One of the most frequent questions to come up on the WoW forums is “which class is the best for soloing?” There are many answers to this question, but in my personal experience I’ve found four classes that absolutely excel at solo play. Anyone who likes to be able to play alone and still level at a decent speed while earning some gold and being able to check out a lot of what World of Warcraft has to offer would do well to check out any of these classes.
Hunters tend to be a solitary lot. They’re not typically much desired for groups and tend to finish quests and level up much faster on their own. The secret to a hunter’s success is the faithful companion that follows them wherever they go, their pet.
A hunter takes his group with him wherever he goes. His tank is right there at his heels, ready to throw itself into a fight with a group of higher-level mobs on his master’s whim. As a hunter, your loyal buddy soaks up all the damage while you stay back and pick off targets with your gun or bow.
Downtime is practically a non-issue for a hunter. Yes, a hunter’s attacks do require mana, but rarely enough to cause him to have to sit down and drink between fights. A hunter’s pet will need some healing from time to time as well, but between Mend Pet and First Aid, pet downtime is very minimal as well.
Leveling quickly is definitely awesome, but the problem with playing a hunter is that once you hit max level, you’re going to find it difficult to get into groups. Other DPS classes are far more desirable so unless you’re part of a good guild that likes you, you can plan on soloing for pretty much all of your WoW character’s life.
Like a hunter, a warlock’s pet makes soloing a lot easier, but not for the same reasons. At lower levels, a warlock can use his pet similarly to a hunter pet, soaking up damage and holding mobs’ attention while he throws DOTs and life drains from afar. After level 40, however, an Affliction warlock’s pet becomes a fast-replenishing mana battery thanks to Dark Pact.
Warlocks are all-around great soloers, but those who spec Affliction will find their downtime reduced to practically nothing with Dark Pact. Pet mana regenerates at an incredibly fast pace, and with this ability you can simply transfer mana from your pet to yourself at any time.
Of course, a warlock of any spec has the advantage of Life Tap, as well. For a warlock in World of Warcraft, health is mana. As long as you’re alive, you can keep casting spells. With life tap, you simply convert your remaining health into mana and keep right on casting spells. When your health gets low, you can use Drain Life on a mob to replenish it.
Thanks to these amazing mana replenishing abilities, downtime becomes a non-issue. Add in the fact that warlocks do an amazing amount of damage with their damage over time spells and can typically Drain Life faster than mobs can damage them, and you’ve got the makings of one outstanding solo class.