So I finally picked up WoW and the expansion. I haven't installed it yet but will try it out in the next couple of days. I'm not sure what kind of class I'm going to roll yet though. In EQ and EQ2 I played a Bard and a Dirge. I know WoW doesn't have a bard class so any suggestions on what would be a fun class for me? I'll be a very casual player and will mostly rely on soloing.

Hunter of course

Soloability
Hunter, warlock. <-super easy
Mage, paladin, druid <--also very easy
shaman <---seems pretty easy, but I can't say for sure for all levels.
rogue<--seems pretty easy solo, but not even close to a fav class. Don't like playing them.
warrior <--pretty easy to solo now, highly desired in groups at higher levels as a tank (if you respec for it. There's solo specs)
priest <--same as above, this class is easy to solo a little later down the line if you spec specifically for that. Again, highly desired in groups esp. with the right specs (which are much harder to solo with)
_____________________________

The two hardest classes to group with are: hunter and rogue. There's just always a lot of them. They're good in groups, but in pugs many of them are just jackasses who don't know how to play in a group (or well with others). I personally friend good ones so when we have a slot open I can invite them, rather than a_random_potentialass00

I personally think hunter is the most fun for soloing though.

You can play any class solo to 70. Some classes are simply much easier than others. I'd say all of them are pretty easy tho.

_________________

If you like to kill things fast, don't play a Pally. You can survive just about anything just don't expect your solo battles to be over in less than 5 min. Pallies do have three different ways to be played. 1) The Healer in Plate - Primary role in a raiding guild. 2) Tank - Pallies now have a good ability to tank (can be a better AOE tank than any other class. On certain types of mobs (Undead/Demon) are the best choice) Still will need to be able to heal/buff during raids. 3) Big twohander - This is the "DPS Pally" has the potential to put out some respectable DPS once geared at 70 and pre-50. This is not the desired spec for raiding Paladins. My pally is mostly Holy (healer) with Protection (tank) talents added. I have to carry around three different sets of gear (for now) depending on what I will be doing (Solo, Healer, Tank)

Hunters are fun, have good "oh-shit" cards and when played right can do a lot. Hunters need to have their pet abilities up to speed while soloing, however will be doing their max damage output as a marksman in raid mode. Most raids the use of pets are the exception not the rule. Not as gear dependant as the Pally or Warrior (meaning you won't be changing gear based on what you are doing). I enjoy my hunter when I want some alone time.

Warriors (as with all classes in WoW when compaired to EQ) are not as group dependant. It is recommended that you go Arms or Fury while levelling and then Protection once you get into the grouping/instance/raiding mode. Yes they have two "life-cycles" Higher damage while soloing then higher damage mitigation once becomming tank mode later on. There are still "DPS Warriors" in the end game, but they too will be required to "tank up a mob" along the way. I quit playing my Warrior when TBC came out. Personally I'd rather play my Pally as it allows me to best fit into whatever is needed. However a really good warrior tank is always wanted.

Priest - again one of the always wanted classes. Even though you can spec to be more of a damage caster, you will always be asked to heal.

Druid - I never liked the druid that Blizzard has put out. It is NOT the EQ Druid. Druids can do a lot, from Tank to rogue-like DPS to heal (just not at the same time). People either love or hate playing a druid.

Rogue - Another class that people either love or hate. As a rogue you can have some very nice "pulling" skills but your general job is to kill stuff - FAST.

Mage / Warlock - Clothie caster. One is more direct (mage) the other more over time. Each one is considered a DPS class. Depending on the situation either can outpace the other. Warlocks have "pets" the Mage is more like the EQ Wizard.

Shaman - I have not played a Shaman as they have just now come available to the Alliance. I do know that a well played Shaman is a terror on the PVP battlefield.

The first question you need to ask is "Do you want to PVP?" if you do, I would not recommend playing a pally. You can but with my experiences it is just not as fun as with many other classes.

