Originally posted by jusomdude Having played low level priests and paladins within the last few months, they are my least favorite classes to level. But pretty much everything is fairly faceroll these days.
priest and pally are so fast to level now. get to 15 and just run the dungeon finder.
priest is ridiculous. spec for renew and if the tank isn't a complete idiot renew is all you need. bubble once in a while. always use the longer heal. spend most of your time pew pewing behind a bubbled/renewed tank.
paladin is pretty easy to heal with as well.
LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity. I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already
Hmmm. I fail to see how any classes are "difficult/annoying" to level in WoW's current form. Boring? for sure but really there's nothing hard or challenging left in wow's path to cap.
That might hold some validity in vanilla, but with later expansions and all the BS they brought with 'em? It's all facement; super fast regen, BoA gear, balanced dps for every class, dumbed down low-level AI and faster leveling time...
So incredibly dull i have to play on a "private" vanilla server to have fun in WoW.
every class is fast, easy, my little pony land at current world of warcraft, back in the days i agree with paladin been slowest. i played warrior as my main straight from the beginning as protection, and theres hardcore levelng build in old azeroth
Shaman was never a (great) tank, though there was a time when Blizzard claimed they were the only true hybrid class, and that they could tank.
I actually enjoyed levelling my priest as Holy, took it to level cap during vanilla, then each new cap of each expansion while staying Holy.
you gotta be kidding me. You do know back in those days shaman had the most armor thus the best single target physical tank..........
what is this? shaman was never tank the one and only tank in vanilla that could tank raid bosses without sweat was warrior, paladin was support and druid was , well druid easily took tons of critical hits cause lack of toughness eventho may had more healthpoints than warrior, hp pool dont help you if you take every second hit as critical.
Originally posted by BillMurphy Do we really have to preface every COLUMN article with the notion that columns are editorially based and therefore opinion? To me, and still, this list is my most boring/annoying classes to level. You can have your own too, but neither of us will be "right".
True. But when you're writing such a column, it would still pay to back up your opinion with some factoids about current WoW, and not Pre-BC ;-). If I'm wrong, please tell me - but the article reads like it's from someone who last laid hands on WoW early WotLK. Not that that's a bad thing.
For example: If you play as Protection Paladin, you won't be playing 1 on 1. You'll be pulling 5-10 mobs and tank them down. Since you also do a boatload of AoE dps, that feels like a very fun way of levelling up. Plus, you can solo (!) many instances that are green to you (some even when they're yellow).
The Warrior is in a similar situation: In Vanilla to BC, he was hard to level because he had to rely to a large extent on white damage and Rage was not that easy to come by. It often felt like attritioning a mob down. Oh, and you had little (fury) to no self-heal. That has changed, though. Nowadays, your Rage accumulates faster, you have more instant attacks, and you have self-heals. You can practically mow through mobs without a pause, especially as tank.
Priests (as Disc) are nigh on invincible in earlier levels (shield absorbing more damage than the priest has life), with Penance being a good dps spell. Shadow only gets good when you have some spellpower gear and mana regen abilities. Before that, Shadow plays very sluggish. Either you bring a mob down fast and have little mana left, or you DoT+wand him down. Which takes longer, has you doing less things, but conserves your mana.
With your Warlock, I feel you are spot-on. As soon as you have a pet (voidwalker or above), you have an easy time. It's still mot as fast as a Prot Pally or Warrior, but you get there.
Rogues, on the other hand, may hands down be the most annoying class to level at the moment. Until the high 70s, they are (unless you go Combat) single target dps only. Especially in the begnning, when you have neither CC nor damage reducing abilitites (Evasion, and even that is mediocre until the 30s), going toe-to-toe with more than one opponent is often lethal. Even when spec'ed Combat, these fights can be dicey. And your only way of healing is via recuperate, which is a low HoT.
