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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: What prompted your class choice?
by Lexi Sarver 
Oct 30th 2010 at 8:00AM
You're sitting at your character creation screen, starting a brand new game, maybe with no previous gaming experience at all. Or perhaps you're well-versed in the realms of MMOs, and you have a favorite character archetype already. No matter which applies, we all started at that screen, wondering: What class should I pick? What does class choice even mean? What are tanks? How come this class's armor is so hideous? What on earth is a paladin?
For me, I was devouring the manual that came with vanilla WoW as it installed, trying to find a class I'd like. When I stumbled upon druids and the fact that they could turn into bears and kitties (and moonkin, although I didn't know that yet), I was instantly hooked. Later, in the 40-49 bracket of Warsong Gulch, after getting wrecked over and over by warlock DoTs, I thought, "Hey! Warlocks seem OP! I should make one!" And thus, the warlock was born.
A guildmate of mine chose a rogue because she'd watch her husband play and he would always exclaim how annoying they were and how much he hated rogues. His anger amused her, so rogue she went!
What influenced you? Death Grip looked awesome? You wanted to dispel Hunter's Mark because you hated that graphic (my priest!)? You wanted to shoot huge balls of fire at people? Tell us about it!
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 10 of 10)
Araowyn Oct 31st 2010 12:18AM
WoW was my very first MMO so I was completely clueless when rolling my very first toon. I took the advice of a friend and my priest was born. I managed to get her to Redridge before she was deleted forever. I started looking at the classes and decided a Paladin would suit my needs better. Three years later and she is still going strong even if she is no longer my main. I had always said i would never be a healer, and only rolled a Druid because i wanted to be able to change into a kitty. Along the way I've also leveled a DK as well as a mage. I'm sure once i get my other low alts leveled my main may once again change, how knows maybe a priest again.
Cautha Oct 31st 2010 2:29AM
My trial character was a human priest, because the friends that got me into it said that being a healer made finding groups easier. I got sick of being ganked on a PVP server and switched to a PVE. I really enjoy the idea of being able to be in the background, and since I (still) don't have friends or a guild in WoW, I chose a hunter for the ability to solo a lot of content. A year later, the hunter is still my main, and I'm still hanging around the corners of rooms doing massive damage :)
Seralyn Oct 31st 2010 2:32AM
My history is convulated with my reasonings for swapping classes. In vanilla beta j played a hunter, after playing a pet class in AC2 and a Creature Handler in SWG. Being aligned with the forces of good I tested and played a paladin exclusively until the end of TBC, not a single alt worth mentioning.
After a short break I leveled s lock because I had nothing but respect (and fear) of them. Plus the darkness of them intrigued me after being so Light focused. In wrath I played the lock full time until Ulduar, then another break. Coming back just before ToC to try out the new DK class I discovered that it was (to me) a hybrid of.a lock and paladin, my first and only two beloved classes. I am now a proud endgame heroic ICC raider on my DK and have never looked back.
loser_bob Oct 31st 2010 3:49AM
WoW was and is the only MMO that I play, prior to playing wow I had a lvl99 HC Paladin in Diablo2 and prev to that I always played a dwarfs in D&D..
So when I started WoW it was an easy pick for me..
Dwarf: something about dwarves in lore from Tolkien, Feist and their friends has always rung true with me, they are steadfast, loyal, untiring, love a drink and a fight
Paladin: a warrior of the light, someone who respects all, is there to help their friends and enjoys getting in the face of evil.
Thus my hard drinking, hammer wielding, Dwarf Paladin was born.
Jonah0606 Oct 31st 2010 3:41AM
My first 80 was a death knight, but I found to really like the shaman and made one up to 80. I really love healing on her and ele is fun for pvp. Lately I love bg leveling my lock. Put a couple of dots on them, set my felguard to attack them and watch them slowly die. Also, I just think that if your a rogue and think you have skill in pvp, your wrong.
Jaydvd Oct 31st 2010 4:17AM
I started a warrior, because from all the rpgs i played, the people that did no magic, but hit the hardest, and survived the longest were the warrior types.
Srslyyeswai Oct 31st 2010 4:21AM
My first toon was a blood elf hunter. Of course. I'm good looking, so my toon should be... not ugly! But my true love is my tauren druid. He's been my main for a long time now and being a bear/cat is my favorite part of the game. Truly the only reason why I won't go to another MMO.
