How to Choose Your World of Warcraft Class

Ready to try the World of Warcraft craze but not sure what kind of character to create? This rundown on each class will help.

Druid

Druids in World of Warcraft are unique in that they are able to mimic abilities of other classes by shapeshifting. In their normal (humanoid) form, they are able to cast offensive and healing spells. At level 10 they can shapeshift into a bear, similar to that of a warrior. At 20 they learn cat form, which works much like a rogue. Two travel forms are also available, one for water and one on land. There are also 2 additional forms available through talent trees, both of which enhance the "human" form by excluding certain spells. Balance-specialized druids learn Moonkin form, which increases their spell damage through increase critical chance, and also increases armor, but limits their casting to spells of the balance tree. Tree of Life increases the power and mana efficiency of heals while prohibiting the casting of most spells besides their array of heal-over-times.

Being the jack of all trades leaves them at a slight disadvantage in each individual role, but if you are looking to play a class that can shift gears at the the drop of a dime to serve your needs, this is it.

Hunter

Hunters are the ranged combat class of World of Warcraft. Using a bow, crossbow or gun, hunters devastate their opponent with high powered ranged attacks. At level 10, hunters learn how to tame beasts, giving them a "tank" to distract their targets while they do their barrage of attacks. Hunters can choose to specialize in their own ranged attacks (marksmanship tree), their own survival through better traps and escape skills (survival), or they can choose to bolster the combat prowess of their pet through the beast mastery tree. Any way a hunter chooses, they have a lot of survivability and damage potential. Feign death allows hunters to play dead, saving their life in most situations. A hunter's pet is also willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to keep you alive, but don't forget to feed him to make him happy after you resurrect him!

Mage

No role-playing game would be complete without some variant of a mage, and World of Warcraft is no different. Mages specialize in dealing lots of pain. Single target damage, area-of-effect slaughtering and high burst-damage potential make mages one of the most lethal classes in World of Warcraft. Mages are highly sought after in groups for their devastating attacks, and the utility they bring with several key spells. Polymorph can turn almost anything into a helpless sheep for a long duration, making every pull in a group much easier. Mages can also conjure free food and water for their group, as well as providing everyone with a buff to their intellect.

Their power comes at the expense of their own durability, however. World of Warcraft Mages have ways to avoid direct confrontation, but if something is beating on them, they won't stand up to much punishment.

Paladin

Paladins are one of the most durable classes in World of Warcraft. Capable of wearing the heaviest armor, equipping a shield, and countless defensive spells, the Paladin is one tough nut to crack for any opponent. Most paladins take on the role of healer; a role they do quite well. While their array of healing spells is limited, the ones that they to get are very mana-efficient. Paladins also offer a variety of blessings and auras to benefit their group in any situation. Paladins are capable of dealing out some moderate damage in their Retribution talent tree, but generally fall behind every other class in overall sustained damage capability. Paladins can also make acceptable tanks through the use of their protection tree, a welcome breath of fresh air in a world that always seems to be lacking a good tank or a good healer. Paladins can take on either role, and tend to bring a lot to a group no matter what they are doing. While they may be a bit slower to level than the other classes, the payoff is huge when you find that there's always room in a group for you.

Priest

Priests in World of Warcraft are restricted to cloth armor, and thus are very fragile, but make up for their frailty with an array of defensive and protective spells for themselves and their group. Priests have many healing spells available to them, including a group heal, an instant cast damage shield, a heal over time, a flash heal and a slow, large heal. Priests specialized for healing are always welcome in a group, and are generally the default choice for a group healer due to their versatility. While a paladin typically has more endurance with their mana efficiency, a priest has spells for all occasions.

World of Warcraft doesn't limit its primary healers to the back of the group, however. Priests who specialize in their shadow tree will find themselves to be a very potent damage dealer, while offering their group a constant stream of health and mana while they do their damage. Their array of spells is small, but enough to keep damage flowing for a very sustained period of time. Shadow priests are also welcome in group for the health and mana regeneration they offer to their group while dishing out competent DPS.

Rogue

Rogues are one of the hardest-hitting classes in World of Warcraft. All of the damage they do is up close and personal; you'll never see a rogue sitting in the back with the casters. Rogues have different ways to specialize, but they all end up doing the same thing: lots of damage. If you like to sneak around and stab things and watch them fall over before you can finish a sentence, give a rogue a try.

Rogues do offer some utility to a group, mostly in the form of unlocking doors, chests and boxes. They can also sap humanoid targets, removing them from combat for a short period of time. In an emergency, a rogue can use their evasion skill to negate most damage being thrown their way, and often save a group from disaster by "evasion tanking" for a short period of time. Rogues also have many stuns and spell interrupt abilities to keep casters and other targets locked down while they deliver their massive attacks.

Shaman

Shaman are similar to druids in World of Warcraft in that they have many different abilities, but are drastically different in how they utilize them. While druids shapeshift to mimic other classes, shaman can do everything in one convenient package. Regardless of how a shaman is specialized, they can do capable melee damage, cast moderate damage spells, interrupt enemy spellcasters, heal their group, and aid their group with a variety of totems which range from area-of-effect stat buffs, to fire totems which shoot fireballs at opponents. A shaman can choose to specialize in enhancement for melee prowess, elemental to enhance their damaging spells, or restoration to become competent healers. While they are considered one of the weaker healers, they make up for this by providing respectable damage in any spec. Shaman are a great class to play solo, with little downtime since they can heal themselves, and do good melee damage when they are running low on mana.

Warlock

Warlocks are an interesting hybrid-DPS class in World of Warcraft. They have many assets that they can use to their advantage, and are widely considered one of the most powerful classes available. Warlocks have a variety of pets they can summon for various duties, including a voidwalker for tanking, a felhunter which specializes in bringing down casters, a succubus which can lock down a humanoid target with seduce, and an imp that provides stamina for the group and some DPS from their fireballs. Warlocks also have a large arsenal of damage-over-time spells to keep the damage flowing on as many targets as they can get their hands on. Warlocks also have the ability to fear targets, sending them running away and in for a world of pain as the dots and the warlock finish them off. Very little can stop a competent warlock, and they are built to handle nearly any situation thrown their way.

Warrior

Warriors are the "tank" class of World of Warcraft. They have more abilities to help soak up damage than any other class. While a feral druid or a protection paladin can hold their own in the tanking department, they can't match the versatility and overall damage-mitigation of a Warrior. Warriors come equipped with many different ways to build threat on their target, multiple "taunts" to snap a monster's attention back to them, and a multitude of abilities to reduce damage coming their way.

Warriors have 3 stances that they can change through at will to access various abilities that are only available to specific stances. Battle stance is the "neutral" stance and opens up access to mostly offensive skills. Berserker stance offers the warrior increase critical strike chance, but they take more damage, so this stance is best used when the warrior isn't taking any hits anyways. Defensive stance reduces damage taken and dealt, but increase threat generated by all of their abilities, and opens up access to most of their defensive skills.

If you want to be the star of the show in groups, play a World of Warcraft warrior and keep everyone alive by making sure they never get hit. Nothing is more satisfying!