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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 4 of 10)
BoB Oct 30th 2010 9:31AM
Dancing Bear. Trees. Turning into a hawk. Healing yourself and being able to be invisible too. Dancing Bear.
Trilynne Oct 30th 2010 9:34AM
I picked hunter initially because I loved the idea of having a pet by my side all the time. I was leveling it with my hubby, who was playing a druid. Then he had to go away for a week, and I decided to roll an Ally toon on the other server he had characters on. After reading through the class descriptions, I decided I really, really, really wanted to be a Light-wielding paladin. That pally is now and forever will be my main. ^^ Tankadins rule! :D
Gendou Oct 30th 2010 9:38AM
I picked WOW over CoH or other MMO's my wife and I were looking at for one single reason...
... Shadow Priests.
xvkarbear Oct 30th 2010 9:40AM
I thought for sure all while the game was installing that I would be a mage. I love mages. Magical damage dealing awesomeness.
Then I started reading and researching. Druid kept saying it was a jack of all trades sort of class. With one class I could try out various fighting styles and find out what I liked.. then I would make a mage.
I now have a druid, priest, shaman, death knight, and a warlock.. but I have yet to play a mage.
RedRubberBall203 Oct 30th 2010 9:42AM
I decided on hunter because I started by playing the card game first, and the first OP deck of the game was a hunter. I also liked Legolas from Lord of the Rings.
Haro Oct 30th 2010 9:42AM
In my previous game, FFXI, not having been able to level paladin was something that made me sad. So, i decided that Paladin would be my first class for soloing (i started as a druid for duo with a friend, mostly because i had heard it was the best healing class...)
So i started my pally dwarf and man... that was a blast. Incidentally, it was the first time i created a male char in an mmo (yeah, i'm the guy to usually create female chars).
Peter Oct 30th 2010 10:47AM
Rolled a troll rogue. Why? Trolls looked the coolest and rogues were just stab, stab, dead, repeat. I took a lot of crap from people saying that this was THE WORST combo you could ever have. A year later, BC came out and I thought it was over....Nope, still more verbal abuse because I was one of two troll rogues on the server. WotLK came out, and all of a sudden a sea of troll rogues came into my server. I can say, with confidence, that I was one of the first successful troll rogues in WoW
Darky Oct 30th 2010 9:45AM
I honestly cant remember why I first rolled my shadow priest but he is 80 and having fun melting the faces off of gnomes :D.
However the reason i rolled my most recent toon, my druid was because of flightform and the fact that feral kitties have the most complicated rotation.
steve.deasy Oct 30th 2010 9:50AM
Undead Rogue, and here's why:
Okay, so this character lets me run around but I can't be seen, and I'm supposed to sneak up behind people, rob them, backstab them, and once they've fallen... I can eat them??
Sold!
Upmteen alts later that Rogue is still with me.
Tayacan Oct 30th 2010 9:52AM
My very first character was a Nelf Hunter on a friends account - took about 3 hours to get it to lvl 8, and we were dead tired the next day - we played in the late night. After that, it was a good while until I got the chance to play WoW again, this time at some of my parents friends house. They have a kid who at the time had a character of lvl 70 - don't ask me what class - and I watched him do some battlegrounds and stuff. I was hooked.
Bought the game the next time I was in the center, and rolled my first character of my own, a Nelf Druid, inspired by the friend I made the hunter with. That character is today a lvl 66 kitty druid that I hardly ever play, but I do have a resto druid at 80, a tauren, which is my main :D
Gnowaï Oct 30th 2010 9:54AM
I picked up WoW by sharing an account with a college roomie of mine (I MEAN I TOTALLY BOUGHT IT AND DIDN'T DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL. O GOD) and I was asking which characters used magic and were like wizards. He said that mages threw fireballs and stuff, but I saw 'warlock' and immediately drew the image up of a conjurer of fel beasts and hellish demons destroying enemies with curses and afflictions. I didn't even know they ACTUALLY HAD curses and afflictions yet, so I when I played and saw that the things I imagined were right there, I was sold.
On a side note, I chose gnomes because they looked and sounded like the most "innocent," again sealing the deal for me because they were really the most happy go lucky and as I got into the lore of Warcraft, I realized they really were benevolent in most ways and didn't want to hurt anyone, but had lots of loyalty to their allies. I really identified with that. Being considered the most "brilliant" was a bonus.
Four years later, I pick up the game again to become a Wrath baby and I rolled a mage... I agonized all the way up to 80 and someone in a raid said, because of my preferences for CC and DOTs, "Are you sure you don't wanna be a warlock?"
I sure did. So now I am, and my lock has full T10 and Wrathful and my mage sits in pre-Uld gear.
Eohcyt Oct 30th 2010 9:57AM
Back right before BC hit my boyfriend at the time was playing a lot. I personally had no interest. He'd spew acronyms at me and ramble on about his guild.
Then one night he was in Darnassus and some random hunter cast volley.
OMG. Raining arrows flaming arrows from the sky. I want to do that!
RIP volley.
John Oct 30th 2010 9:56AM
What prompted me? Indecisiveness. I have one of each.
mathias Oct 30th 2010 9:59AM
The first character I stuck with was a mage. The only reason I went with mage was because I had started off playing a druid, pretending to be a mage with moonfire, when I saw someone shooting multiple beams of blue light from their hands. I rerolled instantly, feeling that whatever that spell was, it was more badass than anything in my druid's sad little spellbook.
Ironically, I ended up leveling fire and leaving arcane missiles unused. I just didn't know any better at the time and pyroblast seemed so cool. Four years later and that mage is left behind at 50. Sadly for her, I discovered shaman and never looked back.
Sean Oct 30th 2010 9:59AM
I wanted to play a DPS caster that could heal itself. I remembered how OP Shaman were in vanilla and my decision was made. I did also make a Druid for the same reason.
Ty Oct 30th 2010 10:00AM
My friend came back to wow in WotLK and he already had a lvl 61 hunter. So, he made a DK and loved it. I just started, so I tried as fast as I can (which wasnt fast at all lol i was new) to get to 55 and make a DK. I love my DK now and dont regret a thing.
XavierGarrak Oct 30th 2010 10:00AM
In all the previous MMOs I'd played I was ranged DPS. My philosophy of if I'm hitting something at range they can't just turn around and stomp me seemed to be a universal constant. So when I tried WoW I immediately gravitated to a Mage. 5 years later and he's still my main. No matter which alt I'm currently working on I can hop on my Mage and just enjoy nuking everything around me in the flashiest way possible.
benedikto Oct 30th 2010 10:05AM
Picked shammies cuz there wasn t many of em and I wanted spots in raids. To my suprise, my shammy beats my priest in every way so I made it my main. Too bad though, I love my priest but I won't play him anymore, he s too squishy and his heals are nothing compared to my shammie's.
Wildstaff Oct 30th 2010 10:03AM
I've actually knew the class I'd play when I first decided to try it out. Though I didn't know what it was called, I knew I wanted to be a magician. So when I got to the creation screen, I saw that red staff, mouser over it and from that day I was destined to be a Mage. I don't know why but every time I play an mmo the first class I pick is always a magic class
Zirri Oct 30th 2010 10:05AM
Well, originally I started with a Human Rogue. Chose that because I used to have a rogue during EQ. I didn't play for some time, ended up giving my account to my brother and got the game again just before BC. I restarted my rogue but as a Gnome but really played my human Warrior all the way to 70 due to enjoying it. Now though, I've joined my brother on his server, remade everything and rolled a DK (again). A class I was looking/waiting for since Vanilla again due to EQ ties.