Breakfast Topic: What makes players pick their class?
by Olivia Grace 
Feb 19th 2012 at 8:00AM
This video of WoW-Crendor's really makes me smile. Not only does it show up some stereotypes about WoW classes, it also (for me anyway) hints at some reasons why certain players might pick certain classes. Actually, "hints at" might be a bit mild when he's talking about hunters!
Now, a big disclaimer: I'm definitely not saying that there is a typical player for each class. But there are stereotypes within WoW, so let's try to just have a light-hearted, entertaining think about those, and consider some reasons why people pick the class they do.
Of course, there are many practical considerations: maybe they need to roll a tank, or a healer, or DPS to fill an empty spot in a raid team, and one class is required. Maybe their friend told them that a certain class is great at a certain task this patch.
But I'm not thinking about that. For example, someone very dear to me says Paladins are played by control freaks -- seeing as I played only a paladin when we first started chatting I'm not sure how to take this! I guess he might -- possibly, maybe -- have a tiny point as far as paladin tanks go. With their healing and bubbles and such they can control a situation to an extent, perhaps more than other classes. My pally's a tank. Hmmm.
And are warlocks the chosen class of dark, mysterious types? Are priests the class for nurturing, kind, gentle people who just occasionally snap and become diabolical sorcerers? Are hunters distant, standoffish types?
What do you think? And if you're a priest looking for the perfect class match for you, you know, romantically, WoW-Insider are, as always, here to help!
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Stella Feb 19th 2012 8:09AM
I play a Paladin because I love their lore. Especially Alliance Paladins.
The only thing I miss after losing up my religion was the comfort of blind faith. So I was always attracted to the Alliance Paladin storyline.
Reading the 'Ashbringer' series was just the final Seal.
alzeer Feb 19th 2012 8:14AM
i always felt people who pick rogues are ..........never mind . _ .
Calicia Feb 19th 2012 9:12AM
I play a carebear rogue just to mess with people.
fudge Feb 19th 2012 8:18AM
I'm in love with the stereotype of valorous knights. Have been since I first read about Arthur's Knights of the Round Table as a child.
Alliance paladins are closest to that archetype and it makes me very sad indeed every time the concept of a paladin (originally a knight in the Silver Hand) is diluted, because other races were granted access to the class. Nowadays a paladin is more of a magical warrior/battle mage, because Draenei and Tauren have to fit in somewhere and I don't think it has done the class any good.
fudge Feb 19th 2012 8:27AM
Expanding on that, I think that while they failed to keep a coherent vision of the paladin class, there is an example in the game right now of how they might have kept the spirit of the class alive, while still allowing more races than just humans, dwarves and elves to become paladins:
Druids.
All druids in the game are members of the Cenarion Circle and all druids share a common philosophy (Trolls excluded to an extent) and all druids, no matter what faction or race share a common visual style that is rooted in the Night Elf druid look.
And I think they could have done the same for paladins by uniting them in the Argent Dawn/Crusade. Every paladin in existence would answer to the Crusade, which would be modeled on the human/dwarf archetype, just like all druids are based in Night Elven tradition. There would be none of that sunwalker/vindicator nonsense and there would be a lot more cohesion in class design and feel than there is right now.
Luotian Feb 19th 2012 9:20AM
See, and I think Paladins are the coolest for the exact reason you don't like them. Every race has its own feel for the class, its own story, and no it isn't united but its real and I like it.
Amanda A. Feb 19th 2012 9:27AM
Draenei paladins follow the holy knight archetype just as strongly as the Silver Hand. The Silver Hand was originally a bunch of priests who decided they needed to strap on armor to fight the orcs; the draenei learned how to paladin learned directly from beings that are something like angels because Satan was trying to turn them into demons.
Saying only humans and dwarves should be paladins is like saying the only priests should be the Light-worshipping races, and not the ones that call on Elune, the Loa, the Forgotten Shadow, etc. It doesn't dilute the class at all, I think, to have multiple versions of faith, especially since the Horde no longer has corrupted variants of paladin abilities.
byronius_prime Feb 19th 2012 12:25PM
@fudge
Draenei = Tauren >= Human/Dwarf/Belf imo. The first take the path of the light, solely due to belief, and to become true defenders of their people, and of their ideals. Humans/Dwarves have had way too many villains spawn out of their order - blood elves on the other hand were not even believers, they forced the light up until the Sunwell's reignition, and we don't know how many of them now think what they did was wrong. Sure Mograine, Fordring, Fordragon, Tyralyon and Uther, to name a few were some of the greatest heroes of Azeroth, but then again, the Silver Hand spawned Arthas and the Scarlet Crusade.
icepyro Feb 19th 2012 1:11PM
I have a belf Paladin, because when I wanted to know how to paladin, I did a youtube search for "how to paladin". Once my mind was broken of its standards and stereotypes, I realized that this truly was how to paladin.
