Breakfast Topic: Mastery of a difficult class
by Dan O'Halloran 
Sep 1st 2007 at 8:00AM
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Player Volition of Burning Blade server posed this question on the official forums recently: what is the hardest class to play to its fullest potential? The question got further refined to: what class is easiest to play, but hardest to play great?
Druid, Shaman and Hunter came out ahead in the thread as difficult to master. Druids and Shaman for their myriad options and playstyles. Hunter for learning the exact timing of shot rotation and pet threat.
I can attest to the Druid part, especially if you are playing the secondary (tank/healer/dps) in a 5 man. You have to know how to play many classes at the same time and you have to know when to be using what form. Mage gets aggro. Do you bear form and charge. hoping to get it back or stand back and heal hoping the Main Tank can snap aggro the mob? For me, that's the fun of the class.
What do you guys think? What class takes the most skill to make the most of its talents?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Classes
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Xino Sep 1st 2007 8:09AM
Hunter for sure, once you reach raiding stage the shot rotation is a must and is probably the most intricate and frustrating game mechanic to learn.
Plus micro managing your pet doesn't help make it any easier.
Melenor Sep 1st 2007 8:30AM
I'd say a mage. I remember running MC with my guildmates when I didn't have a single endgame piece of gear, and out-DPSing all the other mages, some in full tier 2. For that reason alone, mages apparently are difficult classes to master. Sure, they're easy to play - but to play well? Each talent tree and hybrid spec has its own specializations and its own mastery. Full frost, fire, and arcane, then arc/fire/ arc/frost, frost/fire... each requires dedication to perfect. I don't think that can be said about other classes.
xdiesp Sep 1st 2007 8:46AM
How do you do such South Parkish wow characters? The SP site chara creator doesn't go that far. So photoshop?
Areis Sep 1st 2007 8:56AM
@3
from the blizz site: http://www.blizzard.com/inblizz/fanart/ScreenShot.aspx?ImageIndex=01&Set=0
30 seconds with google images
Dave Sep 1st 2007 8:59AM
I think everyone thinks their own main class is the most difficult. The responses stack accordingly usually.
For the most part, I'd start with the classes that are most likely to wipe a raid with the blame being entirely on their own shoulders when it happens. These people can also destroy an entire guild if they leave, because they're crucial players.
So, this means healers and tanks basically. Warrior tanks, Druid Tanks, druid/priest/shaman healers, etc. For a tank, if you miss a mob or don't notice a cue of some sort or you just plain suck at holding aggro, the entire group is going to most likely die. Same goes for healers, as you have to really be on top of things, otherwise the entire raid is toast as soon as the tank dies.
I'm sorry, but for the most part any raid can live without a hunter, good or bad, or mage or any other generic DPS option that's easily replaceable by someone else who's good at their class. A little less DPS by a hunter or a mage for the most part isn't going to wipe an entire group. Yeah, to be #1 on the damage meters maybe you have to learn the ins and outs (or get a mod that tracks everything for you) precisely, but there's no pressure. If you don't, most of the group isn't going to notice your lack of awesome.
Meanwhile, if you're a healer or a tank, you have immense pressure to not let anyone else in the entire group die. If they do, you're not doing your job. You can't just be competent, since it's a crucial function of the raid to have proper healing and a tank that can control everything. People can always tell the difference between a good tank and a bad tank, and a good healer and a bad healer.
The differences in a good mage and a bad mage at the raiding stage... are quite a bit more subtle unless they're just clueless about their class.
seamus Sep 1st 2007 9:06AM
I have a level 70 priest, which I leveled in dungeons since 40. I would have to say that based on everything I've read, the Priest class is the hardest healing class to play great. A lot of situational heals. They have 6-7 heals to choose from, whereas the other healing classes rely primarily on 2.
Xino Sep 1st 2007 9:33AM
@5
I think it's less about which class is the most important in a group/raid, and instead which is most difficult to utilize it's full potential.
robodex Sep 1st 2007 10:05AM
Hunters. They're the only DPS class out there where spamming buttons will make you do a lot worse.
Lem Sep 2nd 2007 9:34PM
I'd have to agree with another comment.
Tanks and healers are the hardest to master, or rather, the hardest to do well. Anyone can master something in the theory sense.
Knowing what to do and actually doing it are different things, and no other class shows the difference between these two than healing and tanking.
In my experience, when you wipe, 9/10 its the tank or the healers fault, not the DPS. I mean really, how hard is it to fuck up standing there and shooting/melee'ing the crap outta something?
beriothien Sep 1st 2007 10:32PM
I would totally agree with what you said regarding support role druids. My main is a druid, though I've only been playing since this past December, so I reached 70 a few months ago and I'm still experiencing alot of the endgame content for the first time.
Anyway, since lvl 66, I've been feral, preparing to replace my guild's main tank (as she wanted to gear her hunter and holy pally), So everything I've done groupwise has been as MT. The first time I went kitty for a group, I was completely lost, was out dps'd by everyone but our healer.
Was I supposed to just dps in kitty like the rogue I was next to? Should I pop into bear to round up renegade mobs? Can the healer keep up with the hurting dps and keep the tank alive? Maybe I should throw a few hots up....
