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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 5 of 10)
Sleutel Oct 30th 2010 10:05AM
I've always been a fan of melee combat. None of that fancypants "stand back and cast magic or shoot missiles" crap for me--I want to be able to walk up to somebody and hit them in the face until they stop moving, all while being able to keep myself still standing. I played a lot of Barbarians in Diablo II.
So, when I rolled my first WoW character, it was only natural that I'd chose a Warrior. :D
Mel Oct 30th 2010 10:09AM
My friend with whom I intended to play told me not to roll a nelf-hunter. So I rolled a nelf-rogue. She is still my main, after all these years.
Supau Oct 30th 2010 10:10AM
I chose Mage coming off of City of Heroes blaster class. :)
Jeff Oct 30th 2010 10:10AM
After playing a hammer-din in Diablo 2 I rolled a Blood elf Paladin. Loved the ability to tank and backup heal.
kooda Oct 30th 2010 10:10AM
My dad was a feral druid in vanilla and said it'd be nice if I rolled a support class so I made a priest, not much more I would've preferred a Mage, I'm not really happy with the state of priests I find it tedious to level even as shadow, love my DK though and am planning on a goblin warrior come CT and then hey maybe I'll finally start that Warlock or Mage.
WoWie Zowie Oct 30th 2010 10:12AM
i just wanted to be different. looking at the character screen i thought a mage would be the least played class. and gnomes look ridiculous so i made him a gnome too. had no idea i would end up really enjoying it
sLpFhaWK Oct 30th 2010 10:14AM
My very 1st toon in Vanilla was a hunter. Got it to like level 20 before I went warrior which made it to level 42 and I still wasn't happy! So i made my Orc Rogue, because my friend had a forsaken rogue and he enjoyed it so he power leveled me to his level so we could quest together and boy 2 rogues back in vanilla leveling was a good time. Now my rogue has been race changed to troll because they are awesome and now I have 11 80's 1 of each class on horde and a Nelf rogue I just dinged 80 on friday morning. I think being a sneaky dirty rogue just works for me. Nothing like stabbing people in the back then escaping to the shadows to kill again =)
Carune Oct 30th 2010 10:18AM
After the trials with a mage and warrior I think. My roommate at the time suggested I actually buy the game, and play a rogue. Which I did but didn't like it all that much probably being on a pvp server, and having no idea what I was doing. So, essentially dropped him and took a break so I could buy food. After a few months and receiving some investment interest I re rolled as a undead lock cause they looked cool. Also, a guild I like was horde on a particular server. Though I do have a tauren druid mainly due to the guild needing at a point more tanks. Surprisingly enough I actually like it.
Pwnzoar Oct 30th 2010 10:19AM
Way back in the day, I used to play this one game. I will admit it, I used to play MapleStory. In that game, I was an archer, and I loved it. The bow was always my favorite weapon in that game.
Then I started playing WoW, and I was looking at the classes while my brother told me some things about them. A couple things completely sold me about the Hunter. First was the bow, and second was that I could tame PETS. That sounded freaking amazing, so I picked a hunter, and I have loved it ever since.
snarkygoldfish Oct 30th 2010 10:21AM
I picked shaman because I liked the lore of them. I admit, I read up stuff on wowwiki about all the classes before actually choosing one. It was the short story with Nobundo that solidified the idea of going Alliance to play with a good friend of mine. It was as much about making a character as it was playstyle.
I almost immediately had the mental image of my character in my head as I clicked past the character creation screen. And she's been with me for over three years now. :D
Plus, the idea of flinging spells close up while smashing them with weapons just felt awesome. (In other games, including my other MMO experience -- which was RO, I had always just played warrior-types. I still intend to try a warrior in WoW one day....but right now, I'm really happy with my shammy.)
mordred Oct 30th 2010 10:24AM
very simple for me - troll shaman + lightning bolt = FTW
Pyroneil Oct 30th 2010 10:25AM
I was always interested in both the holy warrior style, and the corrupt and evil casters. First I rolled a undead lock, but I just didn't enjoy DPS that much. When I found out that blood elf paladins were like corrupt holy warriors, draining the power of the light from a holy creature... plus they could heal, tank, and dps... I was sold.
ilvec Oct 30th 2010 10:27AM
I picked a druid mostly because my friend said it would give me a good idea of what the game was about. I could do a little bit of every class while playing a druid. Although this was long before feral or balance were worth anything.
