I don't know about everyone else, but when I picked my first class, it was completely at random. I didn't know anything about what the different classes did, what their utility was in groups, or even the difference between energy and mana. I just went with what looked interesting and tried it out. Sure, I ran into a few classes I didn't enjoy, but I learned a bit about the game playing each one -- and, well, even today, I'm not sure I've really decided on a favorite. But now, if I'm talking to a new player making the same choice, the conversation is all about playstyle and end-game viability.
I'm not sure either way is right or wrong -- I know I had a good bit of fun trying everything in order to figure out what I enjoyed best, but if I were starting over, I'd want some advice. (What was I thinking leveling a rogue? All I ever do is sit in Orgrimmar or Shattrath and open lockboxes for people!) But now I'm asking you all -- how did you pick your first class? And if you were going to do it over again, would you pick differently?
Tags: choice, choosing classes, ChoosingClasses, class, classes, world of warcraft, WorldOfWarcraft, wow
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Classes
Jun 21st 2007 at 8:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Tiara Jun 21st 2007 8:12AM
Oh, first comment..
Hmm well, my first class was a rogue. It didn't stay my main, but it was for a good 6 months or so.
Why I picked it.. I think it had to do with the fact that I liked playing rogues in D&D parties.
Now I'm playing a priest, and everything all people hate bout priests I like. I like healing, I like saving the run because I could pull off a emergency heal :D And damaging is utterfly confusing. I keep hitting the wrong things when I party with my rogue (now an alt) or my new hunter.
Orno Jun 21st 2007 8:18AM
back after irst beta... I saw a video of 2 shaman in badlands level 35ish ganking 40-25s. I saw the vitality and the awsome surviablity of the shaman class without the robot fights of CC and complete and destruction from 5k crits. I was put into beta stage 2 and rolled a shaman, I havent leveled a char over 30 that isn't my shaman since then.
Chris Jun 21st 2007 8:26AM
OH...I had a person at work tell me they would kill me with their lock no matter what character class I chose, so I spoke with others, someone said my best bet would be hunter or druid. So I rolled a hunter to start.
The first day I played, I accidentally moved autoshot off my cast bar, and had no idea it was autoshot, so i moved the bow icon from my inventory onto my bar (as it looked like the same icon) and it would not let me fire...I went to work the next day, and told them I was quitting, the game sucked. To this they said I had to play a class to at least level 10, and when I got home, oh boy. started my druid, found it easier to move along (as i had not figured out how to shoot arrows on my hunter). enjoyed it for a bit, got new skills at bout level four, and realizedwhat skills were. went back to my hunter, and looked at my skills, and saw autoshot. put it on, enjoyed my hunter, and playe through a bit, becoming a WoW player.
Two weeks later the put out the patch that allowed hunters to right click targets or, tab/t targets to activate autoshot....GRRRR...
Ichthus Jun 21st 2007 8:21AM
Shoot things with arrows. Is there any other qualifier worth mentioning?
Nyctanessa Jun 21st 2007 8:25AM
I didn't know anything about WoW when I first picked up the game at the store and installed in on my computer. I picked my main's class, a night elf druid, based on what I read in the manual. This was shortly after the Emerald Dragon patch, so the balance tree was all sorts of icky. I wanted to play a caster, with the option to heal myself and survive in a feral form when necessary. Of course, the actual mechanics of the game and what they told you in the manual were two different stories... but I still have my lovely little doomkin, and still play her daily at 70.
www.chillinwithmygnomies.com Jun 21st 2007 8:26AM
Whenever I start a new class-based game of any type, I have a habit of going for the warrior type, which I did with WoW. For some reason, I find warriors a good way to learn a game.
I don't always last long, my warrior got to 43 and that was it - I went priest and never looked back.
Lunada Jun 21st 2007 8:41AM
My first toon was a druid, the idea of shapeshifting seemed fun, but my lack of knowledge of WoW made it terribly difficult to play. A few alts laters i went back to the druid and loved every minute of it. I absolutely love the ability to change strategies in an instant without rerolling.^-^
Nick S Jun 21st 2007 8:42AM
first character was a nelf warrior. i was so bad at wow at that point, my most useful racial ability was the wisp form that rapidly carried me from the graveyard to my character... over, and over, and over....
i've always preferred casters anyway, having played a mesmer/elementalist in GW, so i rolled an undead mage. it was like the clouds parted and the true beauty and splendor of wow was revealed to me.
favorite character, though, has to be my hunter. whenever i'm feeling down i can count on my trusty pet to be there to comfort me.
Dah Cheet Jun 21st 2007 8:46AM
My first was a NE druid that I made about a month or so before BC (I know, I'm still a noob). As soon as BC came out I rolled a BE Pally and haven't touched my poor druid in a long time. I picked a druid because I'm all about multifunctionability.
Tony Jun 21st 2007 8:48AM
I picked a Paladin because I wanted to be able to heal and still fight melee. My only regret was that I leveled to 50-51 holy with alot of solo play. At that point I switched to ret was ran to 70 vs crawling to 50. The main reason why I picked a pally was their status in Warcraft Lore.
Zube Jun 21st 2007 8:54AM
I actually gave it some good thought before choosing a class, I really wanted to stick with my first character (and I still do)
I figured everyone's gonna roll the cool ninja rogue. Of course, everyone wants to be the slick mysterious badass. Or the hunter, with all the Legolas madness back then.
From past MMO expirience I knew all that muscle would need some support so I rolled my priest and never regretted it. It's awesome, I remeber getting whispers for instances all the time while rogues got kicked and spat on. I mostly enjoyed the privilege of getting to be an arrogant priest, choosing carefully who to join and who to give the bunny.
It got so bad that I auto ignored everyone who didn't use a nicely formed sentence when whispering me. Actually, I'm still that much of a jerk, and I'm loving it >:D The healer shortage isn't as bad as back in the days but I still have lots of fun with my dear priest.
It's fun still playing my first character as my main, with him I went trough my noob days (best part of any game), my raiding adventures, my pvp battles and the new realm of Outland. Hop hop hop.
Christina Jun 21st 2007 10:38AM
When I first played WoW, I started out as a druid because the shapeshifting sounded fun, and I liked the aesthetic/lore behind the Taurens. I played the druid for about 30 levels, then switched to a tauren hunter that eventually became my main at 70. I realize now that I really had no idea how to gear up a druid properly, and didn't really see how stats affected classes. Funnily enough, I felt I was "betraying" my druid by leveling up the hunter, and while I haven't had the heart to delete her, I really don't see myself playing the druid anymore.
WoW Money House Dev Jun 21st 2007 8:57AM
Well when I first started playing WoW I was a warrior. Well I hated being the meat shield, but loved the blades. So I though to myself: "self, I love DPS w/o casting, I love do'n it from behind, and oh ya Stealth/Vanish FTW. Thats about all the though that went into it :P.
Sylythn Jun 21st 2007 9:01AM
I used to always play rogues in D&D computer RPGs, so my first WoW character was a rogue. Got him up to 34, but hit the PVP wall on my server, and even after transfering to PVE I had lost the interest. I didn't have a chance to use all the utility skills I was used to from D&D, it was just hacking things up.
When I decided to roll horde with my work guild, I went for uniqueness, support, and at that time un-popularity of a warlock. I was a bit apprehensive because I'd always hated casters - too complicated. But, I ended up loving my warlock and he's my main now and my first 70.
Lykaon Jun 21st 2007 9:03AM
I picked a hunter first because I liked the Amazon most in Diablo II and somehow thought they'd be related. I was sorely disappointed.
Before even making it out of Beta, I teamed with a Rogue and saw what they could do and was hooked. I started a rogue in beta, and then another on the live servers.
I got that rogue to 48 before going back to the hunter to only get to 52. That was all on alliance.
Then I rolled ANOTHER rogue on Horde Side Eredar and never looked back, taking her through most of the end-game at the time.
When the expansion hit, I couldnt' bear to replace all that fancy gear so I leved my alt Warrior.
Now I'm working on a Pally.
