A bunch of questions from a vet player coming back after years of inactivity

[Jerfy 0]

I haven't really played since WotLK, i played 10 days in Cata and 10 days in MoP so far from the trials. I think I will becoming back finally soon (yay! ). However with my lack of knowledge I have a couple of questions for you guys!

• What is the best tank and healer class for raids right now? (It doesn't have to be a hybrid just want to know what is best for the roles Healer and Tank)
• Best money making professions currently? (I'm assuming this is server specific but what tends to roll in the most dough)
• Do picking races with your classes matter anymore? (Example: Going Orc Warrior for the stun resist etc etc.)
• Best DPS right now? How are hunters looking, rogues? (In terms of PvE)
• Lastly, what is the bees knees in PvP right now? Who's the scary ones that stomp almost everyone out there

Thanks a lot for taking the time to read my post and for any help you give to me! I know nobody can make the decision but me, however having knowledge helps make me decisions

[Vlad 411]

I haven't really played since WotLK, i played 10 days in Cata and 10 days in MoP so far from the trials. I think I will becoming back finally soon (yay! ). However with my lack of knowledge I have a couple of questions for you guys!

• What is the best tank and healer class for raids right now? (It doesn't have to be a hybrid just want to know what is best for the roles Healer and Tank)
• Best money making professions currently? (I'm assuming this is server specific but what tends to roll in the most dough)
• Do picking races with your classes matter anymore? (Example: Going Orc Warrior for the stun resist etc etc.)
• Best DPS right now? How are hunters looking, rogues? (In terms of PvE)
• Lastly, what is the bees knees in PvP right now? Who's the scary ones that stomp almost everyone out there

Thanks a lot for taking the time to read my post and for any help you give to me! I know nobody can make the decision but me, however having knowledge helps make me decisions

Hey there!

Welcome to the forums, and welcome to Mists of Pandaria!

The answer to a lot of these questions is "it doesn't really matter." Why so? Because in Cataclysm (somewhat) and especially in Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard has been doing an increasingly good job at balancing classes and specs, at least in PvE. This means that there are very few, if any classes or specs left that just cannot compete. I realize that this isn't a very satisfactory answer, so...

For tanks, they're all good right now! All tanks now rely on "active mitigation" to survive, and are no longer punching bags with 3-minute defensive cooldowns. Some take the damage better than others, though, and a Warrior or Paladin is going to take smoother and more controlled damage than a Death Knight, which still relies heavily on self-healing and proper timing of Death Strike to stay alive.

For healers, again, they are all good right now. There is always a bit of variation in performance, determined by the current state of the content/gearing, etc, but I really can't say that there is a healing class that outshines the others, or one that lags behind.

For DPS, yet again, things are pretty well balanced. I'd say that melee DPS have an advantage at the moment, and will be doing overall more DPS than most ranged, but the difference is minor, and it depends a lot on the fight. And, it is *still* the case that melee DPS have a lot to put up with in terms of avoiding things in the boss's proximity, and that they're more prone to dying to all manner of things, and so on. The usual problems that melee DPS faced still exist, so keep that in mind.

Choosing a race does matter, in the sense that some races have bonuses that are considerably better for raiding than others. For example, as a physical DPS player on Horde, you're almost always going to get the best results by being an Orc or a Troll, and not a Blood Elf. For Alliance, the bonuses are a bit more even, so as long as you aren't a Worgen or a Night Elf, then you're probably getting good benefit for your class/spec. You really need to look at it in terms of race/class combinations, though.

For professions, you really just want to have some crafting professions ultimately, unless you enjoy farming materials and selling them (but this isn't really efficient in the least, I would say). Any of the crafting professions should be fine.

In regards to PvP, I really cannot comment I'm afraid.

[Jerfy 0]

Hey there!

Welcome to the forums, and welcome to Mists of Pandaria!

The answer to a lot of these questions is "it doesn't really matter." Why so? Because in Cataclysm (somewhat) and especially in Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard has been doing an increasingly good job at balancing classes and specs, at least in PvE. This means that there are very few, if any classes or specs left that just cannot compete. I realize that this isn't a very satisfactory answer, so...

For tanks, they're all good right now! All tanks now rely on "active mitigation" to survive, and are no longer punching bags with 3-minute defensive cooldowns. Some take the damage better than others, though, and a Warrior or Paladin is going to take smoother and more controlled damage than a Death Knight, which still relies heavily on self-healing and proper timing of Death Strike to stay alive.

For healers, again, they are all good right now. There is always a bit of variation in performance, determined by the current state of the content/gearing, etc, but I really can't say that there is a healing class that outshines the others, or one that lags behind.

For DPS, yet again, things are pretty well balanced. I'd say that melee DPS have an advantage at the moment, and will be doing overall more DPS than most ranged, but the difference is minor, and it depends a lot on the fight. And, it is *still* the case that melee DPS have a lot to put up with in terms of avoiding things in the boss's proximity, and that they're more prone to dying to all manner of things, and so on. The usual problems that melee DPS faced still exist, so keep that in mind.

