Combat in World of Warcraft is faster paced than it is in other MMORPGs, without being a "clickfest". When a character attacks a creature, he or she enters into combat mode. In combat mode, the character automatically and repeatedly attacks the target creature, but the player is responsible for timing the use of spells and special abilities to be maximally effective. Warriors and other melee classes will have a host of combat abilities that they can employ while fighting, whereas magic users will be able to cast a plethora of spells.

Classes: Warrior, Rogue, Druid, Paladin, and Hunters

Description: Melee fighters depend mostly on their weapons and strength to defeat their enemies. They like to battle up close and personal, either like the Rogue striking from behind when you don't expect, or like the Warrior, screaming a battle cry as he charges in head on. Weapons used by melee fighters include swords, hammers, axes, maces, and daggers. Though they use the same weapon type, each class of melee fighters have a different style of using their melee skills to emerge victorious in battle.

Warriors: Warriors depend highly on high HP and armor, while dishing out some good damage with physical abilities like whirlwind or shield bash. With the most amounts of HP and armor, the warrior's job in battle is to soak up all the damage while the other classes are left free to attack. One skill they have to make this possible is Taunt, which works just like it did for Mountain Giants in Warcraft III, except that only the targeted enemy will run to attack the warrior. Warriors will wield either a weapon in one hand and a shield in the other, or a two handed weapon.
Favored weapons: swords, axes, maces.

Rogues: Rogues depend less on their armor, and more on high damage output than the warrior. Being the only class besides the hunter to use dual wield, rogues can pack quite a punch. They favor keeping quiet and attracting as little attention to them as possible. During battle, a good rogue can go into stealth while the monster's attention turns to another party member, then the rogue is free to sneak up behind and pull a devastating blow with their large array of combat moves.
Favored weapons: daggers, throwing knives, poison.

Druid: With the druid's ability to shape shift, he is more or less the jack-of-all-trades class. Two of the available forms are strongly melee based, these are: bear form, and panther form. The bear is the warrior-like form, using high HP and armor to tank, while the panther form seems to be more rogue based, using speed, stealth, and high damage to deal with enemies.
Favored weapons: Shapeshifting, daggers, swords.

Paladin: A Paladin's Melee abilities draw on his mana pool. He imbues his attacks with power from the Holy Light in many of his skills and abilities. Some examples of these melee abilities are Holy Strike, allowing a high damage melee attack, with an extra bonus versus Undead. Also, Fist of Justice will stun with intent to interrupt an enemy, possibly knocking opponents to the ground.
Favored weapons: Hammers, maces, blunt weapons.

Hunters: The Hunter's melee power comes mostly from his/her pet. A Hunter can order their pet to tank for them while they either rain arrows and bullets from afar, or fight side by side with the pet using melee weapons. An individual hunter doesn't match up with a warrior or a rogue, but with help from a pet, and the ability to dual wield, the melee Hunter is a force to be reckoned with.
Favored weapons: Pet, bows, guns, dual melee daggers.

Melee Overall Advantages: Most HP/armor, fun to play, very combat oriented, can solo.

Melee Overall Disadvantages: Takes most damage, is focused on most by enemies, harder to escape, hard to take down large groups of mobs, lower magical ability.

Classes: Hunters and Rogues

Description: Ranged fighters specialize in attacking from afar. Ranged weapons usually deal less damage than melee weapons, since they can attack at a distance. They usually wear lighter armor and have lower HP than melee fighters, but they can move quicker and are usually stronger in magic. All ranged weapons require ammo to fire (which you must keep in your inventory), except for thrown weapons (like daggers or axes). However, with the addition of trade skills to World of Warcraft, a player can learn to craft his/her own ammunition, as your skill in crafting ammunition increases, you can learn to imbue the ammo with magic to become more effective. Also, you can pick up some extra ammunition from looting killed mobs. Most ranged fighters have a backup melee weapon in case a melee enemy starts attacking them.

Hunters: Hunters are great at ranged combat. With a pet beside them, they always have protection from melee attackers. Hunters can use rifles to blast away at their enemy, while the enemy is distracted by the character's pet bashing them. However, if the enemy ever decided to ignore the pet, a Hunter has the skill to use melee weapons fairly well also, including the ability to dual wield melee some weapons.

