Wow character selection for new players

[sao123]

Well, I have been playing WOW for about 6 weeks, and its a pretty solid game... Tho Im much of a loner and prefer to quest my way to higher levels rather than group raids & instances... (Though I will eventually join instances, as its the onyl way to get good gear)

Just some info... there are so many races, classes, professions, & skills it can seem very overwhelming.

My first character is currently a lvl 47 frost mage. I like the independence of being able to conjur my own water & food (I dont have to buy anything) and I am developing my tailoring, skinning, & first aid skillz quite rapidly.

However, I seem to die a lot (since I can only wear cloth armor, and have relatively low hit points) when I solo more advanced quests.



Can someone point me in a good direction for my second character? I think I'd like a good melee style character (something which doesnt die as much)...I've never had a pet or a demon, so that would be interesting. But remember most importantly, My character should have the same level of independence of my mage for soloing quests (without having to "hope" for ample cloth, food, or water drops.

Assume I know nothing about any of the other character types other than the mage. (because i almost dont) After choosing a character for me, also I need to know what the best strategy for the talent tree with this character is...


Oh and since all of the people I know in the game are alliance, I want to stick with them so my alt can join the same guild im already in)

 

[SunnyD]

Quit now, while you still can!

 

[Harabec]

Nelf hunter.
Can be boring or interesting - your choice.
For a bit more involvement, a warlock.

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: Harabec
Nelf hunter.
Can be boring or interesting - your choice.
For a bit more involvement, a warlock.

Care to elaborate a little?

 

[AntiFreze]

For your play style I would say a Dwarf Hunter (or Nelf Hunter if your mage is a gnome so you can play in a different area.). And go with Herb/alch for skills. Hunters can solo their way to 70 no problem. There is a lot to learn, but you can tame up to 3 pets (2 held in stable) and can switch them out depending on what you need them for. The herb/alch will help you solo on your own even more by being able to make pots/elixirs for both of your characters.

 

[livingsacrifice]

Only ones I've played and like are druids, pallys and mages. I prefer the pally though he's at 60 right now, I can tank quite a few things at the same time much higher level than me. But ya you said you want to solo quests so I figure a tank geared character might be what you would want. I think my next character will be a rouge or warrior just want to try that dual weapon thing.

 

[Harabec]

Well, as a hunter you can either:
1. Autoshoot and kill the easy monsters\quests. Maybe die a few times, never really learn but you'll get to 70 eventually. (I refer you to that southpark episode: "WE'RE GOING TO KILL BOARS!")
OR
2. Learn how to play a hunter efficiently, either with or without a pet. Useful for instances at high levels if you have a good weapon. The pet becomes a nuisance there since your character is wtfpwing everything by itself.You'll have to do that sometimes, like when my whole party died and I had to kill Blackheart (last 3% or so, of course. I don't know if its possible to do more than that alone) by myself.
Unfortunately hunters get the coolest toys, skill and weapon wise, at high levels and until then they're pretty basic, but if mastered can be a tremendous addition to a party.
I also love ranged weapons so...

Warlocks are more complicated and require a bit more maintenance from the start but become nigh-invincible later on.

Note that everything I know is based on experience I got when playing about a year ago. I don't know if blizzard "fixed" things like they always do and now hunters can train sharks with lasers as pets.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

I have a blood elf hunter as my main and I have a few lower lvl alts that I play with at different times. Having a pet with you is great (if you spec BM). It's like having a second person with you all the time.

I just rolled a warrior yesterday to see how that was. Rogue is a pretty cool class to play so give that a shot too.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: sao123

Originally posted by: Harabec
Nelf hunter.
Can be boring or interesting - your choice.
For a bit more involvement, a warlock.

