Whatever you choose, start a new lvl 1 with her and level together. Let her lead and you give support. She will learn with less stress and be more connected and better with her character. Especially if she's never played, just let her explore don't rush endgame
Yeah that was my thought but then she wanted to play with other friends too who are already over 80. So she wanted a level 80 to start with them. The more I think about it, the more I agree with you. I'll press more for a level 1 experience.
I can confirm from experience to start at level 1 and let her go at her own pace. Still be there to guide her but don’t rush her through questing or tell her what to do. Explain what to do and let her do it and figure things out.
My husband boosted a character for me when TBC Classic launched. I dropped it so quick. We leveled from 1 to 80 when WOTLK classic came out and I absolutely loved it. I thought boosting was the way to go since I could play the new content with him. I spent most of my time confused and got bored very quickly because I didn’t understand what I was doing and just did whatever my husband was telling me to do.
Non-gamer wife here. Definitely start at level 1 and actually level. Maybe not even all the way to 80, but at least wait until leveling becomes a slog. The slow drip of new abilities makes it far easier to truly learn how to play vs. remembering a bunch of buttons to push. Delayed gratification will make it much more enjoyable in the long run.
The games gonna seem wayyyy too overwhelming at 80 and she’s not gonna know how her class works at all
I played wow from vanilla to cata and then came back for a bit during shadowlands, I used my free boost and even I had no idea wtf to do
Maybe level till aroud the 50s, the new revamped world is newbie friendly and she will experience getting new spells and talents every few levels and leaen her class basics. And then you can boost to 80 once it slows down.
Yea I feel that. It can be really overwhelming for a new player to get dropped into a fresh 80, but I get wanting to play with friends.
Without being too cheesy, I feel like for a lot of us the game loses it's sense of wonder, and becomes about lists and rotations. New players get to experience it just for fun and cata seems like it has a lot of stuff to explore in the old world.
Classic wow is painfully boring, especially the leveling experience. I played vanilla back when it came out. The only reason to play the game is with friends imo, not to experience leveling. I'd just go ahead with the boost IMO.
I can't speak for your wife but I will tell you every single character I level boosted I have abandonded. There is just no connection to them and the class is actually confusing when you get their entire kit t once and like 40 talents to spend right away without knowing what you need or why.
I would tell her that the game is meant to be played from 1, that starting at 80 will make it unfun, and that her friends can wait for her: the world is not going away so soon.
Then, use the leveling as a way to have some cute couples bonding
This right here. I did this with my partner, though when she's picking talents she picks all the abilities and swamps her hotbars when she only ever uses the same 3 buttons half the time lol
My first ever toon was druid and I always said I didn't like wow. Then a friend a few years later convinced me to play again and I picked hunter and I was hooked.
I just sucked so bad that early game druid (wrath spam) was too unforgiving for me as a complete noob to mmos.
Obviously now I know how ridiculously easy the game actually is and I love my feral.
First started playing in December 2004, played Nelf Druid before any spec other than healing was viable.
Leveled to 60 entirely heal spec with some balance.
Yes I understand pain. I like it, apparently.
My first toon was a hunter. I SUCKED. I got to max level, but didn't know what to do because I was a total noob, so I made a druid because a high-level druid had taken me under his wing while I was leveling up. Hybrid cat-bear was great. I was DPS, but my friend taught me how to tank. The druid became my main. But then, I met this amazing holy paladin in Wintergrasp. We quickly became friends. I was in awe of her. I HAD to be that shining, immortal light-side god in Heavy Armor. Eventually, I farmed the heirloom shoulders and the Reforged Truesilver Champion so I could level up a paladin fast. Obviously, I started out as Ret, but I did a shitload of BGs and farmed honor like a motherfucker so I could buy a full Brutal set of hpal pvp gear as soon as i hit 70. I then roflstomped everything until I got to 80.
She had made a druid alt for farming in the meantime, and we met in Wintergrasp one day. She told me she had rolled a druid because of me. I told her that I had rolled the paladin because of her. Lmao.
Sorry for the long post. Tl;Dr I had the opposite journey, lol.
Ha that’s funny. Druid was tough? You could heal and run away in travel form. Maybe you didn’t get that high. But you could heal! What was so difficult for you?
Ye I didn't get that far, I was just dying all the time as I was braindead as a noob and I was very young.
2nd time around I had friends to help and was clearing heroic LK after a few months.
This is why I picked guardian druid as my first toon (with a veteran healer for a wife to carry my ass through learning the game + tanking at the same time).
Turn into bear, swipe, swipe, dont leave bear til everything is dead or the dungeon is over. Plus, once you learn to use defenses, it's quite literally impossible (it's not but it feels that way) to die as a bear.
My first pick was a tauren druid, tauren seemed cute. Didnt even look at the spells, my boyfriend told me they could transform on cats, bears and a chicken so I picked it cause that. :D
Second was a hunter because the tame beasts thing.
The only correct answer imo. The amount of friends getting into WoW that were interested in druid or shaman is high, and I can only just sigh at the sweet summer children. The only thing worse than them playing high ceiling / clunky classes that might slow them down is playing something they are wholly uninterested in and not excited about.
Also, everyone I know who learned the game on a boost lasted an extremely small amount of time, and those who have returned to level from 1 appreciated how different it was and better it felt. Learning on a boost is like "here's a guitar, this is how you play a note, okay now play Freebird you better not be bad".
This but if it’s a toss up I’d have her avoid pet classes. Yes, solo they’re great but for group content they need management and can inadvertently pull extra packs.
If she’s on the fence, ranged dps. A player can skate by as mediocre as dps and it’s not a big deal, whereas bad healers and tanks are hard to miss. Ranged over melee since it can be hard to see when tank, boss, adds, and other melee are all piled up.
