Once you have chosen your faction and race, you will need to decide what you want to do in WOW. When rolling your first character, you will be given a multitude of options to choose between. If you know what path interests you the most, you can make a better decision.
There are three different play styles to look at. These are based on how groups work together to achieve goals. Effective groups are coordinated with all members fulfilling a role. A typical 5 player group will include the following roles: one Tank, one Healer, and three DPS. The tank’s job is to get the attention of the “mob”, so they focus their attacks on the tank. Because of this, the Tank will receive the majority of damage in an encounter. The healer’s function is to keep the Tank alive. Healer’s restore health to other characters and themselves through the use of spells. The DPS are damage dealers. DPS stands for Damage Per Second. They attack the mob while its attention is focused on the Tank.
In an effective group, the Tank will be able to maintain “aggro”, so the mob will focus its attacks on them. The Tank needs heavy armor because he or she will constantly be under attack. They also need a lot of health to prevent them from dying. The following character types are used as tanks in WOW: Warriors, Paladins, Druids, and Death Knights*.
Healers are vital for the group, because they keep the group alive. As previously stated, healers spend most of their time in parties healing the tank. They are also responsible for healing the other group members and themselves, removing curses, and resurrecting party members who die. The following classes are used as healers: Priests, Paladins, Druids, and Shamans.
DPS characters come in all shapes and sizes. We will divide damage dealers into 2 categories, melee and ranged.
Melee DPS is best described as hand to hand combat. You are using a hand held weapon to inflict damage up close and personal. Melee DPS is done by Warriors, Druids, Rogues, Death Knights*, and Shamans.
Ranged DPS is done from a distance, either with a firearm, bow, or spell. Ranged DPS can be done by Hunters, Mages, Druids, Warlocks, Priests, Death Knights*, and Shamans.
You probably noticed that some characters can fill multiple roles in a party. This is accomplished through the Discipline system in WOW. Each character class has 3 Disciplines to choose from, determining what role they will play. The player chooses the discipline they want to follow when they reach level 10. You can, however, change your mind and try a new discipline for a few gold pieces. You can also have 2 different disciplines which you can choose between, each with their own abilities and gear.
*Death Knights are a special class, and you can not play a Death Knight unless you have a level 55 character on the realm you are playing it on.
TANKS
So you want to be a target dummy? Just kidding, a good tank is always in demand in WOW. As mentioned earlier, tanks come from one of 4 different classes: Warrior, Paladin, Druid, and Death Knight.
Warriors are characters who wear the heaviest armor and operate up close and personal with mobs. To tank, they learn talents in the Protection Discipline. Paladins are similar to Warriors, but have the ability to cast spells and perform healing. They also have a Protection spec which they use to tank. Druids are characters who get their powers from nature. In the Feral discipline, Druids can tank in the form of a bear. Death Knights tank under the Blood spec.HEALERS
Healing is vital in WOW and can be performed by Priests, Paladins, Shaman, and Druids.
Priests are the traditional healers in WOW and can perform healing in either the Holy or Discipline Spec. Paladins have healing abilities in all specs, but utilize the Holy spec. to specialize in healing. Restoration specced Shamans are healers. Restoration specced Druids are healers.DPS
While the tank occupies the attention of the mob or boss, the DPS characters do damage. They also are responsible for picking up adds (additional mobs that spawn during some boss fights) and protecting the healers. There are two type of DPS, melee and ranged.
Melee DPS is performed by Warriors, Druids, Rogues, Death Knights, and Shamans.
Warriors have two dps specs, Fury and Arms. Fury Warriors are designed for PVE DPS and Arms Warriors specialize in PVP.Druids can perform melee DPS in the Feral discipline (same as for tanking), but fight in cat form.Rogues are a pure melee DPS class. Under the combat spec the specialize in hand to hand combat. Assassination specced Rogues are adept in the use of poisons. The last spec is Subtlety, which is good for sneak attacks.Death Knights use a combination of weapons, spells, diseases and minions to perform melee DPS. The two specs utilized for this are Frost and Unholy. Shamans in the Enhancement discipline are melee DPS, their attacks are improved because of the enchantments they place on their weapons.Ranged DPS is performed by Hunters, Mages, Druids, Warlocks, Priests, and Death Knights, and Shaman.
Hunters have the ability to tame animals and use them as combat pets. In all three specs (Marksmanship, Beast Mastery, and Survival), the hunter will send their pet in to fight in close and stand back and attack with their ranged weapon.Mages wear cloth armor and can not take much damage. Their talents are divided by their chosen school of magic (Arcane, Frost, or Fire). It has been my experience that mages provide some of the highest DPS in the game.Druids can use the Balance spec to cast spells as a ranged DPS.Warlocks like mages wear cloth armor, so they have to avoid contact. They also have demons they can summon, so they can fight like hunters. Their three talent trees are Affliction, Demonology, and Destruction.Priests can do spell DPS under their Shadow spec. As a Shadow Priest, they can also perform limited healing on themselves and their party.Death Knights have limited ranged abilities, they are primarily melee DPS and tanks.Shamans do ranged DPS in the Elemental Discipline.For more information, check out: http://www.wowwiki.com/Choosing_a_class
Hopefully, with this information you will have an idea what type of character appeals to you the most. You can always role a new character later. Remember, IT’S JUST A GAME!!!
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