Looking for some leveling advice!

[Deleted]

So I'm a regular player of Wow, and have been playing all classes since early Wrath.

I was just wondering what you guys think is the easiest/most fun class/spec to play and level?

A friend of mine is coming back to the game after only playing very briefly in vanilla, and since the game is so different now I was wondering if you have any recommendations for what she should try out?

My plan was to just play around her as I am at least somewhat familiar with all of the classes, meaning she doesn't need to stress too much about her choice.

Any tips/suggestions at all are welcome, thanks!

[Deleted]

I think most fun is rather subjective for me its a toss up between:

Melee

Monk - WW or BM - as a dps i absolutely adore that at 100 you have to basically dance on your keyboard making sure to not press the same key more then once its just a very active and engaging experience imo and them Brew Master for the pretty awesome tanking and the fact that you have to use abilities like your brew to effectively tank better. Not necessarily the easiest class and specs to play but by far the most fun for me

Ranged:

Warlock: Affliction - i think this class is easy to play for the most part theres not much in the way of procs from memory but you have to watch a few dots so theres something to sorta keep an eye on but talents can make that much easier and then they have the survivability that is just amazing sure its not dk but its still pretty amazing and you have the voidwalker to just make things so much smoother while leveling and questing or the big infernal dude

Thats my two cents if i had to choose a melee or ranged there are others but there the most that stand in my mind

[Rogalicus]

Any tips/suggestions at all are welcome, thanks!

She should use free level 100 boost, in Legion leveling is okay, before that is utter boring shit where you oneshot mobs left and right.

[Argarock]

Demon hunter, you start at a high level so you won't have to level the entire way,
and you got crazy movement abilities

[Deleted]

Any healing class will do for a girl.

[Ozzyorcborne]

Affliction locks are immortal when leveling. Prot warriors are pretty good too.

[Vorecien]

@Dunum

I will try my best to give you a full response here. I hope that your friend finds this information helpful in making a rather tedious decision.

Note: Each recommended specialization has a link to an "easy mode" guide for the specialization to get your friend started. Also, do note that some specializations are still viable for leveling, but I tried my best to narrow each class down to one specialization. These are my opinion, and should not be taken as gospel.

Affliction/Demonology Warlock: Not Recommended
It will be a lovely specialization to play if you don't want to die (often), as the Soul Leech passive will give you a rather decent damage absorb. Combine that with the use of a Voidwalker minion, and you will be racking up lots and lots of damage to be absorbed. That said, in higher levels (100-110) it feels like things take a decent chunk of time to die; it doesn't feel efficient.

Recommended: Destruction

Pros:

• Great synergy with artifact traits
• Great quick burst damage ("fingertip" bursting)

Cons:

• Immobile

Frost/Fire Mage: Not Recommended
Frost has a similar feel to Affliction Warlocks, that being the element of feeling inefficient. It does take a tad longer to kill mobs. Also, pulling too many mobs while running Frost can lead to a very disastrous outcome: death (and a repair bill.) Fire can kill mobs faster than Frost from a shear numbers game, but still less efficient than Arcane.

Recommended: Arcane

Pros:

• Great bursting damage
• Excellent mobility

Cons:

• Very reliant on great legendary items
• Relies heavily on cooldowns for ST damage

Note: The times when an Arcane Mage is conserving mana is still efficient for leveling purposes. Saving Arcane Power for bigger, tougher mobs is ideal, and it should always be up for each "boss" mob as you reach them.

Feral/Restoration/Guardian Druid: Not Recommended
Feral Druids can have quite high damage; however, the ramp time makes leveling very inefficient and tedious. Feral can pull extra mobs and be fine, but it will take several extra seconds to kill the mobs. It takes a lot longer to level as a healer than a damage dealer. Albeit, they can pull a decent chunks of mobs. Guardian druids can get through the content with minimal problems; however, I'm focusing on damage dealing specializations here.

Recommended: Balance (a more Balance druid-focused player can give more pros/cons here.)

Pros:

• Great damage
• Excellent mobility

Cons:

• Somewhat resource intensive (relies on spending Astral Power)

Enhancement/Restoration Shaman: Not Recommended
Overall, shamans aren't in too great of a place right now (with the exception of restoration shamans.) I don't recommend enhancement as a leveling specialization due to poor legendaries (with the exception of Akainu's Absolute Justice) at max level. The experience is gated behind no real visual impact; enhancement shamans have a lot of passive "abilities." The Maelstrom "resource" is janky, and somewhat confusing to the player.

