World of Warcraft Classes Explained

So you want to play WoW huh? Don't know what class to play? Here's a little round up of all the different classes from my own perspective that will maybe help you decide. By the way before I really begin let me go over the three roles that your character can fall into.

Tank

Tanks are usually the leaders of the group. They generate threat according to their spells, abilities, and talents. If you are a tank, then it is your job to ensure that the creatures are attacking you and no one else in the party. Yes you read that right, you want them to attack you and not the squishy priest in the back.

Tanks must understand the threat concept. Most creatures that you fight will have what is known as an aggro table. During the fight, everyone's actions will place them somewhere on that table. For instance if a healer heals you the healer's entry in the aggro table will go up. In order to counter this as a tank you must over threat everyone else. This can be difficult to do sometimes if you have highly geared damage in the group.

Healer

Healers generally stand at maximum range and heal people. Mostly the tank. It is your job as a healer to keep the health of players in the group above 0. Not much else to say about healers. Good luck!

Damage

Damage roles will stand at maximum range if they are ranged, or melee range if melee. You hit the monster as much as possible using all your abilities. One important thing to being a damage role that a lot of people forget is to manage your threat generation so that you do not become top in the aggro table.

This can be done by simply stopping your damage. Simple concept for sure, but some damage players like to go all out and try to be top on damage. It sounds good but it is these players who do not care for group dynamics and are usually the first ones to die or cause the whole group to wipe.

Most damage classes even have spells and abilities to counter the threat generation. For example, hunters can feign death, and Night Elves can even shadowmeld to reduce their standings in the aggro table. I wish more people would take the time to learn about this sort of thing.

Rogues

This class wears leather or cloth. For whatever reason the designers chose to allow Rogues to wear cloth, although there is not any cloth items that have good stats for them. A good rule of thumb for Rogue armor is to make sure it is leather and make sure it has agility on it. Rogues use one handed weapons and dual-wield. They can use stealth and pickpocket enemies. Rogues have the unique ability to pick locks and this comes in useful when in groups where there is a locked door.

Rogues used to be the best class to play for PvP and there were many many people playing them. This was changed during the few weeks running up to the release of Wrath of the Lich King when they were nerfed almost beyond feasible playability ( www.wow.com/2009/02/11/encrypted-text-why-the-3-0-9-rogue-changes-were-necessary/ ). It was a double whammy for the rogue community and during this period many Rogue players rerolled Paladins or Death Knights (see below).

Rogues can fill the role of damage when in groups.

Paladin

This class wears any type of armor in the game, but it is ideal for them to wear plate armor. Paladins, or Pally for short, are a multi-faceted class that can fulfill either damage, healing, or tanking roles. They are able to use two handed weapons, or one handed weapon and a shield. They can not dual wield. Paladins make excellent tanks for two reasons. First they have concecrate which is an area of effect spell that spreads 360 degrees for about 15 yards. Any creature in this aoe will gain massive threat from the tank just simply because of this spell. The spell itself does little damage but generates incredible amounts of threat. For this reason alone, an unskilled Pally player will be able to tank easily.

Paladins are probably the best class to play for PvP at the moment. During a brief time before WoTLK expansion, the class was boosted substantially and completely owned battlegrounds. This caused an outrage in the PvP community and changed the following patch to balance them out. Even with the changes the balance has been upset.

Death Knight

Death Knights are available to any player who has a level 55 character or above. You can create one DK per realm. This class is what I refer to as "The Little Brother" class because what happens is that big brother lets little brother play on his account but can't play his toons, so the little brother goes out to a different realm and creates a level 55 DK. Ok not in every case, but this happens a lot. This is one of the reasons DK get a lot of grief. That and the fact that DK can not equip a shield but they can tank. Ha ha good one Blizzard.

