Considerations on Rolling a Toon

[solvogero]

I'm somewhat regretting rolling a Troll over a Tauren and wish I would have went through this little exercise when I initially re-rolled (and looking back I probably would have rolled Aerie Peak), so I thought I'd spell out some considerations that should be taken when you roll a toon. All in my opinion of course...and not sure if anyone else will find it useful, but here goes:

1. What server to roll on:
2. What faction to roll:
3. What class to roll:
4. What race to roll:

 

[solvogero]

Your SERVER

• A Server with an F2P Community. There’s a very significant f2p community on Aerie Peak (as well as a larger twink community). If you’re looking for a band-of-brothers, this is the place to be. Additionally, Moonguard, Twisting Nether, Aggramar, and Wildhammer all have mention-able F2P populations. Burning Steppes in the EU has a significant F2P presence as well. Since CRZ, going to a low F2P population server doesn't have the same advantages (farming AGM for example) as it used to.
• A server where you have a current high-level toon: If you’re going f2p, you’re probably letting your main expire, but… every now and then you get free re-tries with your main which you can use to help your f2p account get a few achievements done (you still can’t mail your f2p stuff, but it works well for travel achievements or grinding high-level mobs for items/rep). You also may find yourself renewing your p2p account every now and then for the same reasons. You don’t have that option if you go to a fresh server.
• PvP or PvE server: I’d personally be extra cautious at rolling on a PvP server as you’re never getting above 20 and are just opening yourself up to ganking for the rest of your life. Some love it though.
• RP server: The RP possibilities are a bit smaller on a f2p account because anyone above mid-20′s can’t see your speech. That may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you want.

 

[solvogero]

Your FACTION

There’s obviously but two options here. Each server has its own population dynamic but I think the following are fair generalizations:​

• Population. There seems to be more Alliance than Horde so if you roll Alliance, your BG queues will probably be longer.
• Gear: It seems to be easier to gear up an Alliance toon due to quest rewards (although Horde casters may have it a bit easier). This has changed a bit and also depends on your spec. This has been a historical driver of BG wins as the easier it is to gear up a toon, the better off the noobs are in the BG's. Also, if you're really bent on playing one specific spec and want to be absolute BiS, you should probably review the quest rewards for each faction before you roll.
• Consumables: Horde have a Silk and Mageweave cloth vendor (for bandages for you non-healing specs). Alliance have none (these are still farmable by everyone though). Horde also have a reliable Level II scroll vendor, which sells Agility II and Strength II scrolls. Alliance have to resort to the Super-Seller 680 for those two scrolls, which is on a spawn timer (although these are all still craftable).

 

[solvogero]

Your CLASS

Rolling your class is almost entirely personal preference, but there’s a couple things that I believe are worth considering.

• Pallies and Druids: These two classes are unique in that they can serve any roll…tank, healer, or DPS. This leaves their queue times for dungeon runs almost non existence...especially for the lower level dungeons where their current spec really doesn't matter and they can queue for all 3 rolls.
• Priests, Warriors, and Shammies: These classes have access to two rolls, which will drop their dungeon queue times a bit…not as much as Pallies and Druids, but still much better than DPS-only queues.
• Mages, Warlocks, Rogues, and Hunters: These are the pure-DPS classes and your dungeon queue times are always going to be fairly significant.
• Healers: These days healers are very tough to kill in PvP. If you like to play a class that's tough to kill (albiet may not kill much in return), a healing class might be for you.

 

[solvogero]

Your RACE--I took out the racials that have no measurable benefit for F2P's and added one for Blood Elves. The first bullet for each race is what I consider to be the most important racial from a PvP perspective.

Dwarf​

• Stoneform: A Hunter's Serpent Sting, a Rogue’s Crippling Poison (Snare), and a Feral Druid's Rake. (Am I missing any poisons, diseases or bleeds?)
• Crack Shot
• Mace Specialization
• Frost Resistance: See Frost attacks.

