I was wondering this morning, if you had a friend that decided to play WoW for the first time, what class and race would you recommend they roll.
My first character
My very first character was a warrior. I was at a LAN and a friend handed over their PC and suggested I try WoW.
Experience in most games had shown best 1st character is a warrior mainly for better survivability. Once you have won the game you reroll increasingly challenging characters usually ending in a Mage class.
I played that warrior for an hour or so, then gifted with a copy of the game (friends FTW!), I promptly rolled a Tauren Hunter, because the Warrior bored me.
What would you recommend?
So assuming your friend, partner, relative is going to be playing primarily on their own, no RaF etc.
- What class would you suggest they roll and why?
- Would you also recommend a race and this starting zone (for viewing pleasure or convenience)?
Discuss.
PS: Funny how I write a post for just one person, and 103 people read it and 9 people comment on it… what you thought your were that one person?
PPS: I am a little behind in some essential posts… I have a couple of WoWkus and a Postively Wonderful to knock up… just got to get there.. not to mention my 11 other drafts…
PPPS: I have dismantled my PC and put it away… No WoW for me this week.. however come Friday, it will be a 48 hour marathon! LAN party FTW!
Gnomer and Out!
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Not warrior. That’s just asking for a lot of dying. Early druids are a pain. DKs aren’t an option. Priests don’t kill very fast and they’re squishy. Low paladins are a bit boring. Hunters are pretty nice if you can deal with the early lack of pet
Warlock or mage might work well. I’d put shaman for best choice though: heals, decent damage and durability, and ghost wolf at 20. They give a decent mix that is fairly resistant to totally failing and getting turned off.
For starting zone, it’s all about the Valley of Trials. Can you go wrong having an early quest to beat sleeping peons?
Despite all my brilliance, expertise, and perfect insight, in the end it comes down to personal taste. I’d have to know the friend specifically to be much help.
Rogues are fun from day one!
I’d suggest a rogue if they want to play melee zomgsmashurfase style class, and a hunter if they want to play a ranged zomgshashurfase style class.
If they want to play a healer for their first toon perhaps someone didn’t explain things to them properly yet
Naturally, once they have played to about level 10 they will be jealous of their fellow mages awesome fireballs and this is when they should roll a mage!
As for starting zones, I really can’t remember any of em. The one outside stormwind is nice and the one outside orgrimmar is conveniently close to things, unlike the night elf one which is rather isolated (but has cool purple trees and stuff)
Why would you put your PC away for a week? Is WoW the only thing it is used for or are you afraid you will not be able to resist the temptation to play WoW if it was set up? Are you trying yo build up an appetite? But then why would you play WoW for 48 hours at a LAN party? Seems to ignore the purpose of a LAN (low latency for locally hosted FPS and RTS games).
For new players, dying is the most frustrating thing about the game and so any class that can do reasonable DPS and heal itself is better for them to play at low levels although better armour is desireable so Pally, Druid or Shaman and to a lesser extent Priest. Hunter is the easiest after they obtain a pet.
Probably hunter. But I think I’d recommend they took their time, tried out a few classes to level 10 or so, and go with the one that most grabs them.
I wouldn’t really recommend a tank as a starting character but hey, if someone has a yen to do it …
Well, when I first started, I rolled a rogue and then a hunter.
When my parents started playing, I suggested they select a pure DPS class because it can be a lot to get used to learning game controls, navigating zones, learning spells, talents etc without trying to juggle multiple rolls. My mother rolled a mage and my father rolled a hunter.
A friend of ours rolled a druid for his very first toon and struggled… just too much at once, it seems.
I do have to agree with Spinks though… roll a few at low levels to experiment with the classes.
As for starting areas, honestly, I suggested my parents start in the Blood Elf starting area (they HAD to roll Horde with me, y’know) simply because everything is gorgeous and laid out nicely… a lot less crazy running around at first.
Well, from my own experience, warrior is a little slow, druid is at least interesting, warlock and mage can be a little complicated, etc. I think it kind of depends on what the players end game desire is. Do they just wanna mess around and be a casual player, are they interested in PVP, do they eventually wanna raid, and other questions. That is one of the beauties of WoW, there is a class and play style for just about anyone (one of the many reasons that we are over 10 million players and rising at this point). My suggestion would be play several toons to level 20 or so and see what you like. Level 20 is basically a joke as far as time spent, so why not hit the virtual WoW buffet and try a little of everything. Getting to 80, even in these days of leveling nerfs is still a considerable time investment, so I say don’t be too quick to pull the trigger, give it some time before you settle on Mage as your main, as any rational player will eventually do.