All in all, however, levelling any class in today's WoW (=Cataclysm) isn't hard or trying any more. It's boring, if anything. Ironically, for many classes the only hard part is the early game (rogues and other gear-dependent classes especially). As soon as you have some healing/survival skills and at least green gear, dying until 85 is either a sign of:
- You dozed off
- You got cocky and aggroed half an instance
- Get a keyboard and a mouse! No, controlling your toon via telepathy does not work.
I generally enjoy reading your articles, Bill. But this one...stretching it a bit, buddy. There's GOT to be better material to write about.
As far as WoW, something tells me that this line from Bill's Warlock review sums up the game:
The only thing that makes him difficult is the fact that he actually requires some measure of thinking to play in a solo manner. As though that would be a detriment.
I loved my enhancement shaman, even though he wasn't a "love child", until they added wolves. The first day they added them, I dueled a lot of people. In all my time playing WoW, I'm not sure I've ever seen such an overweighted talent for any class. They tied too much into one talent. To the point that you felt like two different classes with them and without them. I think the most sinking feeling I ever had in that game was a duel opponent asking if I wanted to wait for their cooldown to expire before dueling. Although waiting on cooldowns is a common courtesy in dueling, knowing the difference in power and survival attached to that single cooldown felt cheap. Contemplating that difference caused me to shelve and never pick up my shaman again.
Also, after reading the replies, I didn't bother to read the article. As to the topic, I'd probably say low level feral druid before heirlooms and changes to the spec. Starting off as a dps feral with only normal or bear form and no FAP weapons was painful.
Originally posted by BillMurphy How about I change the title? My opinion still stands though, I just don't like these classes. Guess that's what I should have titled it. "The 5 Classes Bill Doesn't Like". Sorry for the confusion folks.
That's at least more accurate if not meaningful in any way. I could similarly write about how bad it was to level a priest in vanilla WoW, or how a hunter with a gorilla from STV with Thunderstomp was a cakewalk to level in BC, or how OP and effortless to level ret paladin and affliction warlocks were in WotlK, or how elemental shamans were suddenly vastly superior to level than enhance in Wotlk. But quite simply, none of that means anything today. For example, during WotlK, I actually wrote a large part of the Shaman leveling guide that was stickied on the official WoW class forums. That guide is no longer there for obvious reasons--it's almost entirely irrelevant.
I couldn't tell you what classes are good or fun to level today either.
Talking about the 5 classes you've historically liked leveling the least, however, sounds like a fine topic It could also conjure up nostalgia for some players and inspire conversation about the various eras and phases the classes of WoW have been through. Even if not not an important discussion to have, it's a fun one, which is arguably the biggest purpose of video game forums anyway.
It depends on which version of WoW you're talking about. The classes hardly resemble what they were when the game launched. Originally priest was a bear to level. Pally's were terribly slow and boring as well. We had judgement and waited for Seal of Casino to proc ... an occasional stun to interrupt the enemy, and that's about it.
I say, just about anything can level with decent speed these days. Hybrid classes are the way to go since you have a built in heal during multiple mob pulls. They're all very easy now though.
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
Originally posted by BillMurphy How about I change the title? My opinion still stands though, I just don't like these classes. Guess that's what I should have titled it. "The 5 Classes Bill Doesn't Like". Sorry for the confusion folks.
Paladin was my least favorite class to play, followed closely by priest. I think your list is a pretty fair one -- although I enjoyed warrior and rogue more than you did.
I would have added Death Knight as well, not because it's a bad class but because you don't get to level up with it, something I would have liked to do. It seems like, lore-wise, they ought to at least give players the option to level up a death knight just like you can with any other class.
Originally posted by shawn19606 I really think that leveling in WOW right now is so easy in any class that this article is probably not worth writing. For instance, a Paladin right now is so easy to level it's not even funny. Back in vanilla it wasn't. But right now, you can level a prot paladin even so easy it's a joke but yet it is listed as the least favorite. I guess "least favorite" are the key words though. A subjective opinion that doe not necessarily mean hardest to level.