Terry Oct 31st 2010 8:33PM
I chose a paladin because my friend was one and they sounded like the perfect warrior who could self-heal. I got stuck in Winterspring, with a new weapon and no weapon skill. I did not understand weapon skills (fortunately gone now) and got bored whacking at a yeti forever so I created a hunter and loved it!
Then the pre Lich King events came out. I saw a paladin take on several elites and keep himself alive - alone! He taught me how to play a paladin and I joyfully went back to my pally who is now a level 80 tank.
I have since brought my hunter to 80 and created another hunter with friends on another realm and faction and now have 2 hunters at 80 - and they both just tamed King Krush in Sholazar alone. (It's all about haste.)
Khartoum Oct 31st 2010 4:38AM
>.>
Khartoum Oct 31st 2010 4:48AM
Oh lame, it cut off my comment.
*Sigh*
To recap, I joined WoW very early in Vanilla because several of my best friends were doing it for shits, giggles and stories. I Must have either been drunk, or compelled by a higher power (PRAISE BE TO BOOBS!) but I agreed, rolling a Tauren Warrior. Since then, my experience has branched out to all the other classes played the same Tauren Warrior since Vanilla because i fell in love with it. They were the original tanks, they smashed face, went apeshit when they got hit and had the responsibility of keeping the dumb dps alive. (Although during wrath that became the healers job. I shall be very happy to see when it becomes their own job to not stand in the fire come Cata.)
Tanking, for me, has always been such an exhilirating experience that it has become my passion and pastime with close to 10 tanks (3 warriors, a dk, 2 bears and 2 pallies. I may have counted wrong, I can't remem >.
Lohith Oct 31st 2010 5:45AM
I rolled a hunter because hunters sounded awesome. He's a kingslayer now and has over 6,000 achievement points... I regret that choice. I have now fallen in love with druids and mages. I can't back out now with that much going for him. /tear
Maakeff Oct 31st 2010 8:51AM
I wanted to be needed, I wanted to never have to worry about finding a group or being extraneous - so I chose a healer. At the time, classic vanilla WoW, that meant being a priest. :-)
henrybgt Jun 9th 2011 11:16PM
I picked the druid for the shape shifting and ability to do any role. I settled in on Bear and Tree and now well I don't care for my healing role with tree form on a cool down. Right now I am Bear and Boomkin because of it.
First pick was a warrior since thats what I was in EverQuest. Didn't care for it like I thought I would, I tried leveling as protection in Vanilla. After 29 levels I played a few random alts. I finally decided on the druid.
uncaringbear Nov 1st 2010 2:21AM
I always wanted to be a tree...
Sigh.
Zenith Nov 1st 2010 9:25AM
I'm surprised no-one else seems to have had the same 'base' of character as me:
Kael'thas
His campaign in WC3 made me want to play a BElf since I saw the first wow announcement video(on one of the wc3/expansion discs). When I learned that they wont be playable, it put me off the game for a while until TBC. Then I had to choose a class. Technically Kael is a Magellan, but the wc3 expansion manual said that fire magic was originally considered demonic. This made me create a destruction warlock and I played him as a 'proper' lock: not serving or contracting with demons, but instead dominating them.
At the time until belves got the sunwell back, the whole Silvermoon culture seemed to embrace the Warlock way of thinking(even paladins had the same reasoning)
Of course now he thinks of himself as the last of a few warlocks from a time when they were not only accepted, but encouraged.
Later I leveled an arcane mage as a 'what if' version of my lock as well as a protadin just because I wanted a character that can tank. Other chars include a Belf priest for healing, troll rogue because there are so few and an undead dk for double the arthas hate and a wee tauren Druid(soon a troll reroll) and goblin elemental shammy once cats hits
Zenith Nov 1st 2010 9:30AM
Hmm, according to my phone Kael was an explorer and not a MAGE...
That would explain why he REALLY took over TK - lots of new worlds to see with a big ol spaceship!
Barachiel Nov 1st 2010 7:55PM
I chose Paladin because I liked the ability to heal myself while soloing. Later, as I learned the class better, I came to appreciate the ability to Tank, Heal, and DPS. I cheered when Wrath came, Ret finally became viable for raiding, and was permitted Dual Specs. Multi-role classes mean I never get bored with my Main.