Breakfast Topic: Class vs. content

by Allison Robert Sep 10th 2008 at 8:00AM

Responding to a shared blogging topic over on Blog Azeroth, Aendi from the roleplaying blog Voodoo Ventures recently wrote an entry on how to choose a class. This is certainly a subject that's gotten a lot of play in the WoW community, but Aendi's is an unusually thoughtful look at the problem that results when a player's poured a lot of time and effort into a class that might be a bad choice given the player's goals in the endgame. In one of most succinct and painfully accurate points I've seen on the subject, Aendi asks -- is seeing endgame content so important to you that you're willing to play a class you enjoy less, or is the class you play so important that you're willing to sacrifice a possible shot at content?

It's no secret that classes and specs are not the same when it comes to the likelihood of getting Gladiator or raiding all the way to Kil'Jaeden. You may love your Hunter, but arena's not that kind to them at present. Your Warlock might be endless fun to play, but the guilds on your realm are probably swimming in them. And if you've ever cruised past the recruitment forums, you've probably noticed that they all seem to want the same thing: healers (and lots of 'em). If you were the sort of person who sat down, looked at the content in the game that you wanted to see more than anything else, and picked your class and spec solely with that goal in mind, your path forward would be fairly clear...but you might also become one of those people who logs off their primary toon as fast as they can after raid, or after their 10 games for the week, and goes to play the alt they'd secretly love to be playing as a main.

Ideally we get the perfect intersection of a class we love to play that's able to accomplish its goals in content we want to experience, but it doesn't always happen -- and if you have to choose, the decision is a pretty personal one. So I ask you: class or content?

Tags: blog-azeroth, brutal-gladiator, class-choice, classes, endgame, gladiator, healer, healers, healing, hunter, kiljaeden, raiding, recruiting, recruitment, specs, voodoo-ventures, warlock, wow-bloggers, wow-blogging, wow-blogs

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Breakfast Topics, Raiding, Classes, Alts, Arena

Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)

Jack Spicer Sep 10th 2008 9:02AM

I really enjoy healing as my main, a holy priest. The problems I have come primarily from raiding, where I find healing becomes less 'free form' and more ruthless efficiency which may be a 'fun' challenge to some - but sucks the enjoyment out of it for me.

Shadiix Sep 10th 2008 9:04AM

When I first started playing the game a long time ago I made a priest (I really wanted to play a mage but my friend was starting a mage, so I started a priest and went shadow, figured they'd be pretty close.)

I never minded healing, and with the guild I was in I healed as shadow spec so on certain bosses I could dps too. When TBC came out I switched mains to my 60 mage that I'd leveled over time. My mage has seen a lot of content and on the side I leveled a druid to 70 to test out tanking. I love tanking with my druid and although he hasn't seen as many places as my mage he is better geared and now considered my main.

vcdstroyr Sep 10th 2008 9:07AM

I chose to play a class I would enjoy. I play a rogue and I will probably never play anything else. I briefly tried other classes but they didn't appeal to me. I don't even have an alt to play.

I find it hard sometimes to get into groups for raids but mainly because I'm not well geared. I'm not well geared because I can't get into places to get gear. It's a endless cycle but I enjoy doing the heroics and now my guild is starting Karazhan so thats fun.

Axxam Sep 10th 2008 9:13AM

On my first account, back in my noob days, my first character was a Warrior, because I had envisioned it as what I later learned was called DPS. I enjoyed playing it until my guild forced me into a tanking role and I had to give up 2-H weapons. I hated Prot, but had to keep it or become guildless

My second account, I rolled a Draenei shaman, and found I loved Enhancement. In this case I chose not to respec, putting having fun with fewer opportunities for raiding over raiding with a role I did not like

Dave Sep 10th 2008 9:40AM

WoW for me is all about the content. I ended up getting a little lucky in that regard, though. I started playing about 6 months before BC. I got a warrior to 15, decided I hated it, and re-rolled a druid which has been my main since and never anything but feral. When rolling I didn't understand how much they were gimped, but I was a pretty casual player and didn't hit 70 until almost a year after BC dropped anyway.

