How to win in CTF

[Nefera]

The key in what you said is the balanced teams, which rarely happen.

The other day our balanced team had to face a team made up of mostly shamans, it was very frustrating trying to hunt down packs of ghost wolves (we actually won because they went the 7 O 3D and we grabbed their flag every time they grabbed ours, and they just ran our flag around the field untill they could kill our flag carrier. That left them too far from their return point, and they fell into a routine of running, so I waited at one point and smashed their carrier). I think it's mostly the level range where Shamans are so powerful, which is why I've leveled up to 36 and will try again tonight and see how it goes.

I had'nt had much luck with my paladin, but will try it again with your advice (invincable healer, I like the sound of that).

[Mirajj]

What about some thoughts on stripping insignia's off corpses. I played some WG for the first time last night, and had a blast. I wondered if I should take the insignia off the corpse, and decided that I only would if the kill was near the horde base. That way, they either have to wait at the GY, or run back, both of which keep the player out for a bit. If you take the insignia off someone in their base, their ghost can get back before the GY timer.

Anyone else's thoughts?

[Skandranon]

What about some thoughts on stripping insignia's off corpses. I played some WG for the first time last night, and had a blast. I wondered if I should take the insignia off the corpse, and decided that I only would if the kill was near the horde base. That way, they either have to wait at the GY, or run back, both of which keep the player out for a bit. If you take the insignia off someone in their base, their ghost can get back before the GY timer.

Anyone else's thoughts?
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I have not seen, in any battleground, anyone run back and resurrect at their corpse. Doing so returns you to life with under half health and mana, easy gankfodder for rogues, while waiting just a bit gives you a full recharge. Furthermore, after a few deaths, your conventional resurrection timer will be be 5+ minutes, whereas the spirit guides never take longer than 30 seconds to bring you back. I don't consider grabbing insignia to be of any real use, though you can loot a little silver off opposition corpses in Warsong and a whole host of interesting items in Alterac.

[MongoJerry]

Great guide, Brista! Here are some comments on specific items:

- the flag is more important than the players. Keep moving towards your objective at virtually any time except when you're regrouping

- killing people off is sometimes not an effective move. There are many times in battle when players would much rather respawn ahead of your flag carrier on full health and mana. A snare can be better than a kill.

Absolutely. So many people don't understand this.

Rogue - great flag carriers simply for the ability to snatch the flag at surprise moments and then Sprint. Very vulnerable to being intercepted in the middle unless you work with the team. Stun and crippling poison makes you very good at stopping or slowing other players. And killing people helps too :)

Rogues are OK flag carriers in a pinch, but shouldn't be considered primary flag carriers. It definitely helps if they are specced so that they can sprint twice quickly. However, if there's any opposition around that can snare them with anything, rogues are just too easily taken down.

Druid - the best flag carriers. Stealth, be patient and at the crucial moment (perhaps just after a recapture) grab the flag, cat form and dash out of the base, cheetah and run off home. The ability to change and use instant heals is great so don't persist being a cheetah if you look like dying. Most snares are broken by changing shape, also you can break Rogue snares with Cure Poison. If there's more than one druid have them both do the same job - one is a backup. If the role palls then you have great utility as flag carrier support with speed, heals and entangling roots. In a running fight entangling roots is a one-cast eliminator, possibly the strongest spell in the game. Please don't run around the midfield spamming Moonfire though ;)

Yep, druids are just awesomein CTF. Don't forget to mention that while they're being pummeled on, they can switch to bear form and take a real pounding like a warrior (and they can heal themselves somewhat in bear form, too!). This is good to do while your teammates are there to heal you and disrupt the opponents. Then, when the opponents are cleared, it's travel form for the win!

Hunter - natural defenders. Aspect of the Cheetah is great for chasing people but not great when you're being chased. Tracking is great if your team has lost sight of the carrier - find him and tell the raid where he is. You may need Track Beast if you're after a Druid. Feign Death is very effective in the hectic atmosphere. Freezing Trap on the flag is a great defensive move, so is Survival tree specialisation for those rare Hunters who take that path.

