Recently, I’ve spent a fair amount of time playing alts, and I’m sure I’m not alone.  Things are in a bit of a lull for many people right now, what with no Wrath release in sight, and the sunny summer months, so more “organized” play is more difficult.  When looking at my collection of alts, and trying to decide which to play, I got to thinking about not which classes I liked, but why I liked them.  Could there be a psychology behind my class choices and the choices of others?  First, let’s take a look at some of the choices I have made, and then try to address possible generalities.

My First Character

Ok, so not necessarily my first character, as I started with a rogue, but my first character I stuck with all the way.  A Hunter.  One of the reasons I took the hunter is that I was in closed beta, and it was one of the last classes that was added to the game.  I also had a previous fondness for pet classes, as they were often very self-sufficient.  That is exactly what the hunter turned out to be.

Though I realize this is an MMO, I often spend a good deal of my time soloing.  I always have.  Part of this is due to my playtimes, as it is often difficult for me to group much at the times I normally play.  With the hunter, soloing was a breeze from level 10 on.

There was also a good deal of complexity with the hunter, which also appealed to me.  There is a vast world of pet selection, pet skills, weapon types, shot selection and a bevvy of other intricacies built-in to the Hunter.  Of course you can quite easily doze as a hunter, just send the pet and auto-attack, but a well-played hunter takes focus and multi-tasking ability.  Perfect.

The problem I found with hunters once I hit 60 was that there were so gosh darn MANY of them.  It was both a powerful and quick leveling class, so of course just about everyone had one.  What was happening was that when I DID have time to group up and start tackling the end game, I had a hard time finding a fricking spot.

My Character Evolution

Soon I decided I needed a class with which I could get groups whenever I wanted to.  The druid appealed to me because it was also a very intricate class, perhaps even more so than the hunter.  Druids can do anything reasonably well, and, more importantly, can spec for healing in the end game.  Healers rarely want for groups the way hunters do.  I also quickly found that once I hit 20, they were as good at soloing, if not better, than hunters.  It was truly the perfect class for me.

I also quickly found I quite enjoyed healing.  There is something about the whole group RELYING on you for success that appealed to me.  I loved the level of responsibility I felt I had, and enjoyed that I was often the difference between life or death for the tank and the group.

My Character Conclusions

For me, the hunter was appealing because of its combination of versatility, power, and intricate playstyle.  The druid appealed to me due to its versatility and, later, its power as a healer.  Not eveyone is suited to healing, but I found that I flat out LOVED the resposibility.  As it turned out, I found the perfect pair of characters.  On one hand, I had the solo friendly Hunter, who could take on most content quickly and efficiently, and made for a good time when alone.  On the other I had my very sought after healer, who also challenged my multi-tasking abilities and my resilience.

With that out of the way, let’s take a gander at the holy trinity of greater class “types,” and see if we can’t find some correlations between their respective play styles and the psychology of their owners.

The Tank

The tank is a very complicated class to play in WoW.  It’s not so much the mechanics of the class itself, as they generally only use a few skills over and over again, but the overall play style.  Tanks are usually responsible for marking and leading instance runs, for starters.  When you join a group as a tank, people just plain EXPECT you to mark and lead.  Because of this, tanks have to know the instances better than anyone else.  They need to know all the mob types and their skills, all the pulls and how they should work, all the boss fights.  Where a DPSer can sit back and wail on the skull, the tank has no such luck.

Not only do they have to know the instances front and back, they also have to have intimate knowledge of all the player classes as well, in order to use them to their fullest ability.  They need to know who can adequately CC mobs, who can use other utility skills to the benefit of the group, and how best to squeeze every last drop of performance out of each and every group.  Once that’s all in the clear, then they have to manage all the mobs coming their way, and do their best to keep control of all of them.  In the end, they also often carry the highest repair bills, and are the most dependent on great gear to succeed.

Whew!  So who in the heck would want to be a tank?

Well, on the “good” side, true leaders.  The people that ENJOY sitting at the head of the table, and shouldering the load for others.  The people that aren’t afraid to hand out orders, or give people advice if they are doing something wrong.  This kind of player gets a great deal of satisfaction out of having a successful run.  They know they did a good job when they get their group through a tough instance, and they often enjoy the respect and admiration they receive for their willingness to lead.

On the “bad” side, the tank classes can also attract the arrogant and the control freaks.  Yes, there are difficult people who like to play tanks.  They can’t enjoy the game unless they can tell people what to do, and when to do it.  They like to bark orders, and they especially enjoy yelling at people for doing things the wrong way.  They get off on the way people “need” them to succeed, and they don’t care so much if people admire them so much as respect them.