It wasn't listed as "least favorite" unless Bill changed it. It started at listed as "worst to level," period. However, a lot of us played classes he mentioned and enjoyed leveling and playing them, so the title of the thread got changed with some wording so it made more sense than calling out classes for "being the worst." Worst = pretty subjective word, plus....worst at WHAT? Worst at leveling or more "worst than that?"
For Paladin I only agree with how it was at release, most painful class to level. You'd just pop your seal and wait hoping for a proc, with the occasional judgment and reseal. As a 57 paladin, I was questing and there was a shammy nearby, he was level 52, he'd kill stuff faster and take less overall damage doing it.
However one of my best memories of WoW at release was fighting a level 58 scarlet crusade npc as a 50 paladin and actually winning (of course it did take me about 15 minutes to win).
Anyways, since then, they've made the leveling process for paladins much better, you actually get abilities to use so you can actually defend yourself now: crusader strike, seals don't last 30 seconds and get removed when casting judgment, templar's verdict.
Agree on joke about paladin. Could solo elites but .... every rat took eons to kill. And no fun abilities. Definitively most boring class at least somewhere to middle levels.
Second most boring .... priest. Not sure, maybe even worse then paladin. I think only class I have leveled to 85 just for sake to have all 10 classes lv. 85. But gets better in time.
Warrior ... guess class that once was dieing most. But on the other hand I was learning to play wow with my warrior elf.
Rogue very difficult to solo, some mobs impossible to.
Not sure why warlock is on the list.
But anyway ... OP should make more precise claim about what he meant with post ... finding most BORING class to level, most HARD to level, ... or all above.
Originally posted by BillMurphy How about I change the title? My opinion still stands though, I just don't like these classes. Guess that's what I should have titled it. "The 5 Classes Bill Doesn't Like". Sorry for the confusion folks.
"Didn't Like 6-7 Years Ago", and there would be no flames.
Back in the 1-60 days, I actually leveled a pally. That shit took me forever. Ret spec was the way to go (or Tank AOE!!!) I always had high hopes of being an awesome ret pally. Apparently I wasn't alone - the amount of ret pallies I saw in TBC and afterwords was ridiculous. Everybody wants to be the white knight that crits your face off! Now I have a deep hatred for ret pallies
Also, leveling a priest 1-20 back in tbc was, by far, the most tedious leveling I have experienced to date. Priest simply did not have the proper dps tools back in the day during those early levels. It was basically spam smite and run out of mana. Blizz improved the leveling experience 100 fold since those early years.
Playing Horde I never got to try a paladin until BC came out. Couldn't go the Alliance route, dirty scumbags.
Anyway, by the time I got to pally it had been through some changes. Prot spec was rediculously easy to level with. Round up 6 or 7 mobs and watch them beat themselves to death on your shield. The there's the elite raptor behind Guribashi Arena which I solo'd 4 levels below it, including a few adds as other raptors wandered by. So I blew every CD I had, including LoH. I still did it solo.
The last class I levelled 1-80 was the warrior during WotLK, again I found that one pretty easy as arms spec. I did that mainly by questing. Never was a fan of sitting in Org waiting in a dungeon queue.
Worst for me would be a mage or lock, never got those past 30, but I've never been that keen on casters anyway. I much prefer smacking stuff in the face, up close and personal.
Like the people said above, your opinions are actually spot-on if we were still in pre-TBC. Since then, all the classes have gone through some major changes that make them much more enjoyable to level.
I have to say that warriors were painful to level in the early days, due to the fact that they are so dependant on their weapon. Taking a mage through the same time period was much easier in comparison.
The newer expansions changed the leveling process so that each class can put out single-target and AOE damage at a decent level, which makes things easier when out in the world. Of course, certain classes can handle the AOE/multi-target better (aff. warlock, prot paladin, mage) than others (rogues that aren't combat), but they can all quest to 85 by killing single targets if they so choose.