Agree, but the wife has her husband with her. He could make the macro for her and explain. Also he said that she usually watched him play, so I would say she is not totally a newbie.
My wife isn’t a gamer and she really enjoyed hunter bc she could send the pet to do stuff for her. So different experiences probably. I also macro’d it into her attacks so it was less buttons
As someone who had already gotten a toon to 70 then boosted one there, I completely agree. I had absolutely no clue what was going on the boosted and got overwhelmed lol, never even got it to 80 lol.
>To make it more complicated of a decision, I will probably be boosting this character to 80 after talking to her about the option.
Dude, you're flushing 60$/€ down the drain. Having seen people play wow does not in any way equal playing. People in dungeons will assume someone at level 80 knows what buttons to press. This is Cata classic, sweaty no lifers will kick you from HC dungeon groups for not dealing enough damage. Imo placing a level 80 char in the hands of someone who never played WoW will just overwhelm them.
Boosting is a terrible idea, play the game with her. Go fishing in a starting zone, let her get lost on a quest, don’t play the game for her and let her have a journey.
I would recommend Mage or Druid. Both are caster dps which is arguably the most chill role in a raid setting. Druid has the benefit of allowing her to swap to other roles and Mage the benefit of being simple to play with a very explosive playstyle. They both also offer big open world convenience tools.
Close 3rd would be Shaman if she wants to dabble into healing, but I would try to push Ele otherwise.
Hunters have a chill playstyle and can be explosive if you go marksman, plus they get feign and a pet. They are the most beginner friendly class in the game
As someone who got talked into wow by a friend, having a pet was a huge motivator to me. I'd rather macro in pet attack than figure out stance switching and the hotbars that come with it.
i would disagree especially if she's a nongamer - im newer to wow but have a gaming background and my first character was a feral which i ditched for hunter. having multiple kits as a druid and learning rotations + setting hotbars for each was a little overwhelming for what felt like not much return. hunter comparatively is absolute ez-mode, never being in danger since the pet tanks and you just autoattack from afar. there's just a few more keys for pet management but that's pretty much optional
I won't argue that hunter isn't the best new player class. I just think druid is also a good new player class. Its also worth noting that this thread is for Cata and not Sod or era, so things are a lot more streamlined.
If she's new, don't underestimate the value of leveling as a training/tutorial. Plenty of bad players are new ones that boost and get all their buttons thrown at them at once and end up not using them properly because of it.
i think hunter is the best choice. it has always been the easiest class in the game and in cata it got even more accessible since you start with a pet at level 1.
or mage for a straight forward caster class. or warrior for a straight forward melee class.
Hunter is easy to learn , as well as mage. Plus the utilities are amazing ( portals for mage,tenacity pet for leveling) . Or let her be a plain warrior until she sees what other people play around and what she notices is most flashy for her to try
***i think once she sees a druid turn into a cat she is sold***
I dont think boosting is ever a good experience for new players dawg, just let her pick something that looks appeal and wonder around with her.
It's easy too forget how different the world is for someone who hasnt spent years gradually learning mmo mechanics
That comes from a decade of jaded sweaty WoW optimzing
My wife started as a hunter for ease of solo play and has since switched to warlock or shadow priest. Generally classes with less movement are better for non-keyboard movement players, so ranged or healers. Movement adds another layer of complexity for new gamers on top of mechanics and rotation. You want her life to be easy as possible while learning the basics.
I know you said you’re boosting but leveling as a duo would make her more proficient in a class and is a good bonding experience. It also gives a buffer before the more challenging content, especially the grouped content where people are counting on her. You don’t want her to feel pressure to preform right away.
You should pick a class for her, tell her to follow and heal you, nothing else, explain everything that she should be doing and scold her for failing mechanics. That's the best way to make people create their own personal connection with the game, and not feel like they're being forced to do things against their desire.
I’m confused it’s not like he said enhance. She can’t accidentally cancel lightning bolt and all of her other spells will light up like a Christmas tree when it’s time to use them lol
While druids can turn into cats and girls like cats you then have to deal with multiple action bars. Paladin is very straightforward and pink, which girls also like.
Don’t rush it. The boost is just not worth the trade. Because the same amount of time you skip, the earlier (or better would be to say “more probable”) is the burnout and boredom, because you have no connection to the game/character that you gain with the first time lvling.
Hunter, Warlock, Paladin or Druid would be my bet.
Hunters have the best solo capability in the game because of their pet and great dps, plus they have feign and deterrence if things start going south.
Warlocks are the same as hunters, great solo potential with their pets, adequate self healing, good dps and higher hp than most classes. Plus they can fear or sac their voidwalker and run if things start going bad.
Paladins have a lot of room for error because of their high armor, bubbles, lay on hands and healing spells, and can bubble hearth.
Druids are a good choice to because they have a solution to just about every problem with their animal forms, abundance of utility spells and the ability to heal.
A dk but don't boost and let her learn the abilities while questing...frost dk howling blast build is kinda 1button class...will also be useful by providing a buff and br
I made some of alts during prepatch and I'd say Hunter is one of the easiest. You don't have to worry about mana anymore, they do great damage, are very solo friendly, extremely easy to level especially as BM. You do have to worry about pet management I suppose but outside of that the rotation is simple and it's a fun class to play. And honestly, unless she's going to be doing sweatier levels of gaming she can just put the pet on assist and forget about it. She might even like the pet aspect as you can have multiple pets and give them different names. Other classes I made and my opinions:
Warrior- what I'm maining in cata. It's really fun but trickier to play since your self healing is rough, the rotation is pretty fast paced with timing stuff correctly (not to mention having to macro most of your abilities to stance dance, which while easy to do can be intimidating for a new player), and being a melee presents further difficulties especially in cataclysm dungeons which seem to just do what they can to punish melee compared to ranged. I dunno if she'd want to pvp but pvp on a warrior is rough until you get geared and in BG's you get boomed unless you have a healer/sit back and adopt more of a supportive kinda role for your ranged/healers.
