Challenge: Leveling Class List

It's Day 2 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. Today's assignment is to write a list post.

Fellow blogger Miss Elf recently asked for suggestions for her next alt. I had to think for a while because I love so many of my current classes.

This challenge made me realize that I need to focus my posts a bit more. I need to provide better information to my fellow casuals out there. So, here's a list of my suggestions for leveling classes and specs. This list is based entirely on my own experiences.

What makes a casual leveling spec? I feel that, in order to effectively level on casual playtime is to use the most effective and efficient specs possible. A solid casual spec should be solid from level 1 to 80. No constant switching back and forth between specs, based upon which assortment of skills is best for three of four levels. While there's nothing WRONG with that, your time and money are better spent focusing on your character.

Starting, of course, with my current selections:

Affliction Warlock: Destruction Warlocks have to manage mana and shards. Demonology os great with the Felguard after 50, but Blueberry has trouble holding aggro prior to that. Affliction has none of these problems. Affliction is incredibly efficient between Life Tap, Dark Pact and Drains. Unless something goes horribly awry, mana is never an issue. As Affliction, YOU are the tank, so threat is no problem. I'll expand upon this in a future post, as many 'Locks still don't quite understand Drain Tanking. Expect it after 3.1 and after the Death Knight Guide is updated.

Beastmastery Hunter: I'll admit it. Hunter is Easymode. Send pet, shoot, collect loot. Beastmastery is the simplest of the three specs. Your pet is a killing machine. A solid defensive pet can tank multiple mobs at once, and almost endlessly in succession.

Enhancement Shaman: Once again, like Affliction, Enhancement is endlessly efficient. Shamanistic Rage generates mana. Spirit Wolves generate health. Enhancement puts out ludicrous damage in very little time. Totems and Insta-Heals from Maelstrom Weapon make soloing all but the most difficult group quests a breeze. Expect an Enhancement guide in the future, as well.

Protection Paladin: Traditionally, tanking classes have been a pain to level. While I can't speak for how Warriors and Druids have changed, Protection Pallies have been amazing since Burning Crusade, and even fairly decent prior to that. The ability to AOE large packs with Consecrate and reflective damage brings experience rolling in. Survivability can not be ignored. Every minute dead is a minute not leveling. The new Blessing of Sanctuary has made this spec very efficient, while Hammer of the Righteous increases damage output. Being able to jump into an instance while leveling is nce, as well. Yes, a Paladin AOE Grinding Guide is on the list of things to do, as well.

Other specs I've played:

Retribution Paladin: Kind of a Plate-wearing Enhancement Shaman. While not as efficient as Enhancement or even a Protection Paladin, Retribution can unleash some serious damage while still taking some hits and self-healing.

Any Rogue: Stealth is great. You can make sure to always fight on your terms. Massive damage output makes leveling quick and easy.

Feral Druid: I prefer not to go full-tanking or full-DPS, but rather a balance of the two. Offense is nothing without some survivability, and defense without actually being able to KILL anything is just painful. Once again, self-healing makes things go quicker.

Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with any spec. They're all viable and fun to play in their own way. However, for smooth, easy leveling from 1-80, I feel these are the best bets.

What? I missed something? Oh yeah.

Any Death Knight: Seriously. If you can't level a Death Knight, your keyboard may be unplugged.

Feel free to share your ideas on anything I may have missed!

Tagged: Nomenclature

I'm quite flattered. Byaghro over at Casual WoW is so jealous of my awesomeness that he has once again tagged me for the latest meme to circle the blog community.

"Tell us how you select your character names."

Well, I put slightly more thought into my names than your average player, but not quite as much as some roleplayers do. All my names are unique, but each has its own inspiration.

Samodean - Sam was my first alt to "stick," and eventually became my main, so I'm glad I gave him a unique name. Go ahead, Google it. I dare ya. Making a Warlock, I wanted a sinister inspiration. At the time, I was reading the Wheel of time series, and one of my favorite characters was Asmodean, one of the Forsaken, powerful spellcasters that turned to the side of darkness. That seemed to fit the bill for what I was looking for, so I did a quick letter swap and there we go.

Ralken - Ral was a more original creation. Ralken was my character name back in my Final Fantasy XI days. I played a Galka, a large, beast-like race with a very intellectual side. I played a Monk, so I wanted a name that would convey fierceness, with guttural-sounding, hard consonants, but just enough vowels to make it easily pronounceable, so it could be soft and spiritual. After typing some random letters and sounding them out in my head, I reached Ralken. I thought it was a solid name for a Dwarf, so I carried it over to WoW.

Ullic - Many years ago, when I was an even larger dork than I am today, I participated in a message board-based fantasy RPG. I played twin Dwarf characters named Thor and Ull. Thor was obvious, since he wielded a warhammer. Ull was a name I picked up from another ancient God, since I wanted him to be an archer character. Well, I refused to use "Thor" for a character name, so i went with his brother. I decided to add a little to the end for flourish.

Haddar - Easy one here. Draenei = blue aliens. The first thing that came to mind was the Jem'Hadar from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. Easy!

Tarmr - I wanted something menacing for my Death Knight. I had recently been playing Too Human, which rekindled my interest in Norse mythology. Garm was the guardian hound of Hel. I originally wanted Garmr, but it was taken. So, T got his name, which is good because "G's Death Knight Guide" doesn't sound right to me.

Other character names that I've used over the years:

Corrigan the Human Paladin and Araym the Night Elf and Gnome Rogues were inspired by their counterparts in Septerra Core, a fantastic game nobody played.

Valiar the Dwarf Priest was a straight rip-off of Valiar Marcus from the Codex Alera series that I was reading at the time.

Athelas the Night Elf Druid is named after the healing herb from The Lord of the Rings.

Braxis the Human Warrior, Ryaa the Gnome Mage, Morgosh the Tauren Shaman and Warrior, Okthar the Orc Shaman, Rondrey the Undead Priest and many others I've forgotten over the years were all random names I came up with.

Pay attention to some of these unused characters, those names may be showing up on this blog in the ear future.

Well, now I must tag 3 more authors.

Kim. No not how she got "Kim," I'm pretty sure I know where that came from.
Rhidach, because I'm very curious where that came from.
K, just because I want to see her justify 78 names that start with the same letter.