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The “which class for PVP” Thread
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cloudp
They’re everywhere, and you know it. From a seasoned player in World of Warcraft, this is comical at best, incredibly annoying most of the times. After all, WTF, they’re all viable and blabla blabla.
Now, imagine you knew nothing but the character selection description, and essentially nothing about the game mechanics. This would not only be a question, but a main concern. After all, classes all boil down to specific roles, and unique ones. Sure there’s bound to be some that give me an edge, and some completely not suited for PvP? If I wish to finish a normal RPG, I’m going for the best strategy possible. Will I really bother having 1 mage, 1 healer, 1 ranged, 1 fighter, 1 assassin, 1 supporter, 1 defender – one of each to succeed? Won’t there be battles favouring certain team compositions? Many RPGs allow you to select part of your team only from your array of characters, because fights will be varied, and some will be victorious more easily in certain situations.
So, to newcomers to this game, here’s some insight into World of Warcraft PVP mechanics.
First, almost every season – and if it doesn’t happen, Blizzard will eventually fix it – will have at the very least one viable specialization per class in high end PvP combat. Excelent players will be able to climb the ladders on skill alone, and not be stopped by playing class X. What I am saying is – your own expertise with your class and spec will overpower a lot of the opposition. However, there’s a catch. Classes with a lot of roles – like Druids, the extreme case – may have their current viable specialization(s) in a role that you don’t really enjoy. If you simply love your class, and it’s just perfectly suited for you, you’ll adapt to a new spec and still enjoy it, but rolling for one role may end up in more effort to climb the ladders if that role is, at the moment, comparatively weak. Note how I didn’t say “stop you”, but merely “more effort”.
However, this brings me to the next point. Change. The key to WoW. Patches aren’t mere bug fixes, they change the game, and severelly. Your class not doing so good? They might get needed buffs in a patch to come. The reverse of the medal also happens. FotM, or Flavour of the Month. That fancy term means a player that rolls a class that’s doing really good now, in order to achieve high ratings easy. First, cut it out right there – there’s no easy way to 2700 rating. If you’re not an exceptional player, you won’t do it. Practise makes perfection, and constantly changing classes to get an advantage will only cripple you in the end. Not to mention the possibility (and a high one) that that class will be nerfed and you won’t get the benefit you settled yourself for, leading to unnecessary disappointment.
However, playing every class to a decent (40-50) level will get you an idea of how the classes work. You’ll find what you like, and what you don’t. Doing so is an intelligent way for the ones doubting on the (really poor) class descriptions on the character creation screen living to their expectations. Core mechanics are now (since Cataclysm) introduced earlier, which is a plus.
Allow me to also coment on the exception. Tank specs. In the current metagame, Tank specs don’t usually bring enough to a PvP scenario to be viable on arenas, albeing their success in lower ratings. PvP is about damage, control, team survival and mobility. Tanks have a really high survivability to themselves, but taunt has no effect on PvP, leading to virtually no team survival. Their control is generally good, but with a negligible damage output, they can generally be totally ignored, and a tank ignored is basically not able to do his job properly – protect his teammates. In battlegrounds, due to personal survival in specific situations (Flags for example) being more important, does give tanks some place, but in arenas, even if in a certain season there’s some occurrences, don’t expect to be too viable.
With that being said, WoW is a game. If you roll a class for fun, you will not get disappointed. And, personal opinion, what is more satisfying in a game than playing an underdog spec to high ratings on skill alone? PvP leaves a lot of space for improvement; teamwork, and preparation, often determine the outcome of many matches.
This is in no way a guide saying “you’ll be 2300 rating easy!”. It’s a general information to those wondering if their class choice will cripple – or benefit – them heavily in PvP. The quick answer, albeit a bit of an oversimplification, is a big NO.
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