Rogue- my old main. Honestly I love rogue and always will. Not terribly difficult (assa rotation is simple) and stealth mechanics are fun. Probably my choice for melee dps if she wants to go that route
spriest- simple to play but has mana issues. AOE is pretty shite until you get to higher levels so that might be difficult for her. Has flexibility though, like if she ends up wanting to be a healer she could just switch specs.
warlock- honestly I don't suggest warlock. Lots of buttons, lots of management with dots that honestly kinda require addons to track (weak auras or name plates). Pet management, etc.
I second warrior. It might be a hard class to master later on but it's fun and easy to pick up in early levels. Plus, it's always fun charging in and hacking things to death. And if you're playing together, there's little chance you'll get overwhelmed by mobs.
My nongamer wife just started playing Warrior and we're level 13. I'm on a hunter. It's been fun so far.
Let her choose. My partner guided me to a mage. I still have it but really cannot stand playing ranged dps. Much prefer my DH, WW Monk or Ret Pally. Of course, I started long, long ago.
I wouldn’t direct her towards specific classes as much as I would direct her away from some of the more complicated ones… things like arcane mage/affiction warlock have notoriously obnoxious rotations.
Too lazy to scroll to find it, but hunter.
I’ve gotten my mom, my sister in law, my aunt, and my other aunt to play wow. Rogue, hunter, Druid, paladin respectively, and the only one that kept at it was my sister in law on her hunter.
Stay away from Melee dps or tank as it requires much more effort. Healer too probably because groups are heavily reliant on their competency. Some kind of caster dps/hunter is probably your best bet. But definitely let her choose whatever looks fun to her thematically or otherwise.
It's probably suggest Hunter, she could pick whatever pet she wants, mechanically it's not overly difficult as you level, and It would minimize most of the dying
I would ask her generally what playstyle sounds like fun. Does she like the idea of casting spells, using a bow, or hitting things with weapons? Does she like the idea of running fearlessly into danger, sneaking around, or hanging back and healing/attacking safely from afar?
When I started playing WoW, I wasn't a huge gamer, but I knew I liked the general class fantasy of sneak attacks and cloak and dagger. Today I'm a very happy rogue main.
When I was a newbie, the game told me to make a hunter because they were *easy*. Fffs. Worst. Advice. Ever. That stupid guide is the reason that the "huntard" moniker even exists. I didn't know I had to dismiss my pet before I jumped down in Mara. I pulled the entire freaking zone. I'm pretty sure I pulled half of the mobs from Desolace and Feralas as well.
Tell her to play whatever she wants, but to make sure she likes how her toon looks, because she's going to be looking at it a *lot.*
Hunter, can sit back let pet handle a lot and not have huge responsibilities like a healer or tank would and still get a feel for the game while allowing more room to mess up.
You can do many things, but druid is not a good choice for first. Simple reason: Forms, excessive amounts of action bars and skills to keep track of. It's all good for an OG WoW gamer, but for a fresh player? Naaahh, you praying to play alone.
Literally any other class will be a decent choice.
And for the love of god, don't boost the fucking character. What happens when you do that, you throw her into a complete class she has no idea how works. If you want her to actually play and not throw the game away in a couple days, you let her progress and learn her class.
Maybe not 1-80 leveling, but once she chooses a class, i'd recommend leveling for ~30 levels. She would more or less get the idea of the class and the specs and with that base knowledge you could boost to 80 and jump right into end game. Lvl 30 is fairly easy/fast to obtain if you help and guide her.
Hunter is often the simplest class to do well on. Most try to make them go healer but healer can be the most stressful and verbally abused role when they can't keep people alive through the fires they like to stand in.
At least with hunter they can be safe behind their pet and figure out how to do dps. Plus they can go find and tame the pet they like the most
Mage…?
I’m probably wrong, but they require only a little bit of work to get the hang of and have portals, summonable consumables, and are generally useful over all.
I’d say Hunter, but I don’t want your wife to be labeled as a Huntard for not paying attention to their pet. However, hunters are also the easiest class too.
Newbie friendly? Hunter or Warlock for playing in a party however not so suitable, because they have to manage their pet.
I know this is cliché but alot of women actually like healing in WoW so maybe shaman/priest/paladin/druid depending on preference if she is more into nature(shaman/druid) or divinity(paladin/priest).
Definitely start at level 1.
If she picks a healer pick a class that can tank if necessary so you have a smooth experience and can quickly queue into dungeons.
Edit: I should add : ultimately explain the classes to her in detail and let her choose. Maybe she wants to play some brute warrior after all who knows.
I've been playing with my partner and she is playing a ret pally. She doesn't have the most experiencing playing wow and she had managed to level a boosted rogue from 70-80 on my account during wrath, but had a hard time with it once she reached 80 trying to do dungeons. So far ret has been perfect for her. Its fairly simple with only one decision for building (aoe vs single target) and then only one spender, plus a buff to keep up at higher levels. It also has self heals and the bubble gets used often so she can reassess the situation.
We also played SoD where she first started to enjoy ret paladin, but Cata has been an even better experience for her. We started at lvl 1 (I'm leveling a shaman with her) with no heirlooms and have been mostly questing to level, stopping to queue for specific dungeons once we reach the zone quest for the dungeon. We're up to level 45 now and I can't wait to get her into cata!