The Healer

Healers find themselves in their own predicaments.  Healers are often the first ones blamed for a wipe, and at the same time they seldom get credit for a “good” run.  They spend all their time playing “whack-a-mole” with health bars, and consequently don’t really “see” what’s around them as much as other classes.  Healing can also be VERY difficult in ways people don’t expect.  An undergeared tank can be a total nightmare, and the healer may still get blamed if the group wipes repeatedly.  Strong-willed DPSers who seem oblivious to threat monitoring can also make a healer’s job a living hell.  A bad CCer can cost a healer as well, as the healer is usually very high on the threat list, and the first person a free-roaming mob will go after.

They type of person that likes to play the healer role is often someone who cares more about the success of the group as a whole than personal achievements.  Very few people pay much attention to healing stats and numbers like they do DPS, but this type of player doesn’t really care.  They would rather see a successful run where nobody dies than a wipe-filled run where they collect loads of epics.  You’ll notice one theme in many healers is they fail to heal themselves. I think this tendency goes a long way to explaining the type of person that plays a healer.  They get lost in the group dynamics, and enjoy it most when the group works together like a well-oiled machine.  Healers often attract the most selfless of players.

Another type of person that can be drawn to the healer class is the player that is interested in quickadvancement above most else.  If you want to get geared up in a dang hurry, roll a healer.  Guilds are always looking to gear up more healers.  This type of player is in it more for the gear and the numbers, and they often fall off and focus on other classes when their gear progression begins to slow.  They may never take the time to really learn the “art” of healing, and likely will become bored with the playstyle after not too long.

The DPSers

In my opinion, nobody gets scrutinized as thoroughly as DPS classes, especially in end game raid situations.  Sure, healing numbers are looked at as well as tanks, but the first thing anyone wants to know is what kind of DPS is being put out.  This is also an area where some very hard numbers are bandied about, everyone seems to know that a BM hunter should be putting out XXXX DPS in SSC, and if you’re only pulling XXX, then you need talking to.  The same can be said about most pure DPS classes, while the more utility-based classes get free passes.  (Shadow Priests, Enhance or Elemental Shammys, etc.)

The most competitive players are often drawn to DPS.  If you want to prove your worth over another guy, this is the easiest class to get definitive answers with.  If you’re out DPSing the next guy by 100+, it’s pretty obvious to everyone.  DPS classes often draw those people flat out obsessed with number crunching.  Heck, there are numerous spreadsheets and gear evaluators out there, and they almost always focus on pure damage output.  If you want to try to squeeze every last ounce of performance out of a character, DPS might be the road you want to take.  There isn’t quite as much that is “ethereal” about DPS classes, just dish out the hurt.

DPS classes can also draw a couple other personality types:  the ego and the lazy.  The ego driven player wants to top the DPS charts above anything else.  They don’t care if the group is wiping, as long as they are in spot #1.  The lazy player sometimes picks up DPS classes because, well, they can be easy to play.  Hunters are classically associated with this type of player with the mean-spirited moniker “huntard,” since supposedly a 2 year old could get a hunter to level 70.  This “lazy” type of player is the polar opposite of the competitive type.  They probably know nothing of gemming strategies, DPS spreadsheets, or how to maximize their DPS in any way.  They know a couple of tricks, and stick to them.

Conclusion, Sort Of

So what exactly is the point of all of this?  Well, for one I think it’s interesting that if you pay attention you see these aforementioned types of players again and again.  I’ve been playing WoW for over 4 years, and it was like that from almost the start.  The leaders and the Arrogant rolled tanks, the Helpers and Gear Whores rolled healers, the Competitive, Ego Driven and Lazy rolled DPSers.  While it may seem I’m giving a “good” and “bad” type for each of the holy trinity, in the end I don’t think there is all that much difference.  Let’s face it, everyone is in the game to have fun, well, most everyone, and they have the right to do it how they see fit.  I’ve run many an instance with an Arrogant Tank, and I never quit because of it.  I’ve also been guilty of a bit of both Guild Whoring and Laziness in the past as well, but that doesn’t make me a “bad” player.

In a way, I think it goes to show just how great a game WoW is, and why it has had the longevity that it has.  I’ve really only scratched the surface with this post, as I’m sure if someone took the time to really analyze characters and why people play them, they could find many more common themes.  I also generalized into the three main types, and I’m sure that if you shifted focus to particular classes you’d see different things.  Heck, I didn’t even get into the altaholic, who likes to play a little bit of everything.  (But, in my experience, the Altaholic often has a Healer that they play the most - so I’m not so sure they aren’t just an offshoot of dealing with the often boring, thankless job that is healing.)

In the end, maybe you found yourself in one of the types I described.  Perhaps in reading this article, you gained a new understanding of why you play the character you play.  Maybe in some small way it can help you be better at what you do, and at the same time teach you what you really enjoy about the game at a basic level.  Then again, maybe not.  So what type of player are you?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Meta WoW. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.