[Sigh] New to WoW...

No really stupid noob questions, I promise. Just wondering on two things:

1. I tend to be really active in PvP in MMOs, WoW appears to have some decent PvP and PvE doesn't sound half bad either. I'm wondering, what in your opinion is currently the most balanced server (In terms of sides) for PvP right now?

2. Right now, I'm on the fence with my starting class choice. On one hand, I hear tons of positives about Rogues, Hunters, and Warriors for PvP (I think...). On the other, I am sick of playing the tank, the physical damage, etc in MMORPGs.
So if I ever do infact get to endgame pvp down the road, what are widely accepted as the "good" classes to be?

Thanks in advance, if you actually respond :)

every class is good

every class is good Oh come on, there can't be perfect balance, there has to be more of X class in the top honor rankings :P

you'll learn to cry about whatever class you pick.

do not join tichondrius. we are full and very imbalanced.

Shamans are the best class and never die. If you never want to die be a shaman. Eneimes will flee in terror and you won't even have to take out your sword (also, shamans can't use swords).

Shamans are the best class and never die. If you never want to die be a shaman. Eneimes will flee in terror and you won't even have to take out your sword (also, shamans can't use swords).

they also do not take damage.

Shamans are the best class and never die. If you never want to die be a shaman. Eneimes will flee in terror and you won't even have to take out your sword (also, shamans can't use swords).

Thanks, I followed this advice and I solo'd my way to #1.

I read somewhere that Shadow Priests melt faces.

Warrior/Rogue are my favorite classes, but you don't want to be physical DPS or Tank.

I really enjoy Warlock, too...great soloers, useful in groups...don't know how desired they are in endgame, but they're great fun on the way there.

Every class can lay it out, its a matter of how you like it.

Warrior, Straight up your face dmg
Rogue, Stealth and in your back dmg
Mage, Range and kite
Hunter, Range and kite + Pet
Warlock, Over time dmg + Pet , also good at kiting +range dmg
Druid, Out-healing +kiting and survivability
Priest, Out-healing +kiting
Paladin, Out-surviving and...........auto-attacking
Shaman, Out-heal +straight-up dmg

My advice to you, if you want to be wanted:-

Roll a druid (1st option imo)
A Warlock (Many guilds lack these, especially end game content etc, when they're a good safety precaution, or for learning guilds a need)
Priest (~Groups always need their healers < If you're going alliance roll a dwarf priest for bonus points.)
Shaman (best fun imo, a bit of everything rolled into one, but still good at whatever you choose to do)

Don't let the physical/tanking aspect of Warrior turn you off. Tanking is MUCH easier than it looks, and in PvP you can lay down a disgusting amount of damage once you get geared up. It's a very easy class to play, the only trouble is the grind for gear in the endgame (but lots of classes have that problem, and you're a lot better off in that respect than certain other classes, particularly casters).

Rogue is a fun class to play, too...lots of fun technical tricks with attack patterns and learning how to use your numerous stun abilities to "stunlock" the opponent, or basically rape the shit out of them while keeping them almost completely unable to act. You will also get a major boner if you ever take one to endgame instances, as if you play a Rogue properly there is a VERY good chance you'll make it to the very top of the damage meters.

Paladin requires patience if you want to play it well, because your damage capability, while it is getting some buffs in 1.9, is much less than that of Warriors and Rogues, and the deeper you get into the game, the more groups will mostly demand your talents as a support healer and buffbot. Your healing capability, unfortunately, far outshines your ability to inflict damage as a Paladin. But if you're up for sacrificing personal glory in favor of being an excellent team player, and want an easy and heavily armed/armored way to learn how to play a healer, Paladin might be worth a shot.

For casters, Mage is probably the easiest caster to play...you get very nice AoE which helps you to no end in all situations, excellent direct-damage spells, and insane kiting ability against melee mobs and Warriors. Be prepared to hand out water and spam curse removal, though. Especially if you ever take a Mage to an endgame raid.

Warlock is a bit more technical because a lot of your spells require Soul Shards, but it's also pretty easy to play once you get into it by virtue of the fact that you're not expected to heal. In addition to nice DoT (damage over time) spells and great direct damage spells (if you spec hardcore Destruction, your Shadow Bolt crits will drop your fucking jaw, they're that insane), you get a variety of demon pets to help you in various situations (Imp for group buffs/magic attack, Voidwalker for tanking, Succubus for PvP and DPS), and some handy support spells that really shine in end-game instances and raids (you can summon party members from the other side of the world, you can banish those nasty Fire Elementals in BRD and Molten Core, and -- my personal favorite -- you can summon Soulstones to give to your healers in groups or yourself in solo play to allow them to rise from the dead when killed).

If you plan on playing Horde, give Shaman a try, but be prepared to heal. You'll get to do a lot of things as Shaman, but the burden of any class with the ability to heal is that you'll inevitably get into a situation where your party members will want you to focus on healing, whether it's because the Priest/Druid left, or died, or is having serious aggro issues, whatever.

I personally wouldn't roll a Druid until after I'd gotten more experience with the game, because as Druid you will be called upon to do many things in various groups -- DPS in catform, healing in caster form, tanking in bearform -- and you need to know how to do them. You don't necessarily have to play Rogue/Priest/Warrior in order to learn how this is done -- just play one class for a while to learn about the various areas and situations of the game, and pay attention to what other players of different classes are expected to do. Once you reach around level 40-50, you should have seen enough of the world and its players to understand the general way things work.

shamans are priests with totems end game

Warlocks are ok. I played a warlock through mc and it gets really boring in the garr fight where you are responsible for keeping a single mob banished. You don't get to fight at all just every 30 seconds rebanish the mob. You also get to do this on alot of trashmobs throughout mc. But I agree with ben on the shadowbolt crits. When I quit, I wasn't that geared out (passed alot to other warlocks to save for bwl loot) but I could still hit 2.7k+ shadowbolts. In mc I would be one of the top 5 in dps until we had to start banishing on several occasions.

Also played a druid to 50 before I quit. Really liked that since I could either be primary healer, secondary healer, or tank/dps depending on what was needed. This was before the druid changes made feral a viable build.

Rogue is alright, in large scale PvP you're kind of out of place. Mage is fucking fun to play, especially in PvP. Warlock is ehhhhh.

I read somewhere that Shadow Priests melt faces.

I can verify this :sunny:

shamans are priests with totems end game

They are priests in plate armor, with totems, instant cast slow spell, instant purge spell, and can wield Arcanite reapers or The Destroyer of the Worlds. Nothing beats a good shammy in pvp.

shamans are the chuck norris of wow

Here you go. From my experience. Don't post disagreements because I don't care enough to argue:

Druid: Your role consists of healing a lot with HoTs, and running everywhere possible in PvP. Running the flag in Warsong Gulch, and running away or bear forming any time you take damage in any otehr BG. Really. You will spend a lot of time running, whether it be away from someone or to someone. You're supposed to be a Rogue in cat form, Tank in Bear form, or Healer in caster form, but most of the forms are watered down versions. If a Druid could ever tank like a Warrior or hit like a Rogue hell might freeze over.

Warriors: If you have the healers, there is no class that can touch you. If you don't have the healers you will still be able to whomp on people for a significant time before you go down. Probably the 3rd best DPS alongside the highest damage mitigation in the game (a combo that makes people scratch their heads). If you're not a tank in instances you are going to be doing as much damage as possible while not messing up your raids gameplan. Pretty simple.

Rogues: Highest DPS in the game, and with the right gear you can do some crazy incredible DPS. You'll probably own casters, but don't be shocked when you are two shotted by a crazily geared warrior or completely ripped apart by a smart crew. Once your stealth is gone you're kind of at the mercy of your dispellers/healers. In instances your role is damage, nothing else really. Mash that key, brother.

Shamans: You mail wearing druid mages (kind of). Don't fool yourself Shamans can put out ok damage but they got the nerfstick a couple of times and aren't as incredible as they were. Earthbind is still a major pain in the ass for Alliance and your mail should make you the last healer to die (you'll will die though, often, and more quickly than you'll want -- your alliance side sister class, the paladin will outlast you from here to kingdom come). No idea about raid situations I'm an Alliance player, but I am pretty sure it consists of dropping down totems and healing.

Priests: Heals heals heals. Shadow priests can do pretty good damage in PvP/PvE, but priests are usually the best sustained healers. If their crew watches out for them they can typically stay alive in PvP, but if the assist train comes knocking they will drop like nothing. Role in PvE consists of healing people while simultaneously trying to not die.

Paladins: D-fense. Seriously. With Blessing of Light on their mana cost ratio for heals rivals priests, they wear plate and can bubble themselves out of almost everything. The only problem for them is that they are pure support as of now, they have almost zero offensive capability (which I think is good). If you like standing around being beat on while you laugh and heal yourself/others, pally is the class for you. Raid situations consist of handing out pally buffs (5 min buffs) and healing. Significant changes coming up for them though next patch (1-2 weeks). If you're a newbie, you will want to roll this and then immediately post on the forums about your lack of DPS while ignoring that you have incredible damage mitigation and can heal yourself several lifebars over.

Warlocks: DoT dot dot. You basically dot everything in sight and mess people up in PvP. Or use one of three major pets and their various abilities. In PvE you banish any demon that rears it's head at the wrong time, and do DPS with shadowbolts or AE fire attacks. Then you wonder why you have 80 million buttons and the most insane micromanagement in the game. You'll have buttons inside other buttons if you play a lock.

Mages: You AE crap in instances and PvP (works better in instances) and shoot bolts of fire or magic or ice. A lot. If you're frost you get snares. If you're fire you can do more burst DPS. If you're arcane you wonder why you didn't spec fire or frost. Mages can rival rogues for burst DPS if they have the right combo of trinkets and spec. In PvP they spend a lot of time doing crowd control with polymorph and waiting for someone to get caught/exposed by one of their random AEs. In PvE it's the same crap except this time you have to hope to god your healers can keep a cloth wearer up through all the aggro you need to pull every time you AE. You won't be sheeping a thing in the highest instances.

Hunter: Basically ranged damage with a little annoying pet that attacks and pisses everyone in the game off because they are tougher than anyone besides hunters could possibly want. You will spend a lot of time hitting autoshoot in raids and sitting back and firing a special shot everytime the mood strikes you. Hunters get tranquilizing shot (calms a monster's frenzy -- increased damage rate mode), which is completely necessary for a least one of the bosses in the two current highest instances. Other than that hunters are probably the most versatile PvP class at the moment, they recently got a ton of love from the Devs.