Actual testers: Which classes feel right?

[judgementofantonidas]

I did a bit of searching to make sure this wasn't already a post and I didn't find much, but I apologize if this is a repeat.

If I look around at different class beta threads, more than half of them would have me believe that Blizzard absolutely ruined the class and it's complete garbage... so, for those of you who actually PLAYED in Alpha/Beta, especially those who tried multiple classes, which ones feel "good" so far? Good in the sense that they're some combination of fun, rewarding when played well, and have strong ability/talent synergy.

Thanks!

Prot paladin absolutely does not feel right.

[Zilnatha]

Survival feels spot on. After number tuning and later in the xpac with more haste and mastery it will be very engaging. The new animation for traps are excellent, dotting is fun and Dragonsfire Grenade is my new favorite ability.

[oplawlz]

The druid specs are all fine (balance is better than it has been in a loooong time), priest is all good, dk is all good, fury war is ok, locks are ok. All the hunter specs feel terrible to me, the rogue specs are pretty meh. Those are the ones I've played so far to any extent.

[Paula Deen]

Other than survivability on Elemental and Enhancement I am actually very impressed with my classes changes. First time that has happened since the Moving Lightning Bolt in MoP.

[Gyrotex]

haven't played BM in the latest build so grain of salt etc...

They redesigned it so you're suppose to want to get seriously hurt then pop ironskin brew so your healers can save you. Playing BM monk kinda feels like starting a fist fight in a bar by opening your arms wide and closing your eyes. Then when someone stabs you with a broken bottle, you start trying to do something about it. The problem is, what you can do doesn't really feel all that great. Of course almost no BM actually tried playing that way. It started out as a game of seeing how close to 100% uptime you could reach with ISB.

This doesn't mean monk can't tank content. They can. But, since mitigation takes a backseat and so much depends on rng you can end up feeling vulnerable even if you aren't. I always felt like I was one lucky stab away from a casket. The feeling I had when playing BM was the same as if I was trying to tank with a rogue or fury war.

Not the same on any of the other tanks. They feel tougher. Even with another leather/parry/heal/absorb tank like DH. I felt a million times more safe and confident in my ability to not die on DH veng compared to BM monk. Same goes for bear (after nerf) and the rest.

I didn't mention it in my first post, but as I posted weeks (months?) ago the prot warrior might have the most enjoyable toolkit. It's fun fun fun. You feel like a tough bad ass. You have meaningful, good feeling ways to reduce incoming damage. It has scaling and balance issues, but that's a different discussion.

Great explanation, thanks for all the detail.

If it actually plays anywhere near what you've described, they need to race back to the drawing board...

[Zyky]

A lot of them feel right in my opinion, there's less that feel wrong. So I'll just say what I feel feels wrong. Ele and Enh Shamans. Malestrom is very clunky and doesn't feel good at all. Frost DK with the lv100 talents it just doesn't feel good. Demo Lock feels very micromanaging, don't like it.

[Treno]

So far I've not been able to test much, due to a surgery earlier this month, but what testing I have done includes this.

Fury Warrior: Okay so far, talent tree makes the spec feel eh at times. Definitely needs tuning (Raging Blow is pitiful now).
Frost DK: So far so good. Feels about right.
Havoc DH: Haven't leveled to 110 yet, but so far feels interesting.

[cRawmode]

Havoc and Vengeance DH: I love the feel. I like the abilities. I like how you set up AoE as Havoc. There is no button bloat. Talents could get still some work. PvP Havoc needs a snare and more survability outside of metamorphosis. Otherwise I like the class a lot so far. Probably going to main it.

Fury Warrior: Looks fun, animations are great. Talents and abilities have some clusterfuck conflicting priority going on. Hope the next few weeks will make a few changes to sort things out. Would like to play Fury but I do not like the Protection Spec so I am probably not maining it due to the fact we do need to tank sometimes.

[tehdef]

At first glance, DPS Warrior, DK, Havoc and Warlock are supposed to be the best off specs in terms of how "broken" they are.

My understanding is that virtually all have taken a beating though.

Please no. DPS Warrior rotations are stupid and broken. Example, Raging Blow is not worth the global cooldown.

That's not good for the class, because no button in the rotation should ever "not be worth the GCD". Doesn't matter the DAMAGE it does, because damage never stays consistent, but rotations do.

I tried playing Ret, it was bad. I stopped, and am bordering on deleting my level 100 Ret because it just about gave me a RL disease playing it. I also tried the new Combat Rogue, and it wasn't that good either. Felt boring. Monk felt dry as well. I felt like I was dying to nearly any mob, or any time I had more than 2 mobs. The AoE wasn't that good, and it relied on the level 100 talent to do any real AoE damage. Losing the stun/parry on fists of fury is fucking tragic. They have real mitigation problems.

I'd go as far to say that all melee classes have REAL healing problems AFTER fighting a mob, with the exception of Demon Hunters and Survival Hunters getting free heals after mob dying. Fury Warriors and Ret Paladins have some real problems, especially Fury Warriors. You have to have a talent to get any sort of post combat heal from charging (lol charge cooldown) no heals for you.