Rogues: Rogues value secrecy and little attention. If they are going to enter battle, they want to make sure their enemy dies quickly and quietly. A great way to only catch the attention of one enemy is to use ranged weapons to catch its attention. A rogue can use bows, crossbows, or throwing weapons for ranged attacks. A high-leveled rogue can poison their weapons to do even more damage.

Classes: Mage, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Warlock, and Druid

Description: Spell casters specialize in calling upon the magical energies of the universe to destroy their enemies. They usually have very low HP and almost no armor, but the highest damage output of any combat type. Spell casters are always welcome among groups of players, as they can cast high area-of-effect damaging spells from far away to support the melee fighters up front. Not only can they damage enemies, but also they can heal companions or cast spells upon them, which raise their effectiveness in combat (buffs).

Mage: The Mage has the highest damaging spells of all the spell caster classes. They have an arsenal of AOE (area of effect) spells and very high damage individual spells. They also possess the power to take an enemy out of combat for a certain amount of time, using spells like Frost Nova, which can freeze every enemy in a radius around the caster.

Paladin: Paladins have tons of magical abilities. One of the most useful is their ability to cast Lay on Hands, which will completely heal their target and part of his/her mana, but also totally drain the Paladin's mana. Lay on Hands has a one hour cycle time. Paladins also have Holy Light, which is a heal spell not quite as strong as the Priests. Paladins can also Purify, which dispels against detrimental spell effects on the group. They also get the ability to Resurrect at level 12, but it is not as efficient as the priest. Paladins also receive a line of abilities called Seals, which act as short duration enhancements. They may only place one Seal on a given player at a time, but two paladins can stack their Seals on the same player. Paladins also have Auras, or group buffs similar to warrior shouts.

Priest: These guys are different from tradition clerics; typically chain mail-wearing bad asses that heal. Priests can only wear cloth armor, but their spells are based on messing with your targets mind. Besides being the best Healer and buffer in the game, the other priest powers (into either Shadow or Holy magic) make him seem more like an inquisitor than a medicine cabinet. Priests use Shadow/Holy Words, which are instant-cast and include: Dominate (make your enemy become your pet), Confusion (stops attacking), and Fumble (causes your opponent to miss).

Shaman: Shamans are very good at supporting the group. They can cast many different types of positive buffs on their party, and negative ones on the enemy. Most of their spells seem to be cast on the target, and then continue to effect the target in different ways, depending on whether they are friend or foe.

Warlock: The Warlock uses demonic powers to summon creatures from other worlds, or cast damage-over-time (DOTs) spells on the enemy. These DOTs can affect many different properties of the enemy, including health and mana. A few of their spells leach health or mana off of the enemy and return it to the Warlock.

Druid: Most of the Druid's magical power is in shape shifting to different beast forms. Aside from that, they also have many different supportive spells like heal or rejuvenation. Most of their magic abilities consist of DOTs, Buffs, and healing.

Spellcasting Overall Advantages: High damage, can attack from a distance, can support a group of players, can damage multiple enemies at once.

Spellcasting Overall Disadvantages: Low HP/armor, many monsters have spell type immunities, die very quickly.

Pets: Pets are the Hunter's companion. A Hunter can tame any mob in the wild, as long as it falls under the beast category. There are HUNDREDS of beasts in the world to choose from, we can only wait to see them all when the game releases. When a Hunter tames a beast, it will become his/her pet until the Hunter releases it. Pets do not die permanently, so you will not have to be taming a new pet everytime yours dies. A Hunter can only own one pet at a time, but that pet will grow more powerful the longer it is owned. With a wide range of pets available, each one will have its own abilities and skills it can use.

Summons: The Warlock is the king of summons. Summons are more powerful than pets, but only last for a set period of time before they die. Only one summon is allowed at a time. A few currently known summons include: imps, succubi, fel-hounds, voidwalkers, infernals, and doom guard. A trainer must teach the Warlock how to summon a creature.