A tough question, not knowing your preferences:
Your 1st choice is not the character, but the realm (= server)
- PvP = player versus player (lots of duelling, raiding)
- PvE = player versus environment (less of the above, but existent; more RPG oriented)
- RPG = only a few, supposedly purely RPG style; "play your character in line with the classic fantasy clichées".
on character:
all classes work, and overall are pretty well balanced - but the game is geared towards team building. That said:
With long range abilities:
- priest = specialist healer
- mage = specialist damage dealer
- druid = versatile generalist, can heal and resurrect, though not as well as the specialist, can have bear, cat, sea lion and (I am at a loss for the Englisch name of the fastest running land animal cat). As bear plays similar to warrior, as cat plays similar to rogue, as sea lion has unlimited underwater breathing, the fourth is a speedy travel form. Has great buffs (strengthening magic, and decent combat magic. Wears middle armor => my favorite
- shaman = sort of the paladin of the horde, though does have long distance combat spells, otherwise close to the druid, with no animal forms except a travel form.
- warlord = dark mage with conjured pets; can thus be played single better than the specialist mage or priest, as pet can serve as tank to distract aggressors - not easy to play, but challenging
- hunter = long range specialist with tamed pet (are on the servers in abundance)
melée characters:
- warrior = tank, tank, tank - OK as damage dealer, can take hits, wears heavy armor - at higher level combats requires a healer as backup
- paladin = slightly less efficient than the warrior, however can heal and resurrect; has great party supporting auras (a party of paladins could be interesting to play)
- rogue = stealth capabilities, and highest damage dealer, though at his best when sneaking from behind, which often is not easy to achieve.
If it is an issue for you - alliance : horde ratio on the servers is approx 2:1
PvP is much more crowded (even though there are more servers) than PvE or RPG.
1st character testing? Definitely something with magic to understand the principles and how to operate them. One with some melee capabilities to see how that works and for it not to succumb too easily at the end of the mana bar:
that brings us to druid, Elven or Tauren - the versatile generalist, with some extra class related quests.
I concede that this is biased by my personal preferences <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
