With the release of World of Warcraft Classic, many old school players have returned hungry for that nostalgic feeling that has been unfulfilled for more than ten years.
WoW has had seven expansions released over those ten years and the game has been completely changed in some aspects. While some believe that those changes are for the better, others prefer what the vanilla experience of the game had to offer.
In 2019, Blizzard finally decided to bring the old-school vibe of World of Warcraft and brought us Classic which is what everyone wanted these last couple of years.
However, if you have played through the recent expansions, you will have trouble picking the right class or race, as Classic offers a lot less than what you are used to. In Battle for Azeroth (latest expansion) you have the option to pick Nightborne, Draenei, Worgen, Pandaren, Goblin and Blood Elf.
All of these races we mentioned are not present in Classic, so you have less of a choice. You also notice that both Death Knight and Demon Hunter won’t show up in the character creation screen.
So, if you want to get back into the old world of the game, there are some things you need to know or be reminded about the classes.
Time to choose
Considering how much time it takes to level up from level one to level sixty in Vanilla World of Warcraft, you must make the right class pick if you do not want to get stuck spending even longer time leveling up.
Not only is the leveling process slower, but everything else is slower such as farming gold, gathering reputation, even the mounts are slower. So, you do not have much room about making mistakes when choosing the right play style.
When you finally get into the character creation screen, you will have eight choices that are spread throughout the races of both factions, Horde and Alliance. The choices are Warlock, Shaman, Rogue, Mage, Priest, Warrior, Paladin, Hunter, and Druid. Sure, all of these are good enough to be played, but some are better than others in this version of the game, so why not pick the one that has an advantage?
Here are some of the best picks in Vanilla WoW
3Rogue for melee DPS
It is well known that Rogues dominated the arenas and world PVP in vanilla WoW, so you won’t go wrong when going for this play style. The rogue has tons of spells that focus on damage, crowd control, and sneakiness.
Keep in mind, they are not as good in dungeons and raids as other classes, but they can still hold on their own.
While a max level and fully geared rogue truly is one of the best fighters in player versus player situations, the whole leveling experience can be quite annoying if you are not familiar with this class. Even in the early phases of farming, the rogue simply does not have enough health and can easily be killed by low-level mobs if it gets crowded with more than two.
However, the better gear you get, the more powerful you become. Yes, this is true for every class, but the rogue utilizes that gear better than anyone else. If you are having trouble getting to the max level in Classic WoW, you could check this out for a Powerleveling boost.
With this, you can easily start the fun part of the game instead of grinding hours and hours on boring quests and enemies.
2Tank Warrior
If you are looking for a more balanced playstyle this time around, we recommend that you pick a warrior.
For the most relaxing playthrough go with Orcs, as their starting location is great and is pretty close to Orgrimmar (Capital city of the Horde). Not only can the warrior easily do the whole leveling process on his own, but it is the only choice for tanking in raids in Classic WoW. Sure, Paladins and Druids can tank even better than a warrior with the right gear in Battle for Azeroth, but in this version of the game, the situation is different.
Warriors are able to hold agro from mobs longer than anyone and a very mobile when compared to these other classes we mentioned.
Another great thing about warriors is that they do not need any serious gear to have lots of armor and health. This means that the moment you get to level 60, everyone will start inviting you to their dungeon or raid groups since no one likes to bother with a druid or paladin tank.
If you ever want to switch to PvP, you can quickly switch to Fury or Arms and you can easily deal with high enough DPS to be viable.
1Healer Priest
This is the second most loved pick in vanilla WoW as it offers the best possible healing stats than any other class. They have the most spells you can use to do both buffs and healing. Sure, paladins and druids do have some interesting gameplay when it comes to healing roles, but priests are much more powerful and can be used for both PVP and PVE.
Of course, if you want to dish out the most healing in your raid, you will have to go with the Holy build and pair it with a protection warrior to get the most out of your character.
But wait, there’s more. Not only do Priests do some major healing during raids, but they get invited to most groups because of their stamina buff called Fortitude.
However, you have to be wary about the different gameplay styles the priest offers. In newer expansions of World of Warcraft, you need to stay as far away from your teammates so you avoid taking any serious AoE damage, but in Classic, you have to stay as close to them as possible. It might be confusing at first, but you will get used to it as you have to use your AoE heal all the time.