You forgot two of the hunter's best abilities -- scattershot and consussion shot. Those ranged stuns that hunters have are just nasty. And, yeah, hunters make fantastic defenders. Forget hanging out in the flag room (flag room defense is largely pointless). Since a hunter can track people, the hunter can join the group in the middle to help in the general fight. Then, when an opponent or group of opponents breaks off to go for the flag, the hunter can break off to defend much more effectively by hitting and slowing opponents before they get to the flag room. And if an opponent does get the flag, then the hunter can track the person and give running updates to the raid on where the flag carrier is (while at the same time slowing the flag carrier with concussion shots and scattershots -- and maybe even a freeze trap).

Priest - great in a pack of players working together. If everyone spreads out and does their own thing then Priest players tend to be especially victimised. The natural place for a Priest is in the middle of an alert aggressive group. AE fear is a very strong ability and is useful for clearing oppostion packs, notably in the flag room.

Equally important as heals is Dispel Magic. Priests can dispell a lot of crowd control items like polymorph, freezing traps, paladin stun, some fears, frost nova, entangling roots, as well as dispell dots dealt by priests and warlocks. Regarding Psychic Scream (aoe fear), it's not that great in the flag room, actually, because it has a limited range (something non-priests never appreciate). It only works at melee range, so you have to get right next to a person to get it to work and people are usually too spread out to have it work on more than one person at a time unless people are charging right at the priest. I do use it in offensive situations like in the flag room, but mostly to disrupt a single target, like the opponent's healer, while my team is focusing on someone else.

However, Psychic Scream plays a much more devastating role when the priest is escorting the flag carrier. In fact, I would say that flag carrier escort is the most powerful role a priest can play. My preferred escort position is *in front* of the flag carrier. If a teammate grabs the flag when I'm in the middle, I'll ask which direction they're leaving and meet them at that exit and run slightly ahead of him or her. If I'm in a charge into the opponents' base, I'll position myself so that when our designated flag carrier grabs the flag, I will already be in front of the direction we're going to go.

Why in front? First, when more defenders show up to intercept the flag carrier (they ran back to help or rezed at the graveyard), I can immediately run up to them and Psychic Scream to clear the way for the flag carrier. The main goal of the opponents in front of the flag carrier is to slow the flag carrier so that teammates left behind can catch up. If I can prevent them from doing that, then that's a big win. Second, being out front, I'm less in harm's way -- less likely to be stunned, frozen, or otherwise snared -- so I can stay with the flag carrier more easily. Third, if the flag-carrier is faster than me -- a druid in travel form, a rogue sprinting, a shaman in travel form, or a mage blinking -- then by starting out in front, I can escort the flag carrier longer. Finally, while I can Dispel Magic, Renew, and PW:Shield on the run, if I have to Flash Heal to keep the flag carrier alive, I have to stand still to do it. By starting off in front of the flag carrier, I won't get left behind when I have to cast a Flash Heal.

And when I'm well positioned, I can choose to use Psychic Scream at the most devastating moment. I can't tell you how many times I've seen this happen: Our druid gets the flag and is being pummeled on in bear form by a warrior and a couple of rogues, and the defenders think they just about have him killed. I run up, cast PW:Shield and renew on the druid on the run, and then cast Psychic Scream when I'm on top of them. The rogues and warrior scatter, our druid switches to travel form while I pop a flash heal on him, and the druid zips out of there free and clear. Simply put, Psychic Scream is an amazing flag escort tool, because of opponents (understandable) propensity to bunch up while they try to take out the flag carrier.

Paladin - another great pack player. Paladins are usually bottom of Horde players' priorities simply because they're so frustratingly hard to kill. Stay close to others and use your heals to keep them alive and your group will roll over anything even remotely disorganised and will beat same-sized horde groups that can't match your group's healing power. In a wierd way that fact that shamans have so many interesting things to do with their mana is a Horde disadvantage in pvp since they will often drain themselves spamming marginal damage spells. Turn the screw on any such naievity by making sure no one in your group dies.

The most devastating paladin skill is their ability to dispell just about everything while being invincible themselves (I use the word "skill" loosely here). This is a major advantage to Alliance teams. Horde teams absolutely have to have at least two priests just to make sure they can cover the dispells on various crowd control abilities. Alliance teams on the other hand can walk around with pally's and have all their healing and dispelling taken care of by players who can't be killed. Meanwhile, Horde has to protect their very fragile priests or else see themselves get decimated by all the crowd control and damage spells of the Alliance team. I'm always happy to see paladins actually trying to attack, because their damage is so feeble. If they would just step back into a priest-who-wears-plate role and throw a stun out once in a while, they would be much more effective.

Someone mentioned below that pally's make decent flag carriers. Not really, because they drop the flag when they noob bubble, so that takes away one of the critical skills that pally's use to survive. I would in fact say they are one of the worst flag carriers -- just barely above priests in the scheme of things.

Shaman - good flag carriers, good pack members, a shaman is a well rounded class which can support anywhere without being outstanding anywhere. Use your snares well and you'll win matches.

Shamans are definitely well-rounded. They can be OK flag carriers if they get out in the open. Earthbind totems and Frost-shock are certainly effective snares. Also, they have a lot of skills that are good anti-caster skills, so they're good fighters. Plus they can heal. And actually, they can deal quite a lot of damage with their various shocks. They're good all around, and I think a Horde team benefits by having one in their team -- if nothing else than to scare the Alliance, because so many Alliance players have irrational fears when it comes to shamans.

Warrior - very much a pack player. From a healer's perspective nothing keeps you safer than a Warrior because if they target you the Warrior will rip them apart while you self-heal and if they target the Warrior they will do poor damage which you can easily heal. Warriors work so much better in packs than alone, perhaps more so than any other class. Key skills are Charge Intercept and Hamstring plus Hitting Someone Very Hard ™.

I've seen warriors used as amazing flag carriers. The times I smile the most is when our team captain says, "Forget this, let's power our way through." I especially remember this time when Sabik, a defensive spec warrior who has tons of Molten Core epic items, was on our team. Sabik grabbed the flag, went defensive stance, hit shield wall every time the cooldown wore off, and marched straight from the enemy flag room, down the tunnel, across the field, and straight up our tunnel to cap the flag. Meanwhile, the whole enemy team tried desperately to pound him into submission while our whole team did everything to disrupt them with fears, snares, or just killing them. And of course, the healers on our team kept Sabik healed and dispelled. On IRC after the fight, the opposing Alliance rogues yelled, "OMG! I critted Sabik for 50!" (probably while he had shield wall up, of course). We've used this tactic several times (with other warriors, too), and seen opponents try it against us. Man, those warriors can really take a beating if they have any reasonable support.

Mage - a devastating class. First you have a great ability to control movement, accelerating your own with Blink and slowing others with Frost Nova and chill effects. Next you do good damage. And finally area effect is fantastic against clumped players. Played with agility a mage often attracts people to try for a kill without them being able to quite kill you. Make sure everyone has drink at the start or before, people get a lot of chances to drink during these matches.

Definitely, frost mages in particular are just devastating. You forgot to mention polymorph, which is incredibly powerful. The best team on Tichondrius is the notorius "frost mage team" from Exiled that uses three frost mages who rotate their frost novas to root all melee opponents and also keep three opponents polymorphed, while the rest of the team kills the opponents' healers. That team always plays together and just has the system down. They're really amazing to watch.

Warlock - The main things I found to do with my warlock on the test server were running around dotting people, disrupting people with Fear and Seduce, hitting the flag room with area effect just as our flag carriers go in (they will all focus on you) and sending pets off to harass distant players from a position of safety.

