Greetings, champions! Librarian Husky here with a warning for every melee fanboy who is diving into this season. Frost Mage is still broken, yes, even after that huge nerf to Ice Lance. But it’s not the only spec you’ll need to worry about in season 1. Today, we will be ranking every ranged DPS from best to worst in Solo Shuffle, including some specs which might be flying under the radar.

Chaos of the New Season

Of course, the new season can bring a lot of chaos, and you don’t want to be that player using the wrong talents while your Solo Shuffle lobby flames you for doing zero damage. To help you out, we’ve been working behind the scenes for the past 3 months, testing everything on the beta with the highest-rated players in the game to develop brand-new damage courses.

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Fury of Elune and Balance Druid

Fury of Elune has been a staple ability in the Balance Druid toolkit for quite some time. It’s the micro-burst button involved in almost every setup. If Root Beam was peanut butter, then Fury of Elune would be the jelly holding it all together.

Balance Druid’s Playstyle in the New Season

It’s the perfect combo unless you’re British and prefer beans on toast for some reason. Anyway, Elune’s Chosen preserves the existing Balance Druid playstyle with a few improvements. Fury of Elune now includes an AOE explosion at the end of its duration, which hits considerably hard, and depending on the build, Fury of Elune can even proc on targets with Moonfire.

Potential Builds and Damage Output

There’s even a potential build centered around Starfire, increasing its damage by an insane 65%, but preventing entry into Solar Eclipse. This might be awkward but interesting. On the downside, damage output in the beta wasn’t as threatening compared to previous seasons, with Blizzard seemingly reducing the power of Spenders universally.

Improvements to Balance Druid’s Durability

There were also a few improvements to the Druid class tree that should help with Boomie survivability, especially with the new Oakskin talent adding damage reduction to Barkskin. Additionally, Erso Spirit increases stamina passively while in Bear Form, which is crucial since Boomies tend to get overwhelmed by melee all game.

Cyclone and PVP Talent Adjustments

On a brighter note, Cyclone’s range is now a whopping 30 yards when paired with the new High Winds PvP talent. This is particularly helpful since Preservation Evoker, one of the top projected healers, can potentially be out-ranged by Boomie’s toolkit. Despite some concerns about the damage, the spec’s flexibility should carry it to higher tiers.

Devastation Evoker: Early Season Surprises

Devastation Evoker might surprise players in the early season. During the beta, the Scale Commander spec impressed us with its powerful passives, including Mass Disintegrate, which allows Evokers to beam multiple targets simultaneously. More beams mean more power, making Devastation Evokers feel like they’re playing an entirely different game compared to other specs.

Scale Commander Abilities

The Scale Commander also gives Evokers the ability to control their Deep Breath, letting them soar around the arena like Superman. On the beta, Evoker damage was outstanding in the right lobbies, with Devastation easily topping the meters. The spec can even win games with a single, random Disintegrate if RNG is on their side.

Evoker’s Defensive Buffs

Following the buffs in the middle of Dragonflight, Evoker defense remains strong and has improved further with key talents. However, the spec’s competitiveness against other meta classes remains a question mark. Frost Mage, projected to be the top caster, could pose a challenge for Evokers with their roots and limited range.

Devastation’s Potential and Augmentation’s Wildcard Status

Despite some concerns, we expect Devastation to be a sleeper overpowered spec, likely securing a spot just below the highest tier. On the other hand, Augmentation Evoker remains a wildcard, both in terms of balance and design, making it difficult to accurately place on a PvP tier list due to its reliance on player skill.

Augmentation Evoker: Strengths and Weaknesses

When paired with the right players and the right comp, Augmentation is overpowered. However, without good players in your group, you’re better off sticking to Mythic Plus. For now, it seems like Augmentation is leaning towards the Krono Warden hero tree, the same spec played by Preservation Evokers. If you’re familiar with current healer balance, you should be optimistic about Krono Warden for Evokers.

Krono Warden’s Benefits

Krono Warden offers key advantages to empowered spells, particularly by allowing up to three free Living Flames to shoot out. But the true strength of this spec lies in Temporal Burst, a powerful buff granted every time Tip the Scales is pressed. It provides 30% haste, movement speed, and cooldown recovery, although it diminishes over time. This buff alone makes Preservation Evokers strong in the current meta.

Temporal Burst and Augmentation’s Power

Temporal Burst becomes even more powerful for Augmentation since, with Time Skip, they can press Tip the Scales twice in a shorter time frame. This allows them to potentially provide three mini bloodlusts in a single game, greatly boosting their teammates’ damage output. However, this relies heavily on coordination with teammates to maximize its effectiveness.

Augmentation’s Reliance on Teamwork

While Devastation Evoker may have a “slot machine” win condition with Disintegrate, Augmentation requires more teamwork and partner synergy. At lower ratings, where players may not fully utilize its strengths, the spec can feel more held back. Thus, Augmentation remains a wildcard, highly dependent on its team to succeed.

Mid-Tier Placement for Augmentation and BM Hunter Issues

We’re placing Augmentation somewhere in the mid tiers. But before we dive into BM Hunter, there’s a major issue that needs addressing: the spec was bugged for most of the beta cycle. Fortunately, those bugs have been fixed. Now, let’s give our wild card prediction for BM Hunter, as a new talent might be both exciting and troublesome in Solo Shuffle.

Vasilis Collar and the DOT Mechanic

The new talent, Vasilis Collar, increases pet damage based on the number of damage-over-time (DOT) effects on the target. You might be wondering how BM Hunter, a traditionally bursty spec, could become a DOT class. But here’s the catch: Barbed Shot, Kill Shot, and Kill Command can now apply DOTs, along with Dire Beast and Bloodshed.

BM Hunter’s New Playstyle

With Vasilis Collar, BM Hunters suddenly have DOT mechanics, focusing on training a single target all game, stacking as many DOTs as possible. The good news is you only need to focus on one target. The bad news? You’re stuck training a single target for the entire game, limiting your flexibility and ability to swap targets when needed.

Impact on BM Hunter’s Success

Does this make BM Hunter good? Kind of, but not really. Success in Solo Shuffle often requires swapping to a vulnerable target, especially in deep dampening. With this new playstyle, BM Hunters may struggle to adapt to the dynamic, fast-paced demands of Solo Shuffle, making it harder to achieve consistent success.

Ramp-Up Time and BM Hunter’s Unpredictability

With such a long ramp-up time, contingent on five different DOTs, BM could become an oppressive spec in the right lobbies. If you pair with another aggressive spec that focuses on a single target, you’re likely in a good spot. However, if not, you might struggle. The spec feels awkward to play in Solo Shuffle, making it hard to predict, which places BM Hunter in an entirely unpredictable tier.

Marksmanship: The Best Hunter Spec

Now, let’s talk about Marksmanship, which is probably the best Hunter spec heading into the new expansion. If you played at the end of Dragonflight, this won’t be a surprise. Marksmanship was the most popular ranged DPS at all ratings, even at the Elite level. Its strength lies in its ability to deal massive damage to anyone in the arena at any time.

Marksmanship’s Playstyle

What makes Marksmanship appealing is its versatility—unlike BM, where you focus on one target. As Marksman, you’ll want to be swapping targets constantly, punishing healers for overextending or hitting someone who just peaked out of cover. With just a camera turn, Marksman can start dishing out damage in any direction, making it incredibly effective.

Sentinel: A Viable Hero Spec

Marksmanship has the luxury of two viable hero specs, with Sentinel being the more vanilla option. It offers a chance to proc AOE damage not once, but twice between random attacks and Rapid Fire. While AOE damage feels satisfying with bigger numbers, it’s a double-edged sword that can lead to unintended consequences.

Marksmanship Hunter: Sentinel and CC Challenges

You know what doesn’t make us feel good? Broken crowd control (CC). Unless you’re playing Diamond Ice, Sentinel adds another obstacle to your toolkit, custom-designed to break your trap. Now, more than ever, Diamond Ice is your best friend. Alongside it, your other ally will be Dark Ranger, which saw some buffs at the end of the beta cycle.

Dark Ranger’s Role in Marksmanship

Dark Ranger reintroduces the fan-favorite Black Arrow, which not only provides sustained damage but also speeds up Aimed Shot significantly. The Gunslinger spec is back and better than ever. Dark Ranger also enhances the defensive capabilities of Marksmanship with Smokescreen, a passive that procs Survival of the Fittest or Exhilaration automatically with a slightly reduced effect.

Improved Defenses and High-Tier Potential

While these defensive buffs won’t completely remove all of Marksmanship’s flaws, they do offer improved performance against double melee compositions. With these buffs, Marksmanship is likely to find itself in the high tiers once again. Now, let’s move on to Mages, starting with Arcane.

Arcane Mage: Sunfury and Burst Damage

Both Arcane hero specs are looking viable in different situations. Sunfury stands out as the more appealing option, offering significantly more burst damage. It also summons a bird every time Arcane Surge is pressed, providing a dramatic boost in downstream damage with Arcane Blast if allowed to freecast during those windows. However, this burst potential does come with its own challenges.

Arcane Mage: Interrupt Vulnerability and Build Challenges

Arcane is one of those unfortunate specs with a single spell school, making it highly susceptible to interrupts. This complicates the value of hero builds centered around Arcane Blast. However, this is where Spellslinger steps in. It’s better optimized for situations where hard casting is limited, allowing the Mage to deliver more consistent damage with Barrage, regardless of hero talents.

Structural Changes to Arcane Mage

Arcane Mages have seen significant structural changes in the new expansion. Arcane Missiles are now only castable with a Clearcasting proc, which makes juking interrupts harder since Missiles were a reliable way to trigger Precognition. Additionally, Spellsteal no longer triggers Clearcasting, which was a key global filler that made Arcane smoother to play in PvP.

Arcane Mage’s Weakened State

While Arcane was a solid pick for high-rated Mages in Dragonflight, the spec feels weaker in the new expansion. It’s easily countered by something as simple as a weak aura. Players can see Arcane Surge on their screen and either pop a defensive cooldown or land a single interrupt, shutting down the Mage entirely. As our first Mage spec, Arcane falls into the mid tiers.

Fire Mage’s Struggles in the New Expansion

Fire Mage, on the other hand, didn’t fare well during the beta cycle. While it had a rocky journey throughout Dragonflight, it remained somewhat competitive, with a gimmicky Flamestrike build that occasionally made it borderline overpowered. However, the spec continues to struggle and doesn’t appear to be in a strong position heading into the new expansion.

Fire Mage: The Loss of Flame Cannon and Defensive Weakness

Fire Mage used to rely on Blink and the range advantage of Flame Cannon, using it to maintain distance and benefit from its HP boost while counteracting the stamina loss caused by the mandatory Glass Cannon PvP talent. Unfortunately, with Flame Cannon removed from the game, Fire Mage is now the most fragile Mage spec, with less stamina and range, leaving it more vulnerable to damage.

Damage Issues and The Loss of Living Bomb

Any defensive nerf could be offset by dealing high damage, but this is where Fire Mage struggles. The massive buff to Living Bomb in Dragonflight (an 800% increase) is irrelevant now, as Living Bomb no longer exists as an active button. Instead, it’s a low-damage proc, making Fire Mage’s damage output underwhelming compared to its peers.

Sunfury and Combustion

For now, Fire Mages seem to be gravitating toward Sunfury for bigger Combustions, but the base damage is so undertuned that it hardly matters which hero spec is deemed “best.” Until more promising data appears, Fire Mage will likely sit in the C tier for the start of the season.

Frost Mage: Rising to the Top

Fortunately, for Mage players, Frost Mage is shaping up to potentially be the best spec in the game. Why? Two words: “Big Damn.” Despite recent PvP nerfs to Ice Lance, its damage coefficient is nearly double what it was, giving Frost the edge in raw damage output.

Frost Mage: Damage Cadence and Power in Arena

In Dragonflight, Frost Mage’s buttons feel exceptionally good to press, with its damage cadence in Arena being stronger than ever. Previously, Frost Mage would either deal too much damage with instants and too little with Frostbolt, or vice versa. Now, everything seems to hit hard. Most Mages are leaning towards the Frostfire tree, which includes the insane passive “Isothermic Core,” causing Comet Storm to automatically cast Meteor, adding a massive Fireball for fun.

Frost Mage’s Versatility

Whether or not Frost Mage is overtuned, it remains a comfort pick for many players. It performs particularly well into melee classes and has a strong matchup spread across the board. The ability to randomly root players with Frostbite is valuable even against other ranged DPS and healers, giving Frost Mage a solid footing in Season 1.

Frost Mage’s Place in the Meta

Although Frost Mage was absurdly strong during the beta, the recent Ice Lance nerf means it’s no longer as dominant. Still, it remains a top-tier pick and deserves an A+ tier ranking. Now, let’s move on to Shadow Priest.

Shadow Priest: Archon Hero Tree and Halo

Shadow Priests were doing incredibly well at the end of last season. Interestingly, many seem to be favoring the Archon hero tree, a shadow-holy hybrid, over the thematically fitting Void Weaver spec. The Archon build revolves entirely around Halo, with talents allowing each cast to repeat two more times and then ripple back, damaging and healing every target in its path.

Archon Shadow Priest: Burst Window and Damage Buffs

The Archon build for Shadow Priests hits up to six times and, let’s be honest, looks pretty impressive. Archon also increases damage during Voidform, which, combined with Halo’s damage boosts, creates a deadly burst window that pairs well with the infamous stun-silence combo. For now, Archon makes the most sense in Solo Shuffle, as it amplifies the main win condition of the spec.

Void Weaver: Niche and Uptime Challenges

Void Weaver, on the other hand, focuses on maximizing damage during Entropic Rift windows, where Void Torrent sends a Void ball to chase the target. The downside of this spec is that it requires a lot of uptime, which isn’t always feasible for a Shadow Priest. While deadly when left alone to turret damage, Shadow Priests often find themselves overwhelmed by double melee and healers who dispel their debuffs.

Shadow Priest’s High Tier Potential

Despite its challenges, Shadow Priest shows a lot of potential and deserves a place in the high tiers. Its ability to dish out significant damage when given space makes it a force to be reckoned with. Now, let’s move on to Elemental Shaman, where the story is quite different.

Elemental Shaman: Far Seer and Early Beta Dominance

During our beta testing, Elemental Shaman, leaning heavily into the Far Seer tree, was such a threat that we considered banning it from our lobbies. Far Seer is straightforward, allowing the Shaman to periodically summon ancestors who mimic the Shaman’s abilities, copying both damage spells and healing. Even after some nerfs, Elemental Shaman remains a formidable spec heading into the new season.

Elemental Shaman: Ancestors and AOE Playstyle

Elemental Shamans can summon at least two ancestors every 30 seconds thanks to the combo of Primordial Wave and the new Ancestral Swiftness Capstone talent. This combo allows the shaman to cast AOE Lava Bursts on up to six targets, and these Lava Bursts can then summon their own ancestors. With good RNG, Elemental Shamans can have three or more ancestors out at once, creating a powerful AOE presence.

Shifting Playstyle from Dragonflight

In contrast to Dragonflight, where Elemental Shamans were more focused on alternating single-target Lava Bursts and Earth Shocks, the new expansion has shifted them into a primarily AOE-focused spec. Their previous rotation, which required incredibly high APM, was nearly impossible to execute perfectly. Now, Elemental Shamans have better defensive options, including Stone Bulwark Totem and improved passive defenses through talents in the Far Seer tree.

Elemental Shaman’s Strength in Arena

Elemental Shamans even have Bloodlust in Arena, similar to Enhancement Shamans, raising the question of why anyone would still play Enhancement in 2024. With these new abilities and defenses, Elemental Shaman is poised to join the high tiers of competitive play. Now, let’s move on to the Warlock specs, starting with the ultimate “Noob Slayer,” Affliction.

Affliction Warlock: Nerfs to Rampant Afflictions

One major change for Affliction Warlocks in the new expansion is yet another nerf to Rampant Afflictions. While it allows Unstable Affliction (UA) to be applied to multiple targets, it now decreases UA’s damage by an astounding 60%, significantly reducing its effectiveness in multi-target scenarios.

Affliction Warlock: Shift Toward Single-Target Burst

The recent changes have shifted Affliction Warlock’s playstyle towards single-target burst, resembling an old-school Cataclysm-style rotation, bursting with Haunt and Shadow Bolt. A major change is that Malefic Rapture is now on the Shadowflame spell school, giving Affliction a way to manage Shadow interrupts. The Soul Harvester tree builds on this single-target potential, with the Neoly Teachings passive adding two additional modifiers to Shadow Bolt.

Hero Talents and Playstyle Options

On the beta, Shadow Bolts lined up with Haunt were especially powerful. The other hero talent option, Hellar, grants Wither, essentially Corruption with more damage. Though this option leans more toward the traditional DOT and rot playstyle, Warlock mains should be excited regardless, as Affliction offers two distinct playstyles, both capable of putting out big numbers.

Affliction Warlock’s High-Tier Placement

With the versatility between these two distinct builds, Affliction Warlock is once again one of the highest-tier specs. Now, let’s move on to Demonology Warlock, which isn’t looking quite as strong.

Demonology Warlock: Soul Harvester and Diabolist Builds

For Demonology Warlocks, both hero specs appear playable. One option is to experiment with Soul Harvester, using it to buff Hand of Gul’dan and Demon Bolt, echoing an early Shadowlands playstyle. The other option, Diabolist, buffs Tyrant damage, making Tyrant feel like a real cooldown again, similar to its prominence back in Shadowlands.

Demonology Warlock: Diabolist and Tyrant’s Challenges

The Diabolist build feels powerful, but there are still issues with Tyrant AI. Sometimes, Tyrant gets stuck or confused by minor obstacles, impacting its effectiveness. Even if Tyrant feels strong, Demonology Warlocks face a significant problem: skill creep. Players have become smarter, knowing how to kick or avoid Tyrant, root your dogs, or kill your Observer, effectively countering your damage.

Demonology’s Casting Challenges

Demonology is one of those specs that requires a lot of hard casting, and it continues to struggle with closing out games. Players are simply better at countering Demonology’s strategies, making it difficult for the spec to dominate the meta. For now, Demonology remains in the low tiers until we see more promising data.

Destruction Warlock: A Wild Beta Cycle

Destruction Warlock had a wild ride during the beta cycle, with completely broken damage that one-shot players unexpectedly. Things have calmed down now, and most Warlocks are playing the Hell Collar build, which makes the spec much easier to play. The signature ability, Wither, replaces Immolate and is an instant cast, allowing Warlocks to spam it while hopping around.

Destruction’s Chaos Bolt Problem

Despite the ease of play, Destruction Warlock has one significant issue: Chaos Bolt’s damage isn’t as punchy anymore. While the spec has become more mobile and accessible, the lack of impactful Chaos Bolt damage limits its effectiveness, leaving players wondering what the true strength of Destruction is now.

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