Which Class Was Most Desired For Raids In Vanilla?

[Armod]

Which class was the most desired for raids in vanilla?

I remember there always being a shortage of warriors to tank, and priests to heal. Those are the first two that come to mind.

Can't recall some of the other classes there always seemed to be a lack of, and were highly desirable.

Hunters seemed to always be over populated, and hard to get into a solid raiding spot.

What do you all remember? Thoughts?

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Most desired? Dwarf Priests.

[Shaetha]

Having one of most things for their buffs(or debuffs/dispels) was great, but priest, mage, and warrior were always in high demand.

[Nitros14]

Warrior.

And Priest.

[TheViper]

By numbers?

Warriors usually 8 (2 tanks, 6dps)
Mages 6 (dps)
Rouge, priest, warlock, paladin 5 (10dps, 10heal)

The only lower than usual classes were typically hunters (3) and druids (3)

3dps, 3 heal.

2tanks, 25dps, 13 heal.

Of course this can change depending on all sorts of factors, but its in the ballpark

[vilememory]

Geared warriors, both tank and dps. But it was hard, since hunters kept TAKING EVERY GOD DAMN WEAPON! YOU HAVE THREE OF THOSE, WHY DO YOU NEED ANOTHER?!

[Nitros14]

By numbers?

Warriors usually 8 (2 tanks, 6dps)
Mages 6 (dps)
Rouge, priest, warlock, paladin 5 (10dps, 10heal)

The only lower than usual classes were typically hunters (3) and druids (3)

3dps, 3 heal.

2tanks, 25dps, 13 heal.

Of course this can change depending on all sorts of factors, but its in the ballpark

Most raids you're going to have a lot more than 2 tanks. Although a number of fights you have only one tank.

"Taunt off" mechanics to justify a second tank mostly don't exist. Most bosses are taunt immune.

But like for Vaelastrasz you'll have four tanks step in one after the other as the previous tank dies.

[Harry Botter]

Geared warriors, both tank and dps. But it was hard, since hunters kept TAKING EVERY GOD DAMN WEAPON! YOU HAVE THREE OF THOSE, WHY DO YOU NEED ANOTHER?!

Because everything is a Hunter weapon.

[nodlimax]

Well, to cover everything you need pretty much every class. The question is always how many of each class you want.

1. Big raids (40) will need at least 3 tanks (warriors preferred and feral druids possible) and possibly some off-tanks for bosses like Garr
2. A few restoration druids are pretty useful due to mana recharge boost and combat res. They are also strong healers...soooo
3. Priests are always in demand as healers - but they are not a very popular class for players to level
4. Mages are primary ranged DPS
5. Hunters are solid DPS and have a skill to remove enrage from enemy bosses - so you usually want to have 2-3 of them
6. Warlocks are very relevant for soul stones, porting people and solid DPS
7. Melee DPS are dominated by top gear warriors followed by rogues
8. Paladins are buff bots and healers for the most part - having one retribution paladin for blessing of kings is always helpful - 5 to 10 minutes buff duration sucks though
9. I guess on horde side shamans are mostly used as healers and maybe elemental casters with their totems - one enhancement shaman could be cool to buff melees with windfury

I think that should cover everything. Feel free to correct me though...

[Nitros14]

The problem with stacking druids is that you can only have a single one of each type of HoT on one player. So only one regrowth can be on the tank at a time regardless of how many druids you have.

[Stocksy]

I guarantee this time around the tables will be reversed I bet we see loads of warriors, priests and not so many hunters in classic

[Emerald Archer]

I guarantee this time around the tables will be reversed I bet we see loads of warriors, priests and not so many hunters in classic

Based on what? The leveling of both of those are huge turn offs for a lot of people.

[Pieterman]

The rarity of classes is roughly equivalent to their desirability. You want a lot of warriors/rogues/mages/priests, but there's a lot of them. You want a druid or two, but they're rare as dick.

Don't pick a class based on desireability. Just play what you like...unless you're terrible. Play mage then.

[Gaidax]

Mage is a maximum convenience class and is always welcome for any activity simply due to well rounded combination of utility and power.

Most desired though? Probably Warriors.

[Thage]

Most desired? Dwarf Priests.

This. Dwarf priests have Fear Ward. If you're a dwarf priest who's decent at your job, you're pretty much guaranteed a raid slot.

[anon5123]

Druids and Warlocks are statistically the least-played classes, and my experiences on pservers the past 4 years, they are always the most desired in raids.

[czarek]

If you know how to master hunter probably this is it. Most hunters were huntards back in the days. Only good had raid spot but if you stick to that spot you could be unreplaceable.

[anon5123]

If you know how to master hunter probably this is it. Most hunters were huntards back in the days. Only good had raid spot but if you stick to that spot you could be unreplaceable.

Hunters are only brought along for kiting/traps/tranq shot. You don't need more than 3.

[SirCowdog]

Which class was the most desired for raids in vanilla?

Warriors for tanks.
Pally for blessings
Druid for innervate
Lock for summon and wipe protection
Hunter for freeze trap, pet pull via eyes of the beast, and FD+cables ghetto wipe protection
Shammy for manatide and self rez wipe protection
Dwarf priest for fear ward
Mages for food/water
Rogues for hemorrhage if you were heavy on physical dmg.


It really just depended heavily on what your raid needed. Granted I was more of a noob back then, but I don't remember any one class having priority other than Warriors, since they were the only real tank. Prot Pallies and Bears were fine for dungeons, but didn't really get everything they needed until later patches. Although it will be interesting to see if that changes based on how Vanilla raids are "solved", and skill levels are much higher on average.

I will say this: More than anything playing a class you're good at and enjoy will be a MUCH greater factor in Classic. Just the sheer amount of time required to gear up and become raid ready will preclude swapping to alts any time soon. You REALLY want a class you'll be comfortable with for long periods of time. FotM is not something you want to invest in.

[KaPe]

I always wondered about Dwarf Priests supposed desirability. Wasn't there only five bosses which even had fear? Magmadar, Onyxia, Nefarian, Gluth and one boss from the Bug trio. Two of those are very early in progression and soon become trivial/irrelevant. One is skippable/killed first. One doesn't have much happening to the tank beyond fear itself and one can be outranged, I think.

Plus all it takes is one fear ward, so people who buy into the idea that dwarf priest = auto invite might be in for a dissapointment.