How do you main a "non solo spec" at the start of an expansion?

[Itori]

I lvled as a healer in almost every expansion first and only really did dungeons when the quests funneled me there, had no problems, it was slow, sometimes boring but not hard, i think i was more frustrated lvling a mage in bfa no matter what spec i tried.

[Aresk]

Leveling a druid is silly easy. I primarily level in feral for the stealth, swapping to guardian if there's something big that I have to deal with where I can't just bleed it dry. Having heals in all specs make it significantly less painful to solo. I don't know if I would say the way I play feral requires more effort; I talent into the simpler builds that I enjoy for soloing, and I do group content as tank/healer to avoid queue times. By contrast, my blood DK was less engaging and seemed to take longer to level.

The most difficult alt I leveled was my mage partway through the expansion, and that was with assault buffs and BoA gear supplementing him; granted, I never tried priest, paladin, or hunter, though it sounds like OP thinks paladin/hunter are really easy.

[Runstarr]

Leveled as holy pala at the start of bfa and I was among the first 50-100 on my realm to hit 120 and first in the guild.

[unbound]

I lvled as a healer in almost every expansion first and only really did dungeons when the quests funneled me there, had no problems, it was slow, sometimes boring but not hard, i think i was more frustrated lvling a mage in bfa no matter what spec i tried.

I think the primary problem with leveling a mage is how crowded all the zones are now and how fast they respawn. There just isn't much space to kite, and respawns happen a bit too quickly sometimes.

I really wish Blizz would make the world more like a real world. If the real-world was like Azeroth, you would never stop your car because 20 mobs would jump at you immediately. They don't need it to be mostly empty, but FFS there really is no reason that there needs to be constant mobs every step of the way.

[skorgg]

WoD launch I leveled as Prot Warrior, BrM/MW/WW Monk, Destro/Aff Warlock, Guardian/Resto/Balance Druid, and Ele/Resto Shaman
Legion launch I leveled as BrM/MW/WW Monk, Destro/Aff Warlock, and Ele/Resto Shaman
BFA launch I leveled as BrM/MW/WW Monk, Destro/Aff Warlock, and Ele/Resto Shaman


1) I have yet to come across content/quests that gave me any issues.
2) Some classes/specs kill groups faster than others.
3) Some classes/specs require healing in between groups or even singles.

I can only speak to my experiences but this is how I felt:

Prot Warrior
Difficulty: Easy
Kill speed: 5/10
Strategy: Pull groups, AE down, be smart about healing/defensive abilities.

BrM Monk
Difficulty: Easy
Kill speed: 6/10
Strategy: Pull groups, AE down/had others AE down so we all get the quest credit, use healing/defensive abilities

WW Monk
Difficulty: Easy
Kill speed: 8/10
Strategy: Pull groups, use offensive abilities to burn down groups/had others AE down so we all get the quest credit, use healing/defensive abilities

MW Monk
Difficulty: Moderate but more annoying because I just dislike the playstyle
Kill speed: 3/10
Strategy: I pretty much relied on single pulls the entire time I played MW. Sometimes I'd get lucky and get an AE off if I saw someone pulling groups near me

Destro Warlock
Difficulty: Easy
Kill speed: 8/10
Strategy: Pull two mobs, cleave them down, use VW for "tanking", you have so much survivability you pretty much can't die

Aff Warlock
Difficulty: Easy
Kill speed: 8/10
Strategy: I could be wrong but I remember just spamming corruption/agony on groups of mobs and just rotting them down as I ran to whatever items I had to pick up. Again, you have a ton of survivability and a VW for "tanking" so you shouldn't really die

Balance Druid
Difficulty: Moderate because I suck
Kill speed: 7/10
Strategy: Felt good bursting down singles/small groups. Between treants, a knockback, and roots you pretty much should only be taking damage from casters. You also have the option of healing in combat which was sometimes beneficial. Shifting into a cat to run away/stealth around for added mobility was cool

Resto Druid
Difficulty: Easy
Kill speed: 5/10
Strategy: I leveled in BFA almost entirely as Resto because I was too lazy to switch specs before and after dungeons. Basically, hot yourself and turn into a cat to rip enemies apart. Just like with balance, you have CC available and will probably want to use it. You can also basically heal through any single target damage, probably even 2-3 enemies at once

Elemental Shaman
Difficulty: Moderate
Kill speed: 7/10
Strategy: Use your heals and utility to help control the fights. You AE snare, can turn enemies into frogs, have a low cd interrupt and heals. When dealing with groups, you have some abilities like AE stun, chain lightning, Stormkeeper, and all that nonsense to easily clear out large groups.

Resto Shaman
Difficulty: Moderate
Kill speed: 4/10
Strategy: Use your heals and utility to help control the fights. You AE snare, can turn enemies into frogs, have a low cd interrupt and heals. If things go real bad, you can always just pop Spiritwalkers Grace and run away while healing. I don't see how this could happen unless you overpull without having any understanding of your power

Fire Mage
Difficulty: Easy
Kill speed: 8/10
Strategy: Cast your spells, you rip things apart fairly quickly. You have plenty of CC to handle "adds" or "respawns". You can summon food/drink so you're basically and endless machine.

Frost Mage
Difficulty: Easy
Kill speed: 8/10
Strategy: Same things I said about Fire carry to Frost. Feels like your survivability shoots through the roof with all the movement speed reductions the kit provides.

If you have issues/difficulties leveling in modern WoW I would say it isn't the spec. Perhaps it comes down to not fully understanding the mechanics of your class or the limitations of your character's survivability. Watching people out questing and never seeing them use cooldowns boggles my mind. People are holding onto those 2-5 minute cooldowns for who knows what. Use them. It makes a massive difference for every class/spec.

Use your abilities and some logic and I promise your class/spec will always be "solo friendly" and easy to quest with.

[Kyriani]

I'm assuming that a Holy Priest is considered a "non solo spec"? If so, it's really not difficult, just a bit slower. I spam smite... a lot. But I'm also virtually unkillable. So while I might not kill things as fast when soloing, I'm also not in much danger of dying. Obviously as a Holy Priest I'll level faster healing dungeons than I will solo questing, but I don't have any difficulty when solo questing. It's just a bit slower.

If a Resto Druid is considered a "non solo spec", I'd say it's the same as the Holy priest as far as speed/difficulty in concerned with the added perks of stealth thanks to kitty form, and a combat drop via Shadowmeld since my Druid is a Night Elf.

While I am not a fan of tanking, I do prefer leveling my Death Knight and Paladin in tank spec. The security of virtual immortality is nice and while they don't kill individual mobs very fast, they can knock out big batches or mobs at a decent pace while being perfectly safe.

[Misuteri]

I have to agree with a lot of the summaries but the most painful spec I ever leveled was a balance Druid. I tried, I really tried but it was about the most tedious thing I’ve done in the game. Right behind that was trying to level enhancement. Leveling BM and any lock spec is about the fastest most efficient leveling I think that exists in the game.

It’s interesting with pallys and DK’s that many people just level in tank spec because they can’t die and pull, pull, pull to finish quest counts quickly. I did the same thing, blood DK was about the fastest tank leveling I ever did. Pally second, probably because avenger’s shield is so effective at AOE.