Class Morality: Most Evil to Most Good in order

[Deleted]

Not sure what are you basing your list off... lore? most extreme examples? personal fancy? Feels like the latter.

If one would judge from a lore stand point and not focus on extremes but rather take an overall look on representation:

Warlocks are indeed are a league of their own. Pretty much all mentions of them are either them being corrupted by demons, being demons or trying to get close to demons. The other two candidates for high rankings would be deathknights and shadow priests, and while shadow priests don't generally have redeeming factors, only the scorge deathknights were focused purely on evil, while the current ones and, more imporantly, the original, orc created deathnights, are more focused on their goals and well being rather then world destruction.

Now the big "middle pack" of classes, who don't really have any affinity either side. Many would claim rogues are bad, but in reality, alliance rogues are regarded as nothing worse than spies, which is not as glamours as movies make it out, but is still just a job. Horde rogues are a bit of a different story, mainly assassins and are treated only slightly better than warlocks, but in reality they cause less bloodshed than your ordinary grunt, it's just their ways are not celebrated. Mages, even though walking the thin line of temptation, are generally tend to be selfish and self absorbent, but not evil. If anything, I would rank hunters worse than the previous two, simply cause majority of them, or I should probably say rangers, are generally rather hostile to anyone who's not an elf. They won't go out of their way to invade places and torture the innocents, but just shooting you would be a common derision, instead of a greeting.

Warriors are the immovable middle. Gray ground. Just too many examples of both good and evil ones, so so many more simply are neither.

And now the would be "good guys". A driud would be the first. Connected to the nature, they will do a lot to protect it. You would not wanna be in their way. Priests (no shadow) will follow, cause they are sworn to Light to protect the weak and innocent, but their oath is one to a man, so sometimes it's broken. Second to best will be shamen, reliant on the element to acquire their powers, they simply cannot do bad for long, as you can see in the books about orc past on Draenor. They often have to justify their actions tot eh element to revive the power and so far there's only one shaman who can pull incredible energies to his bidding on a regular basis, so it won't be a trend any time soon.

And the purest would be paladin, no surprise. Yes, we have examples (mainly one actually) of them going bad, but the funny thing, they would loose their power long
before completely committing to an evil lifestyle. Paladin would loose all the powers of the light if he ever steps on the dark path, leaving us with a warrior at best.

I did not mentioned the monk deliberately, mainly cause they really do't have that much of a presence in lore right now. They seem kind enough to teach most races in their ways and are tolerant of anyone, but they only have their teachings to guide them and no oath or greater power to help them, so there's an unlimited potential for some good old ultraviolence.

[Itisamuh]

1 = most evil; 11 = most good

1. Death Knight
2. Warlock
3. Rogue
4. Warrior
5. Mage
6. Hunter
7. Druid
8. Shaman
9. Priest
10. Paladin
11. Monk

This is my opinion based purely on the nature of the class, not any specific characters.

[Deathsknight]

mmm for me I would say,

Shadow Priest(I had to divide these from other priests due to there being a massive difference between them)
Warlock
Death Knight
Rogue
Mage
Shaman
Warrior
Hunter
Priest
Paladin
Monk
Druid

I put mages where they are as they seem to be dabbling into more and more dangerous magics(note: dangerous and Fel are not one in the same)
Shamans I put there because the Twilight Hammer guys were pretty demented and used power to control the elements.

[Loaf Lord]

I did not mentioned the monk deliberately, mainly cause they really do't have that much of a presence in lore right now. They seem kind enough to teach most races in their ways and are tolerant of anyone, but they only have their teachings to guide them and no oath or greater power to help them, so there's an unlimited potential for some good old ultraviolence.