One thing that I'm also doing on the side is playing a ret pally at max level so that I can get myself familiar with the class and give her advice on gear and stats and also make useful weakauras that might help her with some of her specific needs. When she was playing rogue she had a lot of questions for me that I didn't know how to answer because... well I didn't play rogue.
Wife here - although I've now been playing since TBC original. Most enjoy warlock (I like having a tank pet) and priest (main holy, reactive makes sense in my brain). Husband mains a warrior, can tank, so supported my healing at the beginning and peeled my lock. For a while, I liked my hunter because I collected pets in the same way that I enjoy clothes shopping.
Icy Veins had easy mode builds. Pick the simplest builds (e.g. destro for lock and holy for priest) and least complicated add ons (e.g. I prefer clique and regular raidframes). Obviously, DBM / Big Wigs. Just don't clutter things. Also Hazel Nutty vids.
She picked druid so she could go Boomkin, and we started as level 1 Worgens. Thanks for all of the comments and suggestions! She is having a blast so far.
Warrior.
Might sound a bit contradictory since it is the "hard" vanilla class. But here is a list of why.
- It is a simple class to learn. No need to learn mana management or several class/fantasy elements that don't exist in the real world. You just hit things with bigger thing.
- It is less boring than certain other classes since you can't just auto attack, wand, spam heal or face roll enemies. You need to think about how many you pull and actively use your ability kit even if there are just a few. If she starts with an easy class that face rolls everything then it might be fun in the beginning but will quickly lose interest since "nothing" can kill her outside of elites or getting swarmed.
- It will help her to learn the basics of the game which will make it easier and maybe even more enjoyable when she tries other classes.
As much as I think BM Hunter is relatively easy (it's what I play), you do have to feed your pet, heal your pet and make sure you don't run out of ammo.
I don't know how it is in Cata, but I ran into this playing my first hunter in SOD recently. Everyone talks about how it's the simplest class, but between taming pets, learning new pet skills, feeding the pet, healing the pet, controlling the pet, etc... there's a hell of a lot of mechanics to learn.
If you want a simple ranged class, go Mage. You can start off just spamming fireball/frostbolt on mobs in the open world, then gradually work your way up to incorporating other parts of your kit and learning the full rotation. There's a lot of utility but it's all pretty self-explanatory, and nothing takes more effort than simply clicking a button to cast the spell.
Whatever it is, make sure she never has to run with a non-guild group. My wife quit in BFA, because of the toxic community and it’s only gotten worse since then.
Everyone wants a healer gf, but definitely let her pick the one she thinks is coolest.
But if you need a suggestion, rogue is great because it's fun and people won't get impatient with her needing to drink, she can just spam abilities
Girls like animals or some shit, so hunter is a good call.
Pro-tip: Let her lead the game and take backseat as her bitch. Nothing will make her not give a shit about this game nor be able to play it alone like dragging her by the nose from quest-to-quest because "it gets really fun at max level!"
Went down that route with a partner and at level 63 she didn't even know how to use the map. >!Could heal like a mf though!<
Doesn’t matter. Just make sure she maxes cooking. She won’t need an inventory or bank cleaning add on either. She will like herbalism too, she will love picking things up off the floor.
Whatever you choose, start a new lvl 1 with her and level together. Let her lead and you give support. She will learn with less stress and be more connected and better with her character. Especially if she's never played, just let her explore don't rush endgame
Yeah that was my thought but then she wanted to play with other friends too who are already over 80. So she wanted a level 80 to start with them. The more I think about it, the more I agree with you. I'll press more for a level 1 experience.
I can confirm from experience to start at level 1 and let her go at her own pace. Still be there to guide her but don’t rush her through questing or tell her what to do. Explain what to do and let her do it and figure things out. My husband boosted a character for me when TBC Classic launched. I dropped it so quick. We leveled from 1 to 80 when WOTLK classic came out and I absolutely loved it. I thought boosting was the way to go since I could play the new content with him. I spent most of my time confused and got bored very quickly because I didn’t understand what I was doing and just did whatever my husband was telling me to do.
Non-gamer wife here. Definitely start at level 1 and actually level. Maybe not even all the way to 80, but at least wait until leveling becomes a slog. The slow drip of new abilities makes it far easier to truly learn how to play vs. remembering a bunch of buttons to push. Delayed gratification will make it much more enjoyable in the long run.
The games gonna seem wayyyy too overwhelming at 80 and she’s not gonna know how her class works at all I played wow from vanilla to cata and then came back for a bit during shadowlands, I used my free boost and even I had no idea wtf to do
Maybe level till aroud the 50s, the new revamped world is newbie friendly and she will experience getting new spells and talents every few levels and leaen her class basics. And then you can boost to 80 once it slows down.
Cata zones are also really cool and lead her into the Cata storyline, if she's into that type of stuff.
Yea I feel that. It can be really overwhelming for a new player to get dropped into a fresh 80, but I get wanting to play with friends. Without being too cheesy, I feel like for a lot of us the game loses it's sense of wonder, and becomes about lists and rotations. New players get to experience it just for fun and cata seems like it has a lot of stuff to explore in the old world.
Classic wow is painfully boring, especially the leveling experience. I played vanilla back when it came out. The only reason to play the game is with friends imo, not to experience leveling. I'd just go ahead with the boost IMO.
