Final throughts on classes

[Nikodemus]

Just a proposal here.

I'm going to post a thread with my comments about the priest class a bit later (when I get time to type it up) - how it's been to solo, to group and to group up with the other classes.

Would be nice if others would do similar threads about their class so we can help those who haven't decided pick their retail class :)

[Nyana]

The Rogue
writtend and copyright by Nyana, a lvl 55 Rogue in PvP Closed+Final Beta EU.

Main strengths, pro's and con's:
Damage, a rogue is made to do lots damage to a single target in a short amount of time and does that job incredibly well. Unfortunatly, as stated, it does that incredibly well against only 1 target. The second target will be a problem since all your moves are based on energy, much like the warrior needs rage to perform actions in combat. But unlike the warrior that needs to build up energy (rage), a rogue has 100 energy at the start of combat and regains 20 energy every 2-3 seconds. Taking on a same lvl creature can be quite easy depending on your approach and energy use, but the second enemy that you attack directly after the first one died will be much harder since you are out of energy by performing all your moves. Besides energy, a rogue has to watch his combo points. There are 5 combopoints and you gain 1 after performing a build-up move such as Sinister Strike, Gouge, Ghostly Strike and Ambush. The more combo points you have, the higher damage you do to your target and the longer your DoT abilities effect the enemy. Not always does 5/5 combo points do more dmg than let's say 3/5 combo points. It's all based on chance to crit and luck. I basicly get 5 combo points, perform a finishing move (Eviscerate in like 75% of the time) then rebuild again to 3/5 combo points and than some other move depending on situation and enemy.

A Rogue has little to no crowd control abilities, the only ones are Sap (humanoids only, stuns target for 35-40 seconds, dmg breaks stun, must be stealthed, enters combat after performing ability) and Gouge (stun target 5 seconds, dmg breaks stun, target has to be infront of you). Sap comes in handy when you face 2 mages, so you can disable one, fight the other safely and then get the other one. Gouge is nice to drink a potion while the mob is stunned, or apply a very quick bandage.

A combat (tree) rogue (wich I was) does not require stealth that much to attack his target, running into the mob, unleash adrenaline rush and build up combo points really fast will cut trough the enemy health bar within seconds. While the other 2 talent trees rely more on stealth and approach to perform cheap-shot, ambush, backstab, rupture, gouge, etc. abilities I found to be very dissapointing, backstab does not do as much damage as I imagined it would be. I switched from daggers to swords at around lvl 35 and that did exceptionally well, even taking on warriors 3-4 lvl's higher than me was not much of a problem.

The main problems I had when Rogue'ing around were mages. These low life stupid Harry Potters ruined my day quite often. They prevent you from Vanishing (highest lvl of stealth for 5 seconds, returns to normal stealth afterwards, has a x%-tage chanco to break roots and other crowd control spells, dont know the exact %-tage) by putting DoT spells on you (dmg breaks stealth). The Rogue can't handle magical dmg, even low lvl creatures can do massive dmg because of the leather armor. The most annoying thing must be when you are trying to sneak up on a mage/priest and he does an explosive magic spell and instantly decloaks the rogue. Then they freeze you and trow magic at you and you die faster then you can say "Vanu sucks".

The abilities I used a lot in combat were: Cheap-Shot (opens combat when stealthed, stuns target 5 seconds, dmg does not interrupt stun, gain 2 out of 5 combo points instantly), Sinister Strike (build up combo-points), Eviscerate (finishing move), Riposte (disarms opponement when you parry his attack), Blade Flurry (attacks 2 targets at the same time, for the same damage, for 15 seconds, with a cooldown of 2 minutes), Adrenaline Rush (double energy regeneration for 15 seconds), Evasion (50% chance to dodge/parry for 15 seconds), Sprint (150% speed burst when all else fails) and Vanish (when death is imminent)

The best combat situations are when the rogue has the first strike option, so you hit the target first and no fooking Harry Potters are nearby. Basicly, you can call it a camper or ganker, but a full party of rogues can keep a whole town in fear :). Also a lot of elite quests can be done easily by just sneak by all the mobs, kill the fooker who needs to get killed, Vanish, and sneak out again. Problem solved.

