I wanted to start a thread sharing some of my thoughts and plans for a shadowlands main, and see if others wanted to share as well. It sounds like all classes are changing somewhat with the "unpruning" of certain abilities and the addition of covenant signature spells. I imagine because of this lots of us want to test drive stuff and see how it feels. However I imagine some have an idea about where they are leaning, and I thought i'd share. It seems The developers have decided to move a bit past the idea of 'bring the player, not the class". Upcoming shadowlands changes strongly increase class identity and unique utility. For example the inscription scrolls for the raidwide buffs are going away, so if you want them then you need to bring a warrior, priest, mage, etc. The Engineer battle rez is going away, and Drums are being nerfed. At our lvl it may not matter overly much, but my brain has a hard time leaving power off the table. As a result i imagine we will want at least one of several classes.
Mage, Warrior, Priest, Demon Hunter, monk, and Battle rez classes, so druid, warlock, Deathknight?
That's not to guilt people into class choices, I think it's important to have fun. I think it's better to have happy players doing what they like than "optimal". I've recently been lvling and gearing Alts instead of grinding out visions, etc. ( yay Expansion lull) And I realize there a quite a few classes I like and would be happy playing as my main in Shadowlands. Basicly, if you combine my inability to not Min-max at least a little, with my Special Snowflake Narcism "Tm". I'll end up maining one of the classes above if nobody else decides too, As I said before this isn't a sacrifice, I genuinely enjoy these classes, Also I'm not looking to pressure people into playing what they don't want. On the contrary I hope by sharing my plans, Others who might have been thinking like me feel a bit more free to pursue what they want most.
I'm also probably looking to get into M+ in shadowlands, I came into bfa too late to do the raider io grind, and learn the ins and outs of the dungeons, but I like the M+ system, and will be thinking of m+ as I pick a Main as well. I think in a vacuum i'd pick a class that either can tank, or get into M+ easily, like rogue.
Basicly I'm wondering what class gets you guys excited for shadowlands! Anybody hoping to change Raid roles?
I've recently discovered i really enjoy tanking pugs at least, helps to Herd Cats when people expect you to lead anyways.
I'm leaning towards, Rogue, Druid, Warlock, Monk. Dps or Tanking, ive wanted to learn heals for abit now, but im just not sure if i'd like it, seems a lot different than my typical wow experience.
uh, yeah, so i think that's what the End of my wall of text.
TLDR: classes matter, I'm a pick me type, and will fill in whatever other people don't enjoy. :p
I think that all sounds good Smaax! Hopefully we get some more posts here with other peeps thoughts and that can help ya make a final decision =)
I can say that I plan on maining Roenn (although the spec is TBD =P). I just enjoy playing mage the most and it fits my preferred playstyle really well.
I'd really like to try out all of the different covenants so I can see myself having up to 4 leveled characters. I like having a tank, DPS, and healer so I'd probably go DK tank, Mage, Priest heals and then I'm not sure on the 4th. I've always wanted to try a DH so I may level one of those before the xpac hits and see how I enjoy it. Just reading about it I like Kyrian as the covenant for Roenn but I'll see where the story takes me. Also in that reading I'm the least interested in the vampire covenant, just didn't seem up my alley. But we'll see!
I'm really excited for the xpac though! With COVID this year vacations were cancelled so I'm looking forward to the xpac release as I took that week off to just relax and play through the content =)
I had high hopes for Enhancement Shaman, but so far they have performed poorly and have received a bit of shade from YouTubers for "press all these weak buttons until Stormstrike is available", which is disappointing...
SO...probably not a shaman, unless things change drastically for the class...
THAT being said, at this point I'm considering a MONK or DESTRO LOCK (yes really, a destro lock) as my top choices - RET PALLY or DH as second tier - unless the Shaman gets tuned properly and doesn't fall next to dead last in DPS performance.
I know, I know, "play what you like" but like Smaax, I have a bunch I'd be willing to play, so...we shall see, but still, i'd like to play a class that performs too. LOL
Some people are just born to be boring: my main will be a combat rogue...er, I guess they are still misnamed as outlaw. If possible I'll level up a demonology warlock just slightly behind, in order to get whatever the new jewelcrafting brings. (Probably won't progress engineering skill until I've maxed out jewelcrafting, they tend to use the same mats.) Some time after both of those have reached 60 (again) I'll work on my disc/shadow priestess. Because we need fear ward. )
BfA has been a wet blanket of an expansion; so I found myself bouncing around trying to have fun. Shadowlands eems to remedy some things while destroying others. Regardless, I'm a bit more optimisitc for Shadowlands because I'm in a lovely guild with lovely people; unlike my initial BfA experience where I was a solo player. For Shadowlands, I'll be moving away from my warrior and onto my Deathknight. I'll still be a tank; that won't change at all. There are outlier motivations for this (I'm hopeful that a few old guildmates will return). For an alt character, I will bring my Priest who has healed since the dawn of Vanilla. Whether she will be Holy or Disc I am unsure because I really need more hands on experience since there are still heavily modifying priests.
The beginning of an expansion is exciting for me because I love to learn every aspect of each tech and class while running folks through dungeons. Typically by the beginning of the second week of an expansion, I'm mythic dungeon ready and will happily run with people to help everyone get geared and just have fun.
I'm going to main a gnome rogue.
Hah just kidding. Can't decide on druid or monk for my shadowlands main. But I am confident I will not be primary raiding on the paladin.
Awesome! I'm working on getting more alts up. The only alliance characters I dont have at 120 that I'm considering are priest, warlock and warrior. I thought I would hate windwalker monk, but it's growing on me. It's more complex than most other dps I play. The big thing for me is gonna be seeing where the level squishy, Unpruning, covenants and conduits leave all the classes. Seems like we have plenty of people that like tanking so ill assume that's covered. I might try to learn healing again. It might be a ton of fun. I have druid monk and pally I could try with right now. Maybe ill go ruin someone's lfr. Lol.
Also, you joke dork, but I found a transmog for my gnome rogue ive fallen in love with. We might give kill a stroke.
Firemane will continue to be my main. As a long time admirer and defender of Jaina Proudmoore she has been known to dabble with Frost in certain environments, but she will always be a Fire Mage at heart. Arcane is right out, however.
Ill likely run enhance shaman, but I'm awefully tempted to switch to elemental for the flexability of swapping to restore quickly.
I am boring. Lierra, holy priest, has always been my Trivial main. Even though it LOOKS like they've really messed up Bastion - which is where I'd expect devotees of the Light to tend, I'm hoping that she can still be Lierra in Shadowlands. (The Bastion trailer seemed designed to discourage role players like me from playing. I wonder if Blizzard has any idea that might happen.) If she can't, I'm not sure what I'll do.
I hope to bring up alts as well. I had that hope in the last two major expansions, but fewer and fewer of my alts are being tended to. <sigh> I'd like to try the forest druid story, but that could be either Medley (druid), Jessamyne (monk) or Airryl (shaman). Depending on what it takes to get them from where they are to Shadowlands (Jess is the only one that leveled completely this time around and managed alt raids), I may test each of them to find out which class and spec suits me amongst those choices.
Don't have an undead and never got the hang of rogue skills (H says I don't "think like a rogue") so am not sure what I'd think of working that story line... but I could certainly see my warrior Mendolyn considering it, given she's married (formerly married? Kinda depends on whether or no Azeroth oaths are "until death do us part", I guess) to a death knight. Or possibly my shadow/Disc priest Akidema. I do have a rogue, Memoril, but just don't see me playing her ever again, outside of role-play. Being invisible is the only fun thing I find about being a rogue. I do love invisibility.. as long as I remember to turn it back on. <wry smile>
Vampires don't interest me at all. Not sure how Blizz could write a story line that would make me want to play through. I may change my mind when I see what other players post about it on YouTube, but that's quite a long ways out... and these storylines will have to all be pretty dang good to have me spend 4 characters-worth of energy on them. There is no new character type (Boralus, Mechagnome, vulpine, or whatever) that inspires me enough visually to go through the entire leveling process again after so many alts over all these years past. I think it would take an entirely new class to spark that kind of effort in me.
But that's just me.
I am not sure what I will want my main to be. I plan to have my outlaw rogue as my DPS, my resto driud being a healer, and a Prot Pally being a tank. I don't think Pally will be my main, so likely between my Rogue and druid as my main (probably will go with whatever the guild needs more).
My rogue will likely join the Necrolords. My Druid will be with the Night Fae. The Pally I will be leveling from 1-60, but expect to do that mostly during the pre-patch (Seeing estimates that it takes under 10 hours to do 1-50 with pre-patch so I should be able to complete by launch); I expect to the Pally to be with Kyrian but possibly the Venthyr (the ability there seems pretty interesting for M+).
If anyone else wants to power level together during the pre-patch let me know.
Of course I'm gonna be a Demon Hunter.
I'm planning on sticking with the druid thing, and having the same bear/boom specs in Shadowlands. Hopefully they'll be worthwhile. I'll also level up my hunter pretty quickly, then see what I feel like for the rest. Usually I go for mage and DH next.
UPDATE: After some recent significant changes to Enhancement Shaman, I am back on board, I think. My dps hasn't been top 5 (mostly not top 10) but my gear score is much lower than our normal raiding team, so I'm not worried about that piece. I like the recent changes, and so I will probably try to main Desperado, my shaman. That is the current plan...
If things change, or my opinion changes, then I'll main my destruction lock, Destopia. Her dps is slightly higher, but I've always been a melee dps fan, and that play style is more comfortable for me.
TL:DR - Currently going to main an Enh Shaman, minor a Destro Lock.