Most powerful WOW character/class for solo-play?

[MongoJerry]

What is the most powerful character/class if you intend to play WOW just occasionally and mostly solo? Is, for example, the melee-centered Orc Warrior ín WOW the same power-house as the Barbarian is in Dibalo II, who was perfect for solo-games? Or should one better choose a Mage, Druid, Shaman or Warlock? Or a Hunter?

The first question I have is, "Why do you want to solo?" One *can* solo outdoors all the way through level 60 with all classes of characters, but there are some classes that are faster at it than others. So, which class you pick depends on *why* you want to solo. The answer I think Nobbie is looking for is very different from the one I think Ghostinger is looking for.

Reason #1: I'm only going to play sporadically and don't have time to organize or play in groups. I'm willing to play in the occational group if an opportunity arises, but I expect a lot of solo play, because I'll only be playing an hour here and an hour there and won't be able to play in a lot of instance groups. Since I won't be playing a lot, I'd like to play a character who can solo well and make progress on his or her own quickly.

In this case, I can immediately eliminate priests from the table. I loved playing priests and despite what others think, because of their survivability, they are quite solo capable and I've killed mobs that other classes think are impossible at the same level. But at the same time, the time per kill of those or any mobs was much longer than it would be for other characters.

For opposite reasons, I'd eliminate mages from the table. In their case, you can kill mobs very quickly, but you can also get killed very quickly. If you're soloing as a mage a lot, you have to take into account all the time you'll spend running from the graveyard and drinking after draining your mana pool in every fight into your time/kill ratio. You'll find that the ratio for a solo mage isn't all that great. Mages really shine when they have someone else tanking for them, so as soon as a mage gets into a 3+ person party, they start cleaning house. But that's not what you want, so let's eliminate mages for now.

If I had to pick one "best" soloable character, I would say the shaman. Shamans have decent dps, can wear mail armor (after level 40), can heal themselves, and use earthbind and other totems to run away if too many mobs show up. Rogues can do quite well with their combination of excellent dps and their sap/stunning/blinding abilities. They can also wear leather armor so they aren't as squishy as mages. Hunters are excellent soloers now that they have talents and now that there are more bows and guns in the game. Their dps is excellent and after you get the hang of how to use your pet, you'll find their surviveability to be very good. Bolty already mentioned warlocks. If you like spellcasters, they're a good choice. Like hunters, a lot of pet management is required. Warriors and paladins are have great surviveablilty potential, but their dps isn't terrific. An offensive spec'd (both armor and talent-wise) warrior can do reasonably well. Unfortunately, groups will want you defensive spec'd, so you're caught in a situation of having to be spec'd one way for solo play and another way for group play. I'm not 100% sure on druids, because I haven't played them enough, but it doesn't seem like they could be classified in the "best" soloing group. Like all classes, they are solo capable, but they don't have the overall dps that other classes have.

Bottom line, my candidates for "best" soloers are: shamans, hunters, rogues, and warlocks.

Whats the best "farmer" is my question.

Theres 2 kinds of farming.
Killing a lot of modest mobs to get loot by volume. Ussually the highest damage class does this well.
And killing the biggest mobs anyone can solo for higer quality loot in lesser quanities. Ussually the hardest kill class does this well(you can be hard to kill because of hit points or special skill/pets)

On the other hand, the situation shifts dramatically for the situation Ghostinger is looking at: item farming. I'm concerned by Ghostinger's post, actually, and similar ones posted by others in this forum. I fear that people who haven't played WoW much may still be thinking in terms of Diablo II farming, where the "best" farmer was the one who could get to and solo kill cows, Pindleskin, and/or Baal (depending on what patch we're talking about) the fastest. This was because these mobs dropped the best items in the game, were easily soloable, and one could trade many of the uber l33t items one found for the ones you really wanted.

This model doesn't work in WoW. Simply put, the best items in the game cannot be found solo. The best items in the game are found in instance dungeons, usually off of instance bosses or via quests involving instances, and these instances and bosses cannot be done solo. In fact, as the game has evolved, more people than ever are required to kill the newer bosses. At the extreme, the very best items right now are likely to drop off Onyxia and the boss in the Molden Core, but no one has managed to kill either of them with groups of 40!

