Which Range Class To Level?

[Damerflinn]

So I'm recently returning to WoW after a break, and while I haven't been able to get MoP yet, it's okay because I need to level a toon on a different server then the one I was on before anyway.

And that leads me to my question.

Which Range class is in a good spot right now? All I seem to see from all the forums is QQ about how shitty their class is...

I did look at WoL, but it seems a bit buggy to me, as when I try and look at more then the top parses it doesn't show me class.

I'm obviously not in a top progression guild, so it doesn't necessarily need to be the BEST class. But I already have a lock and a priest, that will eventually get moved to my new server. But Locks and Mages seem to be the only two that are really in a good place at the moment.

I had started a balance druid, that would be main spec healing, but it seems like druids have fallen out of favor outside of Feral, which is an option as well. Just want some opinions on which are fun, and which are doing well.

[Squirl]

I'm leveling a Fire Mage right now to be a raiding alt. It's some of the most fun I've had leveling a character. My main is a Rogue.

[Tyrean]

This is just from my experience in my guild.

Shadow priests are low, but I think this may be to the complexity of their rotation and the player skill.
Mages are high with correct gear.
Locks are high with correct gear.
Boomkins are middle of the road single target, but perhaps scale better and will pick up with higher level gear.
Hunters are middle of the road but broken in other aspects of the game (pvp)
Elemental Shaman are right there with locks and mages.

Basically, they are all in a pretty decent spot right now and if you are not bleeding edge then they all perform about the same. You should pick based on play style and raid utility.

[Damerflinn]

I definitely agree about Shadow Priests. They scale so much with gear that it isn't really fair to judge them right now as being underpowered. And their rotation seemed really hard. I struggled learning it during cata and never really played it much as I originally leveled a priest to heal.

I LOVE my lock, always did, and had a lot of fun playing him in the beta. The thing is I've leveled two already, and really don't want to do it again as you can't make a Panda lock (makes sense lore wise but still ugh.)

I have always liked the idea of mages, but they are like the most frustrating class to level. I've tried like five times and and never get past around level 40, but perhaps its better now.

I was really enjoying my Balance druid, but in dungeons so far, I am almost ALWAYS behind melee classes. I'm pretty sure it's an AoE thing, as you don't have any until lvl 42, and melee tends to have a lot more. But I did end up in a dungeon with two other balance druids, and was doing double their DPS at the same level, so I think I'm doing fine in terms of rotation so far.

Shaman is a class that I've always been interested in because of their versatility, but I'd want to go Enhance/resto, and it sounds like enhance is still behind in terms of raiding. But maybe I'll give that a go. I have a bit of time before I can get MoP so it's not a decision that I have to make now necessarily.

Any more thoughts an opinions are welcome, want as much input as possible.

[javadown2]

If I had to level a toon from scratch it would be the monk, since it will be a fresh start...but they are only heals and melee/tank. So that doesn't really answer your main question of which range class. I've got on my mage in mop but frost is pretty weak, the warlock is super cool because of the revamp...and I didn't think the hunter was to bad either in mop. But I don't have much time playing in mop yet to give a proper assessment. I'm leveling my shaman as enhancement but will probable switch to heals or range. Just play what class you like most, since you might transfer I wouldn't do the lock or priest since they are the 2 you've got already. Try something different like a shaman and a monk. Just my 2 cents. I ALWAYS go back to my shaman because I love the utility options of playing melee, ranged OR healing. The druids are the same way, tons of utility..they are another good option.

[Damerflinn]

I would be doing a Monk for healing, but as I said i don't have MoP yet. So it won't let me. (Odd though cause I can make a Pandaren haha.) And the way that I'll be buying MoP is that my friend is going to be paying me to level his Monk to 80. So I'll probably not have any desire to level another one after that unless the class is beyond amazing.

The thing is that I enjoy stomping charts. I'm not saying I pad numbers or anything, but I hate playing a class that gets left out because others are ahead. Or they just aren't up to snuff. I'm hoping that with more gear Druids will get back up there, and there are actually some still using them. Paragon used a balance druid in their fights, so many they aren't as bad as people seem to be thinking. But it just seems like the Druid community as a whole has determined them to be less fun, and they don't really have any awesome DPS CD's like other classes.

I was just looking at HPS rankings for on WoL and it turns out that Druids aren't as underused as people keep saying, but they are definitely not an every fight class which makes me sad as that was my main reason for leveling one.