Sometime after that I chose a warlock as my first alt, just because I always liked casters and I've always liked the "dark-side" as it were.
Moeru Oct 30th 2010 10:27AM
Druid because they looked awesome in WCIII, and because I loved Nelfs back then (still do). And my main is a pally now because I saw a lot of bad tanks while leveling my druid as a healer, and I saw a lot of potential in the pally tank, back when it was the warrior's humble off-tank servant. So I rolled her and I like to think I had a pretty good reputation in BC for being one of the good pally tanks around, until Wrath hit and everyone rolled one. Hopefully in Cata they'll make tanking harder, while still being accessible, so it's not about who can push the most buttons. But don't get me wrong, it's not because I want to be recognized, I'm fine just helping out my guild. Problem is everyone thinks they're good if they have 53k HP and two pieces from ICC25 now.
Rsquared Oct 30th 2010 10:27AM
Played a warrior and a samurai in FFXI so warrior was the natural fight here, dual wield to smash face, or arms to play the tactile weapon master. With a warlock alt because its always fun to summon an unsuspecting friend at the feet of a hungry monster =D
Nadia Oct 30th 2010 10:32AM
When I first started, I tried every class up to level 10.
The last one I tried was a Night Elf Priest.
There I was, on the road near Dolanaar, and a Warrior close to my level was running toward town with very low health and some enemies chasing him.
I healed him, and he survived, even though it didn't look like he would.
It was so exciting, not knowing if he'd live or be able to beat the cats or furbolgs or whatever, and knowing I'd die if he didn't...
He sent me a tell afterward, thanking me for "God-mode".
Yeah, and that's why I've been playing a Priest for the last 5 years.
PDPoc Oct 30th 2010 10:31AM
My first toon was a warrior because I envisioned them as being simple (I was mistaken) because this was my first true MMO. After that it was a Priest because the concept of a Shadow priest interested me. Finally I went with a Shaman because they looked like a really fun class and boy was I right!
Generalklink55 Oct 30th 2010 10:30AM
WoW was not only my first MMO, but my first RPG as well. Looking at the character screen and not knowing what world I was entering into, my pick was a Paladin. I didn't read the manual(at first), but reading the screen info and seeing a Paladin basically was a warrior that can heal! "Wow!, sounds like a good class for a beginner!" Little did I know that at the time(patch 1.11) that Pallys were the most gimped class in the game in those days. Hardly anyone had them since all specs were terrible. It really made leveling difficult being I had no clue on speccing, gearing, or game mechanics since I had no MMORPG experience. When people cry how Pallys are so OP now, I can say "I was Pally, when pally wasn't cool"
Prissa Oct 30th 2010 10:30AM
My first foray online was in a shamefully bad roleplay forum where my character was a half-elven water elementalist. I grew really attached to her and she became my online identity, so to speak. When my bf attempted to get me into wow, I decided to try and make the closest thing to my character as possible: a blood elf frost mage with bright red hair.
It was tough, I was a noob, but I loved her so much that I tried to raid at 70 as frost because I could not tear apart her personality.
And then while I was doing some dailies on the Isle I saw a priest in full T5 and I was inspired. She was a beautiful character. So I decided to roll a healer. And now my priest is my raiding main, and my mage is my mount and pet collector though I love them both equally :P
Therosh Oct 30th 2010 10:39AM
I chose Hunter. Why? Because I thought it was absurd that a sword and magic game had guns, and that I had to see this for myself. After restarting the toon... probably 3 times on various accounts (generous friends), I finally got my own account this past December, and have been happily pewpewing ever since.