Hello, I am a new wow player. I have started playing on another realm with my friend’s guild, but I am looking to open an alt on this realm and I have been wondering if there is a recommended race/class combo for someone new to the RP and lore of wow.
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Welcome to AD!
On the Alliance side, going for human is the easiest (since you can be an ordinary guy from random village in Elwynn Forest that has decided to travel the world, learning things as you go). On Horde, it´s more complicated since they don´t really have the “default fantasy race”. I´d say goblins might be the easiest to get to because they´re basically greedy guys with modern technology and 0 safety standards who could also be absolutely ignorant about world outside of Kezan (their home island) before moving to Orgrimmar.
Still, every race requires some reading of the lore, and when you know the story of the race (which your character should be at least somewhat familiar with), you should be fine unless you go for some of the Allied Races (like Lightforged or void elves).
For classes, warrior and hunter are the easiest (rogue too if you RP them as just a guy with swords/daggers instead of some stealthy assassin who goes invisible) because they can be ordinary soldier/adventurer types.
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Since the faction of your choice is not mentioned. I’ll give a response for each.
On alliance side human is most likely the go to default choice. Dwarf could also work.
On horde side I’d say orc, goblin or maybe a blood elf.
However on the topic of race I’d really choose whatever you prefer visually then try learn the lore around them from there. Most of the races lore has a short summary with more depth if you go deep into the lore. There’s not really a race that’ll be too difficult to pick up with a basic understanding.
For classes. I’d say warrior, hunter and rogue are the more default ones. You don’t really need a lot of knowledge on the lore to play one of these. But again if there’s a class that really speaks to you. Then go for that and just try learn the lore from there.
The classes I recommend avoiding however are: Death Knight, Demon Hunter and Evoker. They are not really friendly to someone new to the lore and RP.
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Personally, I think it’s best to go with one of the main races for either faction, but with a caveat; go for the races whose introduction zones aren’t severely outdated with lore that would not be relevant for you to know.
With this in mind, I think that the best picks would be a human, a dwarf, a gnome, an orc, a tauren or a blood elf, whose starter zones + other levelling zones would give you a pretty good storyline of what the vibe of your race is about.
As for class? You should probably not go for the ones Balthinar has just mentioned, but besides that, you should pick whichever you feel would be most interesting to you to write.
Start off small, and grow as you find your footing. A warrior-apprentice who is having their first steps as a swordsman, a wizard’s apprentice who is slowly working towards having a better grasp of the Arcane, a hunter’s apprentice who has only recently begun to dare and go for bigger prey… Things like these would give you a lot of breathing room both IC and OOC about why your character doesn’t particularly know a lot about many things, while allowing you to play any class that you feel like as you explore the lore at your own pace!
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Human, Gnome and Dwarf on Alliance and Orc and Goblin. These are races that have a schtick and some lore to build on but enough variety that you can do a whole bunch of things with them and it’s not super weird if you deviate a bit from the norm.
Warrior, Rogue, Hunter and Mage are the easier classes to RP - they’re pretty much the thing they appear to be and don’t carry a ton of baggage and assumptions compared do other classes. Warrior, Hunter and Rogue in particular are all very broad class fantasies like rogue goes from “Pirate” to “Shadow Ninja” just with the actual specs let alone the variety of NPCs we see and Warrior is basically the class to represent any sort of heavy armour fighter guy.
The main tip I’d go for is to start out make a character who is fairly friendly and curious but not necessarily knowledgeable - this means you can approach people and start up some RP but you don’t have to know all that much about the lore. Also Roleplayers tend to love telling you about their character so if you RP someone who asks questions about their character it tends to go down fairly well.
This definitely isn´t the case for a mage. While the class isn´t more difficult to RP than let´s say priest, paladin or warlock, it´s the most likely to attract criticism from other RPers even if you´re RPing it according to canon lore due to absurdly inconsistent interpretations of what should be good mage RP. On top of that, there´s stigma attached to mages based on plethora of actually bad mage RPers, combined with the idea that mage should actually be much weaker than pretty much every other class (my most favorite example is when I was told that mage in RP should run out of mana after 3 spells and anyone who doesn´t is badRP).
New RPer might have really bad experience RPing a mage because it´s entirely possible for them to just use spells their class has available at level 10 and be called OP and terrible RPer.
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Worgen and Goblin probably have the best starting zone experience, giving you a decently sized intro questline which you can use to build up your character.
Pandaren also have a good intro questline where in you learn of their values as a race and the difference the alliance and horde pandaren have.
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I would also caution against playing Druid, as it’s not very straightforward.
Echoing Human recommendations - it’s also possible for you to play some young adult new to the world learning as they go, though small reminder that it’s not always clear from the RP whether lore mistakes are intentional or not. So there will always be those few RPers who will jump into your whispers harassing you for making a lore mistake even though it would be… true to the character. But don’t let that stop you, those few are just sad!