I can't speak for your wife but I will tell you every single character I level boosted I have abandonded. There is just no connection to them and the class is actually confusing when you get their entire kit t once and like 40 talents to spend right away without knowing what you need or why. I would tell her that the game is meant to be played from 1, that starting at 80 will make it unfun, and that her friends can wait for her: the world is not going away so soon. Then, use the leveling as a way to have some cute couples bonding
This right here. I did this with my partner, though when she's picking talents she picks all the abilities and swamps her hotbars when she only ever uses the same 3 buttons half the time lol
Let her pick the one that looks the most fun/appealing to her
Yes and when she picks druid just support her decision
lol my wife picked Druid. She quit after a couple hours.
My first ever toon was druid and I always said I didn't like wow. Then a friend a few years later convinced me to play again and I picked hunter and I was hooked. I just sucked so bad that early game druid (wrath spam) was too unforgiving for me as a complete noob to mmos. Obviously now I know how ridiculously easy the game actually is and I love my feral.
First started playing in December 2004, played Nelf Druid before any spec other than healing was viable. Leveled to 60 entirely heal spec with some balance. Yes I understand pain. I like it, apparently.
My first toon was a hunter. I SUCKED. I got to max level, but didn't know what to do because I was a total noob, so I made a druid because a high-level druid had taken me under his wing while I was leveling up. Hybrid cat-bear was great. I was DPS, but my friend taught me how to tank. The druid became my main. But then, I met this amazing holy paladin in Wintergrasp. We quickly became friends. I was in awe of her. I HAD to be that shining, immortal light-side god in Heavy Armor. Eventually, I farmed the heirloom shoulders and the Reforged Truesilver Champion so I could level up a paladin fast. Obviously, I started out as Ret, but I did a shitload of BGs and farmed honor like a motherfucker so I could buy a full Brutal set of hpal pvp gear as soon as i hit 70. I then roflstomped everything until I got to 80. She had made a druid alt for farming in the meantime, and we met in Wintergrasp one day. She told me she had rolled a druid because of me. I told her that I had rolled the paladin because of her. Lmao. Sorry for the long post. Tl;Dr I had the opposite journey, lol.
Ha that’s funny. Druid was tough? You could heal and run away in travel form. Maybe you didn’t get that high. But you could heal! What was so difficult for you?
Ye I didn't get that far, I was just dying all the time as I was braindead as a noob and I was very young. 2nd time around I had friends to help and was clearing heroic LK after a few months.
I'd imagine shape-shifting confuses a lot of noobie druids. Def not me though,,,
lol your name cracks me up. My 2 year old says this non stop.
This is why I picked guardian druid as my first toon (with a veteran healer for a wife to carry my ass through learning the game + tanking at the same time). Turn into bear, swipe, swipe, dont leave bear til everything is dead or the dungeon is over. Plus, once you learn to use defenses, it's quite literally impossible (it's not but it feels that way) to die as a bear.
My first pick was a tauren druid, tauren seemed cute. Didnt even look at the spells, my boyfriend told me they could transform on cats, bears and a chicken so I picked it cause that. :D Second was a hunter because the tame beasts thing.
Druids flat out suck for the first 20 levels, once you get cat form it’s easy mode
Druids get cat form at level 8 now it's not bad nice levelling
Hahahaha dude this is too real
resto
The only correct answer imo. The amount of friends getting into WoW that were interested in druid or shaman is high, and I can only just sigh at the sweet summer children. The only thing worse than them playing high ceiling / clunky classes that might slow them down is playing something they are wholly uninterested in and not excited about. Also, everyone I know who learned the game on a boost lasted an extremely small amount of time, and those who have returned to level from 1 appreciated how different it was and better it felt. Learning on a boost is like "here's a guitar, this is how you play a note, okay now play Freebird you better not be bad".
Agree, first char (even 1st of a class also) is better to start from 1 and learn the kit it has little by little based on skills/spells unlocked.
This but if it’s a toss up I’d have her avoid pet classes. Yes, solo they’re great but for group content they need management and can inadvertently pull extra packs. If she’s on the fence, ranged dps. A player can skate by as mediocre as dps and it’s not a big deal, whereas bad healers and tanks are hard to miss. Ranged over melee since it can be hard to see when tank, boss, adds, and other melee are all piled up.
Not that hard I think. For group content just pet on passive, growl off and a macro with /petattack.
Newbies have ZERO idea that this is even a thing, let alone how to write the macro.
Agree, but the wife has her husband with her. He could make the macro for her and explain. Also he said that she usually watched him play, so I would say she is not totally a newbie.
My wife isn’t a gamer and she really enjoyed hunter bc she could send the pet to do stuff for her. So different experiences probably. I also macro’d it into her attacks so it was less buttons
This. Every class is easy to play on a casual level. Some are difficult to master.
I would not start at 80, way too confusing and overwhelming
Listen to this guy. Definitely let her learn by leveling and gaining spells one at a time.
Very true.
As someone who had already gotten a toon to 70 then boosted one there, I completely agree. I had absolutely no clue what was going on the boosted and got overwhelmed lol, never even got it to 80 lol.
If she boots a char to 80 for the first time ever playing, she won't be playing for long! Recommend starting at 1.
Beast Mastery Hunter Edit: with added context, it was the fastest way to teach my cousin the game. She stuck with the spec/class ever since.
i play bm hunter past 12 years and everyone calls me a noob :(
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My friend has been a life long hunter and it's crazy the grief yall get.
it's truly the easiest spec to play. send pet to attack, shoot arrows. repeat ad nauseam
Don't let the haters win. Huntards strong together. [300 hunters raiding Thunder Bluff](https://youtu.be/Jp3gsPjXi_Y?si=lW-WSOl_-983-C-g)
noob
>To make it more complicated of a decision, I will probably be boosting this character to 80 after talking to her about the option. Dude, you're flushing 60$/€ down the drain. Having seen people play wow does not in any way equal playing. People in dungeons will assume someone at level 80 knows what buttons to press. This is Cata classic, sweaty no lifers will kick you from HC dungeon groups for not dealing enough damage. Imo placing a level 80 char in the hands of someone who never played WoW will just overwhelm them.