I loved my cat form and wanted to continue to play DPS, but when I finally started getting interested in running end-game content I realized that to make sure I was getting in groups I was going to have to learn how to tank. Fortunately that only required a change in gear and play-style and not class or spec. I love tanking now, but I still jump on the rare chances I get to let somebody else take the beatings and spend my time ripping the baddies to shreds.

RetPallyJil Sep 10th 2008 9:44AM

Uh, I think my username says it all. :)

RetPallyJil Sep 10th 2008 9:46AM

You got that right! I am your Smashadin sister-in-arms!

naixdra Sep 10th 2008 10:01AM

My main is a warlock he has raided some (through T4) but my guild was low on healers so I rolled a shammy, AND MY WORLD CHANGED

I, for the first time since I loaded vanilla wow, was.....needed. Once I got to 63 and switched to resto, I got more invites to groups that day than all my time as my lock. Also I found out that I like healing, its fun and challenging. Everyone needs a healer and word is getting around that my shaman is a pretty damn good healer.

My warlock is still my main and still awesomely fun (made even more fun by Blizz's new changes), but its hard to get into groups with him. Where my shammy can't get people to leave me alone.

So when I wanna solo I hit my lock, when I feel like dungeon crawling I bust out my shaman, and all is good in the world.....of warcraft

Aendi Sep 10th 2008 10:16AM

oh my, I did not expect wow insider to bring up my post on this matter, but thank you for noticing and I'm glad it struck a cord :)

I've already stated where I stand: I consider myself fairly skilled at all three aspects (tanking, dpsing and healing) of raiding and I've played all of them in BC endgame content. I like all aspects of WoW and I've come to the conclusion that being part of a team and raiding is far more important towards my happiness then what I play. Hence, I like playing hybrid classes.

That being said, I basically wanted to make people aware of the fact that there is a choice to be made and that (in my opinion) if you make the choice consciously, you'll probably be happier playing whatever you chose to play. (pew, long sentence, sorry)

That's it for me :)

Regards
Aendi

Raze Sep 10th 2008 10:35AM

I play this game to have fun.

I don't have fun playing most classes, so I only play my Hunter, chiefly, though Shaman and Priests are turning out to be pretty interesting, too. I could care less who needs a tank: I don't like Warriors, and I'm not about to make a considerable time investment into something I don't enjoy doing.

Beleg and the Dude Sep 10th 2008 10:40AM

My first toon was a rogue, which I enjoyed but have always had some trouble finding groups. Rolled a druid for some variety and was invited to Molten Core 10 minutes after I hit 60. I am now leveling a hunter, and am really enjoying the class. If you believe the forums, the hunter class has a bad rep and my goal is to help change that attitude.

Sinthar Sep 10th 2008 10:45AM

Well my main is a mage, and i love playing him. But with a tank shortage i rerolled a pally. Now ive got a lvl70 prot pally (who OT kara about 20 mins after dinging 70) and loved it. Still prefer my mage, cos prot pallys SUCK at doing damage, and even dailys are painfully slow, but i still like him. hehe love the way i can pull about 8 mobs, and slowly inch by inch kill them, til most die all at once at the end. All the while they are pounding on me - to little or no effect :). Mind you my mage could take em in 1/5 of the time, and never get hit, but i couldnt go afk n get a drink WHILE killing things with him. Next? hmmmm lock or rouge, or maybe that druid whos been at lvl 14 for about 6 months

Mikalan Sep 10th 2008 10:52AM

I started playing when TBC came out and my first toon was a mage. I took him all the way to T5 content. In the meantime I had made the switch from herbalism to tailoring on my mage and so figured I could level an alt to help support my pot addiction. When my shaman reached 70 I tried out healing an instance and ended up loving it. There is quite the adrenaline rush from knowing the outcome of each fight depends on you.

