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I don’t know if I should be amazed or stupified to continue seeing people’s massive misunderstandings concerning character classes in World of Warcraft (WoW). The particular article I refer to today that has my ire up is a “guide” concerning levelling efficiency for different classes. I should have known from the get-go that the “guide” was barely that, concerning the very telling statement in the foreward:

As I leveled, I tended toward talent specs that facilitated faster leveling, but I refused to forego fun in favor of speed.

Breanni, the author of the article, runs a nice site devoted to non-combat pets, and sadly, she should stick to the novelty portion of the game instead of commenting on technical gameplay issues if she’s going to fashion an article after a false premise. Her last-place contender for levelling, for example, is the Paladin, and little Breanni based this standing on her experience after pumping up the Paladin’s holy tree before throwing in Retribution talents. Why Holy?

I realize this made my leveling slower, but I felt it was important to play up my key strength as a pally: survivablity.

A Paladin’s survivability is not linked solely to the Holy tree. In fact, it’s more linked to the Protection tree and its associated traits: plate armor, shield use, etc. In fact, swinging a two-hander under the Retribution tree and leaning on heals to support multi-mob tanking is plain stupid; a melee AoE build under the Protection tree not only makes heals virtually unecessary, but the DPS output is incredible against non-solo mobs. And, why solo mobs when you can tank a gang of them?

Since Breanni later factors in group-based levelling, a Protection Paladin is even more ideal, since a tanking Protection Paladin has an enormous amount of fuel for powering Consecration. In all instance runs up to level 50, my Protection Paladin was a contender for the number one DPS spot in any group while tanking. Breanni, and others attempting future class levelling guides, please do some research before going with the traditional class specs, when things post-Burning Crusade have changed greatly.

As far as our take on levelling efficiency, concurrence is offered to the Hunter. Try this rough guess in order from most-efficient to least:

1. Hunter (beastmastery)
2. Warlock (affliction)
3. Druid (feral)
4. Rogue
5. Paladin (protection)
6. Mage (fire)
7. Priest (shadow)
8. Shaman (enhancement)
9. Warrior (fury)

Now, if we’re to choose the worst possible talent trees for each class, things would certainly look different.

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