How to Choose a Class in WoW Classic

If you want to pick a class based purely on their performance in raids or PvP, we recommend looking at one of the following pages. This guide will focus on the bigger picture, including playstyle, lore, and general recommendations on each class.

Druids are an ideal choice for players that are not happy with just filling one role and want to be able to fill multiple roles in a group. Whether you decide to tank, heal, or DPS, the Druid can capably fulfil all of the requirements to do any of these. It is worth remembering that, although they can fulfil every role, it can be tough to secure a raid spot while playing as a Boomkin, so keep this in mind when choosing to raid as one.

If you wish to play a Druid exclusively in PvE and want to play as a Boomkin, it is important to keep in mind that the rotation for a Boomkin can be very boring, since you will essentially spend all boss fights simply spamming Starfire.

In addition to this, Druids have an exceptional amount of utility that can be used to aid your group members; with Innervate, Rebirth, Mark of the Wild, and a variety of crowd-control spells, you will be an important part of any group you choose to join.

Druids also have access to Travel Form, which allows them to have a permanent outdoor speed increase prior to Level 40, when you get your first mount. This can help a huge amount when moving around while leveling and cut down on travel time drastically.

You should remember, however, that Classic only has 2 race options for Druids: Night Elf and Tauren. Even if you do not like these 2, depending on your talent choice, you may end up spending most of your time in animal forms and will not see your base form much of the time.

If you want more information about this class (including links to all our guides for this class), please click the button below for our overview.

Hunters are a great choice for players that enjoy playing alone and want to be able to perform well in both PvE and PvP. It is worth noting that, as the tiers progress, Hunters' position in the DPS rankings will drop, as they do not scale well with better gear when compared to, for example, Warriors.

Their pet allows for excellent solo farming and, when you have reached max level, you can even solo dungeons to farm gold (more on this in our Hunter Goldmaking guide).

Leveling as a Hunter is also much easier than with most other classes, as your pet can tank enemies for you, as well as the number of traps and kiting abilities that Hunters have.

If you want more information about this class (including links to all our guides for this class), please click the button below for our overview.

Mages are a great choice for players that are hoping to play a pure DPS caster class. While they lack the option to swap to another role, they are excellent at what they do; they have an arsenal of spells that allows them to excel regardless of the situation and the types of damage that it requires.

Along with this, if you choose to play a Mage, you will be a huge asset to party members with your ability to conjure consumables, as well as provide them with portals to major cities.

The portals are also a large benefit to you personally, as it cuts down a large amount of travel time that is extremely prevalent in Classic. You can also use your portals to make a solid amount of gold with very little effort on your part.

It is important to note that, if you do not properly learn to control your slows and keep an eye on your health and Mana, leveling as a Mage can be a real shock, especially if you have previously played classes with more survivability. This is especially true for the AoE grinding method of leveling, as mismanaging your casts and slows can result in a swift death.

The skill cap for this class, especially in PvP, is extremely high and it may take you some time to get used to play it against classes such as Rogues and Hunters.

In PvE, especially in raids, playing a Mage can get quite boring due to their very limited rotation on bosses. You will spend the majority of your time either spamming Frostbolt or Fireball and little else. Keep this in mind if you want to exclusively play PvE as a Mage.

If you want more information about this class (including links to all our guides for this class), please click the button below for our overview.

Paladins are extremely useful to have in your party and, if you do choose to play one, you should have no issues whatsoever being brought along to the content you wish to do; however, there are 2 issues that you need to keep in mind.

Firstly, Paladins are Alliance-only. This will not matter if you were planning to play Alliance anyway, but if your friends or guildmates have gone Horde, you cannot choose to play a Paladin.

Secondly, Paladins can be somewhat of an acquired taste, especially when leveling. If you choose to level as a DPS, you will find yourself spending a huge amount of time auto-attacking. The rotation for a leveling Paladin is normally as follows:

1. Maintain your chosen Seal;
2. Use Judgement when it is available;
3. Auto-attack.

Judgement has a 10-second cooldown, so, as you can see above, you will often have very little to do while leveling. This playstyle does become slightly more involved for Retribution at higher levels, but the leveling process can often feel slow.

If you want to heal or tank at max level, do not let the leveling process deter you. Healing as a Holy Paladin can be very fun, as can tanking dungeons as Protection, so stick with it if you really want to play a Paladin.

There are also a number of "off-meta" builds for Paladins that wish to DPS, but these often follow the same rotational format as traditional Retribution, relying on the damage of auto-attacks and Seals.

Paladins are also one of two classes (Warlocks are the other one) that does not have to learn the riding skill. Instead, they receive their class mounts by completing a set of quests, and they do not need the riding skill to ride them. This means cutting down on a huge amount of gold required at later levels.

If you want more information about this class (including links to all our guides for this class), please click the button below for our overview.

Priests are an excellent choice if you want to focus on healing in raids, but have the flexibility to DPS elsewhere.

Healing as a Priest can be extremely rewarding, since you are viable in almost every scenario and, given the number of Priests in most raids, you will normally have an easy to obtain raid spot. Priests also have a fair number of spells to manage that are actually useful in multiple scenarios, balancing their direct healing, healing-over-time effects, and their Power Word: Shield. Understanding when to use each spell can be great fun, especially when compared with simply downranking the same spell to manage Mana.