Choosing a race does matter, in the sense that some races have bonuses that are considerably better for raiding than others. For example, as a physical DPS player on Horde, you're almost always going to get the best results by being an Orc or a Troll, and not a Blood Elf. For Alliance, the bonuses are a bit more even, so as long as you aren't a Worgen or a Night Elf, then you're probably getting good benefit for your class/spec. You really need to look at it in terms of race/class combinations, though.

For professions, you really just want to have some crafting professions ultimately, unless you enjoy farming materials and selling them (but this isn't really efficient in the least, I would say). Any of the crafting professions should be fine.

In regards to PvP, I really cannot comment I'm afraid.

Delightful, thank you! I was going to go horde and I was thinking of rolling a paladin but you say Blood Elves aren't that great in retrospect to the raiding? Tauren Paladin then? Er maybe I'll go Orc Warrior..

Just stumped on what the heck I will be rolling for my DPS side toon while my friend isn't online.. Does this chart even apply to anything anymore or should I just not worry about it?

Also by crafting professions I am assuming you mean ONE per character and one gathering? Or did you mean just have TWO crafting on the one toon?

edit: Formating

Edited January 11, 2013 by Jerfy

[MadMonk 154]

Delightful, thank you! I was going to go horde and I was thinking of rolling a paladin but you say Blood Elves aren't that great in retrospect to the raiding? Tauren Paladin then? Er maybe I'll go Orc Warrior..

Just stumped on what the heck I will be rolling for my DPS side toon while my friend isn't online.. Does this chart even apply to anything anymore or should I just not worry about it?

The chart would be accurate if all the fights are patchwerk fights, i.e. no movement, no interrupts, no adds, no nothing. In reality however, there are close to no patchwerk fights in the current tier so you have to take the charts with a grain of salt. For example: our shadow priests are doing a lot better (usually top 6 in 25-man) because a lot of the fights have adds that can be multi-dotted. For the same reason fire is still very viable for mages, if the fight has a lot of adds or side targets.

If you want to get a more accurate dps measurement I suggest you look at this chart which is an analysis if the world of logs damage numbers. These are a lot more accurate if you want to know which specs/classes are top DPS this current tier. To give a few quick examples: the rogue DPS specs are completely turned around with subtlety being last. Same goes for frost mages, marksman hunters and a few other specs.

Once again, a grain of salt is needed. As you can see one of the reasons why marksman is so low and has a weird graph is because it isn't being played a lot. So you might think that these numbers aren't correct, but the reason why they aren't being played is because they are just not as good as the other specs in the current raids. (These specs are the one with a black and yellow exclamation mark next to them).

Also by crafting professions I am assuming you mean ONE per character and one gathering? Or did you mean just have TWO crafting on the one toon?

If you want to get the most out of your character I believe the optimal way is getting two crafting professions on you toon. Once again, exceptions can be made if you have crit, haste or stamina high on your stat priority, but in general you will want 2 crafting professions as they give the bigger boost.

[faragorn 2]

I thought I would add my 2 cents:

For PvP, warriors and mages right now have the potential to synchronize trinkets and cooldowns and get very high burst at the start of a fight, but Blizzard is trying to reign that in, so not sure how that will last.

The folliwng site allows you to check spec popularity

http://www.wowpopular.com/

For professions, in MoP it's far easier to gather crafting materials than ever before once you start getting characters to 90 and gaining rep with The Tillers. At lvl 85 you can get a four plot farm and plant standard seeds for harvesting the next day which is useful for making buff food for yourself. Once you reach level 90 you can begin gaining Tillers rep which increases the number of plots on your farm and at Revered you gain access to seeds that germinate into crafting mats such as cloth, leather, enchanting mats, motes of harmony, herbs, etc. It does have the effect of increasing supply and lowering prices however.

As to what sells the best,

https://theunderminejournal.com/

is a great site for tracking what sells on your server.

As for race/class combos, it depends. Goblins have a tasty haste racial for casters, for example, but it's kind of specific to the role you want to play.

For your first level 90, I highly recommend a class that solos well, particularly elites or handles adds well. Of the classes I've played in MoP so far, on the top end of the soloing are DKs with blood as one spec, Warlocks with VoidLords or Hunters with tank pets, and on the more difficult end are shaman and mages.

MoP is highly tuned towards daily activities, meaning rep and other desirables are acquired through daily activities such as quests, farm harvesting, etc. The idea is to avoid Cata's problem of peeps getting finished with their toon and getting bored, but it also means you need to log each toon every day to get stuff done. Your first level 90 will have the hardest time grinding rep as Grand Commendations (rep boosters) are not purchaseable for a given faction till you hit revered, but they apply to your Battle.net account after that. An awesome soloer will make the initial rep grind far more enjoyable.