A little about poisons, at around lvl 22 a Rogue can learn to coat his weapons with poisons, things like instant dmg, damage over time poisons, but also cripple poisons, anti-casting poisons and wound damage poisons. I really need to use these posions better in retail because everytime i forget to buy and make poisons, while they really give and advantage or even the winning edge in combat. Also buy flashing powder in large quantities (needed to vanish).

To conclude:
To do a lot of damage, follow the combat tree and learn sword skills very soon. Ditch daggers and buy good weapons. 1 Quest in Maraudon gives you a Trash Blade, wich gives you a chance to do 2 attacks in 1 time slice, VERY powerfull ability. Also grants you Adrenaline Rush and Blade Flurry when you spent enough points in this tree.

To have the most advantage of poisons and have the highest crit. chance follow the Assassination tree. Use a combination of Dagger + Mace/Sword for the win. Grants you 10 extra energy points and lots of cool features when spent enough points.

To be the Predator, the invisible shadow and the fastest when stealthed follow the last tree (forgot name.. heh, never used it :)). It's good to avoid combat or be better prepared for combat, but does the least dmg of all the trees to enemies when specialized in it.

[Nyana]

*shameless bump*

would like to read more experience/tips here before friday :)

[Gromagrim]

The Warrior

Where to begin......

Well, first to dispel some myths. The warrior can solo :D in fact ,up to a certain level, warriros tend to focus on this, and be a good melee class - about midway between a Rogue's damage and a Paladin's survivability.

Secondly that Warriors are only good if they have the best gear. Maybe in pvp, but I get on fine with my mediocre gear simply because of my playing style. The point of a warrior, certainly lvl 40+ is for the enemy to keep hitting you. a good weapon helps this, as more damage means you're a bigger threat, and better armour reduces the damage you take, plus often improves your stamina (hit points) and strength (damage caused, and damaged blocked by your sheild), but in a raid scenario (with multiple groups) I can very often keep the monsters on me, rather than a better equipped warrior, simply because I know what to do :p

Up till around level 40, you'll find you're quite able to do your job just by hittign the biggest monster the group faces, but after that, it's really time time to start specialising as a tank. This means resinging your favourite 2-handed weapon and kittign yourself out with a 1-hander and sheild. Also it's time to start using defensive stance (10% reduction in both damage taken and caused) and it's abilities like Taunt and sheild-based attacks.

I still keep my 2-handed weapon, otherwise I can't do any damage whatsoever :p and when soloing you don't have a rogue or mage to do it for you :D. This I guess is one of the downsides for warriors. Choosing a warrior you expect to get some low-foreheaded neanderthal, who's damn good at hitting stuff, unfortunately you get an armour-plated bunny-rabbit :p

I've heard quotes saying that warriors need to be the most tactically-minded players in a group, and without massaging my own ego too much, I'd have to agree. You really need a platoon leader's eye to evaluate the biggest threats and neutralise them, whilst also keeping an eye on the rest of your team's health, and spot anyone heading for your healer, factor into this wandering mobs and fleeing enemy, and you can see why so many warriors suck as tanks :p

[Ludicrouse]

Totally agree Groma...

Tank IS the hardest job in any mmorpg to get right.

Only healers come close to getting it... but even their tactics should be "HEAL TANK!!!" and thats about it :p

Tank ftw!!!

[Shinigami]

My take on hunters

First and foremost the hunter is a great solo character, but skilled hunters can also be a big asset to a group. Your primary role is as a ranged damage dealer able to provide a consistant high damage output. You don't have the burst damage of the mage, but you can keep it up for far longer, almost rivalling the rogue for sustained dps. Compared to mages and rogues you only have limited crowd control with traps, but you have a very useful pet and some very good utility skills that can aid you or your group.

