SoD 25 PvP Meta Overview Tier List

How are you all doing tonight? My name is Librarian Husky, and welcome. PVP is going to be a significant part of this experience, so let’s go over it thoroughly. We’ll discuss all the classes and rank each one based on their PVP viability at level 25.

Overview of PVP at Level 25

However, I shouldn’t just say viability because, honestly, every class is viable in this PVP setting.

The main types of PVP we’ll be seeing at level 25 are Warong Gulch and Ashenvale PVP. Note, there are no Arenas here, no AB, no AV; that stuff comes later. But I will make some notes on classes that are especially good in 1V1 situations because you’ll encounter that a lot on a PVP server, and it’s common in Ashen Bell or War Zong.

Rogue Class Analysis at Level 25

Rogue, damn, I love Rogue. I probably played Rogue the second most in classic, but a lot of people are dooming on Rogue at level 25, placing it at dumpster fire tier. It’s not. Rogue is fine at level 25. Rogue were alright in the 19 bracket in War Song, and compared to that, they gain crippling poison, mind-numbing poison, distract, and vanish. That’s some pretty important stuff.

Rogue’s Rune Choices and Weaponry

Your Rune choices are also really good. You could put on your tank rune for survivability, though it’s not as good as the Warlock or Shaman tank Rune. You have Quick Draw for a ranged slow or Slaughter from the Shadows, so you can pump out Ambush right into backstab or even mutilate. And there are some dope daggers to facilitate this, like Meteor Shard from SFK, and there’s level 25 versions of the War Song Go rep gear, which includes the dagger. On that point, pretty much every class spec will have a good weapon option, either through Warong Go gear or BFD gear.

Strategic Combat as a Rogue

Now, yes, you are missing key abilities as a Rogue, like cheap shot and kidney shot and blind. Those are huge, but every class is missing vital abilities at this level, level 25. You can slot between the eyes on legs if you think you’ll get a lot of use out of kidney, but most targets aren’t going to live that long anyway. Your issues as a Rogue in this bracket are getting to the target. You do have Sprint and vanish, so that helps a lot, but they are long cooldowns. You could slot Quick Draw to mitigate this or slot in Shadow strike to completely avoid it because it’s a 25-yard range, although it does require stealth.

Rogue’s Tactics and Survival in Battle

Oh, yeah, did I mention you can also have thistle tea, Shadow strike to open, backstab, vanish, Ambush? Almost nothing can survive that. You’re good at 1V1, you’re good at War Song Gulch. The only place Roguesuffers is in big group battles in Ashen Vil, but honestly, not that much. Just don’t run into a big group and die. Your job is to pick people off and then go back into stealth, but your stealth speed is set to geriatric.

Rogue Performance at Level 25

Rogues are good at this level. Maybe this is a hot take, but I’m going to put them into the amazing tier. Warriors, unfortunately, are not as impressive. Warrior is a really fun class in classic, but it’s not that great at low-level PVP. The new runes do help, but they still don’t really stand out here. Most people put Warrior at the bottom in the 19 twink bracket.

Warrior’s Abilities and Potential

However, you do gain some seriously good abilities from there: Retaliation at 20, Intimidating Shout at 22, and Execute at 24. This stuff really does help. Maybe you can give a melee every 30 minutes with retail, but you also don’t get any runes that are really going to turn things up at this level. Warbringer is great, but you don’t have Intercept at this level, you don’t even have Berserker stance, and you’re just not going to get Intervene at all unless it’s added in another Rune later.

Warrior’s Viability and Future Improvements

But it’s not all bad. Disarm is really good, Intimidating Shout is really good, and there are going to be some good two-handed options as well, so you’ll be able to do a lot of damage with Quick Strike if you can get to your target. Warrior can be fun in Mor song and group PVP; it’s just not all there yet, and 1V1s are a little rough. I think they should shuffle some Warrior runes around. There’s some interesting things they’ve already talked about, like Gladiator stance. Warrior really just needs one or two better runes at 25, and they would jump up a lot. Warrior is not a dumpster fire, but it’s going into the okay tier.

Impact of New Gear on Casters at Level 25

We’re going to move on to casters, but one thing to cover before we do: it’s very easy for melee to get a new weapon and see a huge damage boost. Casters don’t really do that as much. There’s like no spell power gear, but some of the new gear does have spell power.

It’s already really hard to say how much damage classes are going to end up doing. Add on the fact we don’t know what kind of gear there is, it’s really goddamn hard to say for sure how much damage casters are going to do. But I would expect all casters to be doing noticeably better compared to original, just based on the fact that they will have much better itemized gear instead of random ass Spirit on everything.

Mage Performance in Low-Level PVP

Mage was not the best at low-level PVP in original. It is lightyears better in SOD. First, you got the better gear. Second, compared to the 19, you gain a Blink, Blizzard, Evocation, and Counterspell. Yeah, that is some extremely impactful stuff at this level.

Mage probably has the best CC kit: Frost Nova, Poly, Counterspell, and you can even get Cold Snap at this level. Fingers of Frost, Ice Lance, and Icy Veins give you a full set of dedicated Frost runes. That’s probably your best bet for all PVP, especially solo. But I guess that’s not really surprising.

However, it is possible you might want to drop one of these runes for one of your heal runes to increase survivability. That’ll take some testing. Fire and Arcane also look not bad.

Mage’s Offensive Capabilities at Level 25

Mage performance at level 25 is complex. I probably wouldn’t roll them in BG’s, but in big Ashen Veil fights where you’re less likely to get focused, they could do a lot of damage. At this level, you can also get Pyro Blast, so you can play around that if you want. It wasn’t uncommon to see a hardcast Poly followed by a hardcast Pyro to oneshot people. It’s likely you can put together a build to play around that, maybe combo it with Arcane Surge.

Mage’s Healing and Survivability

Mage healing also looks pretty solid. You have three heal runes you can slot in. It’s going to require some playing around with, and Mage healing has already been changed in the build update, so we don’t know for sure how it’s going to be. But there’s definitely potential here for a really fun hybrid spec, probably Arcane-based if that’s what you’re into.

However, Mage has one huge issue that is exacerbated at this level: you are extremely squishy. Like, insanely squishy. You don’t have Ice Block, you don’t have Ice Barrier, you’ve got Mana Shield, and that’s about it. You are going to be one-shot a lot. Maybe I should say globaled, but other than that, pretty good. They’re going in the pretty good tier.

Warlock’s Rising Power in Low-Level PVP

Warlock, well, this is easy. You know where Warlock goes. Originally, Warlock was a dumpster fire at these low-level brackets, probably even worse than Warrior for most people. That’s not going to be the case here. Compared to the 19 bracket, you gain Eye of Kilrogg—hell yeah—but also Summon Succubus and Hell Stones. Those stones are really nice for PVP. That’s true, and of course, Warlock also has Fear, so it’s an okay CC kit at 25. Now, Succubus would be really nice, except Seduce is level 26, so the simps are going to have to wait until the next phase to use that.

Warlock’s Potential as a Tank in PVP

But the Warlock runes are where it’s at. They are phenomenal. You have two options here. The first, “The Unkillable Demon King,” is Metamorphosis, which will make you unimaginably tanky. This will probably end up nerfed in PVP somehow because you can just instant drain life, and Searing Pain is instant while transformed. You can still use Voidwalker pet sack for shield, and you can Fel Dom. You could literally just jump around spamming instant casts while transformed and basically never lose a 1V1. Now, in a group situation, the spec is okay, but it doesn’t seem like you’ll be doing insane damage while transformed, and this will lose a little bit of its strength later on.

Paladin’s Viability and Skillset at Level 25

Paladin, as with Shaman, was also good in the 19 bracket, even if not at the very top. Compared to that, they gain Exorcism, which could be good against locks, and Flash of Light. That’s not bad, and Turn Undead, which turned into Turn Evil, could be okay. It seems like Paladin doesn’t get much in here, but it’s not as bad as it seems. Paladin actually gets a lot of that stuff very early. Remember, you’ll have Freedom from level 16. You won’t have Divine Shield, but you do have Divine Protection and Blessing of Protection (BoP), and you do have Hammer of Justice, but it’s not the max rank 6-second stun, it’s 4 seconds.

Priest Performance in PVP

I love Priest; it was my second 60. I promise I won’t be biased here. In the 19 bracket, Priest was the best healer and just really strong in general in that bracket. Compared to that, you will get a racial Flash Heal, Holy Fire, Mind Vision, and Mana Burn. That’s not the most impactful, but it’s still good, and you do get a new rank of Mind Blast at 24, which is pretty nice.

Level 25 Shadow Priest PvP Guide: Runes, Abilities, and Racial Tactics

So, the runes: new Shadow was already really strong in PVP in classic, but you didn’t really hit the important points at 25, mainly Shadow Form. But it still seems pretty decent at 25. You can get Mind Flay, you’ll have Blackout for the stun, and the cooldown reduction on Psychic Scream. Your runes give you options for more Mind Flay and Mind Blast damage or another DoT. You can take Barrier for the damage reduction on your leg rune, or Homunculus for the damage, although I’m really not sure how much damage Homunculus will do.

Your glove rune, you can take Penance or Shadow Word: Death, both are really good options, but Penance gives you the flexibility to use it as a heal, and while it doesn’t matter at 25, later on, remember Penance is a Disc spell, you could use that in Shadow Form. Now, I don’t think it’s confirmed—like confirmed confirmed, there’s like a soft confirmation, a flaccid confirmation, if you will—but you might be able to change your priest racials around. This means you could get Devouring Plague or Shadow Guard as Shadow, no matter your race. That is pretty strong, especially in a 1V1. Just drop three dots and run away: Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Pain, and Void Plague.

Shadow Priest Analysis in PVP

People are kind of sleeping on Shadow Priest, which could actually be pretty strong here. Its downsides are, well, Mana, but anyone with a Mana bar has that potential issue in classic. Mana can be especially bad for Shadow Priest.

Big group engagements are not Shadow’s strong suit either. The shorter range on Mind Flay (MF) is very annoying here, and if you move into MF, you’re just going to get sniped. Healing Priest is also really good but was always really good around this level.

I would have liked to see something a bit more for survivability, like Shaman gets Way of Earth. You do get Barrier, which is really good, but it’s just a cooldown. Priest was already the squishiest healer, and it’s even more of a thing now. I think some of the other healers kind of gained ground on Priest here, and I’m going to put Priest in the pretty good tier.

Druid Capabilities in Warong Gulch

Druid is kind of a wild card, but not the kind of wild card that cuts the brakes on your spy van. Druids might be the best flag carrier in Warong Gulch, although Paladins are pretty good at it too. Druids are very tanky, bear immune to Polymorph, can break root slows, and can cast Roots, Fairy Fire, Hibernate. That’s all good stuff, and it was already in place. Their biggest problem in the 19 bracket was they didn’t do a lot of damage.

Feral Druids in Group PVP

Compared to the 19 bracket, you will gain Starfire and Prowl. Unfortunately, you won’t get Dash, that’s level 26. Add in all this new stuff, and it’s actually pretty good.

Feral could do a lot of damage now. You will have Prowl, and you can get Wild Strikes to hilariously give your party Wind Fury buff before Shaman can do Wind Fury. That already makes a Feral very sought-after for group PVP.

Or you can take Survival of the Fittest for the damage reduction. 6% crit and 10% damage reduction is not nothing. Then you have Skull Bash for a lunge with an interrupt attached. It’s a short range but only a 10-second cooldown. And then you get Mangle, which should be a lot of damage.

Boomkin and Healing Druids’ Performance

I’m not going to say this is like top-tier everyone else needs to bow, but it’s a massive improvement and totally viable now. Your only issue is sticking to targets since you don’t have a reliable slow like Crippling Poison or Wing Clip, but on the plus side, you are incredibly slippery, and you can get a 30% movement speed while outdoors buff from a talent.

Boomkin actually looks alright. Fury of the Stormrage makes Wrath free, which is really cool, and it can proc instant Healing Touches. That’s weird but actually pretty good. Then Star Surge and Sunfire. It’s hard to say how much damage these are going to do in practice, but they do look good. What sucks is you can’t get the Improved Starfire Talent yet; that’s pretty important. Now, unless the damage is just insane, Boomkin does look good. It’s not OP, but we’re not looking at a meme spec anymore.

And Healing Druid, it was not good at 19. It was kind of a joke as a healer. It’s a lot better here. You get a group heal with Wild Growth, you got Lifebloom for single-target healing, Living Seed looks alright. I’m not sure how much crit you’re going to have at this level, but you could also just take Survival of the Fittest for the damage reduction instead of Living Seed. Druid just looks pretty solid all around. It goes into the pretty good tier.

Comparison to the 19 Twink Bracket in PVP

Alright, a small digression here, but this is too funny to me. The reason I keep mentioning the 19 Twink bracket is that it’s the best comparison point we have for 25 PVP, and a lot of people have done it at some point, so that gives you a good frame of reference.

Hunter Performance in PVP

Hunter was fantastic in the 19 bracket and it just gets better here. You’re going to get Aspect of the Cheetah, Freezing Trap, and Scorpid Sting. What do the new runes open up for us? A lot, like a lot. So you can pretty much roll any spec you want and be very good.

You can go all in on BM; Kill Command is much better in PvP than it is in PvE because it’s nice to have a damage cooldown. This makes you one of the few specs to have a DPS cooldown at level 25, even though you’re not going to have Beastial Wrath. Pets were already really strong at low levels. Add all the pet scaling on there, yeah, this should be pretty good.

Exploring Marksman Hunter at Level 25 in PVP

But personally, at this level, I’m most interested in Marksman. You can grab Lone Wolf, Sniper Training, and Chimera Shot, and you’ve probably heard a lot of people talk about this already because, well, it just seems really fun. Go camp at one of these new objectives in Ashen Veil and just Aim Shot from Shadowmeld. Sniper Training will be up, you’ll have Lone Wolf, Aimed, Chimera, and the Multi. Literally dead, almost nothing could stand up to that.

Or you can keep Chimera but go Lion or Master Marksman so you have your pet for the utility, although keep in mind this is a classic pet, so the pet abilities are very limited compared to Wrath. Or you can keep these runes and subspec Survival.

Hunter Class Overview in PVP

You lose Aimed Shot, but you will still have Chimera Shot. You gain more melee damage; remember, we’ll probably have the improved Raptor Strike. You get Deterrence and Entrapment, one point in Trap Mastery within combat traps, and you can put two points in HP or Wing Clip. Remember, we got Scorpion Sting, so Chimera can disarm. Hunter was already a fantastic kiter at this level and didn’t really have any issue with melee. Now, you can Chimera Shot for instant damage while kiting. You don’t have to stop and shoot, and you’ve got way more tools for stopping melee. This is kind of insane.

Melee Hunter Viability

What about Melee Hunter? Okay, Melee Hunter is going to have a lot of problems. You don’t have a stun, an interrupt, a silence, a gap closer, and your only movement speed increase is Cheetah. But at this level bracket, all classes are missing big parts of their kit, so this isn’t as big of an issue. Your main issue is getting onto the target, like most melee, but if you can get to them, you can probably stay on them. And you still have your normal ranged Hunter abilities, so you can kite melee, and then if they get to you, big Raptor and Flanking Strike, drop an in-combat trap to reset, or if they get the jump on you, you’ve got Deterrence.

Hunter’s Place in the PVP Meta

As long as the damage ends up being good, Melee Hunter is not that bad at this level, honestly.

So, I say Trap Launcher a lot. I don’t really mean Trap Launcher in the literal sense; I just mean ranged traps in some form. If we do get ranged traps, which is not confirmed, it could totally happen. I would expect it to work like this, not an actual Trap Launcher like Cataclysm Hunter.

Although it is possible, we get a rune in the future that just gives us Trap Launcher, but I kind of expect it to be this kind if it does happen. Hunter goes in the “Blessed by Hunter Jesus” tier because, well, we truly are blessed by Hunter Jesus himself.

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