Which Character to go for when I finally re subscribe

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Hello all, hope you are staying safe and indoors!

So I have been away from WoW for many years, I have never really got past lvl 50ish as far as I remember (the last time I played, Paladins were only available for Alliance!!).
I hope to gauge your thoughts on what your experienced opinion is for me. I know that at the end of the day it all depends on the player, so I thought I would give you an insight of my choices:

So my style of play is a mixture of both PvE and PvP battlegrounds, like I said I haven’t hit top levels so never experienced raiding. I don’t really enjoy playing with the spell casting classes like Mages, priests, druids etc.

Option 1: Hunter

I found hunters really fun and easy to level with on PvE but nearly useless on PvP.
Just looking at the leaderboards on PvP and not a hunter in site for the first 3 pages! I know it depends on the player but the class also has an effect.
Cons:

    • Not the best for PvP
    • PvE can get boring as you are far away from action
      Pros:
    • Good at PvE

Was thinking too if you want to go for melee talent tree on a hunter you might as well roll a melee class (a melee hunter was never heard of when I played!)

Option 2: Rogue

I enjoyed playing rogues a lot but I remember that the levelling for them and PvE experience wasn’t as good - Felt like a bit of a grind ?
I liked the stealth and ambush kind of stuff (vanishing powder was a thing when I played!)
Pros:

    • I really like the melee aspect and melee weapons of WoW classes, and rogues are the business in this.
    • PvP they are very suited, reflected in the PvP leaderboards.

Cons:

    • down side I found was they were relatively easy to kill due to the leather armor which I remember was an issue with PvE pulling multiple mobs.
    • Not really as versatile as warriors or paladins especially.

Option 3: Warrior

Warriors I really liked too, loved that they are hard to kill due to the plate armor and PvP they were decent too. PvE I liked the fact that they are versatile and can play tank or damage etc so easy to find dungeon groups.

Pros:

    • PvP they are decent (but not as much of a presence on the leaderboards vs Paladins and Rogues for some reason).
    • Enjoyed melee side and 2 handed weapons look really cool
    • Plate armor makes them hard to kill
    • Charge is a nice talent, makes the PvE feel like its going faster somehow for me (weird I know).
      Cons:
    • Felt sluggish on PvE despite the charge, felt a bit of a grind too but the more I am writing that as a con the more I think that this grind is unavoidable.
    • not as much of a presence on the PvP leaderboards vs Paladins and Rogues for some reason.

Option 4: Paladin

On paper, they seem like the jack of all trades that will keep me engaged.
I liked that versatility, they are practically warriors but with healing powers?

  • Pros:
    • I do like how they can, like warriors, be versatile with damage, tank or healing (although I would never want to do healing, doesn’t appeal to me).
    • Looking at the PvP leaderboards, looks like there are a few more Paladins on top 3 /4 pages than warriors.
  • Cons:
    • I think I remember they got a bit boring to level with the PvE side felt like a drag. I liked how the warriors charge and as far as i remember you cant do that on Paladins

Summary:

I think the issue that I had in the past was I just couldn’t stick to one class, I kept levelling to around 30/ 40 / 50 then re rolling and trying something else.
I probably just need to make an informed decision which would make me more comfortable and confident in my long term decision, and that is why I thought I would use this forum to bounce my ideas around.
Would you agree with my PvP assessment and PvE assessment of each class? Or have things changed a lot now.

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That’s a very detailed and clear and coherent post.

I also barely recognise what you’re saying.

Your experience is from SO long ago that it’s barely relevant, so much has changed.

When we talk about a choice of classes, there is also the consideration that Shadowlands will see some changes in 6-8 months from now, but since we don’t know much about those, I’ll leave them out of consideration. Preach Gaming on YouTube has a series of very short quick-looks of every spec in the earliest Alpha, probably worth watching through just because they are so short, but that can’t be taken as reliable. If you’re interested in some classes in particular, someone will have a longer and more in-depth review, but there will undoubtedly be a lot of changes between now and then.

So I won’t try to talk about SL changes.

There are no more talent trees. There are talent grids. You can switch specs and talents at any time, for free.

Mythic-Plus is a complete change in end-game. It has disrupted the model of raids or PvP. Dungeons are now a core part of endgame - I think it would be not unfair to say that they are now the main part of endgame, since you are forced to do them for loot whether you want to go raids or PvP. This has effects on the viability of classes, since everyon has to consider how they do in M+, and what they enjoy there. Here’s a recent video from the Mythic Dungeon Invitational qualifiers:

If you want to look at leaderboards, you should also consider Raider.io, which tracks M+ performance
https://raider.io/mythic-plus-character-rankings/season-bfa-4/world/all/all
and Warcraftlogs, which tracks raid perfomance
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/24/#difficulty=4

I do have to question whether World Leaderboards are very relevant to you, though. These guys practice for countless hours and math out every tiny fraction of a percent of performance. It doesn’t sound like you do that. :stuck_out_tongue: So their performance on a class will just not be relevant to you. At all. Zero correlation.

If you’re wanting melee, I do agree that hunter is a dubious choice. It does have a melee spec now, but then you’re stuck with two ranges specs you don’t want to use. Hunter is always solid in both PvE and PvP, but it never does seem to scale as well as other classes; whether that’s important to you depends on how competitive you want to be at end-game - but since you never did get to end-game, I can’t believe that’s critical.

Rogue has been a superstar class, S-Tier, in both PvE and PvP for the last couple of expansions. Don’t enter a high-key M+ without (at least) one! They’re a lot harder to kill now, with inbuilt heals, and more avoidance.

Prot Warrior has been the goto tank in M+ for the last couple of patches. Fury spec, with double two-handers, is pretty fast, and doesn’t feel grindy.

Paladins are SO different from Classic … well, they are. Vastly improved. Maybe a bit more basic than Rogues and Warriors, and thay have only one DPS class, so, like Hunter, you will be hoping you really really like the spec you get.

With this list, you have to look at Demon Hunter. You HAVE to. It is, without any possible doubt, the easiest and most pleasant spec in the game to level. At endgame, it does lack some subtlety and control that a class like rogue brings, but from reading what you wrote, everything screams DEMON HUNTER at me. Until Shadowlands, DH starts at level 98, and you have to have a character at level 70 to start one. Of course, if you use the boost you get with BfA, that isn’t necessarily a problem. Or you can start at Death Knight at level 55, play it to 70, and then start your DH.

My best advice you you is to search YouTube for videos of these classes playing in BfA.

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Wow thank you for such an informative response!
Really useful info, haven’t looked into demon hunter at all so I will have a look now.

Good point with the world leaderboards and hours of practice, I can’t see my self as serious as that.
I just used it to get a feel of what is a good PvP class etc and have a rough idea.

What is your main character and why have you gone for that if you don’t mind me asking?

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I mostly play Mage, but it has been getting steadily less fun for the past two expansions, and now from what we see on the early Alpha, it seems Blizzard’s talk about making classes whole again was just that - talk. :frowning:

Mage performs fine, but like many other classes, it has lost most of what once made it fun.

I also have a Paladin I keep with me. I do enjoy the switch from the mage’s glass cannon style to the Paladin’s stolid but solid style.

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Re subscribed !
Already levelled my rogue from 40 up to 60 lol been a bit addicted. It’s good fun, been doing dungeons and questing in barrens, very nostalgic.
mainly purely because PvP I’m in the queue so long I forget I queued in the first place!
That is the downside to this re subscribing experience, PvP is and average of one battleground every hour.

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