My very first toon was a Troll Rogue… I can’t bring myself to delete her because I’m so nostalgic about it… But a rogue was a bad starting choice for me because I found stealth/combo points to be complicated for a newbie, and because many newcomers might not be running the best systems, lag is especially crippling to rogues.
I’d recommend rolling a pally for straightforward mechanics, relatively good survivability, and self-healing, or possibly a hunter or lock for the built-in tanking capabilities of the pets – although pet controls are a little cumbersome for a first timer too.
I think the BE and Draenei starting zones are MUCH better introductions to the game than the original starting zones. Having the “second” zone to go to (ghostlands/bloodmyst) with a continuous storyline/questline makes it much less directionless for a new player around level 10-12. The original starting zones pretty much stop handholding around level 10, and honestly, that’s not soon enough for most complete newcomers.
Myself, I started with Akaani the rogue, then rolled Selmarris a BE mage. I was MUCH happier. And I’ve been a mage ever since.
Depends on level of prior gaming experience.
If they already have the basics of understanding that cloth classes aren’t supposed to stand there and let things chew on them, you can suggest things that match their play habits.
If they don’t have much of a clue… paladin all the way. They can take a beating and heal themselves; there is a lot of “forgiveness” with a paladin in the early levels. If they like the class, they will also have lots of role choices when they get the hang of it.
On the Horde side that makes your race selection easy and also dumps you into the best starting area. Eversong generally isn’t crowded and has good resources for gathering professions. Moving into the Ghostlands, there are some very nice rep rewards with Tranquillien. Silvermoon is a close major city and gives you access to UC and Org quickly.
Alliance side, I did a Dwarf pally and don’t recall it being too difficult to manage that starting area, just a little crowded. Personally, my favorite starting area was Teldrassil, but if you don’t start as a Night Elf, forget getting a newbie there without some serious planning.
I would recommend a Mage I think. It was my first class (Undead Mage) and I had a lot of fun soloing and blowing things up but I started to enjoy the game more once I understood how talents worked, what a spell rotation is and what crowd control was. The first time I learned Polymorph I was confused as to why I would ever want to turn something in to a sheep before killing it.. silly me. The first time I was asked to “sheep something” in a group, it clicked in my head.. and I was all “wow, thats awesome!”. Ah to be a noob again.
Anyway, I think the Mage is a complex class eventually but starting off it is very straightforward and would let a new player really enjoy the game, take in the atmosphere, become a little self sufficient making their own food and water but also become more familiar with the game mechanics to delve off in to the other classes.
My other choice would be a Ret Paladin.
Either way, for Alliance I’d always recommend the Draenei starting zone since it looks nice and the rewards are better than any of the other zones. This is the same reason I’d recommend Blood Elves for Horde.
I would say Rogue or Shaman.
Rogue is very easy to pick up, gives a good overview of the mechanics of the game and are fun to play, especially in gnome form.
Shamans for their survivability and the ability to heal themeslves, reduced down time fo rthe win. Plus as you get higher you can change specs to how you like to play so if you don’t like pew pew you can go to melee and be a big mail wearing rogue.
Thanks for all the suggestions folks…
I must admit it was a post without any real design, for myself at least.
It was just one of those random thoughts I had.
Interesting that people had a variety of thoughts, and I think that to be fair to the classes, you really don’t get a feel for them until at least level 10, most likely level 20… I mean I know of so many rogues that get dropped at 20…
I think Hunter would be the winner for me, because you are always leveling with a buddy. You can get away with being a Huntard at low levels, then when the interest strikes there are so many resources out there to mold a perfect Hunter.
Teldrassil was the reason I turned off background-musik, and the buzzzz from teh “street-light”-trees made me want to turn of environment-sound off too.
Mulgor was nice and calm, I would stay there forever … but the barrens …. I only got one char past that zone (paladin).
I have 3 dwarfs (2×80,1×65) and 3 gnomes (3x39pvp) and I think my bad eye-sight comes from the snow.
Zone-wise I would recommend to roll Alliance (now with the new ship-lines it doesnt really matter which race), start Elwyn Forest with a little visit to Westfall (just for DM), Loch Modan, Wetlands, Arathi, Alterac, Tanaris, Un’goro, Winterspring (ahhhh again that snow) and Outland (try instances until you hit 65 to enter nagrand ^^)
Class-Wise I would recommand druid, hunter or paladin. A druid has the most options (tank,heal,melee,ranged) and on top of that can sneak in/out.
@Trijem: Urrgh.. I hate the lamp buzzing too. Yeah I got snow blind… Northrend isn’t helping any.