WoW developers officially recognized the Paladin as the "Dad Class"

At BlizzCon, developers got asked about their favorite classes, and one answer spread across the internet pretty fast. Game designer Josh Greenfield confirmed to GameSpot what the community has been joking about for years – paladin is officially a dad class.

You know, I'm not a father, I'm a dog father, but I have father's gut, so paladin is definitely a dad's class.

Senior art director Jeff Parrott named hunter as his pick in the same conversation, a class that usually sits right next to paladin in these unofficial rankings.

Paladin checks nearly every box for the label:

• heavy armor and a large health pool that forgives mistakes

• the ability to heal allies and pull the group out of trouble

• defensive cooldowns for when things go wrong

• solid damage without needing to nail complicated rotations

The phrase "dad class" in the community has nothing to do with actual age – it's about playstyle. It describes reliable, straightforward classes that forgive mistakes, the kind adult players with limited time and a habit of making sure everyone's okay tend to gravitate toward.

That's where the familiar paladin archetype comes from too, the one who's first to check if everyone's buffed up in a raid and reminds people to repair their gear. Following that stereotype to its logical conclusion, the next step is offering to hold everyone's passports at the airport gate.

Greenfield goes by Aggrend in the community and worked on Season of Discovery, handling rune puzzles and quest chains, including the Corrupted Ashbringer storyline. He later became lead game designer for the Classic team.

The World of Warcraft: Forever beta kicks off September 17, with launch set for November 4.