Saturday 26 July 2008

Have you found your Class?

I was mulling over different people's play styles and how things are developing as we move towards WotLK. Some folks I know are trying to get one of each class to level 70 before deciding which to take to 80 first, others aren't.

If you asked me a month ago about Lorienne, I would have said that she was stuck at 65 for ever - I had no interest in playing her because I love my priest too much. Then I started doing bits and pieces with her again and suddenly she's 70.

There is no question in my mind which I'm taking to 80 first - it will be Sephrenia. When TBC came out, she was a new level 60 - all greens and blues, whereas Lorienne was a full epic ex-hardcore raider (and YES, I've still got all her gear in the bank). I started with Lori first in Hellfire Peninsula, but found myself wanting to play Seph more, so switched to Seph full time. I gave Lori to my son for a bit because he really, really wanted a rogue, but he got bored of her, so she came back to me.

I do enjoy playing my rogue again now, but I don't get the same "buzz" I get from playing my priest. The moves don't flow naturally, I have to work hard to play her fully, but with Seph it almost feels instinctive - I naturally "know" what buttons to hit, what spells to use, how to react in most situations. It can't be because I've played her more, because I still feel like I've done more "serious" playing with Lori. I just seem to be more in-tune with the priest.

Maybe she's more like the "real" me - I love to look after people, I'm happy in the background, keeping things moving, supporting those in the limelight.

I have numerous alts and, for example, would love to have a level 70 Druid to play and maybe a Shaman, but I just can't face levelling them. I would spec them healing anyway.

My son is similar - he has loads of characters, but always seems to return to his Orc Warrior - he can't keep away. Barkie, my husband is the same - he has a level 70 druid that he absolutely loves and a 70 warlock that he plays every so often. He seems to quite enjoy his level 40 Shadow priest, but would prefer 3 druids - a tree, a chicken and his cat/bear.

I have friends who have at least 6 level 70 characters and they enjoy playing them all. Maybe the deathknight will fill the "gap" in their characters, I'm guessing that it won't. To me it seems you have a class that is "yours" or you are a nomad, playing all classes and not finding one that perfectly suits you.

So - have you found your ideal partner, your one true love, or are you still looking for Mr (or Mrs) Right?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Personally Im kind of stuck. I know Im a healer a heart, but which one? Having all 4 at 70 is great, but as to which one my heart truly belongs to.... havent a clue.
Probably going to end up rolling on it when the expansion hits.

Anonymous said...

I think I was one of the lucky ones - my druid was my first ever character, and she's been growing on me ever since! I understand what you mean about the moves just flowing naturally, that's how I feel when I play her, the hunter and mage... not so much, like you I feel like I have to think more about what I'm doing on them.
Mind you, I have been playing my laser chicken for over 3 years now... ;)

Anonymous said...

Have to disagree on one thing. For some "the right class" is every class.
Eg. Instead of liking just strawberries, you also like apples and bananas ;)

Some personal examples:
Warlock: Their seemingly endless pool of mana and their insane micromanagement system (curses, pets, cc, dots, drains, etc).
Warriors: On one hand extremely weak, but unstoppable when you include a healer.
Rogue: The stealth and the amount of spell/abilities/poisons focus on crowd control.
Druid: The whole "jack of all trade" aspect. Sneak in, tank primary target, heal up, sneak out. How I love instance stealth runs.
Priest: The most varied healer (hot, large heals, fast heals, shields, aoe heals), but the shadow aspect is also amuzing.
Shaman: Understanding their totem system and combat system (for enhancement).
Mage: Feeling like the weakest class during normal fights (1 vs 1), then suddenly completing a very hard group quest solo. Not to mention the portals and free consumables :)
Hunter: Their timed shot rotation system (timing auto shots with all other abilities). Also having to handle 2 characters at once plus trap/kiting.
Paladin: All their blessings and their shielding capabilities.

Being an altoholic also means you'll get an insight on how classes interact.
Eg. which totems are best for my paladin, or which blessings should my warlock have.

And you never know... sometimes you find out something new about a class or the game.

As for "flow". I normally get that feeling on all classes :)
Especially whenever a bad pull happens and you have to time every single spell/consumable you've got (nuke x, controll y, offtank z, heal Y).



I hate it when I don't know how something works,
and I love to get my hands on something new to try out (eg. new spells/talents).

Anonymous said...

I think you touch at the problem that at least I feel.

Pre-TBC, my main was Illuminae and I got her pretty good geared. But then TBC came and all her gear was crap. That kinda made me sad, so I leveled, Ferus instead. Problem was that he was at 35 when TBC hit, so I missed a lot in the beginning. Not only after months, I started leveling Illu again.
Now, I got both Illu and Ferus geared as well as they'll ever get and I don't know how I'll feel when WotLK comes.
One thing that is great with the druid, is that while I was tanking in TBC, I can go a completely different way in WotLK.

But to cover my bases, and not to miss out on the start of WotLK, i'm now preparing by leveling a few alts so in case I feel sick about dropping all goodies from Ferus and Illu, I at least don't have to level from 35 again when everyone else are experiencing all the new stuff.

Anonymous said...

I love my mage and it will always be my main character, it was the first character I ever made, but I like to see what other classes can do, it helps me understand them and try and work out how to beat them.

I also like the difference in play styles, always casting a fireball at something gets boring, switch that up with now sneaking up behind someone and stabbing the hell out of them and it gives you a break from same old, same old.

When WoTLK comes I'm probably going to be playing a low level alt for a week, DK start zone will be packed so quests will take forever and it'll be a gank fest, same with all the 70 starting zones, after a week I'll probably delete my bank char and creat a DK and level that while also leveling my mage (rested experience ftw!)

Rakhman said...

I am torn between playing what intrigues me, playing what I know and playing what might be useful for the guild and/or chances to get into instance runs.

A Death Knight or mage is intriguing, but starting from scratch puts me off. Playing what I know (hunter) is... comforting but might be boring. Trying something which is aimed at being "useful" is probably going to end in disaster anyway, but the promise of being able to respec from healer to DPS for a Shaman sounds almost too tempting.

Whatever class it has to be interesting to play, I couldn't cope with pressing one button repeatedly all the time.