World of Warcraft™

Sorry that I am not a new player posting here but I felt like I would get a more basic, straight to the point response for my question which is what I am looking for.

My main, which won't be for long if achievements are account wide, is a ret paladin that feels very boring to play. It seems like I have an additional GCD between abilities hoping I have a proc to fill it but most of the time finding myself just using that GCD to auto attack while CS or judgement is on cooldown. It got me thinking of how many other classes are like this.
I realize paladins are probably the worst for this but I find a lot of other classes are similar. I do have a mage and I like how arcane is almost always casting, but I am looking for a class that uses more than one or two buttons to do amazing dps. So this leads me to my question, how many dps classes / specs are there that feel like you are always doing something and have the least amount of down time?

11/02/2011 01:21 AMPosted by Vespral

Sorry that I am not a new player posting here

All you really need is a question, the "new"ness is relative.

11/02/2011 01:21 AMPosted by Vespral

So this leads me to my question, how many dps classes / specs are there that feel like you are always doing something and have the least amount of down time?

I can't really answer this, although I'm tempted to say it's probably a matter of opinion. What feels fun to you might not be fun to other people, and vice versa. To find what you like you might have to try other things out yourself :)

Try a shadow priest. You can really screw it up if you don't do it correctly. I've been messing about with a shadow priest recently at 85 and it's pretty tough to figure out the priorities. Definitly not boring

Demonology Warlock is constant work that requires you to constantly monitor everything (not that you don't have to on other classes), when you factor in pet twisting and what not it gets rather complicated rather quickly. The priority system is likewise fairly complicated when called for but at times can be a nice continual flow once you have leapt the initial hurdles, have the right chain of procs and what not. It's a class/spec that punishes you quite badly for missing an opportunity, the skill requirement to play the spec well is quite high.

That said I very much enjoy my Gnome Warlock, but it is a lot of work which is not always fun when you just want to relax and cruise through something.

In all honesty man, of the classes I play, Unholy deathknight is the one I find myself doing stuff the most. The only time I have downtime is when all the runes are on CD, AND no runic power. This rarely happens though.



Also, have you tried filling that gap in your ret paly with Holy Wrath?

11/02/2011 01:21 AMPosted by Vespral

So this leads me to my question, how many dps classes / specs are there that feel like you are always doing something and have the least amount of down time?

You might want to try Feral DPS.
There's always something to do.

Or a caster.

Try Arms Warrior (many many buttons to push!), if not enough buttons, also try stance dancing. :)

I find Enhancement Shamans to be a nice pace of melee and spell casting too, might be worth giving it a try.

Also note that since they are totally revamping all the classes in 5.0 (which is the earliest point at which account-wide achievements will come out), it may be a bit premature to talk about this right now. It's very possible that the revamped version of ret will have gotten more interesting for you.

11/02/2011 04:49 PMPosted by Talashir

Also note that since they are totally revamping all the classes in 5.0 (which is the earliest point at which account-wide achievements will come out), it may be a bit premature to talk about this right now. It's very possible that the revamped version of ret will have gotten more interesting for you.

Considering that patch 4.3 hasn't even been released yet and the new expansion was just announced at Blizzcon, we most likely have over a year until the first content patch for MoP rolls out. There's no point in sitting on your butt with a class you're tired of playing for that long. It's premature to talk about waiting for something a year in advance.

A feral kitty dps is like...whack-a-mole extreme. So much to do really.

DKs feel like they're doing a lot. I don't play one in raiding content, but I do have one, and they have more than enough buttons to keep me interested.

Other than that, Boomkin and Shadow Priests are both really good options. They are -always- doing something, and have enough elements to pay attention to that you feel very involved.

Arcane may not have a lot of buttons to push, but it involves the kind of mana management which DPS casters don't normally need to worry about - it's very dynamic based on fight. It's possible that at certain levels of gear, the mana management aspect is less important because they can spam ABs ad infinitum without seeing their mana fluctuate much. I guess I enjoy it because I mostly play healers and I'm used to watching my mana, conserving through some phases, and burning hard through others.

Demo, from what I hear, requires pushing a lot of buttons. If that's what you're after, it's probably a good spec for you.

I know that you're looking for a DPS spec, but have you considered trying a healer? You're always mashing some buttons, and rarely in the same order. While in this expansion the pace is not as frantic as before, you get the chance to do a bit of DPS - it's a necessity for shaman with certain assignments (due to mana returns from lightning bolts), and it's part of the disc smite spec.

