Recommend a WoW character!

[Captain tycho]

Its that time, folks. I've pretty much abandoned my 27 night elf hunter on feathermoon due to boredom, am annoyed at having my 22 UD warlock on Spirestone ganked every 10 seconds, and so forth. I will be playing on feathermoon, as I love the enviroment, but so far, I'm having a tough time deciding on a race and class.
I have yet to try druids, paladins, rogues, shamans, priests, and warriors. I want something that I can level easily, as my playtime is rather limited these days, so I've been leaning towards a rogue, but I have zero idea how good they are later on. I would appreciate some input from ye high level WoW players.

[Ghost Rider]

Rogues are the speed crack melee whores. Very fun class...if you like melee.

Paladins......is .........all............................about..............patience.

Warriors aren't taht bad, but are a bit of the eh side. Pure melee, but not as flashy as the Rogue. Can wear Plate though.

Mages, weak as a feather...lots of firepower.

Druid...mixed bag. Can do loads of stuff, and are nice but are not uber in anything.

For speedy growth?

Strangely Paladin, Warrior or Rogue. Druids need bit of time to become bad ass, as do Shamans. Paladin only later on are the lowest DPS fuckers....with an armor that makes a warrior look naked and healing.. Rogues, can level nicely and with gusto. Warrior an in between medium.

[Azazel]

I love my 28 tauren shaman that I now have on Gilneas.

[Alferd Packer]

I love my 28 tauren shaman that I now have on Gilneas.

I agree; shamans are uber fun.

I played a troll shaman up to 50; I love the class in general, so a shaman would be my recommendation. I wrote a long-ass article just before the game went retail about why I think shaman is an excellent class, so if you want the long answer, I can C&P that.

Short answer, however, is shaman of any variety. I'm partial to trolls, but that's just personal taste.

EDIT: clarity.

[Lord Pounder]

I swear by my Tauren Warrior. But Pallys are pretty cool too.

[Gil Hamilton]

I play a troll warrior. He rules, except for the fact that Blizzard seems to have made warriors useless in most PvP. I can tank huge instances in a single bound though.

I hate Paladins. Hates them! The only consolation is that Paladin is such a no-brain class that complete dumbasses tend to play them, thus can be pretty easy prey.

Rogues are a hella fun class. Amazing amounts of raw physical damage by these guys and a ton of tricks. I don't play 'em, but I welcome them in any party I lead.

Shamans are way too powerful for my taste to play them. I like a challenge after all.

Mages and priests can be very impressive and as a nearly strict warrior player I love priests. If you love doing crazy mad amounts of damage, a mage or a shadow specced priest is the way to go.

Hunters and druids are fun and with that latest patch all the druid players in my guild are now grinning like the cheshire cat... literally.

[Captain tycho]

I love my 28 tauren shaman that I now have on Gilneas.

I agree; shamans are uber fun.

I played a troll shaman up to 50; I love the class in general, so a shaman would be my recommendation. I wrote a long-ass article just before the game went retail about why I think shaman is an excellent class, so if you want the long answer, I can C&P that.

Short answer, however, is shaman of any variety. I'm partial to trolls, but that's just personal taste.

EDIT: clarity.

I would most appreciate reading your article. One thing in particular that draws me about the shaman is ghost wolf...seems like a great spell, especially since travel times are a pain in the ass.

[Marcao]

Its that time, folks. I've pretty much abandoned my 27 night elf hunter on feathermoon due to boredom, am annoyed at having my 22 UD warlock on Spirestone ganked every 10 seconds, and so forth. I will be playing on feathermoon, as I love the enviroment, but so far, I'm having a tough time deciding on a race and class.
I have yet to try druids, paladins, rogues, shamans, priests, and warriors. I want something that I can level easily, as my playtime is rather limited these days, so I've been leaning towards a rogue, but I have zero idea how good they are later on. I would appreciate some input from ye high level WoW players.

I play in WoW I currently have a 60th level Rogue and a 29th level Warrior. My brother plays the Horde side and has a 60th level Hunter and a 31st Warrior. I can tell you a bit about my experiences in WoW since I hit the forums daily and have a pretty good guild on the Alliance side.