I see most hardcore warlocks using felhunter to attack spellcasters -- priests, in particular -- and they can be quite annoying. Obviously, a warlock should use fears as often as possible. Know when to use your dots. If your opponent dispells dots quickly, then don't bother. In fact, I think that's why Alliance warlocks focus on priests so much -- so that after the priest dies, he or she can actually use his or her dots. Until the opposing priests die, do other things to disrupt the other team like using curse of tongues and fear -- and send your felhunter after an opposing priest.

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[i][b]5 attack 5 defend [/b][/i]One of the simplest, 5 of you wait to mob whoever comes into the flag room, 5 of you run up the side of the map, avoiding fights and burst into the enemy flag room as a unit. This is the quickest way to beat disorganised opposition. From the Horde perspective I'd suggest running up along the east edge of the map since the ramp up is that side. Defenders, if overwhelmed, usually respawn soon enough and far enough ahead that they get a second bite. Remember to run towards the middle when you respawn though!

5/5 is OK to use when you're in a pickup raid, because it has the advantage of being easy to organize and understand. Hopefully, the defenders start their defense in front of the base and not in the flag room, or else they'll be in trouble. However, against a well coordinated raid, 5/5 will be run over by larger groups using 10/0 or 8/2.

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[i][b]10 attack[/b][/i] I've seen this a lot in 51-60 battles. I think the idea is that this strategy beats the very common 5/5 formation - you will easily grab the opposition flag and you may be able to meet a 5 strong flag carrying group with your 10. In practice it always seems to result in both sides getting the opponents flags and then a long drawn out hunt for the flag carrier (who is always very near their own flag room waiting to drop in and win). I'm unconvinced that this beats 5/5 but it's very popular with high level players so I guess people feel it does

It will always beat 5/5, because the 10 will always quickly roll any 5. However, I prefer an 8/2 strategy.

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[i][b]9 defend one stealths[/b][/i]. Boring but very effective. Your 9 back at base will marmalise the opponents until they get frustrated enough to attack with everything. I've only actually seen this done a couple of times and it's worked both times.

Depends on where they're defending. If they're defending the flag room, a team like this can be destroyed quickly. (An aoe fear from a warrior combined with snares from other people holds the defenders down a few seconds. A druid then picks up the flag and is gone before the defence can do anything). If they're defending in front of the base, then, yeah, this could work, although it'd be very boring.

My preferred tactic is:

8/2 Control the Middle

In this configuration, it at first looks like 10/0 in that all ten players quickly run up to the middle to engage the enemy. The difference is that if the opponent has a small group break off to go after your flag, then two people are assigned to pull back and defend, delay, and track the flag, while the other eight people continue with what they're doing. What the other eight people do depends on the situation and what the opponents do. If they opponents are using a 5/5 tactic, then we quickly roll their offensive team and charge their flag (maybe including the two defenders, although they might hang out in the middle just in case an opponent tries to do something funny) to get the quick flag capture and the win. If the opponent is coming with 10/0, then we might send a small one or two person force to capture their flag while the rest fights in the middle and tries to slow down and bust up the oncoming charge.

Basically, the tactic is one of flexibility. In general, the default is to control the middle and take advantage of opportunities that the opponent gives us by either being too aggressive or not aggressive enough. The tactic also has the advantage of keeping an opponent guessing as to what we're going to do. Sometimes, we're only attacking with one or two players. Sometimes, we're charging in with 6-8 players. Sometimes, we have a strong defence. Other times, we chuck it all and brute force take their flag with the intention of meeting and taking down their flag carrier on our return trip. It works very well, but of course, it has a big disadvantage in that it requires quick communication. It's pretty much one that requires most of the team to be on teamspeak.

