None of us have any control with who we are born as and what we are born into. As products of the proverbial sense of reality, genetics determine our appearance and characteristics leaving environment as a strong impact on us socially. From the moment we are born, we are forced to adapt and in a sense, deal with what we are given. In order to counteract certain restrictions, many people are passionate about role playing games that allow them to separate themselves from their physical environment. With the advancement of technology, the internet and gaming, role playing games have become a global phenomenon as people flock towards online gaming platforms, such as World of Warcraft (WoW), that allow the user to reinvent themselves through the customization of virtual avatars.
The importance of choosing the right avatar in online games can be considered to be the equivalent importance of choosing a career; the initial choice you make will affect the rest of your gameplay experience. In World of Warcraft, the user must choose between allegiances, then race and then class before any advanced customization or gameplay can begin. The game is split up between two battling sides: the Alliance and the Horde. In the earlier versions of WoW, there were only two races per side to choose from. With the Alliance, the user had the choice between Human or Dwarf; with the Horde, the user had the choice between Orc or Troll. Like any modern form of media and technology, WoW is continuously expanding, adding various other races to both sides such as elves and goblins.
Once the race of the avatar is chosen, things get a little more complicated. The gamer now must choose the class (the career) for the character. Class refers to the style and skill sets the avatar is spawned with. It impacts what weapons and armor will be available to use, as well as abilities, powers and spells the character can achieve. The race you’ve chosen directly influences the class of a character, as only certain classes are available to certain races. The original classes are as follows:
DRUID
The druid class is considered a ‘shape shifter’ in the game. Druids take on a lot of the other classes’ abilities and have high strengths in armor and battle skills.
HUNTER
Hunters are primarily what their name insinuates; they are known for scouting, tracking and their distinct survival skills. This makes them better at playing the game solo. Specializing in range weapons, hunters also are able to tame beasts and use them as pets to assist in gameplay.
MAGE
The key strength of the mage is their ability to wield high damage magic. Among many of their spell abilities, they can conjure food or water and create portals and teleportation. Major weaknesses are armor and defense.
PALADIN
Paladins are great at single target healing and are known as ‘holy warriors’ because of their ability to do magic and inflict damage.
PRIEST
Priests are the most versatile of the healing classes. They are popular and important avatars for guilds because of their strengths in creating large shields, healing multiple players at one time and mind control spells.
ROGUE
This class’ strength lies in battle, releasing high damage attacks. Stealth and stun abilities make the Rogue a force to be reckoned with.
SHAMAN
The Shaman has the ability to switch between a variety of classes, depending on the need of the guild or mission. This is what makes them incredibly valuable as they can transform into a healer, a warrior or a caster upon request.
WARLOCK
Warlocks have a high damage ability through the use of dark magic. Like hunters, warlocks can enslave creatures as pets, though in the case of warlocks, the creatures are predominately demons.
WARRIOR
The warrior is a close combat fighter with high damage and armor. The strength of the warrior’s abilities are highly tied to the quality of their equipment; when playing with a warrior, the gamer must make sure to upgrade armor and weapons frequently.
The aforementioned classes are just a few of the distinctions between avatar choices in World of Warcraft and it can make the new user (or as gamers would say the “newb”) feel incredibly overwhelmed and confused. With every expansion pack released by WoW, the world grows more and more intricate and the strategy in developing your character becomes more vital. Allegiances, race and class (not to mention the level of your character, which is a whole topic in itself) all intertwine into a elaborate plot. Although it is all set in an online fantasy realm, it is increasingly becoming an actual reality for many users globally.
Dugi’s Leveling Guide have been around since classic World of Warcraft back in 2005 and over the years we have continuously upgraded our alliance leveling guide to meet our customers demands. We have manage to evolve from a written step-by-step guide to a easy to read in-game guide to a sophisticated fully automatic guide that we called Dugi’s Guide V4, which is it our 4th generation of in-game leveling guide since we first started.