Rogue: The rogue is a potent and fun class to play. If you are going for a PvP server, you could do a lot worse. The Rogue's claim to fame is his or her stealth ability, which allows him to most of the time pick his battles. The Rogue is a high damage class, second only to a mage on raw burst damage capability. You are not very durable armor wise, but you have a myriad of ways to avoid combat. The Rogue is very survivable due to special abilities such as vanish, sprint and blind. However once damage starts coming your way you will die fast. There are several sites devoted towards tracking which classes win more often in combat. The rogue is currently widely believed to be the second best PvP class in the game overall. This comes with a price, there are generally more Rogues than any other class in the game in servers. As such, finding a raid group at later levels can be a pain, since there are so many rogues in the server to begin with.

Shaman: The Shaman is widely believed to being the best 1v1 class in the game. The combination of its shocks with rockbiter or windfury for melee is quite frightening. Frost Shock is quite possibly the most hated spell in the game, and is bitched about frequently by most if not all non-shaman classes. I have never played a Shaman, so I cannot tell you what the leveling experience is for the class. However, Shamans are very popular characters on the horde side. My brothers plays a 60th level Tauren Hunter in the "Burning Blade" server and according to unofficial stats of the server, there are almost as many Shamans in the Horde side as there are night elf hunters on the Alliance side. The Shaman can do it all. With shocks he can do good burst DPS, with windfury or rockbiter his melee potential is significant and with lesser healing wave he can himself and other allies. A definite consideration for any Horde player in WoW. The Shaman is believed by many to being the best overall class in the game.

Druids: Druids are extremely versatile, able to take damage in bear form, deal out physical damage in Cat form and cast spells as well as heal in caster form. Entangling roots is an extremely powerful snare spell, second only to frost shock which the amount of bitching it arouses on the forums. The Druid is generally in high demand at all levels of play, due to their ability to heal other classes (healers are the rarest of all classes in most WoW servers, so if you play a Druid, Priest, Paladin or Shaman you will be very popular come instance time.) A properly played druid is a pain in the ass to kill, and many of the people in my guild attest that they are a fun class to play. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), feral druids require completely different equipment than a caster druid in order to be effective. As such, a druid using caster gear will not be as effective in cat or bear form as a druid using feral gear and vice versa.

Paladins: The Paladin is the most survivable class in the game, its ability to wear plate, heal and utilize two "shields" allows it the ability to soak up an impressive amount of punishment. The flip side of this coin is that they do not have many abilities to enhance their damage and are unable to use any ranged weapon. Combat with a paladin is said to be tedius, revolving around picking a seal, and auto attacking while saving your single stun for emergencies. It is hard for me to say where the exagerations end and the truth lies to these claims. Paladins are due to their secondary healing capability in high demand in instances and raids, although I personally do not see myself ever rolling up one.

Priests: The so called "Shadow Priests", priests that have been specced offensively are among the best of the classes in PvP combat. However, it is the holy priests that shine in raids and instances. A priest is the primary healer of any group, and are in high demand at nearly all levels. The trade off, is that they are supposed to be hard to solo, and since their primary task is healing many players complain of the "heal bot" mentality. The Priest is one of the rarest of all classes in most WoW servers (partly due to their solo woes I imagine). Nonetheless, a 60th level priest will never ever have a difficulty joining a raid. The priests in my server are bombarded with offers to go on raids from the nanosecond they enter the WoW.

Warriors: Warriors are expected to be tanks, as their overall damage capabilities are considered to be lacking. The "Arms" Warrior which utilizes mortal strike can be somewhat effective in PvP. However, a series of flaws in Warrior design have made winning with a Warrior a tricky proposition. Warriors are currently one of the weakest classes in PvP according to those that play their class, and sites that track combat stats. A warrior is essential at higher levels in order to complete most high level instances, and as such at 60th level they are in demand for this. Nonetheless, the best thing a warrior has going for him is aggro control. My 29th level Warrior has been a mixed experience for me. My Rogue at that level was a blast for me to play, My Warrior has been considerably more tedious.

Ultimately, I think that if you are going to primarily solo and need a character to level easily, I would recommend a Rogue or a Shaman.

[Ghost Rider]

Pretty much Marcao is absolutely true.

