Teeny wrote: ↑6 years ago
I'd originally picked Warlock on this poll, despite maining a Mage throughout Vanilla and TBC. I saw the results and it seems like Warlocks and Warriors are the most popular in this poll (bearing in mind the sample size).
I'm a dingus for over-analysing, so please take everything I say with a pinch of salt here! There was a question asked in a similar poll on the r/classicwow subreddit a few months ago, and the results were as follows:
Since the time of Vanilla, there has been a ton of theorycrafting and the consensus is that Warriors have the potential to do do the highest raid DPS, as well as being able to tank, something that is difficult outside of farmed content for any other class. This means the high numbers for Warriors are to be expected, but what about Warlocks (4th overall in that dataset, behind Warriors, Mages and Priests)?
Warlocks were an oddball class in Vanilla itself, providing potentially great spell DPS (albeit inconsistent compared to Mages), along with immense utility. We certainly had Warlocks in our guild, and brought them on raids because it felt wrong not to (also our guild leader was a Warlock!) as much as for any quantifiable benefit. Healthstones were useful, and in Molten Core we used Warlocks on Garr as opposed to more tanks. Later on in AQ40 you needed a good Warlock for the Twin Emperors.
I wonder if the popularity of Warlocks in Classic is due to this oddball/'special snowflake' nature, a class that wasn't really understood at the time that's viewed as eclectic? I don't mind in any case, I'll be playing Warlock honestly because I value their sustain during levelling and the ability to solo play due to the pets, as the me of now is different to the me of 2004 and I can't commit the time I used to to the game, so want to maximise what I get out of each session.
It's interesting how the stats for these 2 polls differ apart from the top pick though, possibly the same size is a factor but also the types of players that come to Barrens.chat vs r/classicwow?
