Friday, 1 December 2023

My Analysis of Different WoW Classes

There are lots of guides on each class in WoW some go to great length about each class. However, what makes them work is that they all fit some particular psychological role in the game. Each of them tied to one or the other ideal image that resonates with different people for different reason.

Of course, each individual person can have their own reasons to play any of these classes, but there is some underlying flavor that underpins each class place in the world. There are fine differences between say mage and warlock or between paladin and warrior.

Warrior and Mage are of course two typical fantasy troupes and reasons to play them are basically self-explanatory. 


Warrior is a basic fantasy trope class that fights in close combat. People who want to wear shiny (or grimy) armor and kill monsters will choose this one. However, there is one other type that will play it and that is one who wants to feel raw strength of killing monsters with melee weapons.

Despite or perhaps because of its basicness it's very versatile and can fulfill many roles. 

Warrior is respected by community mostly for its tanking role, but alternative specs are welcomed as DPS.

I rolled Arms Warrior twice and took it near as far as my Warlocks. This class is overall easier to play than Warlock, but it is not as powerful as Warlock. It is however much more powerful than either mage or paladin.


Mage is magical counterpart of Warrior. It is played by people who want magic to exist and use it for doing things that physically impossible. Conjuring fancy and useful stuff out of thin air and solving all problems with a swing of a magic wand does sound like a dream, many want to live. Gandalf of Harry Potter fans.

Despite what the class idea suggests, mage is actually not versatile at all. Nicknamed 'glass cannon' mage can dish out huge damage, but pretty much helpless in close combat.

None the less it is sought after as preferred DPS class.

I rolled a Cold Mage once and it is much weaker than Warlock, but more playable than Ret Paladin.


Priest does exist in DnD but it has its own flavor revolving around holy light religion and Naaru, who are source of their and Paladin's power. 

Theoretically this is a class for supportive people who like to help others, but in practice this is a class, only the most skilled people play. Some of them first leveled some other character first, before switching to priest.

The reason for that is you need a lot of skill to play priest properly. Since the whole raid does depend on their healing and utility spells. Thus, they need someone who understands what they are doing. Another reason is that because priest is hard and not straightforward to level, only people who are good at playing the game can reasonably reach final level with this class.


Paladin is like a priest warrior hybrid. The idea of this class it a holy warrior that only fights evil and protect the good, being moral, helps grannies across the road and so on. People who pride themselves on their morals and virtue signaling would pick this class. It also has a fancy special horse mount just for them.

In practice this class sucks at being proper warrior as well as being proper priest. Playing pal is pain and I see no reason to do so, unless you are an idiot. Some claim this class is meme. 

I dropped pal faster than any other classes I tried.


Warlock Mage/Shadow Priest/Hunter hybrid mechanics wise and an anti-paladin idea wise.

Idea wise warlocks are secretive solitary sorcerers that seek to maximize their power by tapping into most forbidden disciplines of sorcery. Unlike more socially acceptable mages, Warlocks do not hesitate to tame and use demons as their servants, as well as performing human sacrifices to enhance their spells. Just like paladin, this anti-paragon of selfish thirst for power has his own special mount, an infernal horse straight from hell. 

Warlocks are indeed the most powerful class. They are better mages and mages, their damage over time better than those of priest, their 'pet' demons are much more powerful than those Hunters can tame. In good hands Warlock is one man raid.

That however takes a lot of attention to manage it all. This is not the class you can play by pressing one button. There is a lot to keep track of so, intelligence, skill and ability to press many buttons at the same time is required to Warlock.

That is my favorite class to play, I soloed BRD and killed final boss Dagran Thaurissan with level 65 Warlock.


Rouge outlaw assassins that kill people in underhanded ways.

People enjoy playing this class for the same reason they play GTA or even Doom. These guys are unapologetically evil and like it this way. People who like to kill people above all else, play rouge. This class is a killer first and foremost. Trolls also play this class as it gives most opportunities to troll other players.

The idea that appeals to Rouge player is that you can kill and do other illegal stuff and get away with it. At least to those who love this class above all else. Unlike Warlock enthusiasts, who think long term power and want dominion over things. Rouges mostly live in present and do not think about future much.

In community this class is well respected as Rouge players are often well versed in game mechanics and more than capable of being raid DPS.


Hunter is associated with casuals. It is arguably the easiest class to play.

The idea of the class is an explorer-adventurer who travels the wilderness, hunts or tames various fancy beasts and keeps them as pets. Hunter perhaps fits the description 'adventurer' more than other classes. Thus, casual players are drawn to this nature and animals loving class. With hunter they can have their own pet tiger, elephant or an exotic fen strider and be happy about themselves.

This class is arguably the easiest to level and the most fool proof of them all. Range attack ability allows to kill monsters before they even get close enough to start attacking the player. Even if monsters get close enough, hunter has good melee capacity. Tamed pet will assist them with killing mobs and further protect the player from danger. Mail armor ensures high survivability. Sure, Warriors have even better plate armor, but they have to always fight in melee, putting themselves in regular danger. In contrast other ranged capable classes, such as mage and Warlock only have cloths armor that hardly protects from anything.

Because even a very unskilled player will likely have no problems levelling Hunter to maximum level, they have rather poor reputation among other players, when it comes to dungeons and raids. People are skeptical that Hunters can do well in environment as unforgiving as raid. Indeed, some Hunters have little idea how to use traps and other such utility spells of their class.

That said because of traps and other useful skills, Hunters do have they can be a valuable addition to raid if they can convince the public they know how to use these abilities.

I never rolled hunter myself though.


Druid is a jack of all trades.

Idea of this class is that he is any eco-friendly green alternative to demonic fel-energy guzzling Mage or Warlock. This Druid spells are not as powerful, but they have variety and versality on their side. Capable to adopting to any role. I am not sure if furriers play this class or roll Tauren or Worgen instead. On the other hand, if you indecisive and want to be someone special, but not sure who, then this class is for you.

Uniquely of all classes, Druid has four specializations, while everyone else only three. In bear form he is like Arms/Prot warrior, in panther form like a Rouge, in tree of life form he is priest alternative healer. Finally in human form he uses nature spells, similar to Mage. If you have no idea what class you want to play, you might as well roll a druid to try it all.

It was my first class to roll, and I got him to level 40 (old levels). Night Elves did not allow mages, but I like ambient feel of their zones as well as their architecture. So, I played as Night Elf Druid.


Shaman Mage Warrior Hunter hybrid. Instead of allowing you to try various roles, this class instead requires you to be it all at the same time. Shaman is probably as hard as Warlock to play but far not as powerful.

Lore wise, Shamans are guardians of nature and the world, who study some ancient hippy arts and use power of elements to keep world in balance. I think ecological activists will love it. Even more so than Druids.

Shamans can be healer or DPS. I think they have enough utility spells to be viable in raids. However as far as I know this class is rather unpopular with players.


Death Knight Warlock Warrior hybrid. Likely as powerful as Warlock but as easy to play as Warrior. A hero class that everyone wanted to roll, some complained that there are too many of them in the game. Because of surplus of DK, there is hard to find place in raid.

You need to have one other hero on level 55 before you can have Death Knight. Because of that I never get to roll one as by the time they reached level 55 I was too absorbed into my Warlock and Warrior and wanted to get them to max levels and see all the end game content I possibly could. Then servers often got shut down, before I could start a DK.


I would not say much about Monk, Demon Hunter or later classes. They were added later and never played expansions after Cataclysm.

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