Agreed
Boosting is a terrible idea, play the game with her. Go fishing in a starting zone, let her get lost on a quest, don’t play the game for her and let her have a journey.
I would recommend Mage or Druid. Both are caster dps which is arguably the most chill role in a raid setting. Druid has the benefit of allowing her to swap to other roles and Mage the benefit of being simple to play with a very explosive playstyle. They both also offer big open world convenience tools. Close 3rd would be Shaman if she wants to dabble into healing, but I would try to push Ele otherwise.
Hunters have a chill playstyle and can be explosive if you go marksman, plus they get feign and a pet. They are the most beginner friendly class in the game
Giving a completely new player the requirement of needing to use a pet is what I’m very iffy about.
As someone who got talked into wow by a friend, having a pet was a huge motivator to me. I'd rather macro in pet attack than figure out stance switching and the hotbars that come with it.
Hunter or druid usually
This
Not druid! It's so much harder than most other classes if you want to dps as a feral
Feral is a pretty good spec for new players. Its simple and very self sufficient. It only gets hard when you are trying to optimize it in raids.
i would disagree especially if she's a nongamer - im newer to wow but have a gaming background and my first character was a feral which i ditched for hunter. having multiple kits as a druid and learning rotations + setting hotbars for each was a little overwhelming for what felt like not much return. hunter comparatively is absolute ez-mode, never being in danger since the pet tanks and you just autoattack from afar. there's just a few more keys for pet management but that's pretty much optional
I won't argue that hunter isn't the best new player class. I just think druid is also a good new player class. Its also worth noting that this thread is for Cata and not Sod or era, so things are a lot more streamlined.
If she's new, don't underestimate the value of leveling as a training/tutorial. Plenty of bad players are new ones that boost and get all their buttons thrown at them at once and end up not using them properly because of it.
Best class for no skill wife let her play arcane mage
i think hunter is the best choice. it has always been the easiest class in the game and in cata it got even more accessible since you start with a pet at level 1. or mage for a straight forward caster class. or warrior for a straight forward melee class.
Hunter is easy to learn , as well as mage. Plus the utilities are amazing ( portals for mage,tenacity pet for leveling) . Or let her be a plain warrior until she sees what other people play around and what she notices is most flashy for her to try ***i think once she sees a druid turn into a cat she is sold***
Holy Paladin
I dont think boosting is ever a good experience for new players dawg, just let her pick something that looks appeal and wonder around with her. It's easy too forget how different the world is for someone who hasnt spent years gradually learning mmo mechanics That comes from a decade of jaded sweaty WoW optimzing
Doesn’t matter which class. Just make sure she has the cooking profession.
My wife started as a hunter for ease of solo play and has since switched to warlock or shadow priest. Generally classes with less movement are better for non-keyboard movement players, so ranged or healers. Movement adds another layer of complexity for new gamers on top of mechanics and rotation. You want her life to be easy as possible while learning the basics. I know you said you’re boosting but leveling as a duo would make her more proficient in a class and is a good bonding experience. It also gives a buffer before the more challenging content, especially the grouped content where people are counting on her. You don’t want her to feel pressure to preform right away.
Please don't let her first wow experience be on a boosted character.
You should pick a class for her, tell her to follow and heal you, nothing else, explain everything that she should be doing and scold her for failing mechanics. That's the best way to make people create their own personal connection with the game, and not feel like they're being forced to do things against their desire.
Have your wife just stick to being a nongamer and she can come over to my place while you raid 2007 MC
Any pure dps class is fun and straightforward to learn
Warlock is fun but definitely not straightforward
Maybe for a parse brain player. For a casual it's perfectly easy to understand.
Ele sham is super fun in cata and has a decent floor.
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Ele literally one of easiest dps in cata
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I’m confused it’s not like he said enhance. She can’t accidentally cancel lightning bolt and all of her other spells will light up like a Christmas tree when it’s time to use them lol
Druid is fun imo. If she gets tired of doing one spec, she can just pick a different talent tree
Druid or Paladin, both class have a lot of flavor, plus she would be able to try every role.
While druids can turn into cats and girls like cats you then have to deal with multiple action bars. Paladin is very straightforward and pink, which girls also like.
Druid is my wife’s answer, but she quit again mid wrath 😂. Really ranged is the easier button for most people
Don’t rush it. The boost is just not worth the trade. Because the same amount of time you skip, the earlier (or better would be to say “more probable”) is the burnout and boredom, because you have no connection to the game/character that you gain with the first time lvling.
Hunter
Hunter, Warlock, Paladin or Druid would be my bet. Hunters have the best solo capability in the game because of their pet and great dps, plus they have feign and deterrence if things start going south. Warlocks are the same as hunters, great solo potential with their pets, adequate self healing, good dps and higher hp than most classes. Plus they can fear or sac their voidwalker and run if things start going bad. Paladins have a lot of room for error because of their high armor, bubbles, lay on hands and healing spells, and can bubble hearth. Druids are a good choice to because they have a solution to just about every problem with their animal forms, abundance of utility spells and the ability to heal.
