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Hunter or Shaman ?
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Post by
Eth3r
Title says it all. I'm considering a new character, I think I'll start a hunter or a shaman.
I tried to read a lot about hunters and shamans, and both are very interesting. I know the final answer to the question is probably "try it by yourself and pick the one that you like most". But since lowbie gameplay can be exceedingly misleading, I'm asking for the opinion of high level players from both classes. :) I'm not familiar with these forums, so I tried to browse as many threads as possible but feel free to point out reference material and threads that I may have missed.
Thanks a lot for your opinion or input.
Frog.
Background
: I have a warlock and a feral druid, both sitting at 70 with decent gear (full epics, crafted/badges/pvp). I'm reasonably familiar with spellcasters and melee, dps and tanking, and pets, and theorycrafting.
My gameplay is mostly centered around 5-man heroics, with an occasional trip to 10-man raids, and arena/BG farming. My crappy and random time-schedule is a no-no for serious endgame content (frequent 10 or 25-man raids, and mid-level arena). It's precisely why I'm creating a third character (I can't improve the other two without switching to hardcore mode).
Hunter
:
I enjoyed levelling with my lock's demons and the hunter's levelling speed is quite attractive. The solo potential is also a serious plus considering that I'm spending a lot of time solo (many 15-30 min gaming windows). At high level, I'm attracted by its crowd control potential, plus the class diversity. Lastly I like what I saw from hunters in PvP (ouch, Dazed again).
The downside is that I'm afraid to get seriously bored of playing in easy mode for 70 levels, and I think that after playing an excellent dps machine, and a very flexible tank/dps hybrid, I won't be attracted by my hunter after his levelling (redundant with my lock/druid, newbie gear, less teamplay potential).
Shaman
: My plan would be Enhancement levelling (at least until 58-ish, then may be respecc in Elemental for Outlands) with a complete respecc for Restauration at 70. Enhancement sounds like a complex and rich gameplay (ex: mana pool) with more challenge than the hunter. After the final respecc, I would have access to the healer role, which is the only one I haven't played so far. At firs glance, the flexibility of this class is as sexy as what I enjoyed with my druid, and the teamplay potential (group enhancing totems) is cool.
The downside is that I'm afraid to level slowly with a dps-gimped character with no crowd control (I made an extensive use of CC with my lock and druid). And dropping totems for each encounter sounds extremely repetitive. But most importantly, I think that the final respecc to restauration will be quite difficult and annoying: no the talent or gameplay changes, but the *gear* respecc.
Post by
Kishin
Level both.
It would take about a week to level a Hunter to 60 and a week and a half to level a Shaman.
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Post by
Eth3r
Thanks for your input. :)
TBH I have posted basically the same question in multiple forums and shaman forums always provide better and more insightful feedback. For me, it is a strong bonus for the shaman class, as there is (seemingly) not much to say about hunters. Hunters provide good dps and BGs, more or less like my 'lock, but they're arguably too mindnumbing for levelling and hardly different than my spellcaster for endgame content.
My druid is indeed feral, and I'd like to keep it that way. He's handy as a MT when one is needed, and it can switch to cat-gear when melee DPS is what the group need. Moreover my warlock provides a good source of range DPS. It's precisely why I'm concerned about the post-levelling future of a hunter, and why I'd like to respecc as resto with a shaman. I knew that shamans were better in a raid environment but if they can't keep up in heroics or BG, then this class might lose a lot of appeal as far as I'm concerned.
I think I'll start both and level them until I see a big difference (until 30 or 40, I guess I won't see much of what they can do). But my main concerns remains : will the hunter still be fun at 70 despite his being redundant and subpar (new and lowbie gear) to my other dps characters, and/or will the shaman be a nightmare to respecc due to the poor restauration loot (pre-raid at least) and significantly gimped and looked down upon in 5-man instances. I wouldn't mind him being harder to play or more complex as long as it can heal on the final heroic boss with a quest blue, epic crafted or BG gear.
My final problem is precisely the healing gear. I'd like to collect a decent healing gear to jump right into heroics as soon as I hit 70+reputations (my guild rarely does normal instances, and the frustration potential of PuGs is a dealbreaker for me). For my druid, I basically bought his lvl 70 stuff at the AH and farmed BGs and primals while levelling (guild crafters ftw). Then, I completed the best quest lines to complete my stuff, but I didn't have to rely on PuGs for random loot from normal 5-man instances. I'm afraid getting a heroic/pre-kara restauration gear this way will be much more difficult.
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