Tuesday, March 27, 2007

The Most Hated Class in WoW

Everyone has their own prejudices about that one class in World of Warcraft that they don't particularly like. Before the expansion this prejudice was concentrated on the shaman and paladin classes since both could only be played by opposing factions. This allowed the strengths of both classes to be viewed as overpowering by the faction who couldn't use them. However, now that we have the new races the horde knows paladins shields only extend the inevitable and the alliance knows that shamans leak mana like spaghetti strainer.

Thus the calls for nerfs on these classes have decreased and the title of most hated class should now swing evenly between everyone. However, this is not the case since there are still classes that receive more nerf calls then others. The main driving force behind these calls seems to be the different experiences a player has with a class in PvE and PvP. In general players tend to like classes that are bad at PvP but perform well in PvE. The forums often reflects that since certain class and talent combinations can severely limit a class's utility in a dungeon while granting them the extra burst damage which turns the tide in PvP.

Based on these trends I tried to highlight what I believe the five most hated classes are in World of Warcraft. Remember that I'm treating each talent tree as a separate class and that these are just generalizations. Also some of you might be wondering why feral druids and retribution paladins aren't on this list. The last patch chased away most of the PvP feral druids and most people feel they have been "balanced". Retribution paladins can still heal non-heroic dungeons and continue to not kill people fast enough in PvP to be hated. In fact the only reason paladins might be on the list right below arms warriors is because of bubble hearth.

5) The Arms Warrior: A very old target of the nerfbat and now left mostly alone in the forums this class dominated the most hated class title for a long time. The reason behind this was warriors received the most benefit from gear upgrades so there was often a huge boost in power gained from end-game content. Combined with the ease in getting a high base damage 2-hander the warrior became the most played class for quite awhile. However, a string of nerfs targeting rage generation and secondary abilities reduced their numbers till by the time the expansion came out the main tank class was actually rare.

4) The Elemental Shaman: Elemental shamans are not thought to be as overpowered but they still get some attention from the nerf threads. This is mostly because of the utility of their totems in PvP combined with instant shocks that do high damage. Shocks while slightly mana inefficient in PvE are devastating when used correctly in PvP. In particular earthshock can destroy most healing classes while frostshock is particularly useful on melees. Shamans also have a harder time trying to heal while not healing spec then the paladin class so often receive more complaints. In general though nerf threads tend to target their lightning bolts and shock spells.

3) The Fire Mage: A newer target of nerf calls but now approaching a moderate level of unpopularity. Fire mages sacrifice the ice block ability which groups love so well in favor of squeezing some more fire based damage out. In general non-experienced mages already have a problem controlling aggro and the thought of a mage gaining more damage just makes most tanks cringe in terror. Plus add in the new Dragon's Breath talent which seems to be the only true AoE crowd control ability with high damage and you got a class that earns many an enemy on the battlegrounds.

2) The Rogue (aka The Rouge): No matter how a rogue chooses their talents they are still pretty good at dealing damage. However, some recent changes have raised the hatred for the class more then all the lame stealth ganking on boats. One change is cloak of shadows which has created a situation where rogues can still win a battle against casters without having to get a successful ambush. Warlocks and Priests are particularly mad since they are the most common targets of rogues in world and instance PvP. Add to this the overwhelming use of Cleave and AoE spell damage in the Outlands and the overall PvE usefulness of a rogue has been seen as dropping. The next patch's change to cleave better guarantee rogues take less damage in dungeons or else they might start to get warlocks a run for their money.

1) The Warlock: The class has consistently been the most targeted by players for nerfs since the beginning of the game but has always managed to dodge the nerfbat for a majority of reasons. One reason is that fear's utility in PvE can't really be increased so the developers feel okay in letting it be overpowered a bit in PvP. Warlocks are perhaps one of the rarest classes so Blizzard will always be slightly cautious about nerfing them. They do have great PvE utility with banish and charm but most players trying out the class tend to stick with the PvP side of the game. When a new warlock who has been focused only on PvP crosses over into a PvE group it can often be a disaster on scale with Chernobyl. Unfortunately this is how they tend to be remembered and the stereotypes becomes reinforced.

http://blogs.parc.com/playon/archives/2005/06/server_sample_r.html

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't believe you put arms warrior in there. NOBODY has been afraid of warriors for a long long time. Its in melee combat that one of the worst inherent flaws of RPGPVP combat shows its face:

Every class has a 'zone of lethality' around them. Unfortunately for warriors (and rogues) its 5 yard deep ~100ยบ cone in front of us. Virtually every other class is a danger at long range and has some kind of CC to keep us out of melee range.

The only way this would be fair was if it only took a warrior 2-3 hits to kill said squishy when we can actually get in range. Sure, maybe that was possible 1 year ago, but not now. Every class has 10-12k+ hp now, and not even an arms warrior is going to be getting 5000-6000 dmg every hit to make up for that.

(but wait a minute, fire mages can pop trinkets and get numbers that high every 2-5 minutes, and they're only #3? HMMM!)

Anonymous said...

I guess that the negative impression about a class/spec wears of very slowly.

In times where trinkets did stack, before arcane power and ZHC was nerfed (or rather: adjusted), when people run around in blue PvP gear in the battlegrounds, Arcane/Fire mages were the most-hated class, as they simpliy could one-shot other players with no more skill that it needs to press a macro-keyed button. And yes, they deserved being hated.

