World of Warcraft,
for the uninitiated, features 10 playable classes and since we like to
count things in groups of 10 here – it seemed like a natural fit. Read
on to see how your favorite class fared against the rest of the lot,
and don’t worry no actual scientific evidence or empirical href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/playerscore">data was
collected – it’s 100% subjective opinion.



10) href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/rogue">Rogues href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/rogue">
–
Narrowly beating out Hunters, rogues are in sole possession of last
place. With the most limited of all roles in the games, pure DPS, most
of them have trouble keeping pace with other damage dealers in combat
parses. Ok, so maybe they can dish out some serious hurt, but the vast
majorities are too busy playing around in PvP zones and ambushing
unsuspecting saps to bother showing up to raids. Speaking of sap, is it
really too much to ask you to crowd control or heaven forbid interrupt
every once in a while?

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/76150"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 142px; height: 220px;"
alt="WoW" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/76150">

All loot is hunter loot, just ask them 

9) href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/hunter">Hunters
–
The worst part about putting this class so low in the rankings is that
it isn’t the class that’s bad – it’s usually the players. Armed with an
impressive arsenal of abilities, hunters are like a virtual Swiss Army
Knife but sadly their utility is usually completely wasted. Perhaps we
can blame the steep falloff from top notch hunters and the rest of the
herd to a nuanced playing style that takes masterful reflexes to truly
master, but that sounds like a copout. Here is protip that will never
fail you; if the hunter is a night elf or a tauren - they're bad.



8) href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage">Mages
–
Another class with so much potential and yet so much wasted talent.
It’s hard to blame the players here however; they are mostly the
hapless victims of talent changes that have trained them to only use 2
buttons. Here is to hoping that Blizzard comes to their senses and
removed the ridiculous cooldown on summoning a refreshment table.



7) href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/warlock">Warlocks
–
Similar in many ways to the mages, warlocks nudge slightly ahead due to
having better pets. There have been wide scale improvements of late in
the ability to summon soulstones, healthstones and other players –
making warlocks among the best of pure DPS classes.



6) href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/warrior">Warriors href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/warrior">
– If we were to only look at protection warriors then they
would nudge
up a bit in the final tally, but sadly DPS warriors still exist and
they drive down the median score. Whirling dervishes of skillstorm and
furious mashers of mortal strike, the DPS warrior is the driving force
behind most of the tinkering that Blizzard does with PvP. Prot spec
warriors however have remained a steady force for good since overcoming
a bit of a rough start some 6 years ago.



5) href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/deathknight">Death
Knights –
The first, and so far the only, hero class in WoW, the death knight is
both a capable tank and a powerful bastion of DPS. Although early on it
seemed many hunters and rogues were masquerading as death knights, most
of them have thankfully returned to their first loves and the remaining
players of the class seem to be a decent bunch.



4) href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/priest">Priests
–
With not one, but two very capable healing specs and a powerful ranged
DPS spec, priests are nothing to be trifled with. Not only are they
well balanced in their talent trees, they also tend to be the
recipients of some of the best looking tier sets from expansion to
expansion.  It is also hard to find fault with priests,
especially when they have you mind controlled.



3) href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/shaman">Shaman
–
Healing, ranged and melee DPS wrapped in chain mail, the shaman is
nothing if not versatile. In addition to their three different roles,
the shaman is a wonderful utility class with totems and crowd control
at their disposal – and bloodlust is nice too. style="font-style: italic;">Cataclysm further
enhanced shaman by allowing dwarfs and goblins to train in the ways of
the spirits.



2) href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/paladin">Paladins
– One of only two classes who can fill any role of the holy trinity,
the paladin is an exceptional breed that is equally loved by its
converts and hated by its enemies. With plate armor and one of the
deepest health pools, these bubble wearing holy rollers are nearly
impossible to kill and can dish out damage almost on par with pure DPS
classes. If all else fails, they can simply become immune and hearth.

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alt="WoW" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/75708">

Grrr, Arggghhh 

1) href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/druid">Druids –
The only class who can fill every single role in a raid, druids are
without compare. While death knights were given a floating fortress to
call their own, druids are so amazing that they were given an entire
zone. The shapeshifting menagerie of  bears, kitties,
boomchickens and weird looking tree things offers a unique experience
that allows players to do anything that any other class can do and
never having to roll an alt to do it. Oh, and instant cast flight form
for the win.





How did your class fare? I don’t anticipate a lot of hate mail on this
one because most hunters and rogues can’t read, but let us know in the
forums if you agree or disagree with our assessment and rankings.