Hello, fellow adventurers! Librarian Husky here, ready to guide you through the complexities of class selection and performance in World of Warcraft. Whether you’re aiming to dominