Biggest Winners (and Losers) Tier List – SoD Phase 2

Today, we’re diving into the biggest winners and losers of phase 2 of the season of Discovery. Blizzard has implemented significant rebalancing efforts in Phase 2, effectively reinventing aspects of the game. With a plethora of thrilling changes, including updates to professions, PVP items, and class balancing, the landscape of the game has shifted dramatically. However, with every set of winners, there are also those who didn’t fare as well, including aspects that have been somewhat neglected.

Introduction to Phase 2 Changes

Let’s kick things off by discussing class balance and the DPS ranking, identifying who came out on top and who didn’t. We’ll examine the shifts in class dynamics and how these changes have impacted player standings.

DPS Winners and Losers

Let’s talk DPS winners and losers. So, the first big winner is Shadow Priest. They’re doing top three DPS right now, which is crazy if you compare them to last phase. Your mana management went from a weakness to a huge perk with the new Shadow form mana reduction on spells. You’ve got Shadow fiend, you’ve got dispersion; the mana is incredible.

Meanwhile, your abilities like mind blast, mind spike, and void plague all hit like absolute trucks. And then, you even have the flexibility to use vampiric embrace, which is nearly enough healing to replace a second healer.

They aren’t the one-shot machines in PVP they were last week, but Shadow Priest went from a meme to one of the most desirable raiding and PVP specs in the game. So, are Shadow Priest winners and losers in phase two? There’s no question they’re big winners.

Phase 2 Shifts: Casters Dominate DPS Rankings, Physical DPS Fall Behind

It’s not just Shadow Priest, though. Every damage dealer is in a massively different place than they were in the last phase. Every player in the top 10 on parses is a caster right now, which is insane. If you zoom out to the entire population of raiders, though, five of the top six damage-dealing specs are casters. Meanwhile, physical damage gods from phase one like Warriors and Rogues are having big problems keeping up on the meters. One big reason is that bosses have huge armor. That means Blizzard specifically designed the fights to be weighted towards casters. It’s definitely a controversial decision, and I am curious what you guys think about it. Do you think it’s a fair way to balance the game by?

Game Rebalancing in Phase 2

Yo, what’s up, guys? Jerome here. Today we’re talking about the biggest winners and losers of phase 2 of the season of Discovery. Blizzard has really done a lot to rebalance the game in Phase 2, reinventing the wheel in some ways. There are tons of exciting changes in Phase 2, including things like professions, PVP items, class balancing. However, for every winner in the game, there are some big losers as well, aspects that have gotten completely overlooked.

So, without further ado, let’s get right into the biggest winners and losers of phase 2. We’ll be starting with class balance and the DPS ranking , discussing both the winners and the losers. Then, we’ll move into the big changes in the balance of power of professions and explore why a lot of people are swapping professions. We’ll also be taking a brief detour to talk about some gold-making winners and losers as well. Finally, we’ll be discussing the big winners and losers in the PVP side of things.

DPS Winners and Losers

So let’s talk DPS winners and losers. The first big winner is Shadow Priest. They’re doing top three DPS right now, which is crazy if you compare them to last phase. Your mana management went from a weakness to a huge perk with the new Shadow form mana reduction on spells. You’ve got Shadow fiend, you’ve got dispersion; the mana is incredible.

Meanwhile, your abilities like mind blast, mind spike, and void plague all hit like absolute trucks. And then, you even have the flexibility to use vampiric embrace, which is nearly enough healing to replace a second healer. They aren’t the one-shot machines in PVP they were last week, but Shadow Priest went from a meme to one of the most desirable raiding and PVP specs in the game.

Phase 2 Shifts: The Rise of Casters and the Challenge for Physical DPS

It’s not just Shadow Priests, though. Every damage dealer is in a massively different place than they were in the last phase. Every player in the top 10 on parses is a caster right now, which is insane. If you zoom out to the entire population of raiders, though, five of the top six damage-dealing specs are casters. Meanwhile, physical damage gods from phase one like Warriors and Rogues are having big problems keeping up on the meters. One big reason is that bosses have huge armor. That means Blizzard specifically designed the fights to be weighted towards casters. It’s definitely a controversial decision, and I am curious what you guys think about it. Do you think it’s a fair way to balance the game by just drastically shifting armor values to make certain classes weaker or stronger?

Fight Duration and Class Balance: Casters Thrive While Physical DPS Struggle in Phase 2

Anyways, back to another reason that casters are so freaking great right now: it’s the fight durations. Four of the top six fights are under 2 minutes for top parsers. That means you get a great value from Power infusion, and mana is never really a problem anymore with such short fights. As for the two longer fights, of course, they feature buttons you can press to get your mana back in phase two.

Unfortunately, physical damage dealers are the biggest losers, meanwhile casters are the biggest winners, at least unless you’re a Boomkin. I’m pretty sure Boomkin needs some kind of fruit basket or something from Blizzard after all the nerfs.

Hunter’s Unique Position

All right, so this one’s a bonus, but I had to throw in Hunters as well. Put aside the fact that range Hunters really aren’t performing in raid right now. I mean, Hunters can solo Scarlet Monastery, they can solo Alderaan, they can even solo Neron trash faster and easier than anybody else. On top of that, they can solo any mob in the game for items like Gut Ripper. That’s not even to mention how great melee Hunters are in raids either. They’re topping the meters, mostly just spamming Raptor Strike.

We routinely bring two melee Hunters to our groups, and I really wouldn’t be surprised if people don’t start stacking more. If you switch over to PVP, things are looking even better. Smart Hunters using Frost traps with Entrapment can make the game feel borderline unplayable, and I’ve been actively dreading seeing a melee Hunter near my priest in Blood Moon. I consistently die to them in like three hits.

Healer Challenges

We’ve talked DPS, let’s talk healers now. Healers kind of feel broken in Phase 2 right now, but not in a good way. There are a lot of memes, for example, about how Wild Growth is the only healing ability for Druids. It’s not entirely true, but it does kind of speak to Blizzard’s inability to balance healers right now.

There are things like the fact that the Earth Shield Rune hasn’t been working properly for like 3 weeks, and there’s just the way the game actually plays right now. With so much burst, especially in PvP, the very slow and hard-casted healers from classes like Shamans and Paladins just really don’t work on the Blood Moon event. For one thing, Mages can just instantly counter spell you because the damage is always so high, and you’ve got to cast with every global cooldown. It’s also extremely easy to get on top of healers and cause all sorts of pushback and interrupts. It’s gotten to the point where

Caster Dominance in Raid Meta

Just drastically shifting armor values to make certain classes weaker or stronger, anyways back to another reason that casters are so great right now: it’s the fight durations. Four of the top six fights are under 2 minutes for top parsers. That means you get a great value from Power Infusion, and Mana is never really a problem anymore with such short fights. As for the two longer fights, of course, they feature buttons you can press to get your Mana back in phase two. Unfortunately, physical damage dealers are the biggest losers, meanwhile, casters are the biggest winners, at least unless you’re a Boomkin. I’m pretty sure Boomkin needs some kind of fruit basket or something from Blizzard after all the nerfs.

Hunter Performance: Solo and Raid Impact

Putting aside the fact that ranged Hunters really aren’t performing in raid right now, Hunters can solo Scarlet Monastery, Alderaan, and even solo Neron trash faster and easier than anybody else. On top of that, they can solo any mob in the game for items like Gut Ripper. That’s not even to mention how great melee Hunters are in raids either; they’re topping the meters mostly just spamming Raptor Strike. We routinely bring two melee Hunters to our groups, and I really wouldn’t be surprised if people start stacking more.

PvP Dynamics and Hunter Strategy

If you switch over to PvP, things are looking even better. Smart Hunters using Frost Traps with Entrapment can make the game feel borderline unplayable. I’ve been actively dreading seeing a melee Hunter near my priest in Blood Moon. I consistently die to them in like three hits. So, are Hunters winners and losers in Phase 2? I’d say they’re definite winners.

Healer Challenges in Phase 2

Healers kind of feel broken in Phase 2 right now, but not in a good way. There are a lot of memes, for example, about how Wild Growth is the only healing ability for Druids. It’s not entirely true, but it does kind of speak to Blizzard’s inability to balance healers right now. There are things like the fact that the Earth Shield Rune hasn’t been working properly for like 3 weeks, and there’s just the way the game actually plays right now with so much burst, especially in PvP.

Professions and Their Impact

I see people paying for priest for no more on and even blood moon forget about GD KPS, just make 10 priests and you’ll rake in the gold. Alright, so let’s talk about professions next. Engineering was a must-have in all phases of classic for like 20 years. Due to some unexpected last-minute changes, though, engineering is way different than it was expected to be. The decision to save Goblin and Gnomish engineering until phase three means we don’t have key abilities like Goblin Sapper Charge.

Changes in Profession Dynamics

Instead, we have to rely on clunky and frustrating Goblin Landmines, and there’s also the underwhelming, not very exciting Radiation Bombs you can unlock from the Epic Helmet quest line. At the same time, Blizzard has added some new exclusive consumables to Enchanting and Alchemy. Most sims for classes like Hunters and Rogues are recommending your helmet profession like Leather Working, and then Enchanting as well. That’s because Enchanting gives you a Sigil with 20 attack power and 20 spell power.

Gold Making in Phase 2: Warlocks and Mages

Okay, let’s talk gold next. We’ve got to talk Warlock Summoners, we’ve got to talk Mage portal sellers. First, Warlocks get infinite shards to sell summons forever. Meanwhile, they’ve basically doubled or tripled their prices up to two to three gold per summon. Alliance Summoners with SM are making hundreds of gold. As for Mages, they can actually teleport to your sleeping bag, then they can easily portal you to a major city. I feel like I spent half my game traveling, so these guys are just raking in the dough.

Gold Trading and GDKP Dynamics

Let’s talk about professions next. Engineering was a must-have in all phases of classic for like 20 years. Due to some unexpected last-minute changes, though, engineering is way different than it was expected to be. The decision to save Goblin and Gnomish engineering until phase three means we don’t have key abilities like Goblin Sapper Charge. Instead, we have to rely on clunky and frustrating Goblin Land Mines, and there’s also the underwhelming, not very exciting Radiation Bombs you can unlock from the Epic Helmet quest line.

At the same time, Blizzard has added some new exclusive consumables to enchanting and alchemy. Most sims for classes like hunters and rogues are recommending your helm profession like leatherworking and then enchanting as well. That’s because enchanting gives you a Sigil with 20 attack power and 20 spell power. Meanwhile, the Irradiated Rejuvenation Potion is my dream for healers. It gives extra mana and spell power with a separate cooldown to Mana pots.

Warlock Summoners and Mage Portal Sellers

Let’s talk gold next. We’ve got to talk about Warlock Summoners and Mage Portal Sellers. First, warlocks get infinite shards to sell summons forever. Meanwhile, they’ve basically doubled or tripled their prices, up to two to three gold per summon. Alliance Summoners with SM are making hundreds of gold. As for Mages, they can actually teleport to your sleeping bag, then they can easily portal you to a major city. I feel like I spent half my game traveling, so these guys are just raking in the dough. On top of that, Mages complain so much that they can actually make 20 Waters per cast now, and it’s the actual Abyss water, unlike in the last phase. So, for gold making, warlocks and mages are loving this phase as huge winners.

Arathi Basin Dynamics

Jumping into PVP, let’s talk Arathi Basin, one of the three original Battlegrounds. Arathi Basin is required to unlock the extremely strong new belts and boots, except, wait a minute, you never have to do Arathi Basin ever again. That’s because with the new lumber from the Blood Moon event, you can get 200 Defiler rep with a 100 copper coins. Then you might say, okay, you still want to do Arathi Basin for Honor, right? Not the case either, because you can get 250 honor for 25 copper coins as well. Generously assuming 500 copper coins per Blood Moon, that’s over 2,000 AB rep per hour or 10,000 honor per hour. If the average five-man can come anywhere close to those numbers, I’d be very impressed. Unfortunately for me, Arathi Basin is one of the biggest losers of Phase 2.

Furbolg Medicine Pouch

Let’s also talk about the Furbolg Medicine Pouch. A few players in Phase One spent 15 or so hours farming Timbermaw rep to honored that allowed them to get the Furbolg Medicine Pouch, which is an off-hand weapon. At the time, it felt kind of like a questionable idea to do. That’s because a lot of people said the pouch wouldn’t work all the way up into level 50, and then when I got the pouch, it didn’t work at all. So I gave up hope, I put it in the bank, and I left it for Phase Three.

Except, when Phase Two hit, the Furbolg Medicine Pouch just mysteriously started working. So now, there’s an available off-hand with 10 stamina and a 10,000 health regen over 10 seconds. The only catch is that you have to spend about 10 hours farming Furbolgs.

Mechano-Lord Thermaplugg

As for the biggest loser of the phase, I would say that’s Mechano-Lord Thermaplugg. Thermaplugg had all these lofty ambitions and ideas to rule Gnomeregan, and now, unfortunately, he’s just being destroyed every day by thousands of adventurers. If you haven’t destroyed Thermaplugg yet, though, you’ve got to check out my Neron guide. It’s got all the tips and tricks you need to put Thermaplugg on farm for months to come.

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