Returning Player

Hey,

I’m considering the possibility of returning, but don’t have the same time to dump into it like before. I’m quite happy going through all the old content solo and in my own time.

Are DeathKnights & Druids still the best option for these? I would predominantly spend my time achievement hunting, clearing old raids and occasionally doing a profession.

Is there also a server/realm that would be better for this style?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

the good news is:

Dragonflight, is looking to be ALOT Less time consuming, with its more “log on and do what u want” Rather then requirement to fulfill chores before anything to ensure progression. so overall the games moving towards a time where time consumption isnt going to be great alike current.

after that:

Welcome back to the game overall.

Soloing old content. i’d imagine a Tank DK is still very strong at, and Druids always had its advantages to moving around open world however i’d be unsure to exactly whats considered the best solo / old content class in the game these days overall.

server/realm isnt really relevant. the Auction House is now server wide, to add cross realm and cross faction existing now and in the future to come cross faction guilds, will basically mean ur not going to be punished almost at all in regards to which faction / Server u choose.

i know Legacy is active on anything from 2 expansions ago, which greatly boost loot gotten and damage u do which makes solo content pretty damn easy.

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At level 60, the current basic gear level for this patch is about 225, which you can get mostly by purchasing 229 Green gear quite cheaply at the AH.

Your path would be:

  1. Get to 60 (you can boost to 60 if you like, but levelling to 50 is very fast these days)
  2. Buy some 229 Greens
  3. Do the initial “paperwork” to get registered with a Covenant. This is just a series of quests
  4. You can optionally open other Shadowlands content as you please

OK, now you have a 60/225ish character.

With ANY class and spec, you can solo everything up to Legion Heroic Raids, and BfA Normal and probably most Heroic dungeons. Obviously, tank specs - ANY tank spec - will have a smoother time.

Anything below Legion will die of fright just at the sight of any level 60 at all.

With a tank class, you can almost or maybe finish Legion Mythic Raids, and up to BfA Dungeons on Mythic. They can be done, but the difficulty isn’t always about surviving. While Blizzard have nerfed some of the mechanics, they haven’t entirely removed them.

Among the tanks, I’d pick the one you prefer to play. Survival is not going to be the thing that stops you. For example, Lord Stormsong in a BfA dungeon mind-controls you if you don’t kill him fast enough, but he will barely scratch your armour otherwise. So the limiting factor there is your DPS. So there is no need to go for the most self-sustainable survivable tank

Personally, I do most of my achievement and farming fill-ins on a Paladin.

I’m not sure about a better server and realm. The standard advice is to go for a very large realm in which your faction is in an overwhelming majority - Silvermoon for Alliance, Draenor for Horde. But in your case, if you are purely playing solo, the population doesn’t really matter for gamepley. And the largest realms WILL have lag and maybe queues for some weeks whel Dragonflight launches (Nov??? Dec??) so you might prefer to go a notch down. (Ravencrest for Alliance,. Stormscale for Horde?) Have a look at https://www.wowprogress.com/realms/rank/eu/lang.en and sort by the population column of the faction you want to play.

Professions are a thing. The whole EU now has one single AH for stackables like mats and consumables, so gathering profs have had their prices cut, but sell very fast. If you want to sell crafting, you want a decent-sized realm so you can sell something, but I;m not sure how much it matters after that.

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Thank you for the specific advice. I do appreciate it. Though I now have the headache on deciding which class and race to play through as… I was thinking that it was much the same upon my return and heavy healing tanks would be the suffice choice.

Would you believe that a DeathKnight (Blood Spec) would cover the tanking aspects quite well and general achiement hunting as a whole?

And should I wish to focus on group play with dungeons & raids (Current expansion) to focus on an alternative class?

Are crafting progressions much more easier to make money from as I’d specifically be focusing on making gold to begin with.

I’ve always preferred Horde as I had a fondness for the Undead Rogues and Tauren Druids but do they offer much difference in terms of Alliance now?

A DK will cover everything fine. Anything will cover you fine. The one disadvantage of a DK is that it doesn’t have any speed-up abilities, and when you’re soloing a looooong instance like Siege of Orgrimmar or Hellfire Citadel, you do feel it.

If you’re doing DK, have a look at a Frost offcpec, which will give you more ranged reach and casual AoE when you don’t need tank survivability, which is to say 97% of the time.

Just to mischievously throw another complication at your choice, if you’re farming old instances, you really should also consider your mog collection. I don’t know how long you have been gone, but the game now allows you to transmogrify your gear, to take on the appearance of any gear you have earned. If you are interested in this, check out the available armour sets for the classes you are considering: https://www.wowhead.com/transmog

Gameplay is pretty dead in this patch. If you want a current class for group play, I don’t know what to tell you. Clicking around https://raider.io/ will give you a good sense of the popularity of the classes and specs for Mythic+ Dungeons and Raids.

The Horde/Alliance ratio is crazy skewed now. The overall population is abiut 3:2 in favour of Horde, and - more signiicant - the Horde side is much more active, so the effective difference is even larger. Blizzard have enabled cross-faction groups for instances, so this effect MAY subside in Dragonflight, but I wouldn’t bet on it. So if you like Horde, go for Horde!

Crafting Professions - uuuurrrggh. Professions are not what they were. Blizzard has been waging a war on them since … Warlords? definitely Legion … and have beaten them to a bloody pulp. They have already destroyed the low-hanging fruit. First Aid has been removed entirely, Archaeology was removed “for” Shadowlands, and may not be coming back. Inscription has been reduced almost entirely to cosmetics. The problem is Mythic-Plus. M+ introduced a new plentiful source of gear, and Blizzard don’t want Professions competing with that.

Blizzard SAY that they are bringing back crafting professions in Dragonflight. Colour me dubious. They SAID that they were refreshing professions in Legion, when they actually nuked them.

I went through a minor AH Goblin phase once, so while not an expert, I do have some familiarity with making gold. I would not like to be relying on professions for gold these days.

P.S. Again, because I don’t know how long you have been gone, I should add that the WoW Token has entirely corrupted the whole concept of earning gold. When you can buy 300,000+ gold for the equivalent a month’s gametime, you have to be making a lot of it to be worth spending time making gold.

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Not rlly tbh gameplay is not dead, even if 1 player plays the game its not dead

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I admire your spirit! :+1:

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Love the positivity. :sweat_smile:

Still can’t decide on a class, any suggestions?

It’s difficult to decide a class for someone else, What I like might not be what you like.

It may not sound good but you really need to decide for yourself. Any tank class will do, you could even go for an Enhancement shaman, depending on which armour class you may want for transmog.

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I did play an Enhancement Shaman at one point, I quite like their approach and liked their old school totem system. They’ve also got a fun healing spec in Resto’

I don’t know what their class is like now though? Plus they’ve got that old red armour with the round shield from back in the day, that was a beauty. (Season 3 Vengeful Gladiator?)

You do love that spec. :smiley:

Shaman, Monk, Priest are the three classes that, no matter how hard I try, I just can’t connect with.

Kovanen , for myself, I’d always recommend a Paladin or a Druid, because they cover so many bases, and bring so much to the table. If you actively LIKE being in animal form, Druid; if not, Paladin.

You could also take a look at Demon Hunter. Perhaps new since your time? It is limited to having only a DPS and Tank spec, but it is very pleasant and low-maintenance to play. Great mobility.

Its DPS spec, Havoc, pretty much plays itself and is smooth as butter. I’m a little less enthusiastic about its Tank spec. Vengeance spec relies heavily on “Sigils”, AoE effects you put down on the floor that damage things standing in them. While you can make it so that sigils always appear at your feet, avoiding having to place them, it doesn’t feel satisfying to put down a sigil and wait two seconds for it to do its thing. However, Vengeance is a capabla tank, and you can use Havoc for 97% of your game, if you are just farming.

If you are committed to staying, and would look at buying Dragonflight Heroic Edition, you get a Level 60 Boost with it. While you would not want to Boost, until you use it, that boost also comes with a Free Trial capability - you can make a level 60 character and play it for 2 hours (I think it’s 2 - could be 8?) and then delete it until you find the chaaracter you want to play, and then you can confirm the boost if you want.

Otherwise, if you download the Public Test Realm, you should be able to make a Class Trial on that, which would give you a good sense of what a class/race character would feel like.

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I’ve never played Paladin and wonder if they’re fun to play. Kind of curious if to just stick with two gathering professions and not entirely sure what their Transmog wardrobe looks like, but big hammer and axe could be nice.

Edit - What are they like in PvP?

Every class is a taste. Pick a class; somebody likes it, and somebody doesn’t.

Paladin is quite straightforward in main play, but has a lot of utility and resources, Hands and Blessings, a lot of buttons you can fall back on to help your party or save yourself when things have orl gorn a bit pear-shaped. Big damage or healing with Wings in a 25sec window every two minutes in Tank and DPS specs. More ranged damage than most melee classes.

Best transmog in the game! Seriously, bow down in awe and reverence at Paladin sets, incl;uding the iconic Judgement Armor:

And you get to swing the Ashbringer! courtesy of Legion Artefacts.

In PvP, specs go up and down by design, ofc. In competitive play, Paladin has been middling or a bit lower these last few expansions I think. I barely PvP myself, and not at all on my Pally, so idk.

The only way you will ever decide on a class is to play a few. Window-shopping doesn’t do it! :stuck_out_tongue:

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