First impressions and things that suckFollow

So lately I've been trying out a bunch of different classes anew, trying to decide what to level next in the game. Starting them from scratch on a different server has meant no heirlooms, gold, bags, etc. to get going. It's actually been rather refreshing starting anew. I've been going in and living off the quest rewards until about level 15 or so. By then I'll get a couple of professions going, and I'm sitting on gold, buying stuff, etc. etc.

Just going off the rewards handed to me has been a bit of an eye opener. I've made a bunch of observations, and as is typical for me, I decided to plop them down on the internet. These amazing insights have no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

I will dispense them now.

1) Warriors suck.

No seriously they do. It's the only class that made me want to beat myself to death with something cute. I died more times before level 12 on my warrior then with all the other classes combined. I couldn't handle 2 mobs of equal level as me. I broke down and bought some white gear from the vendor, just so I wouldn't get overwhelmed by kobolds. Seriously kobolds, wtf. Things got a little better with purchased gear, but I still felt woefully underpowered.

2) Mages rock.

Especially frost mages. They have to be my new most favorite class to solo as. This ability to freeze and slow everything, nothing even touches you unless it has a charge or pounce ability; then you just freeze them, blink, and burn them down. You are a god in greens.

3) Holy Paladins

are fun to level with. They can actually solo well, disturbingly well, and it doesn't take all day to kill stuff. Which is nice.

4) Rogues

are super easy once you can sap things. I felt they were a little underpowered like warriors in the beginning. However the ability to more or less choose your battles from stealth meant dying wasn't as much of an issue, thankfully.

5) Classes I have no strong opinions on: Priest, Warlock, Hunter (though auto-shot while moving is crazy OP), Druid

6) Classes I've yet to try: Shaman

7) Random observations:

-The changes they made to the spell-based classes really made the first 15 levels or so easy for them.
-Like others have mentioned before, you don't really die in solo-play anymore.
-You out-level every area by the time you reach it, unless you skip things, which I found frustrating.

Anyway I'm sure I'm not the only one tinkering around with alts these days. Anyone have any observations or new favorite classes recently? Think Warriors are teh awsum? Want to join the 'Nerf Mages' bandwagon? I will after I finish leveling mine of course.




Edited, Apr 21st 2011 10:17am by someproteinguy

Honestly I think this is what I experienced.

Having not really played a hunter since '07-'08 it's weird going from meticulous shot-weaving to just having stuff fly off your bow as you kite something around in a circle.

Edit: As a rule of thumb though, most of the observations above are from about levels 1-30 or so. I imagine plenty of things will change as the characters mature.

Edited, Apr 21st 2011 10:57am by someproteinguy

I've learned that I REALLY like the idea of casting lightning bolts, but as I level a shaman it feels too much like a mage to keep me going.
I've also learned that I don't like to DPS as ret, I much prefer prot for soloing, dungeons, and pvp. Unfortunately it's starting to fall behind my ret spec....

Yeah, Holy Paladin is a blast to level with. I've been doing that with my pally since she hit level 12 or so. I know Shockadins aren't viable for raiding, but damn are they fun to level with. It feels like leveling a Disc Priest with plate. :D

Also I completely agree that warriors suck. They're boring. I just can't play a class that's melee and doesn't have some sort of magic capabilities. That's why I can enjoy a paladin and a DK, but I can't stand warriors or rogues.

My priest has been a blast too. It's really hard to die as a priest, especially as disc. I have been dieing a bit more since I went shadow, mostly because it's not mana efficient to use DP which heals you as it does damage, but also because shield doesn't heal anymore. =x It's a lot quicker though, and I still don't die very often.

Shaman I've only gotten to level 20 as so far. Elemental is pretty fun, but I wasn't overly thrilled with it. That may have been because I was leveling as a dwarf though. =x

Just my humble opinion, but if you can't level a Warrior, you're doing it wrong.



I had troubles only for certain level gaps, I think. Around 40ish I struggled a bit, wasn't in complete plate, is why, I believe.


Warriors can't heal, but VR is a awesome way to keep yourself up. That, and bandages : P

I think the biggest 'take-home' message for me is that I woefully underestimated how gear-dependent Warriors were. At the point I was having trouble, I'm not sure there was much I could have done different. I only had 3 abilities (Strike, Charge, Victory Rush are all pretty self-explanatory) and the only real decision was whether or not to pull with the bow, or charge.

In retrospect heading directly from the Abbey down into the mine probably wasn't the best idea I ever had.