And from a person who has a 50 level Pally:

1. We do not do damage. In fact we suck enough at Aggro that our best thing is that our healing is nice, and quick.

2. Our Armor on the other hand makes warriors weep. Sucks we have no way of aggroing anything.

3. Healing. Learn that using on other will benefit you. A Paladin does have a seal that heal, a judgement for other to get healing from, three spells that heal and a spell that will allow no damage thus bandaging becomes that much easier. It's sad when I see Pallys getting raped in PVE because seriously, survival is a joke for us. It takes a +3 level Elite to give me PAUSE.

4. PvP with Pallys have to be done in the first 10 seconds. Do NOT extend combat with these bastards. After you've expended your wad and he's still standing because you didn't kill him...hope he's a nicompoop. Like I said, four lifebars(and if Holy or Defensive five...easily...possibly six) it's a such a bore, I've seen other leave the Duel then continue.

5. In Raids, you are the secondary Healer/Buffer. At level 60...you will not gain aggro and a well played Warrior will easily do so, so what's your goal then? Heal everyone(including the very easy to kill Priest) and buff them. Your damage sucks and deal with it.

Also like he mentioned, which type of server is a good point since people tend to have differing POVs of how they survive.

Some things to consider. Money and whatnot. The warrior classes spend a bit less for skills, much more for armor. Interestingly the Rogue and the Shaman have an extra layer of cash needs because they basically have extraneous cost upon themselves(poison while not to expensive...are very nice for many and well....there's potions for the Rogue. Honestly when I played a Rogue I went to Herbalism and Alchemy)

Also a Warlock and Paladin do get that whole free mount.

[Captain tycho]

I think I'll abandon my warlock on Spirestone for the moment and create a shaman there; just to try it out. It sounds like a very fun class, but alas, Spirestone is having some major latency issues with me at the moment.
(Probably doesnt help that its a PST server and Im EST)
I've thought about a rogue, but there are so many rogues running around on Pvp servers I wanted to try something different. (And yes, there are TONS of shamans on my server, but meh.) Which was one of the reasons I picked a warlock; there aren't many of us, and most people don't know how to fight them effectively. Soul shards still suck ass, and our dots are pathetic, but the pets are nice.

[White Haven]

*waves a hand in a bizarre manner, failing his Force Roll* You will migrate to Mannoroth...

[Alferd Packer]

I would most appreciate reading your article. One thing in particular that draws me about the shaman is ghost wolf...seems like a great spell, especially since travel times are a pain in the ass.

I advise you to take this article with a grain of salt, as it pertains to the original retail release and certain things may have been changed since then. I was answering the following question with this article:

"Why do you like playing a troll shaman, and why might I choose playing one?"

~~~~

Trolls have earned a place in my heart as sort of the stepchildren of the Horde. If you were into WC2 and 3, then you know all about their history. They really don't have a home of their own, and I think, if you're in the right mindset, it makes playing that much more fun. Without a homeland of their own, they are driven not only to serve the Horde, but make a name for theselves.

As for the shaman, I call it the best class in the game. If you know what you're doing, there's very little that should give you pause (save multiple enemies at once). Everyone's better than a shaman at one specific thing, but the shaman does it all. This confers several major advantages to the shaman:

He can use any equipment he finds. In that, I mean that any stat bonuses received from armor/weapons help the shaman out. With a warrior, it's all about the strength, stamina, and agiliity(to a lesser extent). With a mage, it's all about intelligence and spirit. The shaman takes something useless to other classes and makes it his own. In this regard, you can also customize your shaman to your own liking. Max out on strength and stamina for a melee build, or intelligence for a huge mana pool. Versatility's lovely.

Utility's the name of the game. Shamans get water breathing and water walking; two fabulously useful spells. Totems = sex in groups or solo, so you're never gonna be hurting for a party.

Maximum versatility. This should be clear right now, but there's little you can't do as a shaman. You work good solo. You work good in groups. You can tank, melee, buff, heal, nuke, DoT. You're not the best, but you can fill almost any role needed.



Of course, there are disadvantages to the jack of all trades approach:

You're not explicitly sought after. Well, hardly. Unless the quest calls for water walking or water breathing, you're not needed. When you avail yourself, you're almost always snatched up, but few groups ever want specifically a shaman.

Crowd control. Shamans suck at it. Rogues can sap, mages can sheep, warriors can taunt, but all you get is a dinky little totem to draw attention for all of 2 seconds (at higher levels). Solo, this means you have to be careful about adds. Two mobs at once are doable; three is a stretch. Any more, and you're making a corpse run.

Utility belt syndrome. In groups, sometimes you're overextended. You make a shitty primary healer, tank, nuker, etc, and the minute you try to fill more than one role, your whole group's in trouble. So if you're one thing, then focus on only being that one thing, and you might make it out alive.

As for PvP, the shaman is anti caster, all the way. Earth Shock + Earthbind totem + Windfury weapon = dead casters. There's not a goddamned thing they can do about it, either, because the earth shock disrupts their spellcasting for two seconds, and the windfury usually keeps them interrupted long enough for the spell to cooldown, and repeat. The earthbind totem, of course, keeps them from running away. Casters will be curbstomped by a shaman almost every single time.

Melee classes, on the other hand, will usually curbstomp a shaman. If you get some lucky shots in, you may be able to eke out a win, but any warrior or rogue worth his salt will down you in a few seconds. I suppose if you got enough totems down in time you could win, but it wouldn't be easy.

So, my overall opinion is that shaman makes for the most interesting experience in WoW, because 1) it's a different mindset and 2) it promotes a more indepedent play style. I personally have made it through most of my 46 levels without grouping, and that's how I envision my shaman: a lone wanderer, seeking answers to his questions from all over the world. He only fights with others when he has to; at heart, he doesn't want to be dependent upon any other person. Personally, that strikes a chord with me, so maybe that's why I've played that character far more than any other I've made during the beta.

If you love striking out on your own and having the ability to do just about anything needed of you, then the shaman is for you. If you like to be the total master of a single domain, than any other class BUT the shaman is right for you. Personally, I love 'em, but I could very easily see why people don't like playing them.

