Warcraft: Leet Deeps, or how not to anger your meat shield

Before we begin, I realized I forgot a class last week: the priest.  Priests can fulfill two roles, ranged DPS and healing.  Priests are exactly what you would think of when you hear the word, though the faith in the game is called the light, and thus has an opposite that priests can dabble in.  Priests either heal using the light, or deal damage using shadow magic.  Priests can only wear cloth.

So, you’ve looked through all the races, and the classes.  You know if you want to be alliance or horde, and which server to play on.  So now what?

Now, you decide which role you want to fulfill in game.  I’ve mentioned them before, but to recap, they are Tank, Healer, Melee DPS and ranged DPS.

DPS is the least stressful role, and one most new players to the game will want to stick to.  DPS means damage per second, but what it amounts to is you will be casting spells, shooting arrows, or swinging your weapon to damage a monster.

Melee DPS do all their damage within melee range of a monster.  They usually have a sword, mace, or dagger they use to take physical swings at the monsters.  As a general rule, you will want to be behind the monster to do this, though if you are playing by yourself, that will not be possible.  Melee DPS need to be able to move around as the monster position requires, and also must pay attention to environmental effects.

Classes that can fulfill the melee DPS role are rogue, death knight, warrior, paladin, druid, and shaman

Ranged DPS do all their damage from a ranged position.  They come in two flavors, casters and hunters.  Casters use spells to fling element-based damage at a monster.  These classes include mage, warlock, priest, druid, and shaman.  Hunters are the other flavor, and they deal mainly physical damage by shooting arrows or guns.

Healers are the unsung heroes of Warcraft.  They are in charge of keeping everyone alive.  When you are fighting a monster, it does, in fact, fight back, cause damage to your character.  When you play alone, your innate regenerative abilities are usually enough to keep you going through your play sessions.  However, as you start battling more difficult monsters, you will want to have a healer friend that can get you back to full health after, and even during a fight.   Most new players will probably want to avoid playing a healer in a group setting until they are more comfortable with game mechanics.

Classes that can fulfill the healing role include priest, shaman, paladin, and druid.

If healers are the unsung heroes, Tanks are the sung heroes.  Tanks hold the monster’s attention while the DPS bring down it’s health, and the healers keep up the tank’s and DPS’s health.  Tanks wear heavy armor, or transform into a bear, and thus can take heavy hits from monsters.   Especially as you get further into Warcraft’s content, monsters hit harder and harder, and classes that can only wear cloth of leather are unable to mitigate damage being dealt by the monster long enough to bring it down.   This is the most rewarding role, but if you are not good at it, your group members will let you know, and mock you mercilessly for it.  This is another role most new players should avoid until they are more comfortable with mechanics.

Classes that can fulfill the tank role include warrior, druid, paladin, and death knight.

And that’s all I have for roles!  Next week, a surprise!