[Tal]

Someone mentioned below that pally's make decent flag carriers.  Not really, because they drop the flag when they noob bubble, so that takes away one of the critical skills that pally's use to survive.  I would in fact say they are one of the worst flag carriers -- just barely above priests in the scheme of things.
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There are times when it is advantageous for a paladin to "noob bubble" when carrying the flag. I've used it to good effect with a warrior ready to scoop up the flag as it always takes at least a few moments for the horde to switch from trying to hit me to the new warrior target. This also puts me in position to not only heal myself but to heal the warrior through the finish line. Though it begs the question as to why a class skill would be characterized as "noob". We can only use the skills we are given...

[MongoJerry]

Though it begs the question as to why a class skill would be characterized as "noob". We can only use the skills we are given...

All paladins are noobs. If they weren't a noob, they would pick a more challenging class to play. One must understand that this is coming from a Horde perspective. I hear these kinds of comments frequently while playing: "He's level 40, let him go." "He's a paladin." "Oh, kill him then." It's like Horde players find killing paladins a duty just to make sure that paladins know what it is like. So many paladins must be shocked and amazed when death actually happens to them.

Regarding your comment on paladin flag carriers, you just proved my point. The only reason to have a paladin carry the flag is so that he or she can drop the flag for someone else to carry it. Such a switch is pretty dangerous, because it's just as easy for an opponent to hit the flag as well, so this isn't something one wants to do often. Sure, there are desperate times when it's OK for a paladin to pick up a flag -- heck, I've picked up a flag out of desperation, too, even though I think priests are even *worse* flag carriers than paladins. But in general, I'd rank paladins pretty low on the list of flag carriers. They're much better as flag escorts.

[Tal]

Edited - Never post when angry kids.

[Quark]

It's like Horde players find killing paladins a duty just to make sure that paladins know what it is like.  So many paladins must be shocked and amazed when death actually happens to them.[right][snapback]81432[/snapback][/right]

Then make it even. Let a paladin kill you, so they know what doing damage is like.

[Drasca]

I see most hardcore warlocks using felhunter to attack spellcasters -- priests, in particular -- and they can be quite annoying.  Obviously, a warlock should use fears as often as possible.[right][snapback]81420[/snapback][/right]

Good warlocks do use felhunter. Devouring priest bubble or magic CC's is extremely important, so's spell lock on heals, pet-heal from devour and paranoia's increased stealth detection just gravy.

DoT spam is low priority except against rogues and runners. Never underestimate the usefulness of Rank 1 ICorruption. Useful for nightfall procs and wasting priest time. You generally don't have time to check what rank corruption is being used against you, and every moment dispelling is one not used for heals. Curse of Exhaustion spam takes highest priority when available, then Curse of Shadows/Elements, Tongues for Healers (sometimes), and CoA last.

[Drasca]

It is very important to note that, when in an attacking group, crippling a defending player is much better than killing him. Kill him and he will respawn within seconds with full HP and Mana.[right][snapback]81085[/snapback][/right]

Good point. I'll use warlock suicide abilities more often.

[Skandranon]

All paladins are noobs.  If they weren't a noob, they would pick a more challenging class to play. 
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Paladins past level 45 are so are one of the most challenging classes to play in the game. You don't do damage and can't heal well, either. All due respect, Mongo, but play one to 60 or STFU.

[Pantalaimon]

All paladins are noobs.  If they weren't a noob, they would pick a more challenging class to play.  One must understand that this is coming from a Horde perspective.  I hear these kinds of comments frequently while playing:  "He's level 40, let him go."  "He's a paladin."  "Oh, kill him then."  It's like Horde players find killing paladins a duty just to make sure that paladins know what it is like.  So many paladins must be shocked and amazed when death actually happens to them
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Welcome to alliance, just replace "paladin" with "shaman". *sigh* oh well, guess people will always favour either horde or alliance and continuously bash the other side without trying it out.

[MongoJerry]

Paladins past level 45 are so are one of the most challenging classes to play in the game.  You don't do damage and can't heal well, either.  All due respect, Mongo, but play one to 60 or STFU.

