WoW Character Types & Descriptions
A "World of Warcraft" character has a race and a class. The game has 12 races and 10 classes. The type of character you select will have a profound impact on how you play the game and how easy it is to find groups for dungeons.
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Pure Damage
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A pure-damage character focuses solely on dealing damage. The game has two types of pure-damage characters: melee and range. Pure-damage characters have the responsibility of killing enemies as quickly as possible. The rogue serves as the only pure-melee damage class. Mages, warlocks and hunters make up the pure-range damage classes. Pure-damage characters generally lack the survivability of other classes, because their damage output is so high. Their lack of survivability comes from either a low health pool or a lack of armor. Warlocks, for example, may have a high health pool, but they can only wear cloth armor. As with all other character types, pure-damage classes have three talent trees. Each talent tree focuses on a different type of attack. Mages, for example, can choose to train primarily in frost, fire or arcane magic.
Hybrid
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The remaining six classes are classified as hybrid characters. Hybrid characters can focus on a mixture of healing, damage and tanking, depending on what talent tree they choose to spend their talent points in. The warrior and death knight can elect to fight as a damage dealer or as a tank. Druids and paladins can focus on healing, tanking or damage. A shaman can act as a range or melee fighter in addition to a healer. Priests can choose to heal or train in magic damage. Hybrids hold true to the adage "Jack of all trades, master of none." Hybrids typically don't excel in one area better than a similar class. Warriors, for example, generally cannot put up the same damage statistics as a similarly geared rogue. Priests can heal better in certain circumstances, while druids heal better in others. The death knight class is available with the "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion.
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Race
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Along with choosing a character class, you can also choose a character race. There's more to each race than looks. Each race comes with four racials, which are essentially passive or activated boosts to your character. For example, night elves have Nature Resistance, Wisp Spirit, Quickness and Shadowmeld. Nature Resistance is a passive racial, which increases the night elf's nature resistance. Shadowmeld is an activated racial that allows the night elf to become less visible to those around him.
A character class is directly related to which race you choose. For example, you cannot choose to play a warlock as a night elf. Character races are also separated by the Alliance and Horde factions. You will experience an entirely different game if you choose to play one faction over the other. The blood elf and draenei races are available with the "Burning Crusade" expansion, while the worgen and goblin races are available with the "Cataclysm" expansion.
What to Choose
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No character is truly better than another, so your choice depends on your play style. If you think sitting back and casting spells is boring, avoid creating a mage or warlock. If you don't think you'll enjoy doing damage only, then choose a hybrid class. If you're all about the looks of your character, then you don't need to pay attention to what race you choose. But if you want the most efficient character, choose a race that matches well with the class type. For example, choose a dwarf if you want to play a warrior tank; their Stoneform racial helps with survivability.
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