Which Class..........

[Ashenshugra]

Which class will net you the least number of actions on your action bars? I like to keep things neat and tidy. I use bar mods, but even with that in place I still have stuff all over the screen. I dont want to start a new toon or anything, just curious if there is a class out there that could get away with fewer action slots than other classes?

[xDarkDrifterx]

You could always leave them on the original bar and use the scroll function then all you have is the 1 bar . . .

[Gavriel]

In my limited experience with the full wealth of classes World of Warcraft has to offer I've not had the opportunity to level all classes to a high enough level to say conclusively which one would require the least amount of space. For the classes that I have leveled though, I've found them to bloat in their specialized spell selections irrespective of class.

As a first example, Shaman has a reasonable selection of totems grouped by element. You need a large number of button slots available for ready access to the individual spells. It is a nigh on unavoidable bloat.

As a further example, Warlocks bear the burden not only of a pet but a large array of situationally useful curses. Whilst not all of them will be used in every fight, having them accessible generally improves your ability to master the class.

With the Paladin, one has a large selection of Seals and Blessings which see situational use. However, not having them available would be detrimental. Your experience while playing the game would be diminished.

I assume it would be the same with other classes. Druids can shift forms and thus need individual, tailored bars to access the relevant abilities to their forms. Warriors have a variety of stances with abilities keyed to each stance. Rogues have a number of situationally dependant abilities that require either positioning, weapons or other conditions before they are useable. You would see bloat there.

Realistically it does not seem as if there is one class that can claim the least number of actions. If I had to hazard a guess I would point towards a Hunter, if you were willing to only take what you needed. But my experience with them had more clutter than all my other classes.

Perhaps the answer to your dilemma is a redesign of your interface. Through a careful selection of the bar user interfaction modification or supplementary user interface modifications such as Necrosis you could potentially organize your interface in a more cohesive, uncluttered fashion. Much like xDarkDrifterx intimated in his post.

I wish you the best of luck in this endeavour.

[Ashenshugra]

Not an endavour, but just curious. My 69 pally just has so many actions that I must have access to. I have a 30 hunter and so far its simple, very little needed. My 29 rogue is the same.
I was asking this question in the interest of my child who cant maintain a high level of options.
I appreciate the input and I use ctmod for my bar mod and have no reason to change so far.

[Beruen]

By the time you get to level 70, your hunter will be your worst. You'll keep getting new auras, tracking, traps, and abilities. You'll have both ranged and melee abilities. Even with an addon that turns all of my tracking into a single button on the minimap that opens a menu, my hunter has more bar space taken up with spells/abilities than any other character I've got.

Shamans, with their multiple types of multiple totems, are pretty bad as well. Even my low level shaman is already having to break out a third action bar.

Actually, I found my druid to be my most space-conservative, but only because I use a bar addon that automatically switches my main bar depending on my form (which the default UI will also do) and whether or not I'm prowling in cat form (which the default UI didn't do last time I used it). Feral druids tend to have fewer abilities in their various forms than the class that form emulates, so this tends to work out fairly well, with almost all of the form-specific abilities fitting into a single automatically changing bar.

Warlocks can get a little crowded as mentioned, though not as bad as hunters if you use one of the warlock addons that simplify pet management. Probably almost as bad as hunters without that, however.

Priests aren't bad compared to warlocks and hunters, but they get so many new, situational healing abilities past lvl 60 that you will wind up reorganizing your bars and probably adding another one as you get close to 70.

Mages aren't bad either, at least not at the level I've played them.

My rogue isn't bad, but my rogue is only lvl 26, so I expect that to change. Given that a rogue has far more options in combat than a cat druid, I'm pretty sure that by the time my rogue gets to an endgame level, the bars will be more numerous and cluttered than my warlock, though I don't see it getting as bad as my hunter.

Paladins are midground. Not many combat abilities, not many healing spells, but the blessings and seals will make up for that.

I can't say much about warriors, my only warrior is so low level that everything he's got fits in a single action bar.

One thing that I will recommend if you tend to carry around a lot of consumables (potions/elixirs/food/bandages) is the addon Autobar, or something like it. Basically, you can set up all of your consumables (and even some of your spellcasting) to go in one autoadaptive bar. You'll have a button for food (hovering the mouse over it will break out a vertical bar showing all of your foods, if you don't want the one that autobar thinks you'll want), one for water, etc. This way, you won't need to have your consumables on your actionbars for the most part.

[poopsmcgee]

i have leveled to 60+ a warrior, priest, shaman and rogue. the warrior and rogue had the simpliest toolbar sets. my two priests aren't too bad and the shammy was by far the most complex.