Alright, I'm sorry. I should have put an emote or some brackets to indicate that my comments were jests. You have to understand that I've been playing intensively on a PvP server for months now and certain things get ingrained in one's subconcious. Paladins noob bubble. Gnomes should be punted. All night elves should die. It's wierd to play Alliance on Stormrage after all these months playing Horde on Tichondrius. Just today I was killing some skeletons in Duskwood and turned to see two night elves. My heart started racing and I prepared to PW:Shield and SW:Pain. Then I realized I was playing Alliance, I wasn't on a PvP server, and I wasn't playing a priest. The intensity of the game at times elicits a Pavlovian response.

I do actually think that the paladin as a class tends to attract more noob or clueless players to it than other classes. I certainly saw a lot of that in the beta. But I also saw a few players who were actually good at playing the class, and I definitely grew to respect those particular players.

[MongoJerry]

Welcome to alliance, just replace "paladin" with "shaman".  *sigh* oh well, guess people will always favour either horde or alliance and continuously bash the other side without trying it out.

Actually, I would consider shamans to be among the more difficult classes to play well. There are just so many options available to them that it takes a lot of skill to learn which ability to use in the right situations. Of course, the majority of players solve this problem of complexity by ignoring half their skills and totems and therefore get relegated to the "noob" level. But to play a shaman well requires a lot of skill -- and I think more skill than playing most other classes well (yes, including priests).

[MongoJerry]

Anyway, back to the original topic, I realized I forgot to mention one of the nasty skills that rogues have at their disposal: sap. I've seen it used many times to devastating effect. One way would be to solo capture a flag against a solo defender. Just sap the defender, grab the flag, and zip away! Another use is more incidious. If an enemy flag carrier gets away from his or her opponents, he or she will often get out of combat. A rogue can then sap the flag carrier and wait for his or her teammates to catch up. With improved sap, a rogue can even chain sap the flag carrier if the flag carrier's teammates can't find the rogue.

[Hillary]

All paladins are noobs.  If they weren't a noob, they would pick a more challenging class to play.  One must understand that this is coming from a Horde perspective.  I hear these kinds of comments frequently while playing:  "He's level 40, let him go."  "He's a paladin."  "Oh, kill him then."  It's like Horde players find killing paladins a duty just to make sure that paladins know what it is like.  So many paladins must be shocked and amazed when death actually happens to them.

Regarding your comment on paladin flag carriers, you just proved my point.  The only reason to have a paladin carry the flag is so that he or she can drop the flag for someone else to carry it.  Such a switch is pretty dangerous, because it's just as easy for an opponent to hit the flag as well, so this isn't something one wants to do often.  Sure, there are desperate times when it's OK for a paladin to pick up a flag -- heck, I've picked up a flag out of desperation, too, even though I think priests are even *worse* flag carriers than paladins.  But in general, I'd rank paladins pretty low on the list of flag carriers.  They're much better as flag escorts.
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This cracks me up. Play with Sharanna, Triarius, Megwynne, Katrin, or Altrius at your back when you're a healer and then tell me how noobish they are. They'll save a priests ass - this priest's ass, at least - every time.

It's a damn hard class to play. Period. I tried it to level 25 and wasn't enamored because keeping the talents straight is near impossible in my mind, and I'm no dumb bunny. Too many seals, blessings, and other blinking flashy crap to keep straight.

When pallys are played well, they're damn near unstoppable. I'm pretty much THE ONLY class that can stop them with any regularity in duels and pvp thanks to the blessed mana burn. Outside of that? Yeah. They OWN the other classes.

That's not noobish, it's not easy mode. It's hard to play a pally well.