Now Rogues have Recuperate, which makes them heal over time. Changes to the combo point system means less wasted CPs and more self-healing or self-buffing for the next fight.
Warlocks are in a rut currently, but they are being revamped (and affliction is as powerful as ever, if you don't go Demonology and let it tank stuff). Warlocks are the least played class for good reason, but the leveling process isn't that reason.
Like you said, Priests get shadowform, and most mobs can be killed with Vampiric Touch > Mind Blast > Mind Flay > Mind Flay > Shadow Word: Death, which is a mana-positive rotation with the right spec. No need to dot up a non-elite mob with all your spells.
Warriors get Victory Rush, eliminating downtime. The 'take a lot more damage' talents in Fury have been dialed back, and Arms is very nice in PVE now.
Paladins enjoy a much more active playstyle with the holy power mechanic and switching of spell orders. Crusader Strike early on is probably the largest benefit.
If we are talking about Vanilla WoW at release, I would agree with this list except I would put the Druid in there somewhere too and Priests actually were pretty good from what I remember.
Druids, Warlocks and Warriors were just horrible at release, really really underpowered. I gave up on my Druid at level 30 because it seemed like even with catform he wasn't getting much of anywhere and that was after slogging through the first 20 levels with slow casting spells that made me want to pull my hair out. Today's Druid is absolutely uber in comparison.
Coming back to today, I have not tried Rogues or Paladins recently. However, I disagree with putting the Warlock and Warrior in that list.
Warriors steamroll things these days and have very little downtime. Prot Warriors can kill much more quickly solo now and their defense is still great. Plus they are incredibly useful in teams and I still find them to be the best overall tanks if the player is somewhat awake and manages aggro. I would take a Warrior tank over a DK or Druid tank anyday.
Today's Warlock is absolutely incredible in comparison to how it used to be in the old days. It really took until TBC for locks to become more on par in PvE, thanks in part to the felguard pet. Now, I find my demonology Warlock to be really good since Cata brought in a few extra spells that add to dps. Sure, I don't dps as well as a Mage does in dungeons, but I am very close. It is surprising to me that Warlocks haven't caught on more because for slightly lower dps than Mages you get lots of flexibility. Plus, in my opinion, a demo lock is one of the best AoErs in the game with the metamorphosis AoE, AoE onetime cast pets, the felguard AoE, seed of corruption, hand of gul'dan and hellfire/rain of fire.
My experience with today's Priest is less optimal. The number 1 problem is too much downtime between fights at low level. Priests are incredibly survivable, but good grief do they tear through their mana like there is no tomorrow! In comparison to DAoC I guess they are alright as far as their downtime goes, but when you have so many other classes that seem to manage their power resources so much better, it is a little bit of a bitter pill to swallow.
Back in the 1-60 days, I actually leveled a pally. That shit took me forever. Ret spec was the way to go (or Tank AOE!!!) I always had high hopes of being an awesome ret pally. Apparently I wasn't alone - the amount of ret pallies I saw in TBC and afterwords was ridiculous. Everybody wants to be the white knight that crits your face off! Now I have a deep hatred for ret pallies
Also, leveling a priest 1-20 back in tbc was, by far, the most tedious leveling I have experienced to date. Priest simply did not have the proper dps tools back in the day during those early levels. It was basically spam smite and run out of mana. Blizz improved the leveling experience 100 fold since those early years.
I completely agree. And I should know...I have 3 shadow priests (2 85's and an 80) on 3 different servers...and 1-20 on all of them was not a lot of fun...
Warlocks are in a rut currently, but they are being revamped (and affliction is as powerful as ever, if you don't go Demonology and let it tank stuff). Warlocks are the least played class for good reason, but the leveling process isn't that reason.
Like you said, Priests get shadowform, and most mobs can be killed with Vampiric Touch > Mind Blast > Mind Flay > Mind Flay > Shadow Word: Death, which is a mana-positive rotation with the right spec. No need to dot up a non-elite mob with all your spells.