Care to elaborate a little?

first of fuck night elfs! roll Horde, if you have to play Ali at least make him a dwarf

Orc for hunter = more pet damage, easy to solo with as the pet is basicially a tank for you, cna farm basicially endlessly just need to drink for mana or health every now and then, and buy arrows/bullets, only downside is that they are kinda boring
at high lvls they put out great DPS and are pretty robust in terms of not dieing

Warlocks: Orc or Undead, both work, mines an orc, pet damage + stun resist + free trinket
locks take a lil more micromanagement to play great, similar to hunters as you have a pet that can tank for you (voidwalker) very easy to solo quest, really opens up once you hit lvl 40 and can just drain tank everything to death, at 70 prob the best solo farming class there is when speced affliction

warlocks also get a free lvl 40 mount

downsides: people will bitch at you for being over powered, mostly mages QQ more mages

 

[Aikouka]

Why are you pushing Dwarf Hunters over Draenei Hunters? +hit > stoneform unless you really want to PVP, but even then, most hunters are BM in PVP and The Beast Within > Stoneform (it's like Stoneform++). I made my hunter a long time ago (pre-BC) and he's a night elf. Given the chance to change his race, I'd go Draenei in a heartbeat... except the fact that I hate look like a fat space cow. Dwarves do get +crit with guns though, but personally I like +hit more. Also, I've never understood why Night Elves never had a Bow Specialization like Dwarves get with guns. I mean, Dwarves got it because they had Mountaineers, but Night Elves have Archers as one of their units .

Hunter is a nice choice though. Over my holiday break, I was originally planning on getting my warlock+paladin combo up to 70 (from 49) after I finished leveling my undead rogue. I decided that I'd give my hunter+druid combo a try because I had a big suspicion that the combo just wouldn't work (I tried it earlier on a PTR as BM Hunter + Resto Druid), and my suspicions were pretty much correct... my druid literally just sat on follow and did nothing because the hunter took more control.

So now, I leveled my hunter from 24 to 63 and I have to say that I've been having a hell of a good time because it's literally very easy. I think the only time I've died was because of my own stupidity in forgetting to Feign or some thing like that. Although I will warn you, my pet has been very frustrating. It seems the pets are very buggy right now when it comes to movement. They tend to just lag up to a mob so it takes almost 10 seconds to get to the mob. Because of this, I recommend a boar pet for your tank and use Boar Charge to reach your intended mob. I'm Marksman spec and I can't tell you how many times I wasted my Rapid Killing buff because my pet looked like he was being directly controlled by Michael J Fox.

Also, it sounds like you die as a mage doing the harder quests simply because you haven't really begun to master the class yet. This comes in time so don't worry about it so much. One handy thing you might want to get into as a mage is macros. WoWWiki has a good set of mage macros for focus polymorphing, etc.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Aikouka
Why are you pushing Dwarf Hunters over Draenei Hunters? +hit > stoneform

because i honestly forgot about the space cows LOL

the female ones dont look that bad, draenei or dwarf both work

or roll horde and go Orc, no reason to roll a troll hunter at all, or a BE

 

[Harabec]

Don't forget - you need to assign a hotkey\macro for pet attack and hunter's mark at the least, so that your pet will run to your target instead of you having to "lead" him to it.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: Anubis
because i honestly forgot about the space cows LOL

the female ones dont look that bad, draenei or dwarf both work

or roll horde and go Orc, no reason to roll a troll hunter at all, or a BE

I actually forgot about them too! Until yesterday when I was running ramps and my group couldn't beat Nazan+Vazruden... I pulled in a new hunter, got the rogue back, pulled in my 70 holy priest (2 accounts ftw) and got a 70 warrior from my hunter's guild. The hunter I pulled in was from Risen (3rd best guild in the US) and I noticed it was a Draenei hunter. So I wondered... why a Draenei because you never see them... then I realized it: the +hit bonus!

Female Draenei don't look bad, but I don't play females .

EDIT:

Originally posted by: Harabec
Don't forget - you need to assign a hotkey\macro for pet attack and hunter's mark at the least, so that your pet will run to your target instead of you having to "lead" him to it.

I actually rarely hunter's mark anything as I never really need to unless it's a more "serious fight" like a pack of mobs or an elite. Of course it's also part of my conservation of mana that I'll have to do until next level (when I get Aspect of the Viper).

 

[Harabec]

AotV feels like cheating at first since its so useful. I just left it on at all times instead of AotH. the attack bonus from AotH won't do much good when you're out of mana and can't auto-steady.
Mmmm I miss my hunter...characters are deleted after 90 days of disuse, right?