"Do you want to Melee or be a caster?" If you like being a caster, you may enjoy being a Warlock. Right now the Warlock is one of the HOT classes (they got some nice improvements for TBC). If you like melee try a rogue. You will be doing a lot of things in the fight and you can get in and out of a lot of places that are impossible for other classes. Both are GREAT for PVP and PVE. Both are good for soloing and improve nearly any group they are in. All the top guilds have outstanding players as rogues and warlocks. The crappy guilds tend to have poor players for roues and warlocks.

I'd suggest being a mage over a warlock. There still is a lot of warlocks from them being buff in PVP so long pre-TBC. Mages provide caster DPS, drink/food, and reliable crowd control.

First, let me say that I'm a casual WoW player, off and on. Take with a grain of salt:

Don't play any of these classes for the issues mentioned. If you want soloability, group desirability or raid desirability, the info posted above is great.

But I played a bard in EQ, too, and I think that once you do that, you can become bored playing a more standard class. There's really nothing like a bard in WoW, but there are a few classes that are different than the norm.

I'd recommend giving warrior a try. They are good solo and great in groups... But the mechanics for playing a warrior are a bit unusual and different. Rather than having a mana pool from which you can cast spells or use abilities, warriors use rage, which is generated when they hit a mob or when being hit in some instances. It's different approach that I really enjoy.

I've played a warlock and a warrior, neither for raiding (I'm much more casual than I was in EQ, although I'm levelling my warrior to raid). Warlocks are powerful but very conventional. Warrior is where I've had the most fun.

Rogues are similar in that the mechanics are unique.

Hunter, Warlock.

Hunter is very easy to level, fast paced and rather amusing the first couple you hit 60 with but very straight forward with minimal options. I.e Pet Attack, Shoot mob, loot.

Warlock CAN be easy, but it won't be the first go around, its a very complex class to milk the best out of but has a variety of talent choices that can provide very easy leveling, farming, or PVP or just straight up "I'm bored, I think I'll respec" variety.

Druids are the next complex class, I don't know how their DPS is now pre-Outlands levels but after leveling one to 60 in the 1.8 patch era (year half or so ago) I'd put it on par with solo in EQ for "enjoyability". Though the class itself is rather nifty.

It realy depends on what you want to do. All classes can level up to 70 rather quickly and easily. From a dps standpoint, I will consider the combat rogue to be baseline 100%.

Warriors

Warriors are are the quintessential class that is in every fantasy MMO incldues. Warriors game mechanic is rage and stances. To put it simply, you gain rage by taking damage and dealing damage. That rage in turn allows you to perform your warriors abilities. The warrior has 3 stances, defensive, battle and fury. Different warrior abilities are useable in different stances.

There are 3 talent trees for warriors, protection, arms and fury. Prot is your "tank" tree. You become the best tank in the game at a huge sacrifice of your damage dealing abilities. Arms and Fury are your dps trees. Arms is better with 2hders and fury is better Dual wielding, though at the high end I can see 2hd fury being used.

DPS warriors will find themselvs at about 90% of a rogues dps, prot warriors at about 40%.

In the highend warriors will be expected to tank in groups.

Paladin

Pallies are the support/defensive hybrid class of WoW. They wear plate like warriors, but to not have the defense nor the HP of warriors to seriously take their place over a warrior with even quite a few points in prot. Pallies have mana like all other casters, cast buffes on themselves and the group and can heal.

The pally has a holy, protection and retribution talent tree. Holy multiplies the pallies healing power, protection gives them tanking abilities and retribution gives some thing close to dps.

Holy and Prot pallies will be about 40% of a rogues dps, ret pallies are about 66% of a rogues.

In the highend, pallies will be expected to be buff bitches (buffes with a 5 min recast or 15 min and a reagent) and heal bitches that never run out of mana thanks to the most efficient heal in the game, Flash of Light.

I know Neesha will chime in and disagree with me here so I will expand on this a bit. The reason why even prot speced pallies can come close to a warrior with even 14 points in prot is because pallies itemization sucks ass. Warriors need def and sta. Pallies need def, sta and+damage. The problem is that almost all + damage plate doesnt have def and def plate doesnt have + damage. Pally plate mostly consists of sta, int, spi, mana per 5 and + damage. Plus agro for warriors is rage limited, even more so with the thunderclap change. As the mob does more damage to the warrior, the more rage he has and the more threat he can generate. Pallies threat comes solely from their holy damage, and that scales rather poorly in comparison.