If you are choosing a Priest specifically to play DPS and you do not want to heal at all, you should be prepared for a tough battle to get a spot in late game PvE. Most raids will only bring 1 Shadow Priest, since they only need 1 to apply and maintain the Shadow Weaving debuff, and the damage that Shadow can put out in PvE is simply not high enough to warrant another one.

On the other hand, PvPing as a DPS Priest is not only very enjoyable, but extremely effective. You are able to throw out all of your DoTs and, if you are near some water, you can get very creative with Mind Control and use it to finish off enemies in a unique way.

One thing that is important to note is that, when leveling as a Priest, you will focus a great deal on using your wand; even more so than you would on a Mage or Warlock. Some players may find this is a boring way to level, but as you reach higher levels, you will use your wand less. Unlocking Mind Flay will change your priority, but below Level 40, you will spend most of your time using Shadow Word: Pain and wanding enemies.

If you want more information about this class (including links to all our guides for this class), please click the button below for our overview.

Rogues are an amazing choice for players that want to PvP, while still being able to flex into PvE as a strong, melee pure-DPS class. Their Stealth is unique in Classic, since it has a stronger effect than Prowl and is more difficult to detect, as well as having a wider variety of abilities to be used.

Rogues have a number of special abilities and items that only they can use, such as being able to open lockboxes with their Lockpicking skill, stealing from enemies' pockets with Pick Pocket, and aiding your party members in moving past enemies with Distract.

If you enjoy a meticulously planned combat style that involves thinking ahead and ensuring the tactical use of cooldowns, Energy and Combo Points, Rogue is definitely the class for you.

It is important to note, however, that Rogues do not have an enjoyable leveling experience in most cases. They have no healing to help in combat and, if you do not have Evasion or Vanish ready, pulling multiple mobs at early levels can very quickly spell your doom.

On top of their survivability issues, Combo Points are generated on your target in Classic, unlike in live WoW, where they are stored on the player. This means that, you will often find yourself generating combo points, but rarely using them at low levels, due to mobs simply dying too quickly.

Rogues are definitely one of the slower leveling classes and, despite being able to sneak past enemies with Stealth, rather than having to clear them, you will find yourself with the same sort of leveling speed as a Warrior. The main advantage Rogues have over Warriors is their Vanish, which can act as a cheat-death spell.

If you want more information about this class (including links to all our guides for this class), please click the button below for our overview.

Shamans are a great choice for players that want to be able to flex between different roles, but still remain as an excellent supporting character regardless. Just like with the Paladin, you bring so much utility to the group that, irrespective of whether you are tanking, healing or DPSing, you will still bring something special to your group.

Shaman tanks bring an interesting playstyle to the game and, for those of you that truly want a challenge, it can be very rewarding, but we must reinforce the commitment required to gearing and preparing for it. This is quite an unconventional style of play and, generally, you will find it much easier to be accepted to groups as a traditional Warrior or Druid tank.

Shamans can also be extremely fun to play once they pick up Windfury Weapon, as it can lead to you essentially 1-shotting mobs with the huge Windfury crits that can proc.

It is important to remember that, if your friends or guildmates are rolling on Alliance characters, you cannot roll a Shaman to play with them.

If you want more information about this class (including links to all our guides for this class), please click the button below for our overview.

Warlocks are a great choice for anyone that enjoys playing a caster DPS, but dislikes the squishiness of Mages. While Warlocks lack their mobility, they make up for it in sheer tankiness and self-sustain.

From a PvE perspective, the rotation can be somewhat dull if you are not assigned to the role of using Corruption, as you will spend most of the fight just spamming Shadow Bolt, but this is thrown out of the window in AoE and PvP situations.

For AoE, Warlocks have some of the most visually appealing spells, such as Hellfire and Rain of Fire, as well as being able to DoT mobs freely.

In PvP, you can truly let loose the fun side of Warlocks, with multiple viable talent builds, freedom to DoT as you please, plenty of crowd-control to be used in tough situations, and the ability to deal massive amounts of damage.

Warlocks are also similar to Hunters in that they have an excellent time leveling once they unlock their demons. You have enough self-sustain between your own tankiness and your pets that you will have very little trouble, if ever, while leveling as a Warlock.

On top of all of this, Warlocks are one of two classes (Paladins are the other), to obtain special class mounts, rather than having to buy them as most other players do. This can cut down a large amount of gold costs that you will experience in Classic, as you do not need to know the Riding skill in order to ride your class mounts.

If you want more information about this class (including links to all our guides for this class), please click the button below for our overview.

If you want to pick a PvE powerhouse that can still pull its weight in group PvP, then a Warrior is a brilliant choice. Given their excellent position in both tank and DPS rankings, they can easily flex between the two roles and fulfil them to an even better standard than some of the pure DPS classes.

If you are mainly focused on PvP, a Warrior may not be the strongest choice, especially if you enjoy solo-PvP scenarios, such as duels. Warriors' dueling abilities are fairly poor, given that they have very low self-sustain and are extremely susceptible to being kited.

Another downside to Warriors is that their leveling process can be extremely gruelling if you do not play in a group. As we mentioned above, they have very little self-sustain, despite being good tanks, and pulling multiple mobs by mistake can often mean death.

It is worth noting that every race can play as a Warrior, which means you are completely free to choose your faction and race depending on your cosmetic wishes, but there is a hierarchy within the factions based on their racial passives.

If you want more information about this class (including links to all our guides for this class), please click the button below for our overview.