[Saracens]

So many honest opinions, this threads going well so far.

I've enjoyed Prot Paladin, I think the damage is good, and the locked hold we had on survivability isn't all remaining, however, I would say with a decent healer, most tanks will find a comfortable spot.

Arcane and Fire mages are in a really good place, however, I feel like they're both in a relatively simple place. Arcane is still a 3-4 button rotation, and fire needs some serious love to that talent tree.

DH Tank/DPS are just going balls deep at current, not confirm only what I've seen in groups.

Fury needs a bit of love in regards to PvE comparability with other specs I've grouped with, and I would say arms might use the same attention, both again only by those I've grouped with, can't confirm myself.

[dekomuri]

i really haven't seen any news on casters other than warlock in this forum..should i even bother? i dont want to play melee espeically since it seems there gonna make up 80% of the raid.

[Monbo]

Vengeance DH feels really solid, but Havoc seems to lack survivability. Taking on small packs is OK since you get free heals when something dies, but when taking on one strong creature (read: all rares) I struggle much more than as vengeance.

Boomkin feels pretty solid. I really want them to perform well since druids are the only class that has ranged dps and tank specs. Fury of Elune adds a bit of complexity to the spec, but makes it more rewarding. My dps has been competitive on bosses, but there is a lot of ramp up time that makes you near useless on trash.

[Fayenoor]

i really haven't seen any news on casters other than warlock in this forum..should i even bother? i dont want to play melee espeically since it seems there gonna make up 80% of the raid.

There are way more melee than casters in the game now. Two new melee DPS specs this expac to try out.

Of the casters, I have played the Fire Mage and Aff Lock. The Aff Lock is stupid easy to level with. The Fire Mage takes a bit of effort with lots of conjuring food, stopping between mobs, eating. Both are braindeadly boring.

I am beginning to believe that they are simplifying the specs and shifting the raid/encounter difficulties to strategy, positioning, movement and execution over class/spec performance in preparation for an eventual console release. The Action Camera experiment is further evidence that Blizzard is toying with a console release.

Of the melee classes, I have tried out DH, ret pally and feral druid. The ret pally is very clunky; lack of mobility sucks. Feral druid doesn't seem to hit hard enough at all.

The DPS DH is uber fun. Probably the most fun I have had playing a melee class - super animations, cool looking spells, nice mobility, so many stuns and interrupts. It does tend to get squishy soloing gold elite mobs at 110 specially at sub-800 gear levels.

Maybe because it is new and shiny. /shrug
I just wish all the other melee DPS specs were so much fun to play. I am not talking about DPS numbers; but general feel of the class/spec, Havoc DH is miles ahead in relative "coolness".

[xumie]

Long time lurker, creating an account after 7 years to finally contribute. All of this is PvE feedback from a lot of solo questing and Mythic +1s.

Rogue: All specs are gutted compared to everything else. Played a rogue for 8 years. They suck now.
Assassination: Plays a lot like WotLK days, envenom/mut spam with babying rupture (and now garrote and hemo) debuffs. The problem is a large portion of the damage comes from bleeds, and your mastery only increases poison damage (not mutilate) so the scaling feels horrible. Great survivability and no downtime while questing/levving. Overall feel: Feels pretty rogueish, the rotation and class play feels fun but damage is really lacking.
Outlaw: Super RNG. Every ability is RNG. It makes for a decent solo experience but horrid when grouping. With Roll The Bones you either get 4 buffs and feel like an absolute IMBA god for 30sec, or you get one of the single buffs that don't matter and feel like you have grey weapons. The RNG from Saber Slash > Pistol Shot feels good, but leads to energy/CP problems. Overall feel:
Subtlety: Very fun single target. The problem right now is Shadow Dance doesn't give you your stealth bar back (But the 3 sec Assassination talent does.... Seriously blizz??) so it feels like OLD WotLK shadow dance macro everything to be stealthed or not stealthed and infuriating. Overall feel: very clunky to play and very button spammy due to Shadow Dance not bringing up the stealth bar.

Death Knight Very well rounded and very fun to play, but HORRIBLE with extremely little mobility.
Frost: By far one of the more fun specs I've played. You see big numbers, Rime procs are insane, and you feel powerful. Frost Scythe is fun but is a huge noob trab and a pretty big DPS loss, but for solo it works fine. Glacial Advance seems more like a frost mage spell but it is icy. When you proc your stuff you hit huge. Wraith Walk is AMAZING graphically. I love it. Overall feel: Fun to play, VERY SQUISHY seriously a mage takes hits better than a frost DK. Feels frosty and true to old Frost specs. Extremely little artifact interaction kinda sucks (your first ability is a passive...) and your huge cooldown lev 100 talent is complete garbage.
Unholy: At first I hated it but as soon as I got used to it it was a lot of fun. You have a TON of tools/cooldowns to use for all the harder rare elites you find. Best AOE I've seen in game by far. You don't have a lot of interaction with your pet really, which kind of sucks. You can buff it, and it will help add stacks/pop Festering Wounds, but other than that there's not a lot of micro, it just does it's thing. Overall feel: Insane damage, a more complex spec but very fun once you learn it, but very little actual pet interaction. I didn't feel like my Raise Dead did much, in comparison to a Hunter or Frost Mage.
Blood: Lost a lot of control. No Rune Tap feels bad. Pretty basic rotations but it feels strong and very tanky. Levels pretty well. I really liked how you could talent into some serious solo levving speed, or grab 3-4 more defensive cooldowns for mythics. Overall feel: Heart Strike/Death Strike/Morrowind all are core, but everything else feels different. You still feel tanky and Blood Knighty but it's def different.