An outdoor solo farmer just doesn't work. You can see the remarkable difference in the quality of the items between those who instance farm a lot and those who spend most of their time outdoors. On occation, a solo outdoor farmer who is killing mob after mob might find an elite item, but most of the time that elite item will be useless to the character who found it and that item will end up being sold in the auction house for cash.

OK, then, what about a cash farmer? Surely, that can be done effectively with a solo outdoor farmer? Yes, absolutely! Probably the best way to hoard cash is to farm outdoors. So, couldn't a soloer hoard lots of cash and then buy all the best items? Nope. Most of the best items are bind-on-pickup, so they can't be sold at the Auction House. The AH is a good source of second-tier equipment, but farming cash isn't a good way to obtain the best equipment.

No, if you want the best items in the game, you want to give up the idea of the solo farmer and instead think of instance farming. What are the best instance farmers?

Priest: No group ever has too many priests, no group ever wants to go anywhere without one, and too few people want to play them. The result is that if you are a priest, you're golden in any instance party. My priests have always been spammed with requests to join instance parties, and I could always pick and choose which instance group I wanted to join. Within days of the introduction of any new instance, I could be found to be covered in the latest items from the new instance, because within 15 minutes of finishing up one run, I could go on another.

Mage: Groups always want the firepower mages provide, and since most of the higher level instances have areas where lots of little mobs attack the group, groups always want to have classes with effective area-of-effect dps on them. No class has better AoE dps than mages, so both 5-man and raid-level groups like to have plenty of mages around. The only problem with mages as instance farmers is that mages are one of the most popular classes around, so there's lot of competition, and several other classes can be effectively substituted for a mage slot in a party -- warlocks, hunters, and to some extent rogues.

Warlocks/hunters: Currently, warlocks and hunters are not especially popular in general parties, but I believe that this is mostly due to social inertia. Both classes spent so long being underpowered that the general population of players haven't caught on to the idea of just how powerful both of these classes have recently become. I know that in the more adaptable elite instance parties that I traveled around in, warlocks were very popular, but this popularity hadn't yet trickled down into the lower-level circles with newer players. Similarly, hunters were just starting to see some respectability in the last couple of weeks of the beta, but this respectability hadn't yet trickled down to the general player population. In my opinion, warlocks and hunters over time will see their respectibility rise to the level of mages in instance parties.

Warriors: The warrior is a tough one. A good well-equipped warrior can be extremely popular for instance parties. Like priests, no party is going to go anywhere without a warrior, so there's enormous demand for their services. However, more people play warriors than priests, so there's more competition and there are fewer slots for warriors to play in. At an extreme level, a 40-person raid party "needs" 8 priests (one to cover each 5-man party) and prefers to have around 12 priests. On the other hand, a 40-person raid party only "needs" 1 warrior and prefers to have about 3 warriors so that it can have some "backup." Once a instance party has its tank, the desire for additional warriors drops to the level of rogues. Actually, probably less than rogues, because at least rogues can stun enemies and deal more damage.

Paladins/shamans/druids: The proverbial "backup" healers. They are desired for instance groups, but they are always considered secondary characters. As in "it'd be nice to have one to backup the priest, but if we have to, we can go without one" kind of thing. Paladins and shamans have their auras and totems, so they can be nice to have along, but most paladins I've talked to usually complain about how they hardly ever get invited to instance groups. I haven't played horde since the cap was level 39, so I don't know if it's the same way for shamans. Druids are usually asked along only if the group can't find enough priests. (Note: In the most recent patch, paladins had some popularity, because they were able to hold aggro better than warriors with the new taunt system. However, I suspect that this situation won't hold and that warriors will return to being the real party tanks at release or soon after release).

Rogues: The pariah of instance parties. Seriously, the words "instance" and "rogues" shouldn't be used in the same sentence. Yes, rogues can get into parties in a dps role, but that's usually because either someone knows you or because the party couldn't find a mage first. Rogues simply aren't instance farmers.

Incidentally, if you really really for some God knows what reason want to have an solo item farmer, I recommend playing a rogue, because roques can stealth by most of the annoying mobs and get to the target mob/chest/mining node faster than everyone else can. But back to my original point: if you're looking to farm the best items in the game, think in terms of group instance farming.