~~~

[Xon]

Pretty much Marcao is absolutely true.

And from a person who has a 50 level Pally:

I've got a level 34 Pally, and it hidiously tedious to kill stuff.

Sure; it takes next to forever to kill me. But its rather worthless since it takes almost as long for me to kill anything.

Sure; I can take on ~2-3 creatures 4 levels higher than me at the moment and win, but it takes over 2 minutes todo it..

I prefer to go up against undead NPCs & creatures, because I actually have some range spells I can use.

Also a Warlock and Paladin do get that whole free mount.

Wow, now we can move between 1 long hard slog to kill something to another in a shorter time!

[Marcao]

Melee classes, on the other hand, will usually curbstomp a shaman. If you get some lucky shots in, you may be able to eke out a win, but any warrior or rogue worth his salt will down you in a few seconds. I suppose if you got enough totems down in time you could win, but it wouldn't be easy.

I disagree with this assesment Alferd. A Shaman that spams frost shock, will keep a rogue or warrior at bay indefinately. Most Shamans I have talked to have very little difficulty kiting warriors to death, and the rogue class has a 15 second window of opportunity to kill you (sprint) before they too are slowed and f`ed in the A. The fact that frost shock slow duration (8 seconds) is longer than its cast time (6 seconds/5 with talents) makes it the most hated snare spell in the game. A good Shaman should have little problem kiting a melee class to death. Such is the power of frost shock.

[Alferd Packer]

I disagree with this assesment Alferd. A Shaman that spams frost shock, will keep a rogue or warrior at bay indefinately. Most Shamans I have talked to have very little difficulty kiting warriors to death, and the rogue class has a 15 second window of opportunity to kill you (sprint) before they too are slowed and f`ed in the A. The fact that frost shock slow duration (8 seconds) is longer than its cast time (6 seconds/5 with talents) makes it the most hated snare spell in the game. A good Shaman should have little problem kiting a melee class to death. Such is the power of frost shock.

I think when I wrote it, I had massive PvP group battles in mind. On the closed beta server, all us high levels did was gank each other at Tarren Mill, Southshore, or somewhere in between. In such cases, I found that mages would be driven before me and I would hear the lamentations of their women, but a rogue or warrior sap/charge me and I'd be dead before I could retaliate. I could see how kiting them in one on one combat would work, provided their ranged attacks aren't any good.

[InnocentBystander]

Its that time, folks. I've pretty much abandoned my 27 night elf hunter on feathermoon due to boredom, am annoyed at having my 22 UD warlock on Spirestone ganked every 10 seconds, and so forth. I will be playing on feathermoon, as I love the enviroment, but so far, I'm having a tough time deciding on a race and class.
I have yet to try druids, paladins, rogues, shamans, priests, and warriors. I want something that I can level easily, as my playtime is rather limited these days, so I've been leaning towards a rogue, but I have zero idea how good they are later on. I would appreciate some input from ye high level WoW players.