Servers just came back up I'll post more later.

[janzy]

Top DPS hands down is DPS Dh. Its just seems broken. Two properly geared players of different classes always have about 25-50k between them in the heroics I have done.
Most specs do well though, so idk what you are asking.

The game changes. No spec was deleted, as much as people like to pretend is the case. As of right now, most specs seem competitive with most others.

I would say top tier as follows:
DH >>>>>
Enhance
Arcane/Fire Mage
Windwalker
Warlock

These specs are always very close to the top of what I expect to see in these five mans.

But I regularly am top DPS even on bosses as the three tanks I have prepared.
Brewmaster, Warrior, and Vengeance are all incredibly damage efficient.

How do you get skada meters in the beta?

[Mhyroth]

The DPS DH is uber fun. Probably the most fun I have had playing a melee class - super animations, cool looking spells, nice mobility, so many stuns and interrupts. It does tend to get squishy soloing gold elite mobs at 110 specially at sub-800 gear levels.

Maybe because it is new and shiny. /shrug
I just wish all the other melee DPS specs were so much fun to play. I am not talking about DPS numbers; but general feel of the class/spec, Havoc DH is miles ahead in relative "coolness".

Add to this them taking away abilities from other Classes and Speccs and adding it to the DH to give them more fluff and the picture is complete.
Kind of annoyed they make 1 Class stand out compared to others when it comes to visuals and gameplay, just to get more box sales. (personal opinion here, bash away freely.)

[xumie]

How do you get skada meters in the beta?

http://mods.curse.com/addons/wow/skada works with beta. The only kickback is that it will only start logging damage when YOU enter combat, not someone else in your party, so sometimes if you're slow on a pull it won't log everythign but plenty good enough for bosses and test dummies.

[Strithor]

Demon Hunter (Havoc) - This class is a lot of fun to play, and deals out decent damage to boot. Also ended up being the class I've experienced the most Beta content with.

Shaman (Enhancement) - Fluid rotation with a lot of interesting buffs, and they also have a good variety of talent options to change up your playstyle.

Hunter (Marksmanship) - Their rotation feels off, but my opinion is biased since I currently main a MM Hunter on live servers. I had a lot of difficulty spamming Mend Pet often, even with my pet in Tank spec. I "kinda-sorta" got used to it, but it felt lacking to the point where I was drawn to other classes.

Paladin (Retribution) - My experience was highly dependent on my talent choices. Paladins who do not choose "Greater Judgment" may experience some difficulty maintaining a fluid DPS rotation during combat. Very limited AoE power if you're not specced for it.

Rogue (Combat) - A fun new take on the Rogue class, and much more direct then the other two specializations. It was pretty easy to settle into, but I've heard that other players were having trouble with the RNG-Heavy ability "Roll the Bones". I selected "Slice and Dice" to replace it and did not experience any trouble.

Warlock (Demonology) - This spec left me scratching my head. I admit that I have little experience playing warlocks, but I feel like I shouldn't of had as much trouble as I did trying to make this spec work on some minimal level. I felt like the Demons were summoned for mere moments before dying or despawning.

Warrior (Fury) - I only played this class through their artifact quest but I felt like they could be dishing out a lot more damage. I died a few times by just getting worn down by what should be relatively straightforward enemies.

[FertsBlert]

Classes I've played in dungeons at 110.
Blood DK, feels good, play is fun, always something to do.
Frost DK, feels good, play is very fun, the big arsed numbers all OVER the screen ogh yeah baby.
Demo lock, feels like it has the potential to feel good, play is fairly complex and requires a fair bit of management, is absolutely crucified by movement
BM Hunter, feels good, pretty simple rotation, is a lot of fun in a relaxed way

Classes I've leveled past just getting the artifact.
Havoc and Veng DH, did not like the way they felt at all, just felt spammy in a not good way suffered to 105 on the tank and 103 on DPS couldn't do any more not saying they're bad just not a class I will enjoy
Destro lock, feels like WoD destro.....I hated WoD destro
Fury warrior, fun, fast and satisfying
Unholy DK, feels like it could be good but I don't really get how it plays now main'd DK all through WoD mostly as UH (Blood for dailys)

All of the above are just my opinions and my impressions, other people will definitely have different ones.

[Fistfury]

I've played resto druid to 105. I love it. It's got great talent choices, fun gameplay, and lots of utility.

Boomkin as mentioned above feels simple, but solid.

Guardian is also tons of fun. I haven't tried anything else yet.