Gnome​

• Escape Artist: Breaks roots and snares.
• Arcane Resistance: See Arcane attacks.
• Expansive Mind
• Engineering Specialization: See Engineering 101-115. This lets you use slightly larger stun grenades vs. the smaller grenades available to everyone else. The stun duration is the same, only the damage is more…not much of an advantage.
• Shortblade Specialization

Human​

• Every Man for Himself: This shares the cooldown with the PvP trinket…the racial isn’t as great as it looks though, as we only have a few trinket options and some players may go for the trinket anyway as the trinket also gives resilience (especially for those that would have trouble getting AGM trinkets and don’t really have any other option).
• Diplomacy: This is actually pretty huge if you want to grind reps for the achievements.
• Mace Specialization
• Sword Specialization

Night Elf​

• Shadowmeld: Good defensive skill, especially for Hunters who also have a pet that can stealth.
• Quickness
• Elusivesness: Also increases movement speed in stealth by 5%.
• Nature Resistance: See Nature attacks.

Draenei​

• Gift of the Naaru: At 2,000 health, the typical toon would get 400 health from this if they live the 15 secs.
• Heroic Presence
• Gemcutting: See Jewelcrafting 101-110. Allows them to make the +400 health Stones vs. the +180 health stones that everyone else can make.–At 2,000 health, this would be an extra 10% health for a toon if they lived the 12 seconds. Between Gift of the Naaru and the statues, its about a 30% health increase for Draenei.
• Shadow Resistance: See Shadow attacks

Worgen

• Darkflight
• Viciousness
• Aberration: See Shadow and Nature attacks

---

Orc​

• Blood Fury: This is very roughly a 30% increase in damage. (can someone confirm these numbers?
• Hardiness
• Command: Includes Hunter, Shaman, Mage, and Warlock pets.
• Axe Specialization

Tauren​

• War Stomp
• Endurance: This is only about a 2 Stam (or 1% if you’re at 2,000 health) increase as its from your base.
• Nature Resistance: See Nature attacks.

Troll​

• Berserking
• Regeneration
• Beast Slaying: includes Hunter pets, Druids in any form, and Shamans in Wolf Form.
• Dead Eye
• Da Voodoo Shuffle

Forsaken​

• Will of the Forsaken: Useful against a Lock's Fear, a Priest's Psychic Terror and Psychic Scream, and a Hunter's Lullaby (unconfirmed). (am I missing any?) This is on a separate cooldown from the PvP trinket.
• Cannibalize
• Shadow Resistance: See Shadow attacks.
• Touch of the Grave

Blood Elf​

• Arcane Torrent
• Arcane Affinity: See Enchanting 101-110. This gives you access to the +1 Agility to Cloak and the +1 Stamina to Shield enchants.
• Arcane Resistance: See Arcane attacks.
• Bloodthistle Gathering: Its not a listed racial trait, but only Blood Elves can use Bloodthistle, which gives them +10 Spell Power–This is roughly a 10% damage (confirm?) increase and more importantly, you can have it up all the time, versus some of these other racials that last 12-15 seconds and then have a 2-3 minute cooldown.

Goblin

• Better Living Through Chemistry: Allows you to make Healing Potions (otherwise only available from vendors in limited supply).
• Rocket Jump and Rocket Barrage: (same cooldown)
• Time is Money

---

Pandaren

• Quaking Palm
• Epicurean: Excluding non-holiday foods, this gives you the potential for an extra +6 Stamina.
• Bouncy
• Pandaren Hunters have access to Crane pets, which have a 4 sec Fear (only Fear option available to Hunters.

 

[l30t53dd6p]

Some great info here m8 ^^

I wanted to ad that we are running f2p addon on The Burning Steppes Horde EU also with p2p's. Community is growing slowly but its getting there and people are active.