Try enhancement. Instant heals when you need them, best interrupt in the game. I love my enhancement shaman.

Oh gods I remember those stupid books... and the days when you didn't get your imp until level 4. So glad Blizz changed that. The books were expensive too!

Totally not my experience at all. Then again I leveled as a draenei with herbalism so healing wasn't a problem. But even my tauren wasn't bad at all. I leveled as arms and I've leveled as prot.



I agree, but I got tired of the constant dancing.



If you spec for damage this will remain true even at higher levels. However, if you got to a strictly healing build its not so pretty.



Gouge + step through the target and backstab works until you get sap. Most melee classes though are gear dependent.



Priests were a pain in the butt to level with. With Cataclysm they became way, way easier. Definitely want to spec into shadow though if you're going to try soloing anything. Although, looking at holy's talents, it looks viable for leveling. Discipline isn't so great until higher levels...still would stick with shadow. No real reason not to. You can heal as shadow until 30, then dual spec and you're set.

Warlocks have always been pretty easy. The first 15 levels were a bit harsh but its been pre cata since I've leveled one. Demo has pets to tank, affliction dots and heals, and destro kills things quickly enough that its usually not a problem. I favored affliction.

Hunters...I have to agree with other comments. Auto-shot while moving OP? Maybe at early levels where you have few to no skills, but after that I don't see how it can be. It just doesn't hit hard enough.




Elemental and Enhancement are equally easy to level as. Enhancement is of course gear dependant being a melee class. With changes to mana first 15 levels its not really an issue, especially since you pickup water shield early on. Resto has absolutely no damage buffing talents whatsoever. You'd be masochistic to level as resto.



Agree with all these comments. Especially the last one. If you do even one dungeon per level bracket you'll find yourself missing out on most of the truly entertaining and rewarding quests that tend to be in the last 10% of a zone. I found this annoying. Throw in guild XP buff and heirlooms and you blink and you level.

I find this annoying as well. I created a new character on a different server specifically to experience the revamped zones "from scratch". Yet even though I chose not to queue for BGs or dungeons for a while, I still quickly out-leveled the zones and quest lines therein. I often complete multiple gray quests just for the story, but it feels so anti-climatic when I'm too high level for it to challenge me whatsoever.

Once I began joining dungeons and battlegrounds, I've found myself often skipping zones entirely. For me, it's easy to the point of ruining the immersion I like to feel in a game.

Totally not true. I started up a priest last May and went disc, and in beta and my live goblin priest started out as disc until I hit about 50 or so. Disc is totally viable as a leveling spec from 10 onwards. It's pretty much impossible to die as Disc because of all the auto healing and the shield heals. Hell, there were plenty of times while leveling through dungeons that I out dps'ed the dps while healing and no one even came close to dying.

This. Completely, totally, 100% this.

I level all of my warriors and paladins as protection now because you are so hard to kill. Also, when queuing for a dungeon you get an instant queue. When I ding 30 on these characters I'll usually offspec a PVP spec in case I want to do some BGs while levelling.


Edited, Apr 22nd 2011 11:01am by Bigdaddyjug

Im playing with a few alts at the moment, all with 4 heirloom armour pieces and weapons and the casters get the trinkets too.
I love my warrior, with Heirlooms Victory Rush near enough one shot everything, and Crusader had nearly 100% uptime anyway. At 15 I specced prot and never looked back. Spent a short while as DW fury because I had the weapons, but it felt like every single attack was being dodged and parried. Did not like the playstyle at all.

Feral Druid has been amazing fun in pvp, I can absolutely boss my own flag room and can get 5+ flag returns even in a losing game. Tanking as feral is not so much fun... Ill run into a pack and Maul will crit and Fury Swipes will proc and I'll think "Yeah phear my aggro, I am awesome" Then I realise that my only aoe attack Swipe hits like a wet noodle and is on a 6 second cooldown. It has a smaller radius than thunderclap, less damage, doesnt spread any dots, doesnt debuff and can be blocked/dodged and parried. My only other "aoe" maul can be compared to cleave. Maul needs a bleed debuff on the target to do max damage, cleave doesnt. Maul hits fewer targets and does less damage than cleave. And just incase I didnt feel inferior enough I have nothing that compares to Revenge, its like a whole extra ability that warriors have.
Im not commenting on the end game as neither characters have reached their yet, but even in Heirlooms it is really hard to hold aoe aggro as a Bear.

Rogue, quite good fun, but I feel like early on so much time is being spent waiting for energy. This might start to feel better as my Haste increases towards the higher levels. Vanish rocks.