Choosing a class for Solo play / achievement hunting

[agli]

Evening all, I'm looking to start a class that I can have a blast on whilst soloing, preferably something melee oriented, by soloing I'm looking at doing everything this game has to offer where possible

all quests in every zone
all dungeons and raids
all misc achievements.

Some group play will commence.

I am looking towards at the moment a death knight for their reputation for 'soloing' but I do hear that feral druid and monk are good too?

[Sanguinezor]

Rogue. Leeching poison is just.... insane.

Solo'ed as Rogue for years.

[Putin-Chan]

A DK's Death Siphon heals you for like 1mil now because it does 300% of the damage done, Leech will be a great stat for people who want to solo stuff.

[Aishlinn]

Pretty much those two options, rogue or dk. I of course would say rogue, same class i've played for 10 years now. cant go wrong with being able to stealth!

[Raiju]

DK's are a mile above everyone else for soloing in WoD just as previously. If that's your desire, then DK is a nobrainer choice.

Rogue / Monk / Shaman (wouldn't be surprised if feral too) are all near invincible in lower level content due to heal % of damage effects - but you will find this content trivial very quickly post 6.0 and will be wanting to work on something else. Unfortunately a rogue most certainly CANNOT keep up in that regard.

Shamans can barely barely do some beginning of MoP bosses now in 6.0, so I wouldn't hold out for anything gamechanging and any ability to solo same level content till very late WoD if at all in the expansion. (talking raids - they should be able to handle 5mans)

Monks have the option of a tank spec, which on less enrage dependent fights will make them fairly good. I would expect prot paladins to do a better job though push comes to shove.

Feral is a formidable soloer as a dps spec, and has a lot of flexibility in the quad-role.

Ret ain't bad. It's got good burst which always helps, it has some self healing. Usually it's a slightly weaker shaman but there is utility and obviously a self healing tank spec.

I'm not really sure with WW/guardian's ability, but I was always under the impression WW's cooldowns made it comparable to rogue. I'm not sure if it has the self healing to handle same level content.

Overall I'd go:

DK >>>> Paladin > Monk > Druid? > Shaman > Warrior > Rogue

Warriors may beat out shamans/druids if a prots second wind proves to be viable healing - but as of their current performance I'm not sure it'd be enough.

[Pr0ev0lution]

rogues are very good at lower stuff due to damage boost making leeching poison insane but overall nothing compares to DKs just look at the most recent pages of the DK soloing thread. DKs have bosses down in siege, throne of thunder etc.

[sorakibr]

No one has said Hunter. Surprising...

[Raiju]

Because OP wants a melee, so while hunters & warlocks are good soloers - neither of them have melee specs.

[Mormolyce]

If you are planning soloing old content then the answer is DK no question. The uncontested king of soloing since it was invented, because their self healing scales and Blizzard doesn't balance soloing. In the slightest.

Feral Druid and Monk have nothing on DKs.

But if you just mean regular solo play, well you can play pretty much everything.

Rogue. Leeching poison is just.... insane.

Solo'ed as Rogue for years.

I have also soloed things as a Rogue for years (including before Leeching was invented) but this is nonsense, Rogues are way down the list of classes that are good at soloing.

May be less relevant now with the squish of course, I can solo way more than I used to be able to.

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No one has said Hunter. Surprising...

Average soloers at best. Very little in the way of self heals.

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rogues are very good at lower stuff due to damage boost making leeching poison insane but overall nothing compares to DKs just look at the most recent pages of the DK soloing thread. DKs have bosses down in siege, throne of thunder etc.

Rogues are very squishy and there are lots of bosses you couldn't come close to outhealing with LP before the squish. After the squish everything is pretty much trivial though.

Example, even post-squish I couldn't in 25HM DS Morchok's stomp annihilated my Rogue, but it was a joke on my DK. On the other hand I did Ultraxion HM just fine on my Rogue, because that fight isn't really about self heals.

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Pretty much those two options, rogue or dk. I of course would say rogue, same class i've played for 10 years now. cant go wrong with being able to stealth!

Stealth is borderline useless for soloing. Mobs have very small aggro radii to begin with and you can't stealth past bosses.

[Celista]

Rogue seems like a weird choice, they seem rather squishy...my recommendation is any class with a tank spec + self healing, or a hunter.