[Treesh]

Actually, I would consider shamans to be among the more difficult classes to play well.  There are just so many options available to them that it takes a lot of skill to learn which ability to use in the right situations.  Of course, the majority of players solve this problem of complexity by ignoring half their skills and totems and therefore get relegated to the "noob" level.  But to play a shaman well requires a lot of skill -- and I think more skill than playing most other classes well (yes, including priests).
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Even though my pally is still young, very young, but playing a pally well is just as complicated as playing a shaman. In fact, because of having to rebless constantly (Skan, I so understand not blessing anyone through the cave run after you've been buffing the whole raid through UBRS yesterday. I was fed up with buffing just a small party yesterday after about a half-hour of play. ;) ), and using the seals and judgements so frequently, I would say in ways they are more complicated. Or at least they take more attention to maintain playing at a high level. If a shaman pops totems as much as paladins judge and seal and bless, no shaman would ever have any mana to heal. Yes, shaman have a lot of options for what totems to place and when and trying to position yourself so the group gets the maximum benefit from the totems (since the totems just land at your feet without your control over placement), but except in PvP and long chain fighting, you won't be switching the totems up as much. You place them at the beginning, refresh as needed. When you take down say, a frost-based enemy mage critter, yeah, put up a different fire totem than the frost resistance one, but it's still nothing like the constant seal, judge, bless, seal, heal that pallies do. Well played paladins never get the credit that they so deserve.

[MongoJerry]

When pallys are played well, they're damn near unstoppable.  I'm pretty much THE ONLY class that can stop them with any regularity in duels and pvp thanks to the blessed mana burn.  Outside of that?  Yeah.  They OWN the other classes.

That's not noobish, it's not easy mode.  It's hard to play a pally well.

Actually, the primary reason why Pally's are considered noobish and "easy mode" is because of how easily they win duels with so little effort. It doesn't take much skill to win a duel as a paladin. The complaint from other classes is that any schmuck can join the game, start a paladin, and go around thinking they're awesome, because they can win duels against other players. And this very thing happens all too often.

but it's still nothing like the constant seal, judge, bless, seal, heal that pallies do.  Well played paladins never get the credit that they so deserve.

And paladins as a class are so rarely played well. You're looking at the world from the eyes of knowing a few good paladins. I'm surveying the landscape and seeing very few well played paladins. Count yourselves lucky that you know a few of them.

[Treesh]

Count yourselves lucky that you know a few of them.
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I do. I really do. :D

[oldmandennis]

Certain classes attract certain types, and those types can be reinforced by stereotype.

Many (not all) rogues are antisocial ganker/ninja types, and since there are so many and they have limited group utility, I think it puts a chip on many of their collective shoulders. I can't find a group, so I have nothing better to do then corpse camp this guy for an hour. This the only instance I've gotten into since lvl 20, so I don't understand loot rules and feel compelled to grab everything I can since I don't know when I'll get another group.

Mages who feel compelled to blaze away with everything they have.

Paladins definatly appeal to people who, well, want to run and hide. If you see those bubbles go up and say "DPS be damned, I gotta reroll and get me some of that", you are probably going to stay a n00b. The good paladins that juggle auras, blessings, seals, and judgements aren't obvious, and are probably in pretty short supply.

And maybe I'm not a very good shamen, but I think they are one of the easier classes. There aren't really that many totems, once you weed out the useless and highly situational ones. War Stomp + Ghost Wolf is almost as good a get out of jail free card as a bubble. NS + Heal is almost as good as Bubble Heal. And in any well balanced group, you spend most of your time twiddling your thumbs and hoping you don't wipe before your ankh timer is up.

Just throwing it out there, in general from hardest to easiest,

Priest - lack of DPS, and very responsible for sucess of group
Warrior - no heals, plus tanking is tough
Mage - lack of HP
Rogue - not much armor, considering you have to close to melee
Warlock - a lot of options, gotta watch the shards
Druid - Shift right and you can do anything
Shaman - Watch your mana and you can do anything
Hunter - pet attack, auto shoot, rinse and repeat with no downtime
Pally - Bless, bubble, heal, if you are not a complete noob you are a solid unexciting performer