I've researched a bit for the past few weeks and I've reached a crossroad. I've narrowed down my class picks to rolling between Warrior or Mage. I really wanna make up my mind before launch because I hate rerolling, feels like a bit "waste of time" that I could be investing on a main character.
For context, I started playing WoW in BFA for 4 months as DPS (Mainly as DH, but I also leveled for a while a Warrior and a Mage, enjoyed both). I dont have the knowledge/experience of most players in Classic. And Im probably be playing solo most of the time, cause 2 of my friends said they were gonna play, but its not guaranteed and they dont know which classes or faction they are gonna roll (*EDIT: One of my friends said he is rolling a Rogue). Plus, there is a chance that they end up quitting the game after a couple of months. I would be playing something like 3 hours a day or so.
My main goals are: Reach lvl 60, find a guild to Raid and PVP (BGs).
Key Points (from what I read these past few weeks mixed with some of my preferences):
- Leveling: Mage is easy to solo lvl, Warriors is probably the hardest class to lvl (but gets easier with a pocket healer). Mage have more tools to escape if they get ganked, Warrior get kited around. Mages basically spam Frostbolt to kill mobs, easy but might get boring. Warrior have a more engaging skill rotation. However, "Stance Dance" looks kinda hard to learn properly, seems like it could take some time.
- Gearing: Mage is not gear dependant, Warriors are very gear dependant. Plus, competing with other classes for gear.
- Roles: Mage only DPS. Warrior can be both DPS and Tank (I dont care much for tanking and I wasnt that good when I tried it in BFA. I had to tank some Timewalking Dgs when I was farming for Water Strider Mount on my DH. I did that to speed up the queue and it was kinda bad tbh. I didnt know which skills to use, how to hold aggro, generate threat, the dungeons routes, etc... But anyway, I would learn how to Tank if this is really important and good for Warriors) There will be times that people are gonna pressure Warriors to tank in certain times.
- Time Invested: Warrior needs way more time invested than Mages to reach a satisfactory level.
- Raiding: Both Mage and Warrior are Top Tier DPS and Warrior is Top Tier Tank. As a Ranged Class, Mages have less mechanics to avoid than Warriors.
- Dungeons: Again, both are Top Tier. And Warriors can Tank on a DPS spec.
- Battlegrounds: Mages are quite good at it. Warriors are not that good, unless they got some backup healers. If they got heals, they destroy everyone.
- World PvP: Same as BGs.
- Duels: It seems like Mages got less counters than Warriors.
- Group Find: If you Tank as Warrior, you'll find groups very fast.
- Skill Kit: Mages got more utility and CC skills to deal with different scenarios (food, water, portals, ice barrier, blink, poly, nova). Warriors skills seems more like damage-wise or tank-wise, less utility.
- Farming Gold: Mages are probably the best class to farm gold due to AOE farming. Plus, mages can charge to provide food, water and portals.
- Repair Costs: Warriors have higher repair costs.
- Pre-Raid BIS: Gear is cheaper to Mages than Warriors.
- Health pool: Mages are squishier than Warriors.
- Skill Animations: Mages got more "flashy" skills, with ice and fire going everywhere, amazing. Warriors are more simple in that matter as a physical class.
- Armor looks: Mages can only wear Cloth and Warrior can wear Mail and Plate. (Cloth is kinda lame, Mail and Plate looks awesome).
- Weapons: Mages got wands and staves. Warriors can roll with everything but wands. (I really prefer to roll with a big ass sword or dual wielding some badass axes than a tree branch lol)
- Races: Warriors got more Races avaiable (I really like Orcs, Tauren, Humans for Warriors. For Mage I would go Gnome or Undead. I prefer Warrior races tbh).
- Macros: Warriors seem to have more Macros to be setup comparing to Mages.
Which class do you think I should pick? And Why?
EDIT: One of my friends said he is rolling a Rogue.
In the end it comes down to what you want to do, tank or DPS.
If you want to tank, Warrior is it and for DPS mage is a winner to me, not that warriors are bad DPS but as far as I know Warriors require a huge time investment and gear to get rolling while mages not so much so.
As you said you have 3 hours or so a day and mostly solo so a mage would make everything a lot easier for you, it’s powerful with low downtime and the ability to AoE farm.
Warriors are in its own tier of terrible to level solo without a healer to follow it around.
I’d say mage based on those factors alone but what do I know :P
Echoing Tec here, but since you don't seem to think your friends are sticking around, warrior will be tough. Not wanting to tank also may hurt your grouping opportunities, as melee dps are prevalent.
You put up a lot of the points to not play a warrior yourself, and a lot more reasons to play mage. You sound like you're trying to convince yourself to play mage, but would rather play warrior?
It depends on how hard you're willing to work. 3 hours a day on a warrior won't get you very far, but if you don't care about reaching 60 or reaching it quickly, then you can have plenty of fun as a warrior.