Because of the pet and all the different skills you have to be willing to micro-manage a lot. Selecting the right type of tracking, aspect and controlling your pet in addition to marking, placing traps and firing special shots at the enemy. Pet control and aggro management is often what seperates the good hunters from the bad - if you don't watch your pet he might pull half the instance and cause a wipe and 4 very angry players. For example, if you jump off a ledge, your pet will most often take the indirect route and aggro all the mobs it comes close to. Always dismiss before jumping off a ledge ;)

Disregarding the pitfalls of bad control, the pet is a very useful tool. Normally its role is to tank a mob while you shoot it from a distance. Pets do provide some DPS, but that is not their main role unless you are PvPing (Unlike mobs, almost all players wisely ignore your pet and attack you first - at lvl 56 my pet provided 10-20% of my total DPS). If you do to much damage, for example by critting several times or using too many arcane arrows, the pet might lose aggro, and the mobs will run for you. The hunter is a decent melee class, but nowhere near warriors, paladins and rogues, so most of the time you'll want to get back in range and resume firing arrows at the enemy. This can be done by using slowing effects like concussive shot and wing clip on the mob, or by transferring aggro back to your pet by using the disengage ability or feign death (One of the funniest abilities you have, you basically fall over like you have died, instantly losing all aggro and sometimes fooling other players as well ;) You can stay down for up to 6 minutes and wait for wandering mobs to move out of the way, or get up instantly and resume fighting since all aggro is transferred to your pet (Or your party members if you are in a group. The priest will love you :) )) If you can control aggro between you and your pet, you can survive a lot of punishment as you can distribute it between two targets, or if things get too hot, sacrifice the pet and escape.

Pets can have 4 abilities, and Growl, which is an aggro-building taunt, is by far the most important of those. Like rogues use energy, pets use focus to cast their abilities, and if you enable both Bite and Claw, the pet will not have enough focus to cast Growl every 5 seconds like it should. Growl is upgraded by your pet trainer every 10 levels, but for all other skills you have to train other beasts in the wild and play with them for a little bit to obtain their skills, which can then be taught to your main pet. Pets have to be fed, and different types of pets eat different types of food. Food gives pets happiness which provides a damage bonus if high, or a penalty if low.

Overall, a very funny and rewarding. class to play, but requiring a lot of micro management, positioning and aggro-control. There are some problems though, mainly concerning viability in end-game instances. Hunters sometimes have a hard time getting groups because people don't think they are useful enough compared to other DPS classes like mages, rogues and warlocks. I do believe we can dish out a lot of damage though, while also bringing great utility skills to an instance party. I haven't done any instances beyond Uldaman though, so I don't have any personal experience. In 56 levels I've never felt like I wasn't an asset to a group though, including in the instances I did do.

[Rebel]

My Rogue Experience (PVE lvl 60)
Ill try not to repeat anything Nyana said unless my view differs :p

I messed around with my talents quite abit to find the best abilities, at first my talents were split between assasination & Combat, and not much could stand up to the power, 1v1, or 2v1 without the aid of posion, when applied there was not much any1 could do. I think Nyana may be forgetting Blind which let me surpass my lifespan on more than one occasion.

Anyway after my power trip i tinkered with the talent trees and wanted to give Subilety (Stealth) a try, so i invested alot of points in this tree.

I found Improved Sap to be one of the most benificial group benifits for a rogue, and also nice for solo time.

[Sap is an ability rogues can deliver to unexpecting victims to knock them unconcious for up to 45 seconds - the rogue has to be 'Cloaked'! now normally once you do this on 1 mob, the rogue 'Destealths' and is engaged by the rest of the knocked out buddies if he has any and cannot go back into stealth (unless he vanishes)]

Now Improved sap gives the rogue [1 point 30% 2 = 60% 3 = 90%] chance to recloak n to not be noticed by the mobs friends, and also if combat is not engaged when the mob comes round he carries on as nothing happened! so it basically asks as poly / sheep which mages can cast.

Blade fury is a very nice move which can damage 2 targets at the same time, stacked up with slice and dice gives you 50% weapon speed for min 8 seconds.

I think Nyana found swords better than Daggers with his rogue is that Humans have a racial bonus with wielding swords, but personally I would keep a dagger in the main hand and a sword in the other (depending on your current options) as rogues only get to use some abilities with daggers. Up until I did the Sunken temple and recieved this LifeForce Dirk (http://www.thottbot.com/beta.cgi?i=12936) I recieved decent daggers from quests, but i agree there are alot more 'rarer' swords which are more common to find then the 'rarer' daggers.