Shaman

Where Pallies are the support/defensive hybrid, shaman are the offensive/support hybrid. Shaman have mana and their unique game mechanic is totems. A shaman has a totem of each elemental tipe, fire, earth, water and air. The effects can be anything from increasing states, to regening hp/mana to casting minor fireballs every few seconds to removing poision/disease, to reducing damage by a minor amount to giveing the most overpowered weapon buff in the game to everyone in your group (hi there windfury). The downside is that you can only have one type down, and most of the powerful ones are the same type.

Shaman's tallent trees are elemental, enhancement and restoration. Elemental increases your offensive spellcasting ability so you are shooting lighting bolts out like Zeus himself. In the short term, elemental shaman can deal some kick ass damage, well over that of what a rogue can do, but elemental has the downfall of poor mana efficiency. Enhancement shaman are broke. In Burning Crusade, Shaman gained Dual Wield as a 31 point talent and the ability to put an elemental weapon buff on each weapon. Windfury is the weapon buff that is usually used. When WF procs, you get two (2) free attacks with a bonus amount of attack power on those free attacks. Right now if you were to DW weapons, both with Windfury on them and it proc, BOTH weapons go off for 4 free attacks instead of the normal 2. Ya.... Anywho, resto spec enhances a shaman's healing abliity. Shaman have a increadable heal called "chain heal" You cast it on one person and after it heals them it bounces to another person who is low on health and heals them, then in bounces to another person. These golden healing laser beams of doom usually lead to shaman being the number one in healing on raids, by a large margin. Also from resto spec directly you gain mana tide totem that restores a large amount of mana and earth shield. Earth shield is a reactive heal that heals the person it was cast on when they are hit.

Elemental shaman will burst to 110% rogue dps, but drop to about 75% sustained. Ehancement shaman are at about 150-200% rogue damage, yes they are broke to hell. Resto shaman dont dps and anyone that tells you they do is lieing.

Shaman are in a strange fix right now. Each spec is powerful enough in its own that it is desireable in the highend. Resto healers of course being in demand over the rest.

Hunter

Hunters used to be the red stepchild of wow and in some ways they still are. Hunters received two nerfs with TBC, one reducing the amount of attack power they get from agility (their main stat) and the second changing the mechanic of their primary dps skill (Aimed shot). Hunters are a ranged pet class. For some reason they use mana.

Hunters can tame most beast NPC's out there, cats, wolfs, bears, spiders, ravagers that look like the bugs from Starship Troopers. Each class of beast has their own skills that can be used. Mostly, the pet is used to hold agro off of the hunter so you can shoot it from afar.

Hunters talents are beastmastery, marksman and survival. Beast spec greatly enhances your pets dps bringing it close to the hunters. Marksman enhances your ranged dps by a large margin and gives you Aimed shot, scatter shot and true shot aura, your only group buff. Survival is a mess right now, it is ideally meant to increase the hunters survivability, but the later talents are very lackluster.

In the highend, hunters do damage. In most 70 instances it is passable to use the hunter pet as dps and/or an offtank if needed in a pinch. However in raids and heroic instances, the fights are so melee unfriendly that it is hard for a PC to stay in without heals, i would not imagine that a pet would stay alive for long. Hunters do about 80-90% rogue damage including their pet.

In pvp, hunters are the GODS of siege fights. The key is the "alpha strike" as I called it. After you kill someone, you can get a 20% bonus to your next aimed shot, auto shot or arcane shot. The trick is that the damage buff is not removed until AFTER you deal damage AND hunter ranged is considered a bolt so it takes time to travel. You can get off a aimed shot, and a arcane shot off before you lose the bonus damage buff and both shots get the damage bonus. Then autoshot would fire and I would fire off a multishot. In 3 seconds time I just dealt at least 3500 damage. This was also at level 60, not 70.