Paladin healing is actually a lot more involved in this expansion. It used to be FoL spam or HL spam. Now it's a lot more combo-oriented due to Holy Power, and you get to rotate a lot of cooldowns - hands, throughput CDs, etc.

Both priest and druid healers get a lot of buttons. I've run out of convenient click combos for my priest and added a bunch of mouseovers. I've never played druid, but my friend does, and it sounds pretty involved.

The main difference is that you play your UI far more than you play against the environment. If you enjoy that, you'll probably like healing.

11/02/2011 08:37 PMPosted by Icedragon

Also note that since they are totally revamping all the classes in 5.0 (which is the earliest point at which account-wide achievements will come out), it may be a bit premature to talk about this right now. It's very possible that the revamped version of ret will have gotten more interesting for you.

Considering that patch 4.3 hasn't even been released yet and the new expansion was just announced at Blizzcon, we most likely have over a year until the first content patch for MoP rolls out. There's no point in sitting on your butt with a class you're tired of playing for that long. It's premature to talk about waiting for something a year in advance.

His premise seems to be that he'll be switching mains when achievements become account-wide (i.e., the new expansion). If so, then there's not much point discussing classes that he won't be switching to anyway before the 5.0 revamp. Of course, I could have misunderstood the question...

You said that your ret pally was boring to play, so I am assuming that you want a much more "manual" class to play and one that isn't so dependant on procs, am I correct?

If so, try yourself a caster class of some kind (not fire mage, they love procs), or even a hunter. You will always be doing something.

11/03/2011 04:45 AMPosted by Talashir

His premise seems to be that he'll be switching mains when achievements become account-wide (i.e., the new expansion). If so, then there's not much point discussing classes that he won't be switching to anyway before the 5.0 revamp. Of course, I could have misunderstood the question...

That's not his premise, and you seem to have jumped to conclusions rather than reading his actual question:

11/02/2011 01:21 AMPosted by Vespral

So this leads me to my question, how many dps classes / specs are there that feel like you are always doing something and have the least amount of down time?

In my opinion, the following specs have the most involved dps rotations:

Feral Druid
Enhancement Shaman
Unholy Death Knight
Affliction or Demonology Warlock
Shadow Priest

Of these, I only have experience with enhancement, unholy, and affliction in a raid setting. However, I've looked into various specs' rotations and these specs seem to require the most micromanagement.

Come 4.3 Fire Mage will be pretty competitive and they are extremely complicated... Not more than a SP or Lock but right up there with them. Anything that has dots to manage gets complicated. And the more dots u have to manage the more complicated it gets. Boomkins are another class that hasn't been mentioned yet.

I would say warlock

Demonology Warlock is constant work that requires you to constantly monitor everything (not that you don't have to on other classes), when you factor in pet twisting and what not it gets rather complicated rather quickly. The priority system is likewise fairly complicated when called for but at times can be a nice continual flow once you have leapt the initial hurdles, have the right chain of procs and what not. It's a class/spec that punishes you quite badly for missing an opportunity, the skill requirement to play the spec well is quite high.

That said I very much enjoy my Gnome Warlock, but it is a lot of work which is not always fun when you just want to relax and cruise through something.

Indeed toughest spec and class to play effectively at this tiem

DK:
Frost and Unholy are both decently interesting to play with unholy loosing out on DPS, but having a bit more going on with the play style.

Druid:
Feral druids have a relatively complex and interesting rotation, including positional requirements, and lots of utility to help a raid out. They are competitive in pve and pvp.

Balance druids are not too hard to play, but pretty complex to play well, with paying attention to eclipse state and such to prepare for upcoming AOE situations.

Shaman:
Elemental isn't very difficult, but there are pretty much always buttons to push.
Enhancement is very fun, with lots of buttons and lots of utility.

Rogue:
Lots to do, and a interesting play style imo.

Mage:
Arcane is boring, frost is only really interesting in PVP, but fire sure is fun.

Priest:
Shadow has a lot going on, in the way of buffs and dots and such. Very very fun.

Warrior:
Haven't tried fury, but arms is fun and interesting to play to me.

11/02/2011 01:21 AMPosted by Vespral

I do have a mage and I like how arcane is almost always casting, but I am looking for a class that uses more than one or two buttons to do amazing dps.

Eh if you want to have tons of buttons roll a warlock! :D But you'll probably have a way better dps if you roll a arcane mage or so >.<