From the Horde side - not that I have much experience there - you’re likely going to want to read up a little more about any race that you might want to play there, but probably Tauren has a simpler story to get straight. With Orcs, you might be required to know all the different clans, so I’m not sure if they’re the most beginner friendly, but they’re one of the staples of the Warcraft universe. Once you play the game long enough, you’ll understand Orcs.
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Orc Holy Warrior in the Argent Crusade.
Very few of us.
Absolutely correct and something that is very important to be aware of: mage is one of those classes that seems simple enough from the outside but has so many different interpretations on how to RP it that it can really swallow up an inexperienced RPer.
I’d argue the same is true for Warlock, Druid and Paladin - classes that seem straightforward but suffer the same problems. Each of those classes have a lot of different players with different views on how to approach that subject. Even just playing an ignorant apprentice gets you landed in a lot of arguments and (possibly) whispers from other RPers on how you’re actually supposed to play this (which is all just interpretation).
You might get lucky and not run into them but I’d still avoid those classes, just to make it easier. Warrior, hunter, rogue are good beginner classes. Priest too, if you know the lore of your race and that of the Holy Light.
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When I was new to RP, I went with an orc warrior. They can be anything between the honorable, thoughtful type, to the straight up dumb, knows nothing but how to hit things type.
Rather than looking up a lot of lore (there is so much and it is a lot of effort), going for a plain character (warrior type) who has a good reason to be ignorant (dumb peon-esque orc) is an easy way to learn more lore as you go. You just accept that the character will be called out on asking “stupid questions” all the time, and possibly invite chances for others to explain lore through their characters, which is neat.
(Granted, any race can fit the “dumb and simple” mindset, but in amount of lore you need to know as you start, I’ve always found orc to be the most straight forward!)
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HMP - Human Male Paladin.
I jest of course, I would say you should be fine rolling with any race and class outside of Dracthyr / Night Elves / Nightborne / Draenei as the former is very new and nuanced and the latter has a lot of backstory and lore that you would have to go through.
Everything else you should be fine with and I am certainly sure many will help you along that!
Goblin male warlock
(always keep a helmet on to avoid the terrible new face)
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I always found warrior or hunter are good classes for an easier start in RP due to the wide variety of armor types and weapons they can use. Makes it easier to settle on an in-character “class” - plus, you might wanna settle in a bit before looking at magic classes if the lore is yet unfamiliar to you.
Racewise people have already offered very good advice before me, mine is to simply pick the one you like best and do some light lore reading on them. (Considering a few of them have such tiny amounts of it that it would fit on the wrapper of a chocolate bar.)
While the other people on this thread are raising good points, and I agree with many of them, I’m going to present an unconventional alternative: dracthyr evoker.
Their starting zone isn’t outdated, on the contrary, it’s newest lore. And they have only just been awakened from stasis into which they were put 20,000 years ago, and have forgotten almost everything even about their time. They have a legitimate reason not to know about modern Azeroth. All the lore you need to know is, basically, that there are five dragonflights, and who their leaders are. You can discover everything else alongside your character, just by asking people questions in character!
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I 2nd this
their story and motivation is really just
I was raised and trained to be a soldier 20.000 years ago, that is no longer the case, where am I and what am I to do now?
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Yep!
All you really need to do, to roleplay a dracthyr right now, is watch Legacies and play through Forbidden Reach. Everything your character should know to start with is there.
Is it the full story? Not even close. But a fresh Dracthyr character knows about as much as a new player would, and it’s great. Everything else they can find out on the way!
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I found the hardest races to Roleplay was Worgen and Dwarves. Mostly because I stink at the accent.
Thats the neat part, you don’t have to do the accent.
accents can be lost or gained, they can be as light or strong as you want.
Thuzar have no accent what so ever for instance and nobody bats an eye.
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So it really depends and it is super easy to overthink it.
Yes, making a human warrior is probably the easiest option in terms of you only really need to know what end of the sword to hold and which to stab with in order to get by, but you also place a good deal of limits on your character.
I would say, one of the best options I’ve found for making a new character if you aren’t too familiar with the lore or the role play scene, is to chose a race you like the look of and then role play as a new character. By that I mean someone that’s just come of age and is just now going out in to the world to make a name for themselves. Someone without much experience and who is eager to learn. Saves you having to get super in depth with a back story and allows you to chose a class that you can ‘learn’ in role play.
If you chose a mage for example you could find a role player who has been playing a mage a while and ask them to mentor you or pose as a teacher, that way you develop a role playing contact and might meet more folks through them, but you can also see how they role play that class. That way you can play the race and class you desire.
Granted, AD is not the most… diverse of realms in that most of the role players on Alliance for example gravitate towards humans and elves with the odd dwarf. So if you want a character that’s easy to ‘find role play’ on, a human or elf is probably the best way to go.