Also don’t forget a lot of rogues used crusader mh 15 agi oh. Str is ap for rogues, 100 ap is nothing to scoff at
A few other points on classes I’ll chime in on,
Priest - is really the only war game viable healer. Having no cd on dispel magic means you’ll always need a priest on offense or you will literally never kill a compentent defense with a frost mage. Renew, bubble, and the array of heals is stronger and more mana efficient than any other class. Pretty good 1v1 class vs hunters, Melee and casters. Undead rogues are the mortal enemy and movement jukes are how you survive vs casting jukes. Shaking a rogue off you is definitely a skill you need to master. another nice thing about priest is buff management. using lower rank spells like renew, bubble, inner fire, or fort when youre getting dispell/purge spammed ooms them due to the cost of the spells. skill capping a 19 priest in classic is going to take a lot more binds than it does now
Paladin - 2nd best war game fc thanks to bof and having solid heals for themselves. Probably the only option as a war game healer other than priest. I think they get LOH and BOP also which is just nuts for when a team tries to nuke your priest or mage on D. We always ran priest pally Druid mage D in tbc. It’s just a nice tanky healer when played right and offers a ton of utility. also nice for getting a pick when the druid dies because they can FC pretty decently. youll find a spot on a team playing paladin
Shaman - shaman doesn’t heal worth much compared and their entire kit just screams offense. Having purge as the only true AGM dispell, priest doesn’t dispell it well, and the off heals and earthbind come in handy, plus ranged earthshock kick, but overall it’s fairly weak for wargames. people might say earthbind makes them a good healer on D but that just overlaps with the mages frostbolts so using one means your mage probably isnt up to snuff. if there were arenas the shaman would dominate
Druid - obvious fc, pretty weak heals. I would avoid if you wanted to play competitive games and NOT fc
Mage - Uber important as for war games. The classic-wotlk best mages were legends and everyone wanted them on their team. If you don’t have a skilled mage you won’t do well plain and simple. Rank 1 frost bolt cast is under 1 second, frost nova, poly. The entire offense is snared, rooted and polyed off the fc. Without it they would be overran. some people might argue for 2 mages but if your mage is good enough you only need one. i'm sure there's someone out here wanting to prove themselves the best this or best that, well then mage is your class because you can tell the difference when you just ... cannt... get... to.. the ...druiiddFUCK. stacking stam/int is basically all youll do. gnome is god teir and UD incase you run into Magic Dust. Fire is ok but not for war games. Facing a kiting d would make the mage do 0 damage due to LOS
Warlock - has potential but more for fear spam than anything, the damage just isn’t high enough, all the dots are nullified by a renew. A horde warlock on defense might be Uber annoying but at the sacrifice for what? A hunter or warrior? Eek. a class like this might work well in some kind of mid strat like todays meta
Warrior - not required but it would suck not to use one. Sword and board is solid dps, glacial spike with sader proc hammers and the main thing is the spammable hamstring on the fc. Once the warrior connects the fc is in trouble. Hunter conc is too long of a cd to contain a slippery Druids. i wont say they’re required but we always used one
Rogue- always need a rogue for gouge rotation on healers and mages, they have pure damage on plate with fiery wpn and huge burst with sader procs on priests. Probably the highest burst dmg and highest skill cap. Dodge position is so huge for not getting wingclipped or hamstrung. No snare means you need fast reaction time to healer movements. gouge and kick make the offense kill fcs so having your r1 player play this class is what youll want. they have so many tools like expose armor itll make you dizzy. a 4 second undispellable incompasitate on a short CD is brutal
Hunter - most important class to stack over weaker classes like warlock or shaman. 2 hunters is the sweet spot. A lot of teams ran a hunter killing on D. Wingclip is harder to land and has to be used on the back of an evasioned rogue. Arcane shot hits pretty hard and boar charge is a neat pet tool to manage. Can be the best 1v1 spec and highest sustain dmg in the bracket. Absolutely need 1 for war games. It’s a lot of mana management with weapon swapping. its like the modern boomkin for 19s
[doublepost=1552791570,1552770546][/doublepost]another thing to remember is wsg isnt on a timer and there are no "stacks". you play til you win so some games can last 1hr +. the meta for wsg could change but mid fighting wasnt a thing back then. it was just too hard to stop a team from walking past you into their base thanks to mages. theyre imposisble to shut down and control an entire team. the heal and damage isnt bursty like today, and thanks to no stacks you cant just wait them out in mid and send a few rogues in to 1 shot. that would never happen. a 3k bear + a mage and healer will never die to 2 or even 3 rogues
that's why the meta always had an O and a D. most teams ran 5O 5D. also remember the GY is on the same level as the base, unlike today. that means if you send your 5 out and the enemy team kills 3-4 of them, they have rezzed in their own base on the same level as their D and they will now 8v5 and wipe your team. now YOUR team is in the GY and theyre already pushing back into your base while you rez. that gives them a 2 minute headstart to start ooming healers. so basically a killing D can be countered because they will wipe your offsense
that's why the meta evolved into a kiting D with a stam/int mage, 2 priests, 1 druid and (x-class). a lot of teams still used a hunter to pressure teams into healing instead of just dispelling. the extra snare helps a bit also. some teams ran warlock/mage shaman/mage mage/mage.
my personal favorite D was 2 priest, 1 druid and 1 mage. that leaves your offense with 6 which is harder to stop. the downside is you wont live long unless you make 0 mistakes. a lot of the time 1 priest would lead the kite and decide where to travel based on where they were going to get to free cast heals, the 2nd healer (pally/priest) was closer to the mage/druid for fear or pally utility. as long as you kept moving and the mage didn't die you lived. if the mage dies its a wipe and you'd have to hope your GY timing was good. having that 5th player on D really takes some pressure off
that's where offense comes in! i think a good offense started with a warrior with all the weapons/toolkit warriors have. connecting to the FC and perm slowing them is their huge upside. sader proc into 2h was as much damage as a rogue. youll also need a hunter for ranged pressure and rogue for CC and burst. one priest is required with a massive int pool, spirit sticks, mana pots pretty much all for dispelling. some healing is required if they run a hunter to oom you. that leaves 1-2 more spots for an extra hunter or shaman.
my favorite line up was:
6O - war, hunt, hunt, rogue, priest, (x)
4D - priest, priest/pally, mage, druid
i think x could be whatever you wanted but maybe a 3rd hunter or 2nd rogue for max cheese. clearly i would suggest people make priest/hunter/rogue as one of their twinks if you wanted to face guilds that run strong lineups. every team will need around 2 of those classes
another nice thing about classic is consumables. since there's no wargames you will have to play in regular bgs and means eng, magic dust, potions, runes, teas, bandages and all kinds of goodies are available. its very unique compared to the stale 3-4 button bracket we enjoy now. every class gets 25+ buttons to press, not super bursty and different options for meta. ill add more if i can think of anything
