Best class in WoW Forever: which one to pick for your role

The warrior is the melee class by definition: no mana, no pet and almost no self-healing (Forever adds Victory Rush). Everything revolves around rage, which builds up when you hit and get hit and is spent on abilities. That makes the warrior scale enormously with gear and turns the first few dozen levels into the hardest stretch in the game: with a poor weapon and little armour, every two-mob pull is a decision.

The hunter is the physical ranged damage class: it shoots with a bow, gun or crossbow, uses mana for its shots and aspects and always brings a pet that tanks for it. In Classic it is the most comfortable class to level solo, and in Forever it still is: the pet holds, you shoot and you almost never stop. Its three trees are all damage trees, so the difference between them is style, not role.

The mage is the pure damage caster: cloth, mana, crowd control and the best utility in the game (portals, food and water, Polymorph). It does not heal, tank or own a pet, so everything it does is kill before things reach it and travel faster than anyone. In Forever, hit is one stat for spells, melee and ranged, and so is crit; on top of that, wands no longer gain spell power.

The rogue is leather melee damage with energy that regenerates at a fixed pace and combo points that build on the target and are spent on finishers. Add stealth, poisons, stuns and the best ability in the game to pick its fights: a rogue decides when combat starts and, with Vanish, when it ends. It does not heal or tank and all three trees are damage, so the choice is one of style.

The priest is the cloth healer by definition and, as Shadow, a very solid periodic-damage caster. It uses mana, wears cloth and has two tools no other class matches: Power Word: Shield and the widest variety of heals in the game. In return it is fragile and slow at killing outside Shadow. In Forever, on top of that, every priest race has its own spells, and several of them have changed during the beta.

The warlock is the cloth caster with a demon pet, periodic damage and an economy of its own: Life Tap turns health into mana and Drain Life takes it back from the enemy, so stamina is worth more than for any other caster. With a Voidwalker tanking, it levels as comfortably as a hunter; in exchange, in dungeons it is pure damage and control (Fear, Banish) with no healer or tank role.

The paladin is the plate hybrid: mana, seals and judgements, auras for the group, blessings and heals that in Classic made it more useful supporting than hitting. It can heal, tank and deal damage, and it is the class that changes most in Forever, with 14 entries in the build 1.60.1.70009 list, almost all so that Retribution and Protection work as real specializations.

The druid is the most complete hybrid in the game: it can tank, deal melee damage, cast from range and heal, and it switches roles by switching forms. In its normal form it uses mana to cast; in Bear Form it fights with rage, like a warrior; in Cat Form it uses energy and combo points, like a rogue. It wears cloth or leather, never mail. Shifting costs mana and it is rarely the best at any single job, but it levels solo very comfortably and fits any gap in a group.

The shaman is the Horde's hybrid in Classic and, in Forever, the Alliance's too thanks to the dwarves. It uses mana for everything, wears cloth or leather until level 40 and mail from then on, can carry a shield and supports the group with totems: objects it plants on the ground, one per element (earth, fire, water and air), that give buffs or deal damage while they stand. It also has Ghost Wolf for travel and Reincarnation to come back to life.