I think it really depends on the player what they make of the Warlock. I have encountered lots of really bad lock players, but when I have come across a good lock player, they are really, really good. The problem with the lock is that it starts out slow and I think if ppl get dps meters shoved in their face and they see that the lock habitually performs badly, they abandon it for something that frontloads more dps like a Mage or Rogue at low levels.
I also think a lot of people forget to use their pet abilities. I see people pop an imp pet even if there is a Priest in the party. In my view, there is 0 reason to use an imp pet if there is a Priest around because it does such low dps in comparison to how it used to be (used to be ok in TBC and WotLK).
Now, I go with a felguard and use its AoE as much as I can. HoG is a really nice spell too, dish that out first (I have crit for over 6000 dmg with just that spell at level 70) and hit things with the felguard AoE + hellfire, use metamorphosis when it is up, and I do really nice dps these days in comparison with how it used to be.
Sure, it is not as simple as playing something like a Mage or cat Druid, but the lock is in better shape at least in demo than it ever was.
Edit - the real difficult part is convincing the party healer to heal you while you hellfire. Healers are so squeemish about doing that.
It seems like the Priest gets better as it levels but pre level 60 it sucks.
The main problem is that warlocks take more skill to do the same damage as another class. They're in a better shape than before, but hopefully MoP brings out better times for the class.
Warlocks are nice in PVP, though. If rogues weren't so popular in high-end teams, warlocks would be dominating the 2.7k - 2.8k matches.
Comments
priest and pally are so fast to level now. get to 15 and just run the dungeon finder.
priest is ridiculous. spec for renew and if the tank isn't a complete idiot renew is all you need. bubble once in a while. always use the longer heal. spend most of your time pew pewing behind a bubbled/renewed tank.
paladin is pretty easy to heal with as well.
LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity.
I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already
That might hold some validity in vanilla, but with later expansions and all the BS they brought with 'em? It's all facement; super fast regen, BoA gear, balanced dps for every class, dumbed down low-level AI and faster leveling time...
So incredibly dull i have to play on a "private" vanilla server to have fun in WoW.
you gotta be kidding me. You do know back in those days shaman had the most armor thus the best single target physical tank..........
what is this? shaman was never tank the one and only tank in vanilla that could tank raid bosses without sweat was warrior, paladin was support and druid was , well druid easily took tons of critical hits cause lack of toughness eventho may had more healthpoints than warrior, hp pool dont help you if you take every second hit as critical.
True. But when you're writing such a column, it would still pay to back up your opinion with some factoids about current WoW, and not Pre-BC ;-). If I'm wrong, please tell me - but the article reads like it's from someone who last laid hands on WoW early WotLK. Not that that's a bad thing.
For example: If you play as Protection Paladin, you won't be playing 1 on 1. You'll be pulling 5-10 mobs and tank them down. Since you also do a boatload of AoE dps, that feels like a very fun way of levelling up. Plus, you can solo (!) many instances that are green to you (some even when they're yellow).
The Warrior is in a similar situation: In Vanilla to BC, he was hard to level because he had to rely to a large extent on white damage and Rage was not that easy to come by. It often felt like attritioning a mob down. Oh, and you had little (fury) to no self-heal. That has changed, though. Nowadays, your Rage accumulates faster, you have more instant attacks, and you have self-heals. You can practically mow through mobs without a pause, especially as tank.
Priests (as Disc) are nigh on invincible in earlier levels (shield absorbing more damage than the priest has life), with Penance being a good dps spell. Shadow only gets good when you have some spellpower gear and mana regen abilities. Before that, Shadow plays very sluggish. Either you bring a mob down fast and have little mana left, or you DoT+wand him down. Which takes longer, has you doing less things, but conserves your mana.
With your Warlock, I feel you are spot-on. As soon as you have a pet (voidwalker or above), you have an easy time. It's still mot as fast as a Prot Pally or Warrior, but you get there.