Yeah. I keep mentioning him a lot lately, but Brother Korloff is a good example of an evil monk. He saw it as a fighting style to crush the scourge, and of course with the scarlet crusade involved, things tend to get a little out of hand. :P

[Deathsknight]

Myhv forgive me but I don't think I see Druids in your list

[Deleted]

And the purest would be paladin, no surprise. Yes, we have examples (mainly one actually) of them going bad, but the funny thing, they would loose their power long
before completely committing to an evil lifestyle. Paladin would loose all the powers of the light if he ever steps on the dark path, leaving us with a warrior at best.

Well, we have more than one example, actually. I'm not sure he was a Paladin, but Garithos could use the Light, and he was quite the madman. Heck, the whole Scarlet Crusade uses light to purge everything, including living people if deemed necessary. That's the problem with the Light, it can lead to fanatism.

When it comes to examples, EVERYONE can turn bad without any exception, because every class is subject to corruption. Basing an entire analysis on what kind of spells the classes are using isn't good either, because shadow isn't fundamentaly bad and light isn't always good.

[xskarma]

...and even then it's easy to imagine a druid who takes his duty to the extreme and do horrible things to maintain his twisted idea of "balance".

Actually speaking of "evil" druids, there's Marl Wormthorn from this questline in the Blasted Lands too: http://www.wowdb.com/quests/26184-wormthorns-dream

That's pretty much exactly what you say, someone trying to maintain his idea that he's doing well.

[Sam the Wiser]

Glad to see my class is so widely feared among the others!

[Deleted]

I gotta say, on the subject of Monk "alignment" that they would count as true neutral. They strive for balance and fight when they need to, to preserve balance. Lucky for them, most times when there is a conflict it is usually started by the "evil dudes". Yes, when you go kill Ai-Li Skymirror for that rare drop for the 12th time or the first time YOU are the evil dude, breaking apart the balance!

[stuartj1992]

"Good" and "evil" are highly subjective.

Indeed. Imagine a society where "evil" has apparently been destroyed. Everyone is "good". So what is a 'good' act? What is an 'evil' act? An evil act in a society where nobody does anything wrong could be as little as stealing a loaf of bread, and could be punished as harshly as a murder in our society would be punished. Good and Evil are just viewpoints that shift depending on the circumstances, which is why neither can be eradicated - all you can realistically hope to accomplish is a healthy balance between the two.

So when we discuss classifying the most evil to most good classes in WoW, we must really consider what is evil and what is good in WoW, and not just what these terms mean in regards to us outside of WoW.

In my eyes, the list would go as follows:

Death Knight
Warlock
Rogue
Shadow Priest
Warrior
Shaman
Mage
Monk
Druid/Hunter
Non-Shadow Priest
Paladin

You can feel free to disagree with said list, this is merely my opinion given the facts about the classes.

[docterfreeze]

Why would any be evil? Maybe...maybe a warlock. But DK's were created against their will and broke free of their bondage. They're what they want to be, not evil.

DK's were resurrected by pure evil and anger. DKs are far from good.

[Veyne]

I'm a big fan of debating moral ambiguity from an academic perspective, so I'll give this a shot.

I'll divide my list as different ranges of the spectrum, but the same order still applies - most evil to most good.

EVIL:
Warlock - I don't think there's much competition in this department. They tap into demonic powers, control demonic minions, and sacrifice their own flesh for power.

Rogue - While a Rogue's intent might not ALWAYS be malicious towards others, they ARE always self-serving

Death Knight - I'd argue that Death Knights are much closer to neutral. They have an evil past, and they still draw power from that evil past, but free Death Knights also tend to seek personal redemption.

NEUTRAL:
Warrior - While neutral, you can't shed so much blood without it affecting you in a way.

Mage - True neutral. Nothing about being a Mage lends themselves to being more or less likely to turn evil or good. However, the Arcane does get awfully close to the Fel from time to time.

Hunter - True, true neutral. There's even less in being a hunter than there is in being a mage to sway you in one direction or the other. Outside of their dragon slaying duties, a Hunter more than likely spends their time roaming the woods with their companion, tracking and hunting.