I;m tired as hell and I will have to finish up the rest later

I rerolled a Dranaei Shaman when BC came out and I've now been raiding with my guild for a few weeks as enhancement spec. 150-200% is a bit of an exaggeration, but I can compete with our best rogues for #1 on the damage meters if I make use of the Windfury 5/4 bug. Right now I use a 2.6 speed axe of the bandit in each hand, while the rogues generally have slightly better weapons.

In our Kara raids I'm generally behind at least our best rogue because of threat and the need to use other totems. Threat is the biggest limiter on enhancement damage with the 5/4 bug. The quad main-hand procs can often be a 3,000 threat burst that forces me to turn off auto-attack. I'm also often placing other totems other than my "best" melee totems for some of the Kara fights (ex. grounding instead of grace of air for Maiden).

In our most recent Kara reset, starting yesterday, I am trying to figure out what the best combination will be for me once the 5/4 windfury bug gets fixed. During yesterday's run I was below the 2 rogues we had, slightly below the frost mage, and just above the hunter. This seems about right to me given the added utility that is supposed to be taken into account with Shaman. I shouldn't really be pushing #1 on the damage chart and I really like the extra utility I bring to the group.

Anyway, I found soloing while leveling up this shaman to be pretty much the same as leveling my druid as far as kill speed and downtime. Soloing with the shaman can be a little inconsistent at times, though. With the naturally streaky damage of the windfury buff you can nearly one-round same level monsters one time and then spend a minute and a half killing the exact same mob right next to it.

I have been a healer for years in various games, and I'm still pretty much a noob when it comes to the art of the dps class. I'm really enjoying my shaman, though.

-Teppic
70 Shaman
Turalyon
aka Cinnas in various incarnations in several games

You are using a green axe of the bandit. That is 65 dps. The rogues should be using 80 dps weapons by now.

I've had an elemental shaman come close when I had mut/subtlety spec, but never combat, or enhancement. Or course it might help that the shaman was in my group whenever he was enhancement, so I'd be getting that uber buff they do when they crit.

Yeah, the nice rogue dagger from Morose dropped during this clear; which I think is the first time for our "Group 1"; but they are using blues to my greens, generally. I've been trying to get the 2.7 spd fist weapon from Arctraz, but it hasn't dropped for me yet. I'm thinking of switching to axesmithing and trying to make the multi-stage epic axe.

-Teppic

Thanks for all of the tips. I ended up rolling a Draenei Hunter. Player about an hour or 2 for the past few days I was able to get to level 14. Class seems straightforward enough. Pet attack, growl, fire crossbow. I agree with Joxur about playing a bard and then playing other classes.

Anywho, does anyone have a good resources for travel? Most of the maps I've found haven't been updated with TBC or just aren't specific enough. I'm trying to get to major cities so I can at least train in bows, daggers, guns and axes.

http://files.wowace.com/Cartographer/Cartographer.zip

map mod, I dunno if you're having problems because map isn't explored or something. This mod makes entire maps available. Once you're in a town you can talk to a generic guard and they'll have an option that says Weapon Masters, they'll flag it on your map for you.

C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\Addons

^^^ folder you put map mod in.

Oh, and hunters can get somewhat complicated, well more annoying that complicated. Every so often you have to stable your pet and go out and tame some random one to get a new rank of something for your main pet.

This site was fairly helpful for me when I started a Hunter alt prior to BC:

http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/

It had a nice listing broken down by location, or skill the pat has, or model. It was very helpful for me to keep my pet's skills current.

-Teppic (Cinnas)

Made it to level 20 yesterday. I also experienced my first group. I needed help to do "Ending Their World" and "Clearing the Way" but was putting off these quests because I was a bit leery of grouping. It ended up being me and 2 Shamans (19 & 23).

Ending Their World was easy because of the NPC we were protecting but when it came to taking down elites on our own, they just sucked. The level 19 shaman pulled but always ended up pulling 2 elites at a time instead of pulling the single roamers. I think we would have been fine on the doubles if my pet tanked and they healed but they kept pulling. I finally ended up leaving the group and soloing the single roamers myself.

I also found it humorous that upon joining the group I was asked "Want to join our guild?" LOL

I started a week and a half ago, I hit level 40 last night.

_________________
Marauder Harabakc Goat