Recommended: Elemental

Pros:

• Decent bursting damage
• Flexible

Cons:

• Not super great on damage in comparison to other classes and their specializations
• Low performance if mobile (often)

I'm sorry that I couldn't cover more classes in this post. If your friend has specific questions about a class not covered above, send me a DM and I'll respond within 24 hours.

[DarkAmbient]

Easiest: beastmaster hunter hands down. Simple rotation, easy AoE. No stress with multidotting or clunky AoE mechanics. Only one resource to manage. OP in world content. You get to choose cool pets etc. Best class for a newbie IMO.

[orgonutil]

as ranged affliction is awesome as you can just can keep running and switching targets with tab and spaming corruption in all the mobs togueter to complete the quest

[Vorecien]

Easiest: beastmaster hunter hands down. Simple rotation, easy AoE. No stress with multidotting or clunky AoE mechanics. Only one resource to manage. OP in world content. You get to choose cool pets etc. Best class for a newbie IMO.

There may be only one resource to manage, and this specialization in particular may be easy to play, but one thing that hasn't changed in years is the fact that the class is still very gated behind an outdated pet AI. Much like the affliction specialization for warlocks, Blizzard has some work to do here. Definitely lots of mobility. Overall, a decent class, but depending on gameplay preferences, there is more flavor elsewhere.

as ranged affliction is awesome as you can just can keep running and switching targets with tab and spaming corruption in all the mobs togueter to complete the quest

That will net you large pulls, sure, but you begin to feel the deceleration in Draenor. It's not a very flavorful experience, and definitely not the fastest. Blizzard has some work to do here.

[Katchii]

Play what you find fun is all I can really say, but Prot Paladin, Discipline Priest and Affliction Warlock were some of the easiest, most enjoyable and stress free leveling experiences ever because of how unkillable I was so I had very little fear of any enemy I came across. That said, Affliction Warlock feels (and is) terrible in dungeons while leveling because things die so fast, your DPS is abysmally low.

[Zoldor]

If I had to guess, Hunter, seems like every player I know has one and loved it. I know more longer term hunter players than almost any other class (outside maybe priest/paladin or Rogue).

You get some cool pets, also have a chance to farm up new pets so some extra solo content there, the class has depth, but is also rather simplistic when starting out. BM as folks have pointed out at end game is super easy. And one of the classes that gives you the most access to solo content outside a Blood DK probably.

For depth, solid mobility, an immunity, tons of utility (compared to other classes, way more back in the day though).

But, for me, unless you just want to experience all the older content level boost to 100 and play whatever you think looks cool. The 100 to 110 level experience is well done, teaches you enough about your class, gives some fun class lore quests and is more engaging than the old world questing.

[Vorecien]

I think you made a great post...and kudos for being so in depth.

Thank you; that means a lot.

But for me, Affliction and Enhancement totally worked. I found Elemental shamans to be a borefest. Balance Druid is out on the pure fact that I don't want to be a chicken. But yeah...feral was a chore.

Unfortunately my first class I levelled was a priest..and no matter what..shadow or holy or disc...all felt squishy and took ages to kill stuff.

Other speccs that I found fun: Pally (Retri and Prot...though Prot got me through the Suramar storyline easiest), Sublety rogue, Frost DK (well, all speccs worked really), Fury warrior and..as others mentioned, BM hunter is a dozy. But the artifact looks shit

You must remember that I never said that the specializations don't work for leveling. I only mentioned that they were slower for gameplay, especially after missing 11-12 years of class evolution. Well, enhancement isn't necessarily slower for gameplay, but it's gameplay is quite distasteful and, for a new player, I don't really recommend taking the leap into the class-RNG playing field quite yet.

Retribution paladins have been buffed quite a bit since I've last tested them on the Broken Isles, so I'm sure their leveling is a lot smoother now than it was in the past.

Balance druids can be cosmetically shifted to an astral form.

Elemental shamans do have a different playstyle. I am interested in your reasoning, but voicing that in a public medium is less than ideal. If you're interested in sharing, shoot me a PM.

[Vorecien]

Then again, you said "for a new player, I don't really recommend taking the leap into the class-RNG playing field quite yet" and that might very well be the crunch

I was referencing enhancement with that line. I'm not sure if that was clear.

[Splenda]

I'm sorry but "help me pick" threads are not allowed.