Posts with tag classes

The folks at GuildOx have gone through their database and done some simple filtering that reveals some fascinating things about who is raiding heroic Dragon Soul. GuildOx started with level 85 characters, filtered for characters with ilevel 400 gear, and then filtered out anyone with PvP gear. What you see in the chart above is the result of that work -- a representative sample of who out of the over 13 million level 85 characters in the GuildOx database is raiding heroic Dragon Soul.

If you remember the post about the complexity of systems and player retention that I made a couple of weeks back, you'll remember that I mentioned Cynwise's excellent posts about the warlock decline. Well, here it is again reflected in GuildOx's data. Warlocks are the least played class in heroic raiding.

Warriors aren't doing much better, really. Most other classes seem fairly healthy, with classes that have healing specs doing fairly well and rogues absolutely ruling heroic raiding despite being one of the least-played classes in the game overall. It gets even more interesting once we get to look at the GuildOx spec-by-spec breakdown.

I've changed my main exactly once in all of my years playing World of Warcraft. It wasn't out of need or necessity for a guild -- in fact, I was guildless at the point I decided to switch. And I wasn't really planning on switching so much as I really wanted to play a rogue. I wasn't tied down to a guild, and I figured I could simply have fun with the experience. Over the course of leveling that rogue, I met a group of friends in a raiding guild, and once I hit level 70, they encouraged me to apply.

Going from a healing class to a pure melee DPS class wasn't as much of a stretch as you'd think. In fact, I think I almost fared better than most because as a former healer, I keenly understood the importance of staying alive. More importantly, I understood that as a pure melee DPS player who was not a tank or a healer, my priority on most heal lists was fairly low. So it was up to me to keep myself alive and happily stab things.

I don't think, however, that I could ever make that switch again -- although honestly, I've thought about it.

We all have one. Some of us might have more -- two or even three, she says, whistling nonchalantly. You all know what I mean: the class you think you might have a go at yet never get out of the starting zone, or the class you look at time and time again and just can't quite bring yourself to try.

These classes often look good on paper. I like tanking on my paladin. I know it's not exactly challenging, but I enjoy it -- so other tank classes should sound fun too, right? Wrong. I cannot bring myself to roll a warrior. I don't know why, exactly; I don't have a good reason for it. It's clearly a deeply personal thing, but I just can't find any appeal in that class.

I have two healers already, a priest and a shaman, so adding a druid should be good. After all, they can tank, too! But druid is my #1 rolled and deleted class. If I had stats for that, I reckon I've rolled and deleted maybe five druids. Maybe six. Most of them don't make it out of the starting zone. For some reason, I just find them uninspiring. The spells seem dull, not exciting or engaging. I'm sure they're great if you give them a chance, but the sulky teenager in me doesn't want to!

Of course, these tastes are incredibly subjective and personal, and I am under no illusions that there is a right answer or even a majority opinion! But I want to know what classes are the ones you will never play? What are the classes you roll and delete in their infancy? And, dear reader, why?