If You Were a Casual Gamer...

[savaughn]

I was asked this recently by someone.  "I'm a pretty casual gamer.  What should I go with if I wanted one Alliance and one Horde character to play only?"
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Obviously, this is just my opinion, but I think there are three "best" choices for casual gamers: rogues, hunters and paladins.

I think rogues win, hands down. Almost everyone I know who has an alt has a rogue. Rogues are strong across the board. Casual gamers can get themselves in trouble easily and vanish eventually provides the best escape mechanism in the game. Rogues have the following hurdles for casual gamers:
- very button pressy - not good for folks who get overexcited during a combat
- timing oriented
- lots of options which can be confusing for a casual player
- leveling open locks is not straightforward
- improving daggers are critical to the success of the class - point the gamer at the Basin dagger guide
- suffer from positioning issues which can be problematic on dial-up (must be behind target, facing target, within melee range, etc.)

Hunters are the best solo PvE class in the game, a powerful recommendation in and of itself. Autoshot + pet means that the hunter is the most lag tolerant class in the game - in heavy lag on dial-up it is not uncommon for the hunter to come out with a dead opponent lying at their feet, something untrue of other classes. Easy to play, the pet is a big plus for most folks, and not as gear dependent as other classes, the hunter makes a great class for the casual gamer with one large exception. Hunter pet abilities (aggressive, passive, defensive, attack, stay, and the complex topic of training pet abilities) are not intuitive. The learning curve is not steep but the game entirely fails to explain the pet. For the casual hunter to be successful, someone must explain how all of this works to them. Hunters have the following hurdles for casual gamers:
- how the pet works
- how the pet works
- how the pet works

Paladins are great for the casual gamer. The abilities are fairly straightforward, although it make take a few levels to figure out how the shields work. The ability to self heal makes them quite independent and while they have far fewer combat options than a warrior, this makes them more robust and simpler for the casual gamer. Paladins have the following hurdles for casual gamers:
- learning how to use the various shields and lay of hands to sustain combat
- heavily gear dependent melee class
- one of the slowest classes in the game, pushed back to foot speed until lvl 40
- party play

I should explain this last one. A hunter or rogue has a fairly obvious role in party play that is not too far different from solo play. Tanking and healing are completely different than solo play, however, and these are the roles available to the paladin. A party can much more easily survive a bad rogue or bad hunter than a bad main tank or main healer. Learning how to play in parties well can be a steep learning curve for any casual gamer no matter what the class, but these roles are more complex requiring an in-depth understanding of how aggro works.

As for professions, leatherworking, blacksmithing, and alchemy are all straightforward and fun. Enchanting can be complex and engineering has many components that can't be collected by a miner - more so than other classes. Tailoring is out due to it not pairing as obviously with anything but Enchanting.

Choice of race is by and large immaterial. Night elf wisp speed is a big plus for the casual gamer, however.