Recently I made the transition to a BT clearing guild from only ZA and BoJ gear. I'm certain this never would have happened for my mage. I do enjoy switching to my mage for the sheer joy of seeing things blow up. But these days, more often than not, I just respec to enhancement and my mage is nothing more than my alt enchanter.

Flutterby Sep 10th 2008 11:09AM

I soloed a hunter to level 70, and learned two very important things.
a) I hate soloing, and
b) I'm a dreadful hunter.

So I rerolled a Holymage, and levelled all the way to 70 with my tanking best mate. BEST DECISION EVER. I love the class, love being in the supporting role, and love that when I wanna go raiding, I get to go raiding! When I want to do a heroic, it's "Tank and healer LF3M"... Generally only takes 15 minutes. I'm pretty fragile when I go out solo, but as I don't feel the urge to solo very often... well, that's what alts are for!!!

james Sep 13th 2008 8:22AM

Class over contents always, if u love ur class enough you'll enjoy playing them enough to get into those high end guilds. If you love playing a rogue then why on earth would you think about healing? You pay money to play, so you better enjoy it, if ur gonna be playing something you'd rather not be playing you may as well not play at all.

To reiterate, class over content, always.

riftsrunner Sep 10th 2008 11:26AM

I have a 70 rogue that due to my being kind of a solo player fit me quite well. I had some guild drama shortly after hitting endgame, so I dropped off that toon (I have since gone back to him and quite enjoy him). I started a hunter, shaman, and paladin. They all for some reason didn't fit my play style well. My warlock is my secret passion. I equated warlocks to magic using hunters and thought she would get left behind when I found its similarity to the hunter (she is now just a few levels from 70). My lock is my "wolf in sheep's clothing" toon. She is a gnome doll, looking so innocent and I believe sometimes makes others underestimate her (I have since put the "Olympics" tabard on her to feed into that misconception, to lure others into attempting to attack her to their doom).

Juliah Sep 10th 2008 11:33AM

This is a good food-for-thought post, because it really is kind of difficult. No matter how much I'd like to say, "Play what makes you happy!" the reality is that you need a certain set of classes for certain content, and if you don't have them, you'll have a very hard, sometimes impossible, time. On the other hand, if people aren't happy playing class X because they're serving a need, eventually, they'll get burned out and will refuse to play that class, so you won't have them anyway.

So, given that conclusion, people should play what makes them happy, Blizzard should make the content a little less class dependent, and, when possible, folks should have a back pocket alt that they're willing to rotate in to serve their turn on healing/tanking duty if they don't have someone who just loves to play that role all the time.

rEeL Sep 10th 2008 12:37PM

Heres where the big PVP PVE divide happens: Any class/spec can really get into endgame but its not the same for Arena.

It might be the same for the new Lake in Wrath,it was the same for Honor Ranks but in Arena high ranks are mostly limited only to a few in general.

Trying harder and more, being better and more dedicated. They do nothing.

This is from a Ret pally that was GM back in the days,raided all the way to naxx and is currently at Sunwell.

WoW Insider Show

Subscribe via iTunes for our latest show.

Hot Topics

Upcoming Events

Event	Date
Call to Arms: Isle of Conquest	5/14 - 5/16
Call to Arms: Alterac Valley	5/17 - 5/20
Call to Arms: The Battle for Gilneas	5/21 - 5/23
Call to Arms: Warsong Gulch	5/24 - 5/27
Call to Arms: Twin Peaks	5/28 - 5/30
Call to Arms: Strand of the Ancients	5/31 - 6/3
Darkmoon Faire	6/2 - 6/9
Call to Arms: Silvershard Mines	6/4 - 6/6
Call to Arms: Temple of Kotmogu	6/11 - 6/13
Call to Arms: Arathi Basin	6/18 - 6/20
Midsummer Fire Festival	6/21 - 7/5
Call to Arms: Eye of the Storm	6/25 - 6/27