World of Warcraft

Many years ago, in my college days, I played the extremely popular World of Warcraft (WoW) game. Though I was never as addicted to the game as those die hard fans you hear stories about, I did enjoy playing the game. Between playing WoW and Call of Duty, Ididn't get much homework done. I played the game in what I think many would agree was the height of its popularity, in the expansion Wrath of the Lich King. My friends and I spent many hours questing and raiding. After I got married, my wife convinced me I needed to return to college, well that and I found working without a degree something I didn't ever want to do again. So I stopped playing the game. Over four years and three expansions later, I have decided to return to Azeroth. I want to take you along for the ride as I my favorite places and try out the new features of the game. However, my goal is to record videos of my gameplay for you to see. I do want to involve you the readers this time though. I will be playing the alliance, since that was the faction i played before and wish to play on my old server, what race and class should I create for my videos? Perhaps a Worgen warrior or druid? Maybe a Human paladin or priest? Night Elf druid or rogue? Write your choice of race or class in the comments section and a reason why you chose that combination. The person with the best reasoning will have their character chosen. Then we can create a name and begin questing. I will choose the best answer this Friday, Dec. 5, 2014. 

To end this post I would like to give a short recap of WoW for any readers that do not know. 

World of Wacraft began in 2004 as a continuation of the very popular Warcraft series. The Warcraft games were real time strategy games while WoW is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMO-RPG). The orginal game allowed plyers to play up to level 60, on either the Horde or Alliance factions. Each faction had four races to choose from. The Alliance: Night Elves, Humans, Dwarves, or Gnomes; while the Horde: Orcs, Undead, Trolls, and Tauren. Each race had certain classes they could choose to play as: Warriors, Hunters, Rogues, Priests, Mages, Warlocks, Druids, Shamans, and Paladins (some classes were only available for certain races: i.e. druids could ony be Night Elves or Tauren). Originally, Paladins could only be played by Alliance races and Shamans could only be Horde races. Each class served a specific function in a group: tank - absorbs the majority of attacks and damage, healers - heal raid/party members (specifically the tank), and DPS or damage dealers - deal the majority of damage to the target or targets. Some classes could fill multiple roles, but not at the same time. Here are how the classes break down by role; Tanks - Warriors, Druids, and Paladins; Healers - Priests, Druids, Shamans, and Paladins; DPS - Warriors, Hunters, Rogues, Priests, Mages, Warlocks, Druids, Shamans, and Paladins. Though any class could fill the role of DPS, each has a unique way of dealing damage. 

In January of 2007, WoW released its first expansion, The Burning Crusade.

An old villian in the Warcraft canon returned, Illidian Stormrage and his Burning Legion wreck havoc on the Horde and Alliance again. This expansion raised the level cap to 70 and added two new playable races. The Dranenei (Alliance) and Blood Elves (Horde). Another new feature of the expansion was the addition of flying Mounts in the new territory (Outland). The new races allowed the faction specific classes (Paladin and Shaman) to be played by the other faction. Blood Elves could be Paladins, and Draenei could be Shamans. 

The game continued to grow in popularity, and by the end of 2008, it reached its peak with the release of its second expansion: Wrath of the Lich King. 

The Lich King is another villain from Warcraft lore, who was the focus of the Warcraft III expansion. Now he has returned to seek his revenge. Though no new races were introduced, this expansion saw the introduction of a ne epic class; the Death Knight. The Death Knight served the Lich King until they turned against him and joinded the Alliance and Horde. Death Knights are like a mix between Paladins and Warlocks; they can be Tanks or DPS. This expansion also brought the kingdom of Northrend into gameplay. This was another area where players could fly. This is also where I left the game. The following expansions I have never played. 

December 2010 saw the release of Cataclysm and the first major changes to the WoW game. 

Deathwing, another old villain (can you tell how deep the backstory for this game is?) rips holes in Azeroth and spreads his destruction. The Alliance and Horde must join forces again to stop the onslaught. This expansion saw many note worthy changes to WoW, and set the level cap at 85. Two new races were added: Worgen (Alliance) and Goblins (Horde). This expansion also saw flying mounts coming to the classic lands of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. The Worgen are a major reason why Iam returning to WoW. Another change worthnoting is he expaansion of classes into different races. Each race only had a limited number of classes they could play as, and this expansion allowed more classes for each race. 

September 2012 marked the release of another expansion; Mists of Pandaria.

A new race, new class, new land to explore, and a level cap of 90 are the highlights of this expansion. However, the unique aspect of this expansion was the new race's ability to choose which faction they wanted to side with. The Pandaren could choose to be eiter Aliiance or Horde. Also, the Monk was added to the list of classes providing another all around class like the Druids. Monks can be a Tank, Healer, or DPS. This expansion also focused heavily on the Horde in the story line, rather than a main villain from Warcraft lore. 

The newest expansion of the WoW universe is Warlords of Draenor, released in November of this year. 

Another dip into the history of Warcraft, this expansion returns the Draenei and Orcs to their homeworld where the Iron Horde is poised to launch an invasion of Azeroth. This is where we will pick up; though I am afraid it will take us time to get to 90 and really enjoy the expansion. This is where you will come in. 

We will begin with the playable races. I will list classes I think would be good with that race.

Horde: (though I will not choose one of these races for my firs character for the blog)

Orc - Warrior or Shaman

Undead - Warlock or Death Knight

Troll - Hunter or Rogue

Tauren - Druid or Shaman

Blood Elf - Mage or Paladin

Gobin - Rogue or Warlock

Pandaren - Monk - Priest

Alliance: (note; my current main character is a Night Elf Death Knight)

Human - Death Knight or Warlock

Night Eld - Druid or Hunter

Dwarf - Warrior or Hunter

Gnome - Mage or Warlock

Draenei - Shaman or Paladin

Worgen - Rogue or Warrior

Pandaren - Monk or Priest

Now the classes that I think are best for each role: first on list being best, last being worst.

Tank:

Warrior, Paladin, Death Knight, Druid, and Monk

Healer:

Priest, Druid, Monk, Shaman, and Paladin

DPS:

Mage, Hunter, Rogue, Warlock, Druid, Death Knight, Monk, Priest, Paladin, Shaman

So I look forward to your choices for my character.