Let me just say that you might consider doing your server a great service and making a priest, priests are in HIGH demand... but if you want fun; go mage!
Level 60 and lovin' it!
Mages, you see, are insane. AEs, my friend, are the key to happyness. Nothing makes my day like killing guard spams from Tarren Mill. The frost AE mage has always been my favorite since beta.

But that's just me, and I'm crazy... running around, ae'ing stuff, blinking to and fro... ahh, I wish I could play right now

[Ghost Rider]

Pretty much Marcao is absolutely true.

And from a person who has a 50 level Pally:

I've got a level 34 Pally, and it hidiously tedious to kill stuff.

Sure; it takes next to forever to kill me. But its rather worthless since it takes almost as long for me to kill anything.

Sure; I can take on ~2-3 creatures 4 levels higher than me at the moment and win, but it takes over 2 minutes todo it..

I prefer to go up against undead NPCs & creatures, because I actually have some range spells I can use.

Wow, between 29-38 was my power period. New weapons...all sorts of cool shit, and I was able to solo pretty much everything in Duskwood and laugh at it.

Once you hit 40...the reason I said we get a free mount is our other boon(Plate) is a money sucker beyond words...and am sorta glad we get the free barded beast.

Also a Warlock and Paladin do get that whole free mount.

Wow, now we can move between 1 long hard slog to kill something to another in a shorter time!

Hey, I will take the free 100G beastie anytime.

And Given the level you're at...pfft. Wait till you hit the Western Plaguelands and beyond. Seriously the 25-35+ period is THE paladin damage period.

I have practically specced my Paladin to have some Holy(for healing), Some Defense(Because party member like the wee bit extra armor) and a bit of Retribution so that I'm not completely useless alone ...I mean there are other speccs and really most are viable, but really I learned easily I'm not the damage dealer. After playing a Rogue to 40...I know our damage and DPS will never be that level.

[NeoGoomba]

I enjoy being a Warlock, thank you much. I love hitting someone with corruption, agony, and Immolate in 3 seconds. Sure, it doesnt do a whole lot at first, but its nice watching them duel my VW while their life goes down quite fast.

I just hate how fast I suck mana, and my lack of any proper defense other than Demon SKin

[Marcao]

http://home.nyc.rr.com/bassmun/wow%20rogue%20powa.jpg

this says it all. ^_~

[Azazel]

I dueled a rogue with my shaman and it was quite humorous. We were the same level. it was funny cause he kept trying to sap me by getting behind me but I just kept turning and beat him in a melee fight with my war stomp, totems, and shocks to assist.

Very fast fight, and I lost almost no health. Terrible rogue player.

[White Haven]

Heh. You know, a 41 hunter should know not to ignore another hunter, even one eight levels lower. Stupid bastard was thumping on a 25 paladin while I stood behind the pally and just blew the hunter's spine in half with gunfire. Admittedly, it felt satisfying...

[The Dark]

I think I'll abandon my warlock on Spirestone for the moment and create a shaman there; just to try it out. It sounds like a very fun class, but alas, Spirestone is having some major latency issues with me at the moment.
(Probably doesnt help that its a PST server and Im EST)

Try Skullcrusher, Hellscream, or Warsong. Those are the three my roomie plays on (on dial-up), and they seem to work OK.

[Alan Bolte]

Anyone have a low level char on a low-pop server, or want to start one? I'm playing an Orc warrior right now on a high-pop server where a friend has a lvl 40+ warlock, but it'll take me a while to get up there, and he can't play often enough to get a second char leveling at the same rate I am. I'd really like to play with a group, or at least a partner, on a regular basis. I've got lots of free time.

I'll play anything, character made-to-order. Race, class, professions, whatever requests you have. I don't care at all. Being a warrior right now, I wouldn't even mind being a priest.

[White Haven]

*waves little Mannoroth flag* Sure, we're high-pop, but we're cool, too.

[Alan Bolte]

*Shudder* The lag on Magtheridon is enough for just one character, thanks. It's bad enough that my router's so unstable. Of course, I'd do a lot better if I'd just go buy some memory. Forgot to grab that when I got the router and WoW.