Shaman vs Warrior Follow

I'm kinda new to the game of WoW, I was considering either being a Shaman or a Warrior for my first serious character. Which would you say has more damage capability and faster grinding ability. Also in a fight between the two, who would you say would win with equally skilled players?

uh, assuming equal gear, no heal-specced healer should lose vs a warrior. the healers just outlast the warrior, even with MS going for them.

more specific to shaman in a non-arena environment, they have a number of tools (heroism, elemental totems, high physical damage resistance with shield) to tip the scales in their favor. resto shammies just wont die thanks to earth shield and the heal from natures guardian (if they get that low). elementals have it a bit harder, but saving their biggest burst when the warrior gets into zerker and pops death wish can ensure max damage output. as long as the shammy sticks to CL and shocks, the warrior will have a hard time nailing interrupts. totems are just icing on the cake in most instances.

this is, of course, assuming equal gear on both the parts of the shammy and the warrior. is the warrior gets lucky with mace stun procs or sword spec procs, things could go south very quickly for the shaman. but overall, the shammy should prevail over the warrior the majority of the time.

also, im assuming pvp gear here, not pve. a resto in pve gear will probably get owned by a warrior in pve gear, but likewise the warrior will likely be dead before getting more than a few hits off on an elemental in pve gear.

Edited, Apr 17th 2008 1:53am by Quor

Agreed, 1v1 I destroy warriors. 70% knockback reduction +30% from earth shield means I have almost 100%. So even if some magical warrior does manage to get me below 30%, nature's gaurdian and the spam of a few lesser healing waves will get me to full and the warrior will be done for.

Actually, on the subject of Resto Shaman vs. Arms Warrior, I would have to strongly disagree. I've done it enough, and believe me, the odds are strongly in favor of the Arms Warrior. Arms Warriors are horrible for Resto Shaman.

I dunno I have more fun playing with warriors since I beefed up my pvp gear, in arena's they can still be quite a pain if my healer is not on his game. But in BGs I can usualy tear through them, seems more like a dps race.

Much of the discussion has focussed on PvP (and, btw, nothing more satifying on my enhancement shammy than killing an arms warrior through a full minute of frost shock kiting) but, OP, if you want to know which toon is best for a first toon, it may be the shaman. The ability to heal yourself and the huge amounts of damage you put out make grinding a lot easier. Leveling a warrior is tough --they do relatively little damage for a long time, have low survivability and don't become real killing machines until high lvl. They also constantly have to pause to eat and bandage themselves.

That said, they're both great classes. The warrior is definitely more of a challenge, with more buttons to push, and has more viability as a lvl 70 PvP toon. Warriors will also be expected to tank, so if you don't want that, roll another class. (Some people like tanking and warrior tanking is a blast.) Shamans will sometimes be expected to heal, but they can also dps, while most people think of warriors as solely a tanking class.

Shamans may seem a bit boring at first -- they get few special attacks. They become much more interesting in groups, when you constantly change your totem mix to help your allies. They also become insanely powerful after lvl 40.

I'll conclude the way most people do around here: Play both classes to 20 and then decide.

Edited, Apr 23rd 2008 3:13pm by tuskerdu