 

[sao123]

How about a Paladin as an Alt? A tank character would seemingly be a good place to start sinc my mage will eventually be a decent DPS. I see that no-one has recommended the warrior class. I wonder y?

Any good advice if i were to choose a pally? (A tank + healing combo sounds like a player in demand)

I'm also kinda interested in the Druid... That ability to become a bear & a cat and just maul stuff looks entertaining.

 

[pontifex]

druid

 

[Harabec]

It takes 6 seconds to delete a character. Just try EVERYTHING

 

[AntiFreze]

I completely forgot draenei can be hunters. You should take that if you roll a hunter. Draenei > dwarf > nelf. imo

 

[se7en]

Originally posted by: sao123
How about a Paladin as an Alt? A tank character would seemingly be a good place to start sinc my mage will eventually be a decent DPS. I see that no-one has recommended the warrior class. I wonder y?

Any good advice if i were to choose a pally? (A tank + healing combo sounds like a player in demand)

I'm also kinda interested in the Druid... That ability to become a bear & a cat and just maul stuff looks entertaining.

Palys make GREAT healers and while leveling good tanks. They have a variety of things they can do, an "o sh!t" bubble to stay alive and most people like having them around for buffs. Tanking is good but I wouldnt really say great. They are the BEST at aoe tanking hands down but later in levels their HP just hasn't gotten there quite yet. Last patch or 2 they have gotten some looks so its gotten much better recently.

Warriors are pretty fun but can be a bit tedious to tank with. You have a few moves you will do and thats about it. . . thunderclap - sunder - sunder - sunder blah blah. Fun to level with since you'll probably be dps specced while being able to tank with a shield so pvp can still be cool. If you spec to tank only everything else will pretty much suck. Level 29 warrior in battlegrounds I think is really fun.

Druids are a niche class. By that I mean you probably want to make sure you have a strong understanding of what everyone does b4 going this way. They can do everyones job basically but not quite as good as those classes. They normally require multiple sets of armor to swap out for what you may want to do. Probably the most fun Ive had leveling up but tricky to get the hang of.

I have a 70 druid.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Harabec
AotV feels like cheating at first since its so useful. I just left it on at all times instead of AotH. the attack bonus from AotH won't do much good when you're out of mana and can't auto-steady.
Mmmm I miss my hunter...characters are deleted after 90 days of disuse, right?

no they never get deleted, you are thinking of diablo

 

[Harabec]

Really? Then I MIGHT come back...I have nothing better to do in the next few months while tying up loose ends, saving $$$ etc.
Cheap entertainment.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Harabec
Really? Then I MIGHT come back...I have nothing better to do in the next few months while tying up loose ends, saving $$$ etc.
Cheap entertainment.

yea your accnt just goes inactive, you can restart it anytime you want to start paying them again

 

[AntiFreze]

If I had to make another recommendation, I would say to roll a dwarf rogue, they are extremely fun to lvl and play end-game.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: Harabec
AotV feels like cheating at first since its so useful. I just left it on at all times instead of AotH. the attack bonus from AotH won't do much good when you're out of mana and can't auto-steady.
Mmmm I miss my hunter...characters are deleted after 90 days of disuse, right?

I've heard that remark quite a bit from hunters that AotV is so good at mana restoration that it's simply better than AotH. Unfortunately, I have Improved AotH so I'd also lose out on Quick Shots . I was thinking about maybe keeping AotH on when I'm > 1/3 mana and switching when I fall below that.

Druids are alright, but mine is kinda boring in the beginning to be honest. Cat form doesn't become horribly viable until mid 30's. I think that's why I chose my hunter over my druid... my hunter could solo mobs 6 levels above him where my Druid would go to half health just doing a mob his level!

 

[livingsacrifice]

I wouldn't say this is 100% I came back after about 8months away from wow, my 60 druid was missing couldn't be found. However after emailing them about my account they somehow got it back up. I was scared that I lost and had to start all over again, which I did end up doing, but I still have my main