>_>
<_<
/ducks
Noyou Feb 19th 2012 2:58PM
I like the idea of the holy warrior. I gravitate towards paladin/knight classes in other RPGs. Unfortunately, my RL friend who got me into WoW picked it first! So I rolled a mage. I figured ranged would be a good compliment as we leveled. I liked the description from the booklet and all the CC abilities. I sucked so bad at it, I rerolled a hunter :p I eventually got back to the paladin on my 3rd alt. After experimenting with the DK, he was my first toon to 80. He is technically my main, I take him through everything first. I do like the lore and the badass vs the undead thing. Playing a paladin and going though duskwood was one of the funnest things, especially solo.
Noyou Feb 19th 2012 3:04PM
@ Fudge
Did you do the quest for Crusader Bridenbrand in Icecrown? If you did and still think Draenei don't fit in as Paladin's then I don't know what to tell you. The Naaru doesn't abandon their champions though. /chills. Without a doubt the single best quest chain for a paladin (in my humble opinion).
I don't agree with belves being paladins. I actually think forsaken fit better.
Mycroft Feb 19th 2012 8:19AM
I know I just like animals, and cats are adorable, so that's what first drew me to the Druid class, solo leveling feral. I liked that at endgame I could fill any role, inspired by the classic Purple Monster by Ashmai of Nath (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOxkNOdpYPQ bit of language). As for which roles of druid I have at any given time, I found Allison's personality test (http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/07/12/shifting-perspectives-the-druid-personality-test/) to be still quite informative. (Currently 'victimless crime' for soloing still, and 'crying in the corner' for raiding.)
ravyncat Feb 19th 2012 12:56PM
XD
I picked my first character solely because I wanted to be a purple cat!
I love my kitteh druid still because she is a purple cat...and when she is a nelf her hair is my favorite color of blue. ^^
Avan Feb 19th 2012 8:24AM
All of those are spot on except for the mage. Mages don't complain about arcane being boring. Only people who used to play mages complain about arcane being boring!
Darky Feb 19th 2012 10:18AM
Not true I enjoy fire, but think arcane is boring.
Bapo Feb 19th 2012 3:02PM
Granted I'm lvling my mage, I have to agree that arcane is pretty dull. Fire is probably my favorite atm (I mean come on, who doesn't like throwing a giant flaming boulder at someones face?) And frost is surprisingly fun to play.
My main issue with arcane is the normal banter that always goes around of spamming 2 buttons (maybe 3 if I have time for arcane missiles), but like I said, I'm lvling my mage, and have not experienced end game on him yet.
Noyou Feb 19th 2012 3:07PM
If you play a mage and think any spec is boring then you are doing something wrong. I think of our limited rotation as an opportunity to use other things like sheeping, snaring, counterspelling and spellstealing. And the occasional Mage tank!
Cennic Feb 19th 2012 3:57PM
I really enjoy playing Arcane *Shrug*. My Arcane mage is easily my second best geared character and even though everyone says "Go Fire, you'll do more damage" I don't have any trouble keeping up with any of the other fire mages I end up grouping with in LFR or Dungeons.
Anyway, my main is a Tauren Warrior and the reason I picked him I think originally was his ability to tank. I tanked from level 14 through 70, and then all the way through Wrath once that hit, and then for cata I decided to try something different and went DPS (Tried both Arms and Fury, currently Arms).
I picked Mage because I liked the lore surrounding mages, and I also like how the class played from watching other mages in dungeons and such, and also talking to other mages about what they thought of it.
I started a DK because they could start at 55. *shrug*
I made my paladin because I wanted to be able to heal with a dps off spec.
And I made my rogue because I wanted a character to devote specifically to pvp.
Weird, now that I think about it, most of my character choices had very little to do with the lore surrounding them.
Jebediah54 Feb 19th 2012 7:50PM
I've played a mage coming up on 4 years, and I loved arcane back in Wrath (I think because I played how I wanted and didn't theorycraft every little stat). Nowadays however, I hate arcane because it feels like you're whole goal in life is to stand still and pew pew, whereas fire has this feel of freedom.
@ Cennic
Don't listen to people that say that you'll do more damage as fire; right now fire and arcane are really close (arcane I think is slightly better for non-movement fights like Ultraxion). The thing is that everyone looks at mages as the class that has "the best spec" but it seems like all the other classes (like rogues) can play whichever spec they want without being called out on it.
paul.morales91 Feb 19th 2012 8:31AM
Why do I play my druid? Actually, that stereotype's pretty accurate. If I just wanted to tank, I would be a warrior. If I wanted to only dps, I would be a rogue or druid. If all I wanted to do was heal...well, I guess I would still play druid. Huh.
The point is druids can do all of these things. They can fill any role and adapt to situations on the fly. If I get tired of the same play style being used over and over, rather than role another toon, I can just respec.
Plus, I love druid lore. In a world torn by war and evil forces, its nice to know that there's a group out there willing to put their differences and factions aside and work toward the greater good.