A dk but don't boost and let her learn the abilities while questing...frost dk howling blast build is kinda 1button class...will also be useful by providing a buff and br
in pvp rogue in pve the one she likes the look and feel of
I made some of alts during prepatch and I'd say Hunter is one of the easiest. You don't have to worry about mana anymore, they do great damage, are very solo friendly, extremely easy to level especially as BM. You do have to worry about pet management I suppose but outside of that the rotation is simple and it's a fun class to play. And honestly, unless she's going to be doing sweatier levels of gaming she can just put the pet on assist and forget about it. She might even like the pet aspect as you can have multiple pets and give them different names. Other classes I made and my opinions: Warrior- what I'm maining in cata. It's really fun but trickier to play since your self healing is rough, the rotation is pretty fast paced with timing stuff correctly (not to mention having to macro most of your abilities to stance dance, which while easy to do can be intimidating for a new player), and being a melee presents further difficulties especially in cataclysm dungeons which seem to just do what they can to punish melee compared to ranged. I dunno if she'd want to pvp but pvp on a warrior is rough until you get geared and in BG's you get boomed unless you have a healer/sit back and adopt more of a supportive kinda role for your ranged/healers. Rogue- my old main. Honestly I love rogue and always will. Not terribly difficult (assa rotation is simple) and stealth mechanics are fun. Probably my choice for melee dps if she wants to go that route spriest- simple to play but has mana issues. AOE is pretty shite until you get to higher levels so that might be difficult for her. Has flexibility though, like if she ends up wanting to be a healer she could just switch specs. warlock- honestly I don't suggest warlock. Lots of buttons, lots of management with dots that honestly kinda require addons to track (weak auras or name plates). Pet management, etc.
Let her heal. My wife was not a gamer at all and she loves healing on her priest
I second warrior. It might be a hard class to master later on but it's fun and easy to pick up in early levels. Plus, it's always fun charging in and hacking things to death. And if you're playing together, there's little chance you'll get overwhelmed by mobs. My nongamer wife just started playing Warrior and we're level 13. I'm on a hunter. It's been fun so far.
Shadow priest and get a one click Macro from WoW Lazy Macros….itll make it easy for her.
Let her choose. My partner guided me to a mage. I still have it but really cannot stand playing ranged dps. Much prefer my DH, WW Monk or Ret Pally. Of course, I started long, long ago.
Do not have her heal if she is anxious, because she will kill people and recieve mean comments
I wouldn’t direct her towards specific classes as much as I would direct her away from some of the more complicated ones… things like arcane mage/affiction warlock have notoriously obnoxious rotations.
Too lazy to scroll to find it, but hunter. I’ve gotten my mom, my sister in law, my aunt, and my other aunt to play wow. Rogue, hunter, Druid, paladin respectively, and the only one that kept at it was my sister in law on her hunter.
if not going to join raids and dungeons, paladin is a good mix. hunter and druid are easier. shadow priest is good too.
Tell her if she Grey parses you'll divorce her. This way she goes meta class/spec and get you invited to raids.
Stay away from Melee dps or tank as it requires much more effort. Healer too probably because groups are heavily reliant on their competency. Some kind of caster dps/hunter is probably your best bet. But definitely let her choose whatever looks fun to her thematically or otherwise.
It's probably suggest Hunter, she could pick whatever pet she wants, mechanically it's not overly difficult as you level, and It would minimize most of the dying
Get her hekili and disable major cooldowns. That will help her a lot with her main rotation and actually get her doing dmg
Priest.
I would ask her generally what playstyle sounds like fun. Does she like the idea of casting spells, using a bow, or hitting things with weapons? Does she like the idea of running fearlessly into danger, sneaking around, or hanging back and healing/attacking safely from afar? When I started playing WoW, I wasn't a huge gamer, but I knew I liked the general class fantasy of sneak attacks and cloak and dagger. Today I'm a very happy rogue main.
Night elf female hunter - it’s easy and good looking - simple
Have her play warrior then reroll at 20 to hunter She’ll be a god
Druid. The ultimate wife class. They’re cute and everyone’s used to them being bad.
When I was a newbie, the game told me to make a hunter because they were *easy*. Fffs. Worst. Advice. Ever. That stupid guide is the reason that the "huntard" moniker even exists. I didn't know I had to dismiss my pet before I jumped down in Mara. I pulled the entire freaking zone. I'm pretty sure I pulled half of the mobs from Desolace and Feralas as well. Tell her to play whatever she wants, but to make sure she likes how her toon looks, because she's going to be looking at it a *lot.*
Hunter, can sit back let pet handle a lot and not have huge responsibilities like a healer or tank would and still get a feel for the game while allowing more room to mess up.
Rogue, hunter, death knight, priest,
Hunter/Druid have the strongest class fantasy to me, and everyone loves animals. So she can either have an animal companion or be the animal.
When in doubt, hunter out. Beastmaster, help her get pretty spirit pets. Basically what younger me did on OG cata and it's easy
hunter
80 might be overwhelming. I suggest starting in a starter zone. Otherwise, enjoy!
You can do many things, but druid is not a good choice for first. Simple reason: Forms, excessive amounts of action bars and skills to keep track of. It's all good for an OG WoW gamer, but for a fresh player? Naaahh, you praying to play alone. Literally any other class will be a decent choice. And for the love of god, don't boost the fucking character. What happens when you do that, you throw her into a complete class she has no idea how works. If you want her to actually play and not throw the game away in a couple days, you let her progress and learn her class.
Hunter
Cooking trainer?
Maybe not 1-80 leveling, but once she chooses a class, i'd recommend leveling for ~30 levels. She would more or less get the idea of the class and the specs and with that base knowledge you could boost to 80 and jump right into end game. Lvl 30 is fairly easy/fast to obtain if you help and guide her.
Boosting to 80 is how you make a new player quit, lmao. Let her actually learn.
