Returning player wondering where to start (main picking time!)

[Akashà-auchindoun]

Hi everyone!

I have played this game on and off since TBC and had a blast for several years… been doing most of what the game has to offer but I lost the love during Cata and since then I only made brief revisits until I lost it again.

Something that bothers me though is that I could never settle for a one true main character. I always went to my rogue for pvp, warrior for tanking or druid for healing - at one point I had 10+ characters, all maxed at the peak of that time and while that was fulfilling in a way, I envied the guy who could just play every character day in day out and become one with it.

This time around I will play alot more casually obviously, but I would like to narrow down my focus into just one character. I’ve tried listing what is important to me but since I dont know much about the game right now I cannot use that info to pick a main and just go with it.

Please help me pick a class with this in mind:

I intend to only do PVE. I like to just kick it back and do dps in dungeons. I find melee more engaging than ranged and I dont care much for silences etc, but Im not ruling it out. I mained an affliciton warlock for quite some time which I loved since dotting is easy to time with silence etc, plus you can move around and dont have to stand there watching a cast bar forever.
My second favorite “job” was healing, which oddly enough i did like 70% of my wow career - both in pve and pvp. Same here, I was a Resto druid and hots let me jump around and move about and not worry too much about cast timers.
If I could choose - my main would be equally fun as a dps and as a healer. The problem I had with druid was that while I loved their healing style I have always absolutely HATED playing feral… first the ugliest model in game (old style cat form) then their ramp up time with bleeds etc… awkward positioning and just general awfulness… I also like transmog and being able to see my gear which feral isnt great for. Moonkin, never tried much, gave it a try but meh.

Anyways, for all of the pure dps classes I always felt like something was missing at the end of the day. My rogue was awesome for raids, dungeons and pvp but poor for solo content. Mage was fun topping the charts with but at the end of the day all castbar castbar castbar and low survivability.

I could go on describing other classes but I think you got the point by now, if you are still reading… I am looking to fall in love with a class/character and just embrace all the good things but also accept its shortcomings.

So with all of that said - I would happily like to see your recommendations, if any.
If you have a main please let me know why you love that class.
Again, i am not interested in topping any meters this time around - i want a character that I can just enjoy playing while popping a beer and so on.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for a long post that probably made no sense!

[Papudeath-outland (Papudeath)]

Well, from what you’ve told us, I think I can narrow it down to three classes that would fit you the best: shaman, monk and paladin. You’re already posting on a 120 paladin, so I’m not sure if you’ve decided whether or not that is for you or not, but I’ll assume you haven’t.

So, for monks there is a melee dps spec, a healing spec, and a tank spec. I think the melee spec is quite straight forward to play, they do have some self healing, and are generally viable in open world content and PvE. Probably not the biggest pick right now, but as you said you don’t care for topping the meters, so this should be a fine choice.

For shamans there is a choice between a ranged and a melee dps, and they also have a healing spec. I personally really like shaman healing, although it’s mostly there as a fail safe in the group to keep people from dying with their mastery and very big healing cooldowns. As for the melee spec, it is quite fun to play, haven’t tried it in a while though. Again, probably not the #1 dps class, but definitely not bad either.

As for the paladin, they have a melee dps, a healing spec and a tank spec. The healing spec differs from other healers quite a bit, as you usually heal the raid in melee range, and you’re not really treated as a ranged player at all. At the same time, instead of putting down heals that keep your party from dying, paladins are better at “sniping” heals meaning that if someone drops low, a paladin will quickly heal them up. Probably not the chillest healing spec. The melee spec is very viable and quite versatile with a lot of defensives, so it’s not a bad choice either.

Well, that’s the three primary classes that I would give a whirl. There is also priest, however they only have 1 dps spec and it’s limited to being a ranged, although it is quite similar to affliction warlock (well, not really, but there are some similarities). I don’t know if I could recommend any other classes, since I don’t think they would fit that well into what you’re asking for.

[Akashà-auchindoun]

Thank you very much for taking your time to respond!
I have decided to go for my paladin

[Stulxyma]

If you are ever having trouble deciding, remember it’s always worth trying a class trial before making any decisions