Death Knights have a special bar called runic power. This bar fills up while fighting in combat similar to a Warrior's rage bar. The difference is that the runic power is combined with runes that have a cooldown timer. There are 3 different types of runes, and some spells have a cooldown timer, and require that one or more runes be cooled down also in order to use that spell in addition to having enough runic power. Confused? I am. It is hard to explain and the only way to really understand it is to play the class.

If you play this class be sure you understand it 100%. If you do not like reading a lot of spells trying to figure out how they work, then do not play this class it is complicated. If you tank with this class make sure you understand it 150%.

Death Knights can fill the role of damage and tank.

Warrior

Warriors wear plate. They can equip shields. They can equip 2 two handed weapons. Wait... what? Yes they can dual wield two handed weapons. Warriors are an excellent damage class. They can rush toward an enemy and stun it. Also, they have an ability that puts a shield of swords around them and damages anything that damages them. It is awesome. From what I know about tanks, they are easy. If you are dumb or if you want to get by on just mashing random buttons or just not doing a whole lot, then roll a warrior.

Warriors can fill the role of damage and tank.

Druid

Druids wear leather and cloth. Unlike rogues, druids actually have a legitimate reason for wearing cloth items. Not only that but druids can change into a bear, a cat, a different kind of cat, a night elf (or tauren), a bird, a moonkin, a tree, and a seal. I mean wow, that is alot of things to change into. Anyhow each one of these different forms has a different purpose. Bear form is essentially a warrior tank, and you could also say tank form and people would know what you mean. Cat form is for damage and is set up similar to a rogue. Moonkin is a spell casting damage form. Tree form is for healing. The other forms are for travel purposes. You can swim faster and breath underwater if you are a seal for instance.

Druids make excellent PvP characters.

Overall this class is a good class for anyone who is still undecided after reading this article.

Warlock

Warlocks rely on demonlogy to get things done. They are cloth wearing spell casters who can summon various types of demons to help them. The type of demon they use depends on the group needs at the time. They can summon a fel hound and it will give them a intellect and spirit bonus, or summon the imp for increased health. Warlocks are sought after to help summon other players through a ritual of summoning where the warlock can actually create a summoning stone right out of thin air in the middle of nowhere.

Warlocks are damage only.

Hunter

Hunters are melee. Melee up until level 10 that is. Then they get the ability to tame animals. Once a hunter tames an animal it become the hunter's tank so to speak, and the hunter will fight mainly at a ranged distance using bows or guns. Hunters can fake their own death, which can be useful to reduce threat while fighting in a group or to disengage a creature altogether if fighting solo. They have traps which they can lay on the ground and freeze creatures, or cause even more damage. Hunters wear leather up until level 40 when they can start to wear mail armor.

Hunters are damage only.

Shaman

Shaman have totems. Totems are kind of like spells but different. There are four base types of totems and for each of these four types, the shaman can apply a different spell that do different things. The totems are then placed on the ground and will remain there until they are recalled by the shaman, destroyed by damage, or the timers run out. For instance using a fire totem, the shaman can put down a frost resistance totem that increases party members frost resistance. There are many different combinations that can be used.

Shaman can change into a wolf and run faster. They can fill the role of damage or healer.

Priest

Priests can wear cloth. They can either damage or heal. A good shadow priest can do lots of damage and heal at the same time. Priests can cast levitate on themselves or other party members. They use shields that absorb damage and can cast heal over time spells. They have an ability called Mind Control which allows them to take over control of monsters or other players. This is kind of fun in PvP when you are near a cliff and you MC the enemy and then make them jump over the side. There is nothing they can do about it, except die when they hit the ground. Fun times.

Mage

Mages are a damage only spell casting cloth wearing class. They are well known for being able to open portals that party members can travel through to different cities. In addition, mages can conjure magic water and food that is sought after in dungeon groups because it eliminates the cost of having to buy them from vendors. It is often said that mages are water vendors. Mages can sheep other players or creatures to pacify them or to get away from them. Not much else to say about mages, they are magic users.

Well I hope this helps you understand the different WoW classes that you can play. Watch your back!