Community Blog Topic Results: Favorite class and spec

Last week, we asked "What is your favorite class and spec?" We got many answers from altoholics who couldn't choose to enthusiastic odes. Here's what everyone had to say, listed in order of popularity.

Hunter

AlternativeChat over at ALT:ernative says

If it's Hunter shaped, I'm going to play it.

She favors the Beast Mastery spec due to its utility in soloing and farming as well as its pet buffs granting access to all DPS and crowd control abilities.

AdmiringAzeroth agrees but plays Survival as primary spec. The commenters favored hunters overall, mostly the beast master spec. I suspect that part of the reason people are so passionate for this class is that the hunter community is so strong and close-knit. As AlternativeChat says

The hunter community is one of the strongest and most entertaining parts of Warcraft: the people who play my class with me are passionate, voracious and dedicated to their chosen path.

Mage

Fire mage was the second most popular class/spec. MusedMoose went as far as to putting his passion to song, sung to the old school Spiderman theme:

Fire mage, fire mage
Burn you back to the iron age
Does that hurt? You'll die soon
Combustion makes you go boom.
Look out! Here comes the fire mage...

Fire mage, fire mage
Friendly neighborhood fire mage
Cut me down, to the ground?
Cauterize means I'll stick around.
Flame on! Here comes the fire mage...

In a heated fight, come at me in a dash
With Inferno Blast, you're a pile of ash!

Fire mage, fire mage
Pyroblast you right off the page
Living Bomb, Flamestrike too,
Was a raid, now a bar-be-que
Look out! Wherever there's a bad guy
It's now a well-done stir-fry
Thanks to the fire mage!

Shaman

The Shaman was well represented, with enhancement being the favorite. Even though the class has had its ups and downs, as snarkygoldfish said, it's still a passionate favorite for many. Also, lightning is cool.

Druid

There was much love for druids, but the most affection was for a spec that doesn't exist anymore: the old feral bear/cat spec, as expressed by dreamweaver7x:

Paired with a Resto offspec (back when we were still Trees, and healed exclusively with HoTs) and three sets of gear in my bags, this was and still is my favorite way to play the game. Too bad this entire class/spec combination and playstyle is gone from the game.

I tend to agree with tlacoatl16's assessment of the Boomkin spec as well. Balance has become somewhat of a boring rotation as opposed to blasty fun it used to be. It definitely isn't as fun as the monk for me by a longshot these days, though it used to be my main.

Paladin

Paladins got much love, particularly the retribution specialization. I agree that ret is the most fun spec for pallies, making me feel uber while leveling. But the most passionate reason for loving the paladin came from get.sam.inbox for protection.

I feel that I can do anything. Before Mists, before active mitigation, I liked it well enough but I didn't mind main speccing Holy. Active mitigation turned a fun side line into my one true spec. I love tanking, I love soloing, I love living when I should die, I love the paladin lore, I love stepping forward to protect my friends. I love the tie in to my favourite movie (The Avengers) with 2 abilities. I love the utility of the class. I love the flavour of the class. I love how everything is useful.

Priest

Shadow and discipline specs got equal amount of love, with the holy spec being conspicuously absent. DanielWallin describes what's good about both specs:

My Shadowpriest have been my main since early vanilla and I've still not grown tired of him. It's something about melting faces that attracts my dark side i guess.

I mainly go disc in guild raids nowadays and I really find the damage mitigation aspect appealing. Just let the raid bathe in shiny Sprit Shell bubbles before incoming heavy raid damage. Love it. But I still prefer those fights when we drop a healer and I can go back to that face melting business.

Warlock

Love for the warlock was spread across all three specs. But etherraichu expresses what he likes about affliction.

But an affliction warlock drops all pretenses. He *could* use fire. He *could* summon demons. Instead, the affliction warlock intentionally delays the effects of their powers, simply to cause as much pain as they can to their enemy.

We are without a doubt, evil. Evil without question, without remorse. And despite all of that...

...You need us, and we know it. <3

Death Knight

DK specs were equally enjoyed as well. Ravyncat at Ravyn's Reliquary wrote a passionate piece about her love for the death knight.

They are fun to play and have interesting Lore. I like that they have two class specific mounts as well. Plus they come with their own badass instant transmog gear so you never have to look sloppy while leveling.

I could also say they make good tanks and soloers – and they do! – but mostly I love running around and bashing the crap out of stuff until it dies. Death Knights do this very well.

Monk

All three specs for the monk were represented amongst the favorites as well. Niwnamahs enthused about the brewmaster.

I LOVE my Brewmaster. So much. And not just because I can throw giant kegs of beer to generate massive amounts of threat, and then breath fire on multiple enemies at once.. The stagger and shuffle mechanics are very unique to tanking, and make my toon feel EXTREMELY powerful, even as a leather-wearer.

Rogue

Rogues received some affection across the specs, but Quandary over at A Gamer at Heart only liked what the subtlety rogue was like in Cataclysm.

If you got your rotation and finishers right, you'd be nothing special. The niche lay in using Shadowdance, Vanish and Preparation to maximise the expose weakness debuff at the right times (eg not before SnD was about to fall off) whilst executing everything else flawlessly. If done really well the damage meters would make you stand out but it was very difficult to do perfectly. It was that level of difficulty that I really liked.

Warrior

By far the least represented class was the warrior with the arms spec getting the most attention. AshCurtis has an explanation as to why the warrior is so low on the favorites list.

... if I am being honest warrior is feeling tired now, as a class. It's lack of utility and ability to look after itself infuriates me.

Refuse to choose!

Altoholism was rampant in the comments. JeffLaBowski at Sportsbard expressed it well.

Well, I have lots of favorite specs but for an altoholic, choosing a class is like going to a buffet and eating a salad. It can't be done!

That used to be how I felt before the monk and in fact I still do spread my time over several characters, but it's mostly spent these days over several monks. I guess it's still possible to be an altoholic and to love a single class -- you just end up with many alts from the same class.

It was entertaining to read all of the passionate descriptions of why everyone loves their chosen role. Tune in soon for the next Community Blog Topic. Tags: classes, community-blog-topic, community-blog-topic-results, favorites, featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, specifications, specs, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

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