Why I think Wow has a lot in common with MMA. . .

In earlier times in my life I was a rather serious practitioner of the martial arts. Much like I am with Wow characters, I practiced a number of arts, I definately have preferrences, but I wanted to try a little bit of everything, just to make sure I wasnt missing anything. The thing I found out is that there are many different paths to get to the same end result and there is no one "best" path. The "best" path for an individual is the one that emphasizes an individual's strengths and minimizes their weaknesses.

I was watching the show the Ultimate Fighter last night. One of the featured matches was a pure wrestler with minimal stand up ability versus a black belt in Brazillian Jujitsu who was a polished stand up fighter. Both fighters want to achieve the same goal: win the fight. How they intend to get there is COMPLETELY different. The wrestler wants to take down the other fighter, avoid his strikes and grapples and strike him on the ground. The BJJ fighter wants to use his stand up skills to create space and when the fight goes to the ground use his grappling skills to go for a submission. How does this relate to Wow?

In solo content all classes are effectively looking to do the same thing: complete a quest, kill 10 of whatever, escort billy-bob from point A to point B, etc. It is how you get there that is the heart of the game. Casters like doing this in a flashy way, sometimes multiple mobs at a time, nuking things, hopefully from a distance. Melee DPS like to get right up close and trade shots, relying on their damage to be superior to the mobs' damage. Huntards mindlessly hit buttons and brag about their awsum skilz. OK, just kidding about that last one, mostly.

The point I am trying to make with all this is that the methodology of how you achieve goals is what sets each class apart. This "flavor" is what makes each class/spec unique. There is no one "best" way to do things. If I had to give advice to a new player, I would say try the one you gravitate towards the most first, but TRY EVERYTHING. You never know what may unexpectedly be enjoyable for you.

And in case any of you were wondering, the wrestler won the fight. He basically took the Jujitsu fighter down repeatedly, and then when on the mat sat in the other fighter's guard doing nothing. It was one of the most boring fights I've seen, but he won.