Hunter. This is the class I knew I wanted to play the moment I picked up The Lord of the Rings Online back in 2007. I remember rushing to make my Elf Hunter on day one in order to start my journey as the Noldorin exile Eldalye when the MMO first opened its gates to the public fourteen years ago.
I didn't have to put much thought into it as well. There was a passage in the books that always stuck out to me that made me want to create a character like Legolas himself. When the Fellowship is struggling through the cruel storms of Caradhras, while everyone else in the party are trudging through the snow, Aragorn and Boromir using their large bodies and strength to carve a path for the rest of the fellowship to follow, Legolas walked on top of it, as if the snow drifts were simply the ground itself. Elves being light on their feet and all. The movies capture this perfectly as well - Legolas isn't wearing any heavy winter gear or padded boots to combat the cold: He's simply wearing his normal clothes walking on the snow itself.
So I knew I wanted to be an Elf as a result of this, and a Hunter at that in order to make my Legolas. It got me thinking about this earlier in the week, though, as LotRO is introducing its first class to be playable to the public today since 2014: the Brawler. The class itself is a melee DPS/Tank class that echoes the epic struggles of Helm Hammerhand, a legend in the Rohirrim, as well as the Dwarvish King Thorin Oakenshield. Like myself and my Elvish Hunter, there are going to be players who pick up the class to create their versions of Thorin or Helm and it got me thinking about classes I've chosen in other MMOs as LotRO was the only one where I knew going into it exactly who I wanted to play.
In World of Warcraft I've bounced between Priest and Monk, doing my playthrough of Battle for Azeroth as a Panderen DPS Monk while Shadowlands has seen me lean back into my Priest. There really wasn't a reason why I chose one over the other, except playstyle. At the time, I simply had more fun as a Monk versus the Priest I had been playing for a while before that in Legion (which is when I started playing WoW more seriously. Yes, I know.)
One of the other major MMOs I play, EVE Online, doesn't really have classes, but rather its left open-ended for you to decide how to play. As a result I've bounced between mining and exploring, trying to find my way in the world of New Eden. Nothing has stuck for long, though (my brief stint in Planetary Industry was shortlived, as was my day (yes, singular) as a pirate in Low Sec space).
The only other MMO where I pretty much knew what I wanted to play from the moment I started playing was Final Fantasy XIV. Red Mage. I grew up on the Air Force base here in Las Vegas, and a few friends of mine on base housing were as into Final Fantasy as I was growing up. Behind my house was a large patch of desert where we could run around pretending we were characters from old school Final Fantasy games, and I would always find myself choosing to play a Red Mage. Being able to help my allies while still deal gobs of damage to my enemies was very attractive to me.
When I picked up FFXIV, my sights were set on playing a Red Mage right then and there. And for a while I really enjoyed it. Though the skill rotation has gotten pretty stale (to be fair that's most skill rotations for me nowadays in tab-targeting MMOs now), I still find myself wanting to play the class, tough I have been dabbling in Dancer lately.
So what was it for you? Did you know what class you were going ot play the minute you kicked off your character in your favorite MMO, or was there more experimentation? Let us know in the comments below.