Rogues, on the other hand, may hands down be the most annoying class to level at the moment. Until the high 70s, they are (unless you go Combat) single target dps only. Especially in the begnning, when you have neither CC nor damage reducing abilitites (Evasion, and even that is mediocre until the 30s), going toe-to-toe with more than one opponent is often lethal. Even when spec'ed Combat, these fights can be dicey. And your only way of healing is via recuperate, which is a low HoT.
All in all, however, levelling any class in today's WoW (=Cataclysm) isn't hard or trying any more. It's boring, if anything. Ironically, for many classes the only hard part is the early game (rogues and other gear-dependent classes especially). As soon as you have some healing/survival skills and at least green gear, dying until 85 is either a sign of:
- You dozed off
- You got cocky and aggroed half an instance
- Get a keyboard and a mouse! No, controlling your toon via telepathy does not work.
I generally enjoy reading your articles, Bill. But this one...stretching it a bit, buddy. There's GOT to be better material to write about.
As far as WoW, something tells me that this line from Bill's Warlock review sums up the game:
The only thing that makes him difficult is the fact that he actually requires some measure of thinking to play in a solo manner. As though that would be a detriment.
I loved my enhancement shaman, even though he wasn't a "love child", until they added wolves. The first day they added them, I dueled a lot of people. In all my time playing WoW, I'm not sure I've ever seen such an overweighted talent for any class. They tied too much into one talent. To the point that you felt like two different classes with them and without them. I think the most sinking feeling I ever had in that game was a duel opponent asking if I wanted to wait for their cooldown to expire before dueling. Although waiting on cooldowns is a common courtesy in dueling, knowing the difference in power and survival attached to that single cooldown felt cheap. Contemplating that difference caused me to shelve and never pick up my shaman again.
Also, after reading the replies, I didn't bother to read the article. As to the topic, I'd probably say low level feral druid before heirlooms and changes to the spec. Starting off as a dps feral with only normal or bear form and no FAP weapons was painful.
That's at least more accurate if not meaningful in any way. I could similarly write about how bad it was to level a priest in vanilla WoW, or how a hunter with a gorilla from STV with Thunderstomp was a cakewalk to level in BC, or how OP and effortless to level ret paladin and affliction warlocks were in WotlK, or how elemental shamans were suddenly vastly superior to level than enhance in Wotlk. But quite simply, none of that means anything today. For example, during WotlK, I actually wrote a large part of the Shaman leveling guide that was stickied on the official WoW class forums. That guide is no longer there for obvious reasons--it's almost entirely irrelevant.
I couldn't tell you what classes are good or fun to level today either.
Talking about the 5 classes you've historically liked leveling the least, however, sounds like a fine topic
It could also conjure up nostalgia for some players and inspire conversation about the various eras and phases the classes of WoW have been through. Even if not not an important discussion to have, it's a fun one, which is arguably the biggest purpose of video game forums anyway.
It depends on which version of WoW you're talking about. The classes hardly resemble what they were when the game launched. Originally priest was a bear to level. Pally's were terribly slow and boring as well. We had judgement and waited for Seal of Casino to proc ... an occasional stun to interrupt the enemy, and that's about it.
I say, just about anything can level with decent speed these days. Hybrid classes are the way to go since you have a built in heal during multiple mob pulls. They're all very easy now though.
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
Paladin was my least favorite class to play, followed closely by priest. I think your list is a pretty fair one -- although I enjoyed warrior and rogue more than you did.
I would have added Death Knight as well, not because it's a bad class but because you don't get to level up with it, something I would have liked to do. It seems like, lore-wise, they ought to at least give players the option to level up a death knight just like you can with any other class.
It wasn't listed as "least favorite" unless Bill changed it. It started at listed as "worst to level," period. However, a lot of us played classes he mentioned and enjoyed leveling and playing them, so the title of the thread got changed with some wording so it made more sense than calling out classes for "being the worst." Worst = pretty subjective word, plus....worst at WHAT? Worst at leveling or more "worst than that?"