In PvP, you always hate the class/spec the most which is able to kill you easily without much skill involved. One year ago, it was the AP-ZHC-ToEP-PoM-Pyro Mage, pre-BC it was the Fear-DoT-Deathcloak Warlock, now it's the Cloak-of-Shadows Rogue. Getting a 5sec 90% immunity to magic, removing imparing effects at the same time, when jumping a caster is just a no-skiller, thus the hate and bad reputation they get on the battlegrounds.

Anonymous said...

Most hated class in WOW? Judging by the lineup, I would say you are basing your top 5 on PVP power/ forum rants.

As a healer, my most hated class in WOW is hands down the fury warrior. They bring little to the group that a rogue can't do 3X better, and they are a tell tale sign of a selfish group member. As a tank, my most hated is the shadow priest for the same reasons. Overall, my most hated class is the Hunter since they never seem to be able to control their meat shields, and when their pets cause chaos, they simply feign death.

Relmstein said...

This post was based off the number of rants I could find about a class in both the pvp forums and the raids and instances forums.

Surprisingly enough fury warriors are now thought to be better choices then rogues for dps since they stand up to AoE spell dmg and cleaves better. Changes to npc cleave might change popular opinion though.

I looked for rants against shadow priests and feral druids but couldnt find many. I know the recent nerfs probably had something to do with it.

Anyways the most hated class is always a matter of opinion since it depends on what you play. At the moment I hate all non healing classes because I'm specced holy and every arena match starts with me meeting the business end of 5 different attacks. :-)

Anonymous said...

Once could also argue that the most hated classes are those that aren't able to fulfill their role properly in PvE raids.

Take an arms warrior as tank, and an elemental shaman as healer into a 5man instance, and you'll know what I mean.

Frost mages are also more welcome in most raids due to the fact that they don't need as much management than their fire mage counterparts, being that they can absorb more damage (Ice Barrier), handle aggro better (Iceblock, separate aggro for mage and water elemental), and thus require less healing.

Rogues are also DDs that bring less utility and require more management than the average DD class, due to the 360° cleaves before they were patched.

Anonymous said...

Its touted that most rogues can control the first 14 seconds of 1 on 1 combat.

I quit my priest when cloak of shadows was a 41 point talent... they all get it now for free.

Keystone said...

I feel bad for Priest on the end of a Cloak of Shadows gank. I play a Mage, so the CoS hasn't hurt me any since a blink gets me out of range, and ice block is there if they sprint the distance.

I would have to say my most hated class is any healing class that refuses to heal under any circumstances.

Back when my Paladin was Retribution spec, I would still heal 80% of the time in BG's because it's usually the more logical tactic in group PvP.

Anonymous said...

My list would be more like,

1. Warlocks!!!!
2. Warlocks!!!!
3. Feral Druids
4. Rogues
5. Mages Fire

Feral druids are basically rogues that can heal themselfs when they get low.....thats stupidly BS.

Rogues new cloak of no skill is mentaly overpowered.

Fire mages, I actually dont find them that annoying, they have maybe 1 instant cast spell, but they don't have much HP, maybe 7k,8k and the burn mana really quick.

But Warlocks! Now thats overpowered summed up right there......to much mana, to much HP, and a pet just to top it off......they can use Healthstones in arena wtf, no other class has a healing pot for the arena except them.....

Anonymous said...

no one pointed out a beastmaster hunter? every time i go into warsong someone or the other keeps yelling that a pet taking down a player on its own is crazy especially with bestial wrath should not be allowed.

Hannibalechter said...

Please stop giving advice or arguing the best class when none of you guys have obviously done arena or any endgame pve. The most powerful class/spec far and away is BM hunter. There is no class that can take it period and its the ONLY class that can SOLO instances such as burning furnace and ramparts. In pvp they have no equal warlocks mages rogues all a joke to us\. And u mentioned druids ROFL ROFL HAHAH please learn somthing.

Hannibalechter said...

Your an idiot ..plain and simple. If you have not level 70 adn gotten your teir4's and 5's and done just about everything in endgame and stacked 50k + kills ...pls stop tyring to give advice..its jsut stupid. The no1 most pwoerfull class/spec in the game by FAR in beastmaster hunter..they can take any class..and can solo burning furnace...no other class can say that period!

Anonymous said...

Hannibalechter you are a dunce. Bm hunters are hard, yes. But not so overpowered that you need to act like you know everything and no-one else knows anything.
If you have entered any high rating in arena teams you would have seen that there are RARELY any hunters up in the 2000+ brackets. And this is becasue their usefulness only reaches so far, and then its just not worth having them there anymore.
But im not so sure if i can agree about the fury warrior thing, havnt seen a nerf call for them since pre-tbc :\

Anonymous said...

70 mage of blackwing lair: Alutaps

I'd like to call myself raid/pvp spec.(45/13/3). I dont have very good pvp gear. i think like 7k health, ill look later. armory me. anyways, the patch gave all mages ice block which is awesome. back when i was 17/0/44 i beat the crap outta arms warrs and rogues, now timing is everything and even then i usually lose. anyways heres my top 5 most hated.

5.arms warr
4.rogue
3.lock
2.frost mages :P
1.enhancement shamy

since i respecced, i realized that arms warr and rogues were a little harder. i hate locks, though since i got ice block its been a little easier. if you time the counterspell right then you can take a frost mages but usually they get me first. idk if its just me or all mages,(or all casters or that matter)but enhancement shamys seem to be the anti-casters.