[Wintrow]

At L49 my wife's hunter has almost 6 bars full of spells (including auras, traps, etc) and potions that she needs handy. Hunter is the worst.

On my L55 Druid I manage with 4 bars to accomplish the same. Off course 1 bar switches depending on my Form.

I reccon Mage is easiest because they more rarely get new spells, just more ranks of Fireball and Frostbolt :tongue:.

I also use a buttonbar addon (Bongos2).

For Paladin's, Priests and Druids you can save some buttonbars by using BeneCast (if it doesn't lag you down). It adds buff/heal/cure-buttons next to the health bars of your party. You can then toss those off your normal buttonbars.

[moopy]

As a first example, Shaman has a reasonable selection of totems grouped by element. You need a large number of button slots available for ready access to the individual spells. It is a nigh on unavoidable bloat.

Totems are an avoidable bloat. There are loads of addons which just add four element buttons with pop-out menus to give quick/easy access to your totems. Without them, most shammies would be drowning in buttons :)

The only totems that I have hotkeyed and in their own slots are tremor totem and earthbind, for emergencies, and that seems to work out ok.

[Loriel]

On topic, I'd say that pure melee-classes like Warriors and especially Rogues have the fewest number of abilities. Mage isn't too bad either, but between your offensive spells, decurses and various AoE options you're looking at at least two full bars of skills you'll use most of the time (providing you know how to play said Mage well).

On the other side of the scale, I'd say Warlock and Shaman - curses and totems galore.

Contrary to the OP, I actually like classes that provide lots of buttons for me to push, as they give me options in combat. So personally I'd rather revel in all the various abilities (like my Shaman and all her totems), and rather research some class specific mods that can help me organize it all. Necrosis is a nice space-saver for Warlocks, and there are similar mods for healing classes + (like Moopy said) mods that can help you group your totems together.

[dancingstarr]

My rogue isn't bad, but my rogue is only lvl 26, so I expect that to change. Given that a rogue has far more options in combat than a cat druid, I'm pretty sure that by the time my rogue gets to an endgame level, the bars will be more numerous and cluttered than my warlock, though I don't see it getting as bad as my hunter.

I'm not endgame level (L52), but compared to some of my lower-level toons, my rogue skills don't take up a whole lot of bar space. I think because most of the rogue skills are either stealthed/unstealthed, I'm only looking at one group of skills at any given time. Looking at what is going to be available as I level, it doesn't seem like there are going to be that many new skills I'm picking up, just increasing ranks.

[Sonya of Red]

Not an endavour, but just curious. My 69 pally just has so many actions that I must have access to. I have a 30 hunter and so far its simple, very little needed. My 29 rogue is the same.
I was asking this question in the interest of my child who cant maintain a high level of options.
I appreciate the input and I use ctmod for my bar mod and have no reason to change so far.

My son started playing Wow about five months ago. At first I was kind oflike you I wantedto keep things really simple for him - he was already having huge problems with the controls because he is left handed. Originally he started with a warrior but he really disliked that class so finally I just gave him free reign to create different characters to see what he liked. Currently he uses a 29 hunter that was mine until I bought a new account (he just started playing it one day and seemed to like it). He also has a level ten Warlock that he seems to like. My best advice would be to just let him explore. If he finds a class that he really likes he will make the controls work. My son uses the default controls and switches action bars using the shift key. While he is still very clumsy with the controls but he is having fun an that is all that matters.

[dancingstarr]

I was asking this question in the interest of my child who cant maintain a high level of options.

In observing the way my sons play WoW, I think kids play at the level they are ready for.

My 8 y/o starts a toon, runs around killing random mobs in the starter area for a few levels, gets bored, and starts a new one. I've tried to explain things like quests and trainers and I believe he really understands my explanations, but he's just not interested in that sort of thing. My 12 y/o just wants to run RFC over and over, duel, and grind. "Quests are a waste of time," he says.

For a little while it frustrated me to watch them play, because it wasn't the *right way* to do it. I kept my mouth shut and decided that if they were having fun, whatever they were doing was the right way. I did, however, have to stop sending them gold to equip their new toons -- they were bleeding me dry. :rolleyes:

And wow, did I just get way off-topic there. Apologies.

I dunno. I think my kids picked up on a lot of things in the game a lot faster than I did (even though they now elect not to apply all of that brilliance!). :blush:

[Zendarin]

Out of all my toons - admittedly not that high - rogue is by far the easiest to manage. One bar is all I need - this switches automatically when I stealth. All of my consumables I keep in a specific bag which I leave open in the bottom right of my screen.