A funny thing when i dueled Hyggemissen (lvl 60 mage) he had me selected when we went into the duel so when i stealthed he already had my name selected so he turned me into a sheep, fireballed, froze me, damage spell etc... - i think i managed to take him to half health after i used a major healing potion... 1-0 Hyggem. So neway, i had a whine (so unlike me) that he cheated as he had me selected totally making my stealth bonus void, so he agreed for a rematch without selecting me...

3,2,1 - Duel - I was already behind him before 2,1 - Duel.. Cheap Shot (damage n knockout for a couple of seconds) Sinister Strike, Eviserate - he wakes up - he quickly freezes at the same time I gouge - he goes unconcious for a couple of seconds - i vanish to break root, (back into stealth) get behind him and ambush - 1-1 - he didnt even scratch me. Lets just say he stopped laughing from the first encounter and made an excuse n logged! haha

I found Mages (NPC's) the easiest mobs to take on as so many counter cast abilities [CheapShot, Kick, Kidney Shot, Gouge, Mind Numing Posion] and rogues damage output to their weak amour.

Mage (Human) obviously have a little bit between their ears so i find whoever gets the first hit off and generally knows what they r doing wins the day, unless rogues use mind numbing posion and Crippling posion when there advantage is increased.

Paladins [Especially Dwarf] are the worst, as they can divine intervene, meaning u cannot touch them while they heal, they can knockout while they heal, and as they wear plate taking the health down isnt an easy game, and if they are dwarf, they use fucking stone form so posions dont effect them!

[Madcat]

My impressions about druids (lvl 54 druid on pve server)

First and biggest asset of the druid whether solo or in group is his ability to adapt to any situation shifting from Caster/healer to melee damage dealer or tank.

For what I’ve seen on beta there is actually 2 kind of druids, very different in their capacities:

- The “balance /restoration” druids: spirit/Intel orientated gear, good healers /long range damage dealers almost as good as priests/mages. Good point is their increased armor for casters (leather), problem is they require as much water as mages but can’t make some.

- The “feral” druids (which I was): Strength and/or Agility orientated gear depending they rely more on cat or bear from. Very adaptable, they can replace a tank or a damage dealer very efficiently once again even though they don’t benefit all the abilities of the original class but still have the basic ones (charge or taunt for the bear and backstab or cheap shot for the cat among others). Even if they can still cast and heal, the lack of mana will make it very hard for these kind of druids to be dedicated healers especially in instances (unless backed up by one or 2 pallies in case of mana depletion)


Soloing and finding a group are both of course very easy. As for the pvp aspect, in battles, I was mostly going cat form and back attacks or long range casting (during skirmishes), in duels, I had good results against pretty much every class. Most dangerous seemed to be mages (casters usually) and paladins (NERF ;) ). Funnily I found rogues and warriors easier to take down

Few points to mention about the druids are also that they are one of the only class (the only?) that can revive during combat, have good crowd control spells, regenerate mana while shape shifted and therefore using whether rage or energy, benefit travel forms (ground and underwater), can cure poisons and remove curses

Profession wise, I went for tailoring/enchanting for testing and came to the conclusion that it’s not the best suited for druids :p I’d go leather working I guess

To conclude: very fun and rather simple class to play but still allowing lots of tactics and strategies whether in group or solo :)

[Nikodemus]

A comment about druids:
I was quite impressed by the few feral/balance druids I saw ... they perform really well in the role of main assist ...:
- whenever the main tank can hold the aggro and cope with the damage just fine, they could stay in cat form and be a DD
- whenever the main tank couldn't hold hold the aggro or stand the damage, they could shift to bear and become some quite impressive tanks
... while still being able to shift to humanoid form and have some decent backup healing/curing available.

... so I quite like feral/balance druids :)

[Shinigami]

More info on Hunters and grouping (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-hunter&t=69104&p=1&tmp=1#post69104). lots of good links at the end of the post.

Info about Pet abilities (http://www.goodintentionsguild.info/hunters.html)

[TheIcon]

Follow up on rogues :)

I went assasination and combat too up to level 40 then the beta ended :P

I went full out in assasination first, taking all the skills that I wanted there and then went on to combat.

