Return of Reckoning

Hello all,

I have a bunch of questions as I have little idea what I'm doing, so please be patient with me.

1) I'm not going to ask "which class should I play" but is there a place to see the difference between them? For example, if I want to play a healer, what's the difference between a WP vs. AM vs. RP vs. Zealot vs. Sham vs. DoK? They all look very similar but is there a difference or are they all pretty close to the same? Similar question for tanks and dps.

2) Are hybrids socially outlawed here? I've heard many a disgruntled RoRer complain about how their DPS AM isn't wanted in groups for example. Are people basically expected to sit in their appointed holy trinity seats and enjoy the ride, or can you stand up and try something a little outside the box without getting flamed? I partly ask as the melee or DPS healer intrigues me a little, curious.

3) How much PvE is there? I'm not a huge PvPer (but I'm willing to not poo-poo it), but am I expected to fill 'PvP rolls' or just 'rolls'? Will I have troubles if I'm like lvl 40 with lvl 5 PvP? (not sure the proper names)

4) Do DPS get groups if you're not in the top 1%? I ask as most trinity MMO's are kinda picky on the tank and healer to begin with, but what I've seen here is there's expected to be 2 tanks, 2 dps, and 2 healers, and I'm doubting that the actual player character distribution is anything close to this.

5) Are any classes really not wanted? I ask here as I read a little on the IB and it seems they're not too popular a class with PvPers.

6) Last one I think: if I don't PvP for a bit, is that a big deal? When would be a 'good' time to start it just to try it out? I know I might be blitzed by everyone, I get it, but I don't want to knock something before I've tried it either.

1) click the career builder above, there you can see all classes abilities, tactics, morales and speccable trees. caution, it isn't 100% up to date with all abilities, but it will still give you the best view of how classes work. also feel free to ask about classes, there are lots of people more than willing to walk you through it

2) the key word really is hybrid, not dps. several healers can absolutely heal and dps at the same time and this actually the meta for certain classes in certain situations even when they are in the group as a healer. this is true for the melee healers yes especially small scale. dok can sort of act as a true dps but you'll still want to heal your guard and throw some hots on people at least

3) there's a huge amount of pve these days. no you will be fine if you pve your way to 40 with no renown (pvp) rank. people will say otherwise but there are some pve sets that you can wear with no renown. they are all typically very defensive in nature and so will allow you to just survive and learn pvp whilst not getting instamelted. the best overall sets require pvp though, and lots of it

4) you have a harder time but it's not impossible by any means, joining a guild alleviates a lot of this. truth is there are 4 tanks 4 heals and 8 dps on each realm and yes the meta is 2-2-2, but you see people looking for dps in lfg all the time. it's just somewhat rarer

5) no, you can make anything work if you really want to, pub warbands take anyone and once you're in a guild with friends you make it all work. up until you want to take the game super seriously people are just trying to fill warbands, get at least 1 tank and 1 heal in each group and get everyone to move in basically the same direction. if you wanna be the millionth engi or dps shaman you go for it

6) no, like i said, you pick up the right pve sets and they'll work with bolster to make you very defensive. you won't be doing much dmg but you can learn and observe how things work without getting blown up right away

As a new player, being able to connect to other players to build relations and if possible get into guilds is a lot easier as tank or healer, because those archetypes are often in higher demand.

Hybrids are pretty much socially outlawed, unless you are in the elite top 1%. You will be effectively useless in PvP.
WP+Dok has medium armor whereas the rest of the casters have light armor (which makes a big difference). Casters will have to rely heavily on kiting. That is one of the main reasons those two healers are usually preffered in PvP. Melee healers will generally do better by spec'ing as healer, and they will survive longer, and be able to do more damage as a result (just my observation)
There is a lot of PvE, but it mostly falls into the exploration type of category. Probably best then to join a PvE guild. There is high-end PvE content that requires proper coordination. I started this game looking for PvE but found I enjoyed the excitement of PvP much more... And grew tired of instanced PvE which can be very time-consuming.
The main requirement for DPS is probably just having good gear sets, doesn't really matter if you are super-duper high dps (generally speaking), as well as knowing how to have a decent renown spec (so you aren't super squishy).
If you want to dabble in PvP there will be lots of chances to join Keep takes or Zone locks. Extra players are usually always welcome in open warbands.