Thursday, March 17, 2011

Are there any classes you just don't get?

Alas' post yesterday touched on keeping up with class changes in patch notes. It's definitely a hard thing to do.

But it got my brain going off on a different tangent.

WoW currently sports 10 classes that cover a wide range of play styles. There's mana, energy, rage, focus, runes, and runic power. HoTs, DoTs, and nukes. Pets and minions. So many ways to play.

Are there any classes you just don't get?

I don't mean classes you've played to 10 or 20 and decided they weren't for you. I mean ones you've spent a good chunk of time with and just can't get a grasp on?

For me, it's Death Knights.

When I started Maarken, it was mostly just because I wanted to see the DK starting zone. Ultimately I decided to level him up because I needed a high-level herbalist and he was a lot closer to 80 than any of my other toons with open professions. So I specced Blood, went tearing off through Outland and Northrend, and generally had a good time. I never fooled myself into thinking I was doing it "right," but I felt like I had the basic mechanics of Blood down and I enjoyed it while I was doing it.

I tried Unholy PvP to get him from 78 to 80, just to do something different. I don't want to say I did horribly, because I didn't. But I think that had a lot less to do with me as a player as it did with the fact that I was using a DK. I'm pretty sure I could have done a lot better if I'd known what I was doing.

Once he got to 80, he only saw action when Siaaryn needed herbs. But even running around Sholazar collecting herbs, when I'd get attacked by something, it felt like it was taking forever to kill.

Now Cata's here. Blood is the tank spec, and while it may still be an option for leveling, it's probably not the best one.

I've gone through 2 and half levels as Unholy since Cata's release, including one group run. I've read a few guides and blog posts about how to play the spec correctly. I've even looked at what it would take to go Frost to give that a shot. Bottom line, though...I always feel like I'm reading a foreign language.

Even when it comes to just having DKs in my raids, I can't give any DPS or tanking advice because I just plain don't understand them. The only thing I have a solid enough handle on to consider asking is, "Can you death grip that caster over here?"

My guild isn't exactly overflowing with DKs, so that helps. It's actually somewhat uncommon for us to have one in our smaller raids.

Of course, that's also one less reason for me to make the effort to figure them out.

2 comments:

  1. I can totally relate to that post! I never got a handle on my DK Herbalism/Inscription Twink myself during WotLK, which is why he sat in Dalaran with lvl 65 and that was totally enough for me. I read through different guides, including Elitistjerks, but I didn't really know what to do.
    I think I finally had a breakthrough with my new DK twink though. he just hit 75, and I guess i got a grip on how to tank in bloodspec and how to dps in frost spec. I suspect it has something to do with the big cataclysm overhaul ....

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  2. I quested to get Maarken to 82 so that I would have access to Deepholm for herbing. I was toying with the idea of going Frost and seeing if I liked/understood that any better, but in the quests I did I was only able to pick up one good 1H weapon. I know Frost can effectively 2H now, but I like the idea of dual wielding more.

    But with Grevioux now being 85 and an Herbalist, I really have no reason to keep working on Maarken. And other than when I was ripping through Outland in Blood, feeling completely OP, I've never really had fun with him. I don't plan on deleting him just yet...but he's probably first on my list to get axed if it comes to that.

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