I was so confused. Oh, to be a rogue or a mage and have a straightforward role.... But what would be challenging about that?
Potatowedge Sep 1st 2007 1:49PM
The transition from Huntard to Hunter is difficult, which is what makes me love the class - it's got such a high learning curve, and I like challenges.
I will never forget when I learned not to spam ...
Rizel Sep 1st 2007 12:24PM
@6: as a shammy I would die for skills like Renew or Power Word: Shield ... really ... just having (Lesser) Healing Wave, Chain Heal and Healing Stream Totem... is not really enough.
I usually lose 1-2 people because of AOE and stuff like that .. it's really annoying.... =/
bennet Sep 1st 2007 12:28PM
@5 : Although that "little less DPS" also makes fights take longer, which wears down the tank, which causes the healers to go OOM or draw healing aggro - the DPS may often escape direct blame, but maybe they shouldn't.
And shaman gets my vote for hardest class to play well. Maybe if I had one all mysteries would be revealed, but issues like totem selection and placement look subtle and complicated...
BenMS Sep 1st 2007 12:53PM
Shamans are a difficult class to master, especially with mana pool issues on longer fights. I've healed all 5-mans and Kara up to the Curator on my Shaman, and juggling your pot cooldowns, totems as well as heal timing can be difficult.
I've never played a druid, but I've heard they can be hard to do as well, unless of course you play them as a single-role class, ie: only ever tank or only ever dps.
Healers get insufficient love, party-wise at least. Lots of people will blame a healer for a wipe even though the actual reason was the mage over aggroing, getting gibbed and there not being enough dps to take down the boss before the healer's mana ran out.
twh Sep 1st 2007 1:20PM
Gimme a break.
To do almost anything besides healing on a paladin, though tanking is thankfully becoming more prevalent, is a challenge in it of itself.
MacKoroni Sep 1st 2007 1:38PM
@6 I play a resto druid and we may not have as many heals but with swiftmend and natures swiftness longer cast big heals become instant heals and ToL can make us amongst the most efficient healers in the game. I have found the healing styling of resto druid unique to master *because* we have a lesser number of heals and most are HoT's. This means getting down the timing needed for HoT's (damage being taken vs heal being laid and mending over time), and the various combinations of them along with learning how to use HoT's on different classes to compensate for their HP's and weaknesses in battle makes the difference between a passable resto and a great resto. And in ToL form, knowing when you need to get out of of ToL (if things start going bad!) and start casting nature's touch, de-poison if it's causing too much damage etc knowing you will be using much more mana.
It's been fun learning to master the resto druid, perhaps others find it boring, too much of a challenge or too difficult - there aren't that many of us around!
Dave Sep 1st 2007 2:18PM
See? Everyone's only giving themselves credit for being the most difficult class to play well, rather than understand that other classes have difficult roles in the game as well.
I mean really, if you want to boil every class down into "I learned to stop spamming two buttons!" as being difficult, it's really not. You CAN be a warrior who just spams sunder and taunt. You CAN be a priest who just spams a single heal and throws bubbles. You CAN be a mage who just spams frostbolt. Learning NOT to do these things is basically an essential part of figuring out the game in general, but it doesn't mean it's difficult.
I'm still going with any healer class since it's hard to experiment and really maximize your abilities when you're going to be blamed for any screwups and people dying no matter what the real cause happens to be. No other roles tend to bring that sort of pressure.
And I personally hate thinking of this game in terms of "classes" since spec limits a person's usefulness as a particular thing for a class, so roles tend to define the character better to me. I imagine playing a healing priest is significantly more difficult than playing a shadow priest. Same goes for a feral druid or a resto druid. They're quite difficult to compare, since it's not like you can just push a button and be any good at the side you're not the right spec for. One of the frustrations of the game I suppose...
Keya Sep 1st 2007 2:21PM
1) Hunter (mastering your pet is difficult as well)
2) Warrior Tank
freehugz Sep 1st 2007 2:28PM
I play X my class is the hardest to master, but i'm good so its ok!
lol
seriously though, the easiest way to get an answer is to see what classes have the biggest gap between 'average players' and 'really good players' with similar gear.
hunters stand out the most imo (i don't play a hunter)
Bristin Sep 1st 2007 3:37PM
Destro Warlock is tricky to really maximize your dps, anyone who says you should be spamming shadowbolt is a fool, but healing is tough in the respect that yes the whole raid is lying on your shoulders, a hunters shot rotation is difficult to learn and master, but there are so few exceptions to their shot rotation in endgame dpsing that they really dont have to stray from their mindless timed pressing, so I dont think that they are hardest, IMO priest healing is the trickiest because in any one situation there are five acceptable heals to throw, but only one right one, and that is ALWAYS changing. I play a holy pally, and a destro lock, and a slamspam warrior, and I think to maximize your potential on any of those classes, you really dont have to work as hard as the priest picking what to do in the moment, in an everchanging environment.
They are both blessed with the most versatility and the most difficult to master.
@ anyone who said droods, they have all the different forms, but each form is a simplified version of the classes they would be, so no, they are just not nearly as hard to master.