Overall I'd go:

DK >>>> Paladin > Monk > Druid? > Shaman > Warrior > Rogue

Wasn't DK self healing nerfed in WoD? In any case I'd go:

DK/Paladin > Monk/Druid > Hunter > Warrior > Warlock > Rogue > Mage > Shaman > Priest.

[Raiju]

Rogue seems like a weird choice, they seem rather squishy...my recommendation is any class with a tank spec + self healing, or a hunter.


Wasn't DK self healing nerfed in WoD? In any case I'd go:

DK/Paladin > Monk/Druid > Hunter > Warrior > Warlock > Rogue > Mage > Shaman > Priest.

Check out the DK solo thread linked above, NOTHING has a chance of competing with them right now, clearing most of ToT normal, some MoP hc bosses, and a couple bosses in SoO so far.

I'm also insulted you put shamans, who have pretty strong self healing (at the cost of some dps) below mages and rogues who are absolutely terrible at same level content... worse than priests even :P

[Celista]

Check out the DK solo thread linked above, NOTHING has a chance of competing with them right now, clearing most of ToT normal, some MoP hc bosses, and a couple bosses in SoO so far.

I'm also insulted you put shamans, who have pretty strong self healing (at the cost of some dps) below mages and rogues who are absolutely terrible at same level content... worse than priests even :P

I thought I read something about paladin self-healing being really strong at 100 but shrug. I didn't really know where to put shaman and mage, mage has 1 button highly mobile aoe in arcane spec which is great for clearing low level instances quickly for rep grinds/achievements, but yes shaman has strong self-healing.

[Alfakennyone]

No one has said Hunter. Surprising...

Average soloers at best. Very little in the way of self heals.

Really no need to. That's what the pet is for, to take the damage.

If so, just have the disengage heal + exhilaration + spirit mend = 30%

[agli]

Thank you for all of the advice, I have chosen to go with a gnome monk, for the the ability to perform in all three roles.

[Shelonis]

Blackout kick is pretty broken right now for soloing old content on monks

[Thelxi]

Rogue is definitely better than it used to be, but still miles behind DK and warlock. Both DK and warlock heal based on damage done while having a ton of tricks up their sleeves to make soloing easier. Hunter is not great anymore because all their healing is % not based on damage done.

Also if grinding regular mobs is your thing warlock is great for that too because they get resources back after each kill really speeding up farming. Rogues are really good at this too with marked for death. Specs like balance and hunters don't get anything back from kills so they are considerably slower at solo grinding single target regular mobs.

[Entrana]

Blood DK

[Deleted]

Blood dk really is a no brainer. But I would vouch for warlocks, just because I main warlock. I solo'd glory of: firelands, pandaria dungeon, cataclysm raid, cataclysm dungeon, whole of icc 25 hc, dragon soul 25hc and firelands 25 hc back in march. But I also had a high ilvl (573 around that time) and did 300k+ dps easily. I wouldn't recommend feral druids from previous experience, but doing old content or achievements where you have to kill a lot of things, starfall as boomkin (with it's new increased range by a kilometer) is amazing.

[mjt20mik]

I'd have to say Dk as well. Right now it is just too easy to solo anything.

Run in room, gorefiend, blood boil, gg.

[Deleted]

Ret Paladin all the way. With Inquisition removed, our rotation it's even easier, and now the holy power it's only used for damage skills or healing.
I've had no problems to solo all WoTLK and Cataclysm raids with 5.0/5.1 and 5.2 LFR gear respectively. In 5.4 with heroic (now mythic) gear, I've also soloed the heroic Cataclysm raids.

You will have this:

Skills: Flash of Light (now you can use it more than twice), Divine Shield (aka bubble, can be used as PvP trinket), Cleanse (removes poison and diseases), Divine Protection (+50% magic dmg reduction at lvl 100 or +30% magic +20% physic with glyph), Lay on Hands (+100% of your health) and Seal of Insight (chance for melee attacks to heal you, only use this if it's really needed), Emancipate and Hand of Freedom (removes snares).

Talents: Sacred Shield (absorb) or Eternal Flame (HoT, my favourite choice for soloing) or Selfless Healer (instant cast Flash of Lights), Divine Purpose (random free Templar's Veredict / Divine Storm / Word of Glory / Eternal Flame)

Glyphs: Divine Storm (+4% HP with each one), Templar's Veredict (+10% passive damage reduction without losing DPS) and Divine Protection (situational for physical damage).