Otherwise if you just want to play casually mage is the way to go for you.
You put up a lot of the points to not play a warrior yourself, and a lot more reasons to play mage. You sound like you're trying to convince yourself to play mage, but would rather play warrior?
It depends on how hard you're willing to work. 3 hours a day on a warrior won't get you very far, but if you don't care about reaching 60 or reaching it quickly, then you can have plenty of fun as a warrior.
Otherwise if you just want to play casually mage is the way to go for you.
The class fantasy of the Warrior appeals more to me. But I feel like mage would be a better fit to my time avaiable.
If I go Warrior, there is a chance I could end up rerolling because I could get discouraged from all struggle related to leveling, gearing, farming, being facerolled on PvP.
And if I go Mage, there is a chance you could end up rerolling because I could get discouraged from playing a Class/Race that doesnt feel like the best class fantasy fit for me.
Its not that I dont like X or Y, its just a matter of trade-off.
I mean, you could always start with the warrior which you prefer for the fantasy and roll a mage later or vice versa.
You pretty much know your preferred fantasy class takes more effort in pretty much all aspects and you might enjoy it more for that once you start getting the powerful upgrades.
Or you can go with the simpler more straight forward pick which more suits your time and grouping situation.
I don’t think there is a answer here that we can give you, but something you need to figure out as you seem to have the benefits and negatives going already.
If warrior speaks to you, by all means go warrior! Nothing insurmountable about it, but levelling may take you a bit longer. It's not going to be so punishing that you can't play and level up, and the gearing process, class depth, and skill ceiling are certainly there.
If warrior speaks to you, by all means go warrior! Nothing insurmountable about it, but levelling may take you a bit longer. It's not going to be so punishing that you can't play and level up, and the gearing process, class depth, and skill ceiling are certainly there.
This is the answer. If you pick an optimized class/race but don't like it, you won't play it or will not like it as much as playing the class/race you really want to play.
The best solution for this sort of thing is also a good strategy for leveling in general, make your main, play it for a bit, then make and alt. Be sure to leave them in inns/cities for rested experience, and play whichever one has rested experience at the time! Or just play whichever you want while your alt continues to gain rested xp.
If I could, I'd change my vote to warrior.
Nothing insurmountable about it
Holy shit, I had to google that word. lol
Yeah, a lot of ppl say its harder to roll warrior but at the same time the reward is way higher too. The feeling of accomplishment is different, right?
make your main, play it for a bit, then make and alt
I get 100% what you're saying. And I agree that is a good solution. Rolling both would get the best of both worlds, I wouldnt burn out too. However, lvling alts feels like I am “losing time” that I could be investing on my main. You know? Especially in Classic, that seems like every second counts.
I get 100% what you're saying. And I agree that is a good solution. Rolling both would get the best of both worlds, I wouldnt burn out too. However, lvling alts feels like I am “losing time” that I could be investing on my main. You know? Especially in Classic, that seems like every second counts.
I'd say as far as your time goes it depends on your goal. Do you intend to run with the big dogs becoming a mainstay in endgame raiding? Then yea, what you do and how long it takes is important. If you're going to be casual, especially about endgame content, then go slow and smell the roses! A lot of people say this and it's true, Classic is a marathon and not a sprint.
Also the rested experience makes it so that the time you do spend on your main is used more efficiently. As far as World of Warcraft in general goes, I wouldn't say that playing an alt is losing time, provided you're okay with reading quest text, exploring the world, and making your own goals.
Looking at the time you being playing wow, I suggest mage. Warrior is super slow pacing for everything as you already know, unless you want to tank. Mage will be better for you imo. The only down for mage is that you need to drink (mana) half the time you are playing, but you can make food, so it's fine.
I'd say as far as your time goes it depends on your goal. Do you intend to run with the big dogs becoming a mainstay in endgame raiding? Then yea, what you do and how long it takes is important. If you're going to be casual, especially about endgame content, then go slow and smell the roses! A lot of people say this and it's true, Classic is a marathon and not a sprint.
I got you. At the same time that I'll be playing like 3h a day (I believe this would be semi-casual?), Im also into trying to min-max some stuff. For example, if I roll Mage Alliance I'll definitely roll Gnome for Racials and Undead for Horde. I try to balance both fun and efficiency. Idk if 3 hours a day will let me roll with the "big dogs", probably not. Plus, I dont have much experience, like I said.. 4 months of BFA, Im a noob lets be honest here lol. But I would like to learn the game and be good at it, because right now it seems like the best option at MMORPG, and its my favorite game genre.
unless you want to tank
Do you guys feel like will there still be a Tank shortage this time, compared to Vanilla?
unless you want to tank
Do you guys feel like will there still be a Tank shortage this time, compared to Vanilla?
I would be surprised if a tank would have a hard time finding groups, mainly because leveling tank spec is a slow go of it.
what about melee leeway and spell batching, are they gonna have a big impact on the meta?