Giving me the following tree at level 40

Assassination Talents (17 points)

# Improved Eviscerate - 3/3 points
Increases the damage done by your Eviscerate ability by 15%.

# Malice - 5/5 points
Increases your critical strike chance by 5%.

# Ruthlessness - 3/3 points
Gives your finishing moves a 60% chance to add a combo point to your target.

# Relentless Strikes - 1/1 point
Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to restore 25 energy.

# Lethality - 5/5 points
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Sinister Strike, Gouge, Backstab, Ambush, Ghostly Strike, or Hemorrhage ability by 30%.



Combat Talents (14 points)

# Lightning Reflexes - 5/5 points
Increases your Dodge chance by 5%.

# Improved Sinister Strike - 2/2 points
Reduces the Energy cost of your Sinister Strike ability by 5 Energy.

# Precision - 5/5 points
Increases your chance to hit with melee weapons by 5%.

# Improved Evasion - 2/2 points
Increases the effect duration of your Evasion ability by 4 seconds.

With two fast daggers (ziggler and silverblade) I had alot of hits going in fast, and with a high crit chance I did alot of damage fast. I normally started the combat vs. single mobs stealthed using either A stun attack (adds 2 combo points and lets you follow up with backstab) this lets you start off a combat with 3 combo points to burn right away.

Another thing is that I had no really trouble against two mobs of the same level at a time, focus all attacks on the main one (unless the other is a caster then go for him), if needed burn Dodge when you hit the amount of hippoints you'd normally need to fight just a single one. that should take away most of the damge done to you, if not all (I often found that while dodge was running with its 50% chance for taget to miss, I wasent hurt once at all) leaving you fit for fight for the last mob. Ofcause Hp pots is good to have at hand.

Two abilities I'd like to draw attention to is Ruthlessness and Relentless Strikes, it might not seem as much but trust me it helps, having a 60% chance for you to regain a combo point after using a finish if good in tight fights. Also getting back 25 energy lets you skip 3-4sec of waiting for those 40-45 energy for your next sinester strick. Also good in tight fights.

Poison has been covered, but will have to say "REMEMBER IT !!!" I often forgot to get more :)

Also I'd might just beworth it to level up your cooking to 100, I never did so which left me unable to make Tea. Now Tea making might some dull, boring and something that the brits do just to pass time :p however having a drink that lets you regain 100 energy in one zip isent such a bad thing.

[Fusion]

Hunter:

I only played my Hunter up to level 29, but I found it to be quite an enjoyable class to play, the bear helps a lot for solo play but in tough fights you have to micro manage it or it can undo all the nice work spells like Polymorph do.

I recently started using traps, and I've found that they really can help out when fighting tougher monsters, although you have to plan ahead for it.

The range attacks are great, but it can generate a lot of aggro so use concussive shot to get some extra time in to shoot a few more rounds and/or wing clip then turn around and run away until you have some range to starting shooting again. Usually by this time the pet has regained the aggro with it's growl or killed the monster anyway.

At level 20 consider Dual Wielding, I switched later on and found it increased my DPS a lot meaning I had a better chance of surviving melee. When you do the Gnomeregan quest for Shoni the Shilent in Stormwind he gives you an offhand axe which has a 5% chance to disarm your opponent (it looks like a spanner so engineers might want it to look cool).

Talents: don't waste any points on Survival, instead spend them on Marksmanship and Beast Mastery. In BM you want to get max Improved Focus for your pet (+20% max focus for Growl) and Bestial Swiftness (+30% pet speed).

[Shinigami]

My hunter was specced with 31 in marksmanship and 14 in survival, and I found those last points useful. I maxed precision (prereq), entrapment and lightning reflexes and got the detterence skill, and found them quite useful, especially entrapment used with frost trap on larger pulls. The pet enhancement talents are nice, but against elites in high level instances your pet won't last longer than a wet tissue in a blender anyway.

It might be best to spec Marksmanship first, then beast mastery, and when you are done doing regular quests and start doing Scholo/Strat/BRS and the raid instances, respec from beast mastery to survival.