I thought it was worth to mention for the people who are not able to or dont want to roll @ US

 

[Infernal13]

Entertaining read. Well done, I can think of quite a few people who I've met who would benefit from this...

 

[NavyRetired]

Outstanding thread, well done

 

[Snack]

I think some racial abilities have been added/updated. For instance, undeads now have Touch of the Grave, which is a 'drain life' passive that has a chance on proccing when dealing damage.

 

[Stamm]

I always wondered which class touch of the grave would be most beneficial for

 

[Thakony]

Amazing posts, I love how you put things in order

 

[solvogero]

will hopefully update today or tomorrow.

question: i haven't been paying much attention to how the whole CRZ thing works and how it drives what server you roll on. Is rolling on AP still the de facto go-to place for those looking for an F2P community?

also, as far as gearing up goes....is it still a pretty fair statement to say its easier to gear up an Alliance toon vs. Horde?

 

[Laverathan]

Moon Guard is growing as well, at a pretty decent rate as well, I think.

But it's an RP server, and has a reputation, but rest assured most of the f2ps on Moon Guard don't actually RP.

Awesome guide, might I add! Looks really nice.

 

[EroTheHero]

If I am interested in joining the largest F2P community on EU side is Burning Steppes the correct place then? I've also heard that Aggramar has a large F2P community and then the "F2P Info and Guide" sticky by Yde lists Twisting Nether & Wildhammer as well so i'm a bit confused where to go now!

If someone could help me out and tell me what realm I should go for on EU side and also what faction is the largest on that realm cause I would prefer joining the faction with the least amount of players for faster queues and to make the balance between Horde and Alliance more even!

 

[Snack]

If I am interested in joining the largest F2P community on EU side is Burning Steppes the correct place then? I've also heard that Aggramar has a large F2P community and then the "F2P Info and Guide" sticky by Yde lists Twisting Nether & Wildhammer as well so i'm a bit confused where to go now!

If someone could help me out and tell me what realm I should go for on EU side and also what faction is the largest on that realm cause I would prefer joining the faction with the least amount of players for faster queues and to make the balance between Horde and Alliance more even!

If you are going horde, Aggramar is best. If you are going Ally it's Twisting Nether. Never heard of any especially big community on Wildhammer or Burning Steppes

 

[sevenslacks7]

AP is slightly over rated. It is nice, for premades and such, but premades dont happen THAT often. Not to mention some items are impossible to get, such as arena grand master and the lucky fishing hat due to the large amount of twinks attempting to get such items.

 

[Snack]

Not to mention some items are impossible to get, such as arena grand master and the lucky fishing hat due to the large amount of twinks attempting to get such items.

Just have some p2p from a low pop realm invite you.

 

[Budstep]

Anything that can heal, if you want to join the bandwagon. Something that doesn't heal, other than hunter, if you want to be unique. There ya go! =D

Now, I have a question. Can anyone enlighten me on what BGs are merged now? Only battle grounds really matter to me, and I don't really make friends online that much, so even if I'm the only twink on my server, that's fine with me.

 

[epicf2p]

another thing you may want to consider is what spec. if you are like me and want your toon to have the best gear a f2p can get, then you roll on whatever faction has said gear.

so lets say druid for instance.

if resto, you may want to choose alliance because (atleast last time i checked) it had a better stam set, and hybrid set.
if boomkin, horde for the crit gear
if feral, alliance for the skillpatch + ring and other BiS st00f

 

[Wih]

A few months ago, I made some new toons and I choose human for the race for some of them b/c of the racial. That was a mistake, since I don't like humans.

Also made two balance druids, b/c I like casters and baldruids are the strongest casters now. But I don't really enjoy playing them much. Doesn't help that casting wrath while in moonkin looks like I'm pissing fire.

What I'm saying is: choose what you enjoy. If you only enjoy playing ~OP stuff, do that. But if you like dwarven mages (or whatever weak class/weak race, class combination), play those.