The Character Creation Screen

Okay, Before getting onto my Troll Druid I wanted to talk about the changes to the character creation screen.

Besides from the addition of the 2 new races and added class combos we have the addition of a new animation when choosing your race. This is different for each race you scroll through, but the same for all races, albeit with their own unique animation for the said event.

For the Druid, it is the simple end cast animation of casting Wrath. This is actually one of the things I disagree with personally, and I will explain why.

Firstly, I believe it gives a wrong interpretation of classes. Most of these "low-level" changes are wholly designed around increasing the starting experience for newer players, to both the mmo, the rpg and wow genres. The animations given seem to show a pretty "static" role for each class. Running through the classes we have:

Deathknight: Blood Presence? (not sure what it is, it might be another animation but essentially that's what it is)

Druid: Wrath (Spellcaster)

Hunter: Auto Shot + Pet (Ranged Archer + Pet)

Mage: Fireball (Spellcaster)

Paladin: Auto Attack (Melee dps)

Priest: Heal (Healer)

Rogue: Mutilate/Auto Attack (Melee Dps)

Shaman: Thunderstorm (Spellcaster)

Warlock: Shadowbolt + Pet (Spellcaster + Pet)

Warrior: Heroic Strike 2 hander (Melee Dps)

I don't have a problem with the deathknight one or the pure classes, they do a great job for showing their specific classes role (I say deathknight because it is impossible for a new player to role one immedietly so you need some understanding of the game to role one) However the hybrid class animations give confusion imo. They all show one specific "specialisation" of that class, something that will eventually be talked more about at level 10 when you choose it (Note: Not active in the current build). However, I think some people may well be put off by certain classes, (mostly druid/shaman) if they think they "have" to be a dps caster when they want to role a melee character purely based on the animations.

I would say however the summary on the right is very good and gives good points for all classes, this is already implemented on live of course, however the animations are not. I do feel that the "Damage" should say they can be melee and caster for shaman/Druids.

Here's an example of the Druid Animation: