Azeroth Survivors Best Class: Paladin and Hunter Give New Players the Most Room

If you go by the game’s own numbers, the Paladin and the Hunter are the safest first classes in Azeroth Survivors. The Paladin has the most base health at 245, and the Hunter sits just behind at 240 with the longest starting reach in the game, an Auto Shot that fires from 32 yards. Read this as a comparison of the 0.132.0 client data and nothing more. It is not a power ranking from play testing, we did not measure damage and we give no S, A or B tiers, because nothing we can check supports them.

How did we compare the classes?

We used only facts stored in the game client, so anyone can check them on the class pages. For each of the nine classes we looked at four things:

• Base health, the number the hero picker shows before race, talents and gear.
• Starting spell reach and speed, meaning the range or radius of the spell every run opens with and its base interval between casts.
• Healing, shield and immunity spells in the pool, counted only when the game’s own text says the spell heals you, absorbs damage or makes you immune. That text is a talent that names the spell, an achievement or a tooltip line we could tie to the spell.
• Capstones that change the opening spell, taken from each tree’s final talent.

We left damage out on purpose. Talent effects use a rank value the game only shows in its own tooltips, and we have not run controlled tests. If we can play test reliably later, we will add measured results and say so on this page.

Which class is easiest for a first run?

On this data the Paladin comes first and the Hunter second. The Paladin has the top health score, and Consecration covers 8 yards around you for 8 seconds, so it keeps hitting whatever crowds in. Its pool also includes Holy Light, a heal the game casts for you once you fall below 85% health, and Divine Shield, which makes you immune to all damage for 4 seconds once you fall below 35%. The picker sums the class up as “Heals himself, shrugs off death once in a while.”

The Hunter trades a little health for distance. Auto Shot has the fastest base interval of any ranged starting spell at 1.1 seconds and the longest range at 32 yards. The picker line fits: “Death from range. Arrows, traps and volleys, as long as you keep your distance.” If you want a third option, the Druid pairs a 30-yard Wrath with two healing spells, though it starts on 205 health. “Easiest” here means the most room for mistakes while you learn the boss clock, not the most damage.

Which class has the most health?

The Paladin, with 245 base health. The full order runs Paladin 245, Hunter 240, Warrior 230, Mage 215, Druid 205, Shaman 195, Rogue 190, Priest 170 and Warlock 165, a gap of 80 points from top to bottom. Talents can move these numbers. The Paladin capstone Hammer of the Righteous adds 15% maximum health, and the Druid’s Dire Bear Form adds 25% maximum health and 10% less damage taken. Race and gear add more on top.

Which classes attack from range?

Six of the nine start with a spell that reaches well past melee, while the Warrior and the Rogue both start at 7 yards. The Hunter reaches farthest at 32 yards. The Shaman, Mage, Warlock and Druid all start at 30, and the Priest’s Smite reaches 28. The Paladin is the odd one out, since Consecration is ground around you rather than a shot. Speed matters too. The Rogue’s Sinister Strike has the fastest base interval of all at 1 second, but you have to be close to use it. Every interval in this guide is the base value before cooldown reduction.

Which classes can heal or shield themselves?

The Paladin, the Priest and the Druid have the most, with two spells each, while the Warrior, Hunter, Rogue and Warlock have none on our count. The Paladin has Holy Light and Divine Shield. The Priest has Power Word: Shield and Renew. The Druid has Regrowth and Rejuvenation. Shaman Healing Wave and Mage Ice Barrier make one each.

The game’s tooltips explain how these work. They are templates shared by many spells, so we tied each one to a spell through talent text that names the spell. Holy Light, Renew, Healing Wave, Regrowth and Rejuvenation all have a talent that makes them “heal more,” and the heal tooltip gives an amount set as a share of your maximum health, then adds “Cast when you fall below 85% health.” Power Word: Shield and Ice Barrier each have a talent that makes them “absorb more,” and the shield tooltip says it absorbs the next stretch of damage you take, up to a share of your maximum health, and is cast again once the shield breaks. Divine Shield is the one class spell that matches the immunity line, which makes you “immune to all damage” for a few seconds and ends with “Cast when you fall below 35% health.” The Paladin talent Divine Intervention wraps you in a free Divine Shield when it saves you from a killing blow.

Three more spells hit back instead of keeping you alive. Holy Shield, Lightning Shield and Thorns damage enemies that strike you in melee, and an achievement names all three as sources of reflected damage. We left them out of the count. Drain Life is the one we could not settle: the game has a tooltip clause that heals the caster for part of a spell’s damage, but we could not tie it to Drain Life with certainty, so it stays out too.

Talents fill some of the gaps. The Warrior milestone Fortified makes every Shield Slam raise a shield, the Warlock talent Siphon Life heals you from your damage-over-time ticks and several trees have a talent that turns a share of all your damage into healing. The talents table lists them all.

Which capstones change the starting spell?

Five capstones replace the opening spell outright:

Many others hand you a second spell at the start, and their text does not say it replaces the first. That covers all three Warrior capstones, the Paladin’s Divine Storm, the Hunter’s Kill Shot and Wyvern Sting, both Shaman picks Elemental Mastery and Totemic Wrath, the Mage’s Pyroclasm, the Warlock’s Seed of Corruption and the Druid’s Force of Nature. No Priest capstone changes the opening kit. Capstones sit at the end of a talent tree, so all of this matters after a few runs of talent points, not on run one.

Does race matter for your class?

It matters a little, and you only buy each race once. Races are opened with achievement points on the Rewards tab and belong to the whole save, so every class can use them. For a sturdier start, the Tauren adds 15% maximum health and a War Stomp that stuns nearby enemies every 15 seconds. The Orc adds 10% maximum health and Blood Fury, which gives 35% more damage for 12 seconds every 40 seconds. The Dwarf, Night Elf and Undead lean on shields and near-death immunity instead. The races table has all eight, and the how to play guide covers the run itself. When you are ready, start from the Azeroth Survivors game page .