Class "roles"

[MongoJerry]

I think that the chances of a pally being a viable tank are about nil now.

The Blizzard employee who posted the list has reminded people repeatedly that what the list shows is what Blizzard developers intend for classes and not necesarily what they are now. If a class currently does not match its overall role, then they will be changed to make sure that they do.

In the case of the pally, it's a half-finished class, so of course, it's not going to currently be capable of playing out its role effectively. I understand from some of the previews of the upcoming patch that paladins will be getting some aggro management tools (skills and/or talents) in the upcoming patch.

I was in an Uldaman group recently with a gang of level 41-47 characters, and 2 of them had mentioned that they had NEVER partied with a Warlock in an instance! They weren't even sure what I could do. This is because Warlocks aren't aggro holders, healers, or damage dealers. The class falls very firmly in the "other" category

In the high level instances, where the more experienced players play, warlocks are highly desired classes in instances now. Part of this is that the high level instances are far away, and people are lazy and want summons instead of traveling all the way there, and part because warlocks now provide a lot to a group. The default five-person group setup that I see people in the high level instances attempt to get is: warrior/priest/mage/warlock/paladin. If no paladins are abvailable, then sub in a druid or priest. If someone wants to give their rogue friend a break, then sub in a rogue for either the mage or warlock.

Hunters... Haha poor guys they are the ones who are left out in the cold. Their damage is not as high, their utilities are lacking. I'm waiting for talents though to see if they will go from pretty gimped class to a powerhouse (or maybe Blizzard figured out how to add talents without making class overpowered).

Again, it's a half-finished class -- actually far more unfinished than paladins. Pandarus is in the mid-40's now and deals quite a bit of damage and does quite well in groups, including not only providing dps but also crowd control with the pet tanking one or more mobs. Currently, of course, the lack of talents, high level skills, and high level guns and bows means that their dps falls off rapidly in comparison to other character classes. But that's not an overall design issue. It's purely an implementation issue and when the next patch introduces talents and some other "luv'n" for hunters that they've talked about, I think you'll see hunters asked for in instances much more often.

Actually, with some of the things they've hinted at regarding hunters, I'm starting to wonder if mages will have any role in a party. Maybe people will make high level mage alts in order to give free water and food out to groups in the beginning so that groups won't have to carry around a gimpy mage.