Shaman - I almost put Shaman slightly closer to neutral-good, but I feel monks slightly edge them out. Shaman can be thought of similarly as Warriors, except going the opposite way. Nothing about being a Shaman makes you inherently good or evil, and they can be pretty ferocious warriors in their own right. But they also have their spiritual beliefs, which tend to make them generally good people.

Monk - Again, neutral, but their self discipline likely prevents them from doing much wrong-doing towards others.

GOOD:
Druid - Druids have a spot on the spectrum opposite of Death Knights. They have a strong connection to nature, and a strong reverence to all life. At the same time, Druids are rarely ever zealous or righteous.

Paladin - The embodiment of law and justice kind of requires them to be good. They are very passionate, however, and that can often lead to causing harm through overzealousness.

Priest - A holy priest is pretty much the most holy you can get, and it's not quite as common for priests to go bad as it is for Paladins.

SHADOW PRIESTS
I had to separate this one from the spectrum to explain it to some people. Shadow Priests are not evil. Their whole ideological perspective is that of balance. To them, there can't be too much good or too much evil. And they feel it is up to them to achieve that balance in the world around them. But they do it in a way that seems sinister, so they get a bad rep. =D

[Kaleredar]

DK's were resurrected by pure evil and anger. DKs are far from good.

That may be true, but that doesn't mean they themselves are evil. Take Ormus the pentinent, the DK armor vendor in ICC... A snippet of dialogue from him: "I could not bear to look upon a world where I'd committed so many horrors under the Lich King's grasp. It was my first step towards redemption, and if my sins are unforgivable, then I will attempt to atone for them for the rest of my life."

Not exactly "dripping with evil."

The only class I would list as abjectly "evil" are warlocks... willingly using dark magics for their own gain. If they get too ambitious, one day they'll find themselves fizzlebang'd.

All the classes after that aren't really "good" or "evil." I suppose priests and paladins would be higher up on the "goodness" scale than say, a rogue, but trying to rank a shaman against a druid, when they both stand on the same "goodness" level seems... difficult.

[Karnudge]

Are druids more evil than shamans because we're partially rogue and warriors?

[yetgdhfgh]

1. Deathknight - Most evil class in fact i hear they must inflict pain on people in order to power there runes to survive
2. Warlock - They dabble with powers that is the most ultimate evil in the universe
3. Rogues - Backstabbing thieves and assassins
4. Shadow Priest - The dark side of a good class that uses pain to inflict damage

The rest are just neutral imo With Paladin and Monk being the ultimate good guy spec

[Scorp969]

1.warlock - it was their choice to become corrupted and learn to summon demons fel magic ect.. so evil by choice
2.priest(shadow) - again using dark words to hurt mind of others in some way its moore evil then warlock becouse they can torture mind forever warlock will essentialy kill its target by dots
3.dk - created by lich king so they existence itself is evil but their choice was to join good side that makes it a little less evil
4.rogue - as somone above said thief best asssasin worst - also class evil by choice
rest is just normal (mage is uncorrupted warlock )

[Brightamethyst]

Evil:
Warlock
DK
Maybe shadow priests?

Good:
Paladin
Holy/Disc priest

Everyone else is in the middle somewhere.


Shadow priests are an interesting question. Shadow is just another aspect of The Light, not a perversion of it or anything. Any priest who specializes in shadow is obviously doing so with the intent of harming people, but the magic itself isn't inherently evil or corrupting in the same way fel magic is.

[Deleted]

but the magic itself isn't inherently evil or corrupting in the same way fel magic is.

Why is fel magic represented as shadow ingame then?

[Earthstar]

Man, I would LIKE to believe warlocks have the power to be neutral... but like... have you SEEN some of the warlocks in this game? I mean like.. the NPCs aligned with the Horde or Alliance! Even if they aren't 'evil' ... they are definitely portrayed almost like power-hungry villains.

I think the only time I've seen contrary were some of the old horde warlock quests..

[Aquamonkey]

Isn't fel magic just demonic arcane?