The real questions I would ask are - do you like roleplaying your characters a certain way? Are you willing to put up with a fairly rude community? Do you see your characters as individuals rather than team members?
Because in years past (old Azeroth) what I would expect and get from WoW would be the following:
- A laid-back leveling pace
- Funny, humorful quest dialogues
- Several questing hubs for each race's lore, with limited clashes between my personality and that of the game.
- A good challenge level, sometimes a bit too difficult though
- A good selection of paths your character could take to get from Level 1 to 60.
- A nice, "free-flowing" adventure oriented "MMORPG".
This week, going into the Azeroth revamp and the Horde side of Northrend, I have lowered those expectations to the following:
- Faster-paced quests with the NPCs giving more of a feel of urgency
- The occasional funny, humorful quest dialog.
- The majority of non-neutral hubs being military bases for the dominant races of your faction (Humans & Dwarves for Alliance, Orcs for Horde) and several quests involving your character actively getting ordered around by these higher authorities.
- Content "nerfed" to death after every patch.
- Several linear quest chains that must be beaten to advance the storyline/get enough XP to level, many of which feel like a showoff of how much Blizzard can do with graphics and a given plot line, creating a "single-player game" feel and less of an "MMO" feel.
So going in with all of that in mind, the leveling experience has so far actually been pretty good. I've gotten exactly what I've expected, nothing more, and nothing less.
As for a WoW class rundown, here's my opinions:
Druids - This is a three-way hybrid class that features nearly EVERYTHING an MMO player could dream of. A bear form that can tank, a cat form with good melee DPS, one of the best caster specs in the game (Balance), and a very effective healer spec as well. Pick whichever of the three specializations most fits your preferred style of play.
Paladins - I personally think they're highly overrated, but some people LOVE this class. Most Paladin tanks I've worked with have been good, but the class as a whole to me feels like a "role-filler" class, and doesn't offer anywhere near the crazy DPS or the cool abilities as the more magic-oriented healers do.
Mages - Mages, IMO, are a top caliber caster class. They do more DPS than either caster Druids or Shamans, and the new talent trees have been much improved with the new expansion. Personally, Frost gets my vote for the best Mage spec, but Fire gets top nods too (Arcane = Overrated).
Warriors - Really effective tank class with strength...but that's all they've got going for them. Hard to solo-level, and not that interesting IMO.
Hunters - This is a class I've started playing in cataclysm, and I cannot believe how awesome the pet aspect is, the rest of the class is okay, but the pets make the whole class. You can tame almost any Beast-type enemy in the game to use as your pet, and it even comes complete with talents and abilities! One of my favorite pet classes, certainly my favorite pet class in WoW. I wouldn't start out as one though because they have a pretty big learning curve.
Warlocks - While I agree they aren't as overpowered as they used to be, and they lack the complexity of Hunters, there is something about this caster pet class that everyone who has one LOVES. Like caster Druids, they're just pure FUN!
Rogues - While they're not as powerful as some make them out to be (they can be pushovers if fought correctly), they're a solid Scout-type melee DPS class. They're great for soloing because stealth makes it harder for enemies to see you, and the class has a couple great perks as well (Lockpicking & Poisons). I'd say they are more of a PvP class though...
Shamans - Another three-way hybrid with a REALLY cool lore background, and a neat totem interface...but IMO they're just not up there with Druids.
Priests - One of the hardest classes in the game to level solo, but very good healers at endgame, and Discipline is a nice change from your typical healer class (you mitigate damage through shields). Shadow Priests are cool, but they've been nerfed in Cataclysm - they have a lot more downtime than before and are now forced to cast Power Word Shield and/or healing spells to win most fights.
