’s, DH’s, and Monks don’t exist; so more spots for less classes. It wasn’t uncommon to have 5 or 6 or more of one class in a raid back then. So pick a class you enjoy playing, if you’re good enough there will be a raid spot for you.
Do you want to heal? If so, why? If it’s because you enjoy healing, then great, roll a healer. But if it’s just so you can get into a raid, don’t. In fact, don’t roll any class that can heal if you are just looking for a raid spot with it.
DPS rotations and raids (mechanically at least) are much simpler in Vanilla compared to retail. If you were a mana user managing your mana was part of playing your class. On Ragnaros I had to use all my mana gems, plus evocation, plus mana potions to sustain my mana through the fight. My actual rotation consisted of Frostbolt and more Frostbolt.
You won’t avoid respec costs if you want to be serious at both PvP and PvE. If you want to do both (and keep respec costs down) I would just PvP with a raid spec. It won’t be optimal, but unless you are running with a serious PvP group it will be fine; there is no ladder or ranking system for PvP in Vanilla.
So what are you saying? Are you trying to tell me that the value someone brings to a raid can be completely measured by damage and healing meters? Because no.
I mean math and reality both do exist. You can quite easily calculate the value of what a hybrid brings in most cases and they quite plainly don’t bring enough value to justify wasting a slot on them.
You try and speak of value from classes like ret who can lay on Hands a tank…but ignore the value from just bringing an additional fury warrior and killing the boss that much faster because it does up to 3x the damage output that the lolret does, while the raid’s healadins all cover all the blessings. The difference is, while the ret’s lay on Hands does give it utility, how many times is it realistically going to make any impact on your fight? That extra damage, however, is useful on every single pull. You try and argue that the ret has utility that makes it viable, even reality is the fury warrior dealing double or even triple the damage is clearly the vastly superior utility.
If you have your mind set on Rogue or Warlock, you’re in trouble. Because they are both very cool classes with plenty of flavor, and if you pick one of them, you’ll be missing out on the other.
No I do not speak of such things. The only thing I said was that druids are viable healers and tanks in raids. I said nothing about the viability of rets. Please don’t put other people’s words in my mouth.
Yes, hybrids usually have to heal in raids. That doesn’t mean they’re not useful. It just means you should probably be OK with healing if you choose to roll a hybrid and you want to raid.
Warlocks had a ton of flavor in Vanilla. Quests at levels 10, 20, & 30 to travel around taming your demons, with both world and dungeon quests mixed in between for various pieces of gear infused with fel energy. The level 40 mount wasn’t much, but was more than made up for by your Infernal quest at 50 and the incredibly involved quests at 60 for both your Dreadsteed & Ritual of Doom.