E Jun 21st 2007 9:08AM
My RL friend was starting a Druid and I did a ton of research to determine a good leveling partner. So I chose Shaman. But my friend plays 4-5 times as much as me, so his druid left me in the dust. I ended up leveling with his alt, a Warlock. Turns out the 'Lock was a much better partner than the Druid would have been. But as an Orc Shaman, I want to kill him every time I see him. ;-)
annoula Jun 21st 2007 9:18AM
I rolled a lock for my first character. Not quite sure why, I wanted to be a gnome. I think warlock might just have been the first thing that came up. I played on a friends account and managed to get my lock up to 40-ish... when one day I went to log on and the password had changed. He wanted his account back for himself. I managed to sneak in and strip my character (I was an enchanter so REALLY strip my character).
After that I rolled a hunter because I could really appreciate the utility of soloing with a pet. Hunter's now 70, but I've also got a 70 mage and a boatload of 20-ish alts.
Shinagani Jun 21st 2007 9:20AM
My first character was very original:
Night Elf Hunter
Yeah, so that lasted a whole 6 lvls. I actually didn't abandon him because I was bored; my buddy wanted me to join him on a PVE server. So I switch and made a NE Rouge, I know- not getting a ton more creative. I trained him to use a bow and basically ignored stealth and played him as a melee hunter with no auto-shot or pet. So I dropped him and started another NE rouge on a PVP server, this time I actually played him right, and it was fun. But I'm kind of alt crazy so I also rolled a human warrior and he didn't get anywhere, because I just didn't have the time.
I dropped WOW for like 8 months and came back, new server. I didn't wanna do a NE again, because if I had to see Darkshore again I was gonna kill myself. So I decided on something I’ve never played in any game EVER, a caster - and not just any caster but a Priest. Well he's quickly approaching 40 now and I love him. First character I've gotten right the first time when it comes to play style and talents, and the only character that's made it past 20, yeah I love him.
Shiro Jun 21st 2007 9:31AM
I've got to say that I was an obcessive planner on this one. I had heard from other folks who played a lot of MMOs, that it's best to pick a quick leveling character and to pick one you're going to stick with. Their reasoning was that because it's a new MMO, you should try to get to high levels as quick as possible and take advantage of any bugs.
So I researched to find out what classes leveled the fastest and were the most "powerful" for PvP and overall PvE goodness. Concensus in Beta was that Rogues and Hunters would be the fastest levelers. I really, really didn't like the looks of the NEs, and Dwarves didn't do it for me either. I briefly considered a Tauren Hunter and got to the point of rolling one and leveling her up in Beta to try it out.
Eventually I decided that I didn't really like the hunter mechanic, so on day 1 of retail I rolled my Female Gnome Rogue.
She was my main for 30 or so levels, until my SO and Brother-In-Law started playing. Then they both wanted me to make a lower level character to play with them, and another for when the three of us played together. Oh, and I could play my Rogue whenever I was logged in by myself...
Yeah right. My rogue ended up an AH mule after she didn't see any play time for about 3 months.
Happy ending for her though. I eventually did level her to 60 and she was my first character to make it through BWL (and most of AQ40). Despite having a Prot Warrior, a Feral Druid, and a Shadow Priest, the one who gets the most guild group invites is still my Rogue. :P
Braz Jun 21st 2007 9:39AM
Coming into WoW, I didn't have any previous MMO experience (outside of Phantasy Star Online, which doesn't really count), so I chose a warrior (Tauren of course) thinking that it would be the equivalent of the 2h dual-wielding, whirlwinding Barbarian killing machine of Diablo 2 and other games. Boy, was I wrong! I played the warrior to lv.32 and then switched to a Troll Hunter. It was like a whole different game. I could now take two or three enemies easily, without the downtime between fights.
Not long after that some of my real-life friends started to play the game, so I switched servers and from Horde to Alliance in order to play with them. I first rolled an NE Hunter, then another warrior, which I eventually took to 60. When BC was released I once again became disappointed with the leveling experience for the warrior, and switched to a Warlock. I'm currently playing my first priest and loving it.