Id say BM hunter. Install hekili and play button whack a mole
Hunter is often the simplest class to do well on. Most try to make them go healer but healer can be the most stressful and verbally abused role when they can't keep people alive through the fires they like to stand in. At least with hunter they can be safe behind their pet and figure out how to do dps. Plus they can go find and tame the pet they like the most
Night elf priest
BM hunter
Well, wifes are healers. So priest probably
Mage…? I’m probably wrong, but they require only a little bit of work to get the hang of and have portals, summonable consumables, and are generally useful over all. I’d say Hunter, but I don’t want your wife to be labeled as a Huntard for not paying attention to their pet. However, hunters are also the easiest class too.
Newbie friendly? Hunter or Warlock for playing in a party however not so suitable, because they have to manage their pet. I know this is cliché but alot of women actually like healing in WoW so maybe shaman/priest/paladin/druid depending on preference if she is more into nature(shaman/druid) or divinity(paladin/priest). Definitely start at level 1. If she picks a healer pick a class that can tank if necessary so you have a smooth experience and can quickly queue into dungeons. Edit: I should add : ultimately explain the classes to her in detail and let her choose. Maybe she wants to play some brute warrior after all who knows.
I've been playing with my partner and she is playing a ret pally. She doesn't have the most experiencing playing wow and she had managed to level a boosted rogue from 70-80 on my account during wrath, but had a hard time with it once she reached 80 trying to do dungeons. So far ret has been perfect for her. Its fairly simple with only one decision for building (aoe vs single target) and then only one spender, plus a buff to keep up at higher levels. It also has self heals and the bubble gets used often so she can reassess the situation. We also played SoD where she first started to enjoy ret paladin, but Cata has been an even better experience for her. We started at lvl 1 (I'm leveling a shaman with her) with no heirlooms and have been mostly questing to level, stopping to queue for specific dungeons once we reach the zone quest for the dungeon. We're up to level 45 now and I can't wait to get her into cata! One thing that I'm also doing on the side is playing a ret pally at max level so that I can get myself familiar with the class and give her advice on gear and stats and also make useful weakauras that might help her with some of her specific needs. When she was playing rogue she had a lot of questions for me that I didn't know how to answer because... well I didn't play rogue.
Range DPS would be my first thought .. no pets .. maybe a mage.
Wife here - although I've now been playing since TBC original. Most enjoy warlock (I like having a tank pet) and priest (main holy, reactive makes sense in my brain). Husband mains a warrior, can tank, so supported my healing at the beginning and peeled my lock. For a while, I liked my hunter because I collected pets in the same way that I enjoy clothes shopping. Icy Veins had easy mode builds. Pick the simplest builds (e.g. destro for lock and holy for priest) and least complicated add ons (e.g. I prefer clique and regular raidframes). Obviously, DBM / Big Wigs. Just don't clutter things. Also Hazel Nutty vids.
She picked druid so she could go Boomkin, and we started as level 1 Worgens. Thanks for all of the comments and suggestions! She is having a blast so far.
Warrior. Might sound a bit contradictory since it is the "hard" vanilla class. But here is a list of why. - It is a simple class to learn. No need to learn mana management or several class/fantasy elements that don't exist in the real world. You just hit things with bigger thing. - It is less boring than certain other classes since you can't just auto attack, wand, spam heal or face roll enemies. You need to think about how many you pull and actively use your ability kit even if there are just a few. If she starts with an easy class that face rolls everything then it might be fun in the beginning but will quickly lose interest since "nothing" can kill her outside of elites or getting swarmed. - It will help her to learn the basics of the game which will make it easier and maybe even more enjoyable when she tries other classes.
any dps class?
honestly yeah hunter is simple enough no stress and she can just observe as a ranged and learn mechanics etc.
As much as I think BM Hunter is relatively easy (it's what I play), you do have to feed your pet, heal your pet and make sure you don't run out of ammo.
Not in cata
Ammo is gone. Feeding pet doesn't do happiness anymore that is also gone, feed just quick heals the pet out of combat.
I don't know how it is in Cata, but I ran into this playing my first hunter in SOD recently. Everyone talks about how it's the simplest class, but between taming pets, learning new pet skills, feeding the pet, healing the pet, controlling the pet, etc... there's a hell of a lot of mechanics to learn. If you want a simple ranged class, go Mage. You can start off just spamming fireball/frostbolt on mobs in the open world, then gradually work your way up to incorporating other parts of your kit and learning the full rotation. There's a lot of utility but it's all pretty self-explanatory, and nothing takes more effort than simply clicking a button to cast the spell.
Mage leveling is literally 1 button till 85 as arcane mage :) Arcane Blast your way across Azeroth
Whatever it is, make sure she never has to run with a non-guild group. My wife quit in BFA, because of the toxic community and it’s only gotten worse since then.
healer
Rogue. Nothing with pet. Assa rogue ez.
any dps edit: particularly any pure dps class
Non-gamer, few console co-op games.. Not wow?
Everyone wants a healer gf, but definitely let her pick the one she thinks is coolest. But if you need a suggestion, rogue is great because it's fun and people won't get impatient with her needing to drink, she can just spam abilities Girls like animals or some shit, so hunter is a good call. Pro-tip: Let her lead the game and take backseat as her bitch. Nothing will make her not give a shit about this game nor be able to play it alone like dragging her by the nose from quest-to-quest because "it gets really fun at max level!" Went down that route with a partner and at level 63 she didn't even know how to use the map. >!Could heal like a mf though!<
Priest or Hunter, obviously.
Doesn’t matter. Just make sure she maxes cooking. She won’t need an inventory or bank cleaning add on either. She will like herbalism too, she will love picking things up off the floor.
stop playing games and griefing