Anyway....now it's all good, less confusing, etc.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
For Paladin I only agree with how it was at release, most painful class to level. You'd just pop your seal and wait hoping for a proc, with the occasional judgment and reseal. As a 57 paladin, I was questing and there was a shammy nearby, he was level 52, he'd kill stuff faster and take less overall damage doing it.
However one of my best memories of WoW at release was fighting a level 58 scarlet crusade npc as a 50 paladin and actually winning (of course it did take me about 15 minutes to win).
Anyways, since then, they've made the leveling process for paladins much better, you actually get abilities to use so you can actually defend yourself now: crusader strike, seals don't last 30 seconds and get removed when casting judgment, templar's verdict.
Agree on joke about paladin. Could solo elites but .... every rat took eons to kill. And no fun abilities. Definitively most boring class at least somewhere to middle levels.
Second most boring .... priest. Not sure, maybe even worse then paladin. I think only class I have leveled to 85 just for sake to have all 10 classes lv. 85. But gets better in time.
Warrior ... guess class that once was dieing most. But on the other hand I was learning to play wow with my warrior elf.
Rogue very difficult to solo, some mobs impossible to.
Not sure why warlock is on the list.
But anyway ... OP should make more precise claim about what he meant with post ... finding most BORING class to level, most HARD to level, ... or all above.
"Didn't Like 6-7 Years Ago", and there would be no flames.
Back in the 1-60 days, I actually leveled a pally. That shit took me forever. Ret spec was the way to go (or Tank AOE!!!) I always had high hopes of being an awesome ret pally. Apparently I wasn't alone - the amount of ret pallies I saw in TBC and afterwords was ridiculous. Everybody wants to be the white knight that crits your face off! Now I have a deep hatred for ret pallies
Also, leveling a priest 1-20 back in tbc was, by far, the most tedious leveling I have experienced to date. Priest simply did not have the proper dps tools back in the day during those early levels. It was basically spam smite and run out of mana. Blizz improved the leveling experience 100 fold since those early years.
Playing Horde I never got to try a paladin until BC came out. Couldn't go the Alliance route, dirty scumbags.
Anyway, by the time I got to pally it had been through some changes. Prot spec was rediculously easy to level with. Round up 6 or 7 mobs and watch them beat themselves to death on your shield. The there's the elite raptor behind Guribashi Arena which I solo'd 4 levels below it, including a few adds as other raptors wandered by. So I blew every CD I had, including LoH. I still did it solo.
The last class I levelled 1-80 was the warrior during WotLK, again I found that one pretty easy as arms spec. I did that mainly by questing. Never was a fan of sitting in Org waiting in a dungeon queue.
Worst for me would be a mage or lock, never got those past 30, but I've never been that keen on casters anyway. I much prefer smacking stuff in the face, up close and personal.
Like the people said above, your opinions are actually spot-on if we were still in pre-TBC. Since then, all the classes have gone through some major changes that make them much more enjoyable to level.
I have to say that warriors were painful to level in the early days, due to the fact that they are so dependant on their weapon. Taking a mage through the same time period was much easier in comparison.
The newer expansions changed the leveling process so that each class can put out single-target and AOE damage at a decent level, which makes things easier when out in the world. Of course, certain classes can handle the AOE/multi-target better (aff. warlock, prot paladin, mage) than others (rogues that aren't combat), but they can all quest to 85 by killing single targets if they so choose.
Now Rogues have Recuperate, which makes them heal over time. Changes to the combo point system means less wasted CPs and more self-healing or self-buffing for the next fight.
Warlocks are in a rut currently, but they are being revamped (and affliction is as powerful as ever, if you don't go Demonology and let it tank stuff). Warlocks are the least played class for good reason, but the leveling process isn't that reason.
Like you said, Priests get shadowform, and most mobs can be killed with Vampiric Touch > Mind Blast > Mind Flay > Mind Flay > Shadow Word: Death, which is a mana-positive rotation with the right spec. No need to dot up a non-elite mob with all your spells.
Warriors get Victory Rush, eliminating downtime. The 'take a lot more damage' talents in Fury have been dialed back, and Arms is very nice in PVE now.
Paladins enjoy a much more active playstyle with the holy power mechanic and switching of spell orders. Crusader Strike early on is probably the largest benefit.
If we are talking about Vanilla WoW at release, I would agree with this list except I would put the Druid in there somewhere too and Priests actually were pretty good from what I remember.
Druids, Warlocks and Warriors were just horrible at release, really really underpowered. I gave up on my Druid at level 30 because it seemed like even with catform he wasn't getting much of anywhere and that was after slogging through the first 20 levels with slow casting spells that made me want to pull my hair out. Today's Druid is absolutely uber in comparison.
Coming back to today, I have not tried Rogues or Paladins recently. However, I disagree with putting the Warlock and Warrior in that list.
Warriors steamroll things these days and have very little downtime. Prot Warriors can kill much more quickly solo now and their defense is still great. Plus they are incredibly useful in teams and I still find them to be the best overall tanks if the player is somewhat awake and manages aggro. I would take a Warrior tank over a DK or Druid tank anyday.
Today's Warlock is absolutely incredible in comparison to how it used to be in the old days. It really took until TBC for locks to become more on par in PvE, thanks in part to the felguard pet. Now, I find my demonology Warlock to be really good since Cata brought in a few extra spells that add to dps. Sure, I don't dps as well as a Mage does in dungeons, but I am very close. It is surprising to me that Warlocks haven't caught on more because for slightly lower dps than Mages you get lots of flexibility. Plus, in my opinion, a demo lock is one of the best AoErs in the game with the metamorphosis AoE, AoE onetime cast pets, the felguard AoE, seed of corruption, hand of gul'dan and hellfire/rain of fire.
My experience with today's Priest is less optimal. The number 1 problem is too much downtime between fights at low level. Priests are incredibly survivable, but good grief do they tear through their mana like there is no tomorrow! In comparison to DAoC I guess they are alright as far as their downtime goes, but when you have so many other classes that seem to manage their power resources so much better, it is a little bit of a bitter pill to swallow.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
I completely agree. And I should know...I have 3 shadow priests (2 85's and an 80) on 3 different servers...and 1-20 on all of them was not a lot of fun...
I think it really depends on the player what they make of the Warlock. I have encountered lots of really bad lock players, but when I have come across a good lock player, they are really, really good. The problem with the lock is that it starts out slow and I think if ppl get dps meters shoved in their face and they see that the lock habitually performs badly, they abandon it for something that frontloads more dps like a Mage or Rogue at low levels.
I also think a lot of people forget to use their pet abilities. I see people pop an imp pet even if there is a Priest in the party. In my view, there is 0 reason to use an imp pet if there is a Priest around because it does such low dps in comparison to how it used to be (used to be ok in TBC and WotLK).
Now, I go with a felguard and use its AoE as much as I can. HoG is a really nice spell too, dish that out first (I have crit for over 6000 dmg with just that spell at level 70) and hit things with the felguard AoE + hellfire, use metamorphosis when it is up, and I do really nice dps these days in comparison with how it used to be.
Sure, it is not as simple as playing something like a Mage or cat Druid, but the lock is in better shape at least in demo than it ever was.
Edit - the real difficult part is convincing the party healer to heal you while you hellfire. Healers are so squeemish about doing that.
It seems like the Priest gets better as it levels but pre level 60 it sucks.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
The main problem is that warlocks take more skill to do the same damage as another class. They're in a better shape than before, but hopefully MoP brings out better times for the class.
Warlocks are nice in PVP, though. If rogues weren't so popular in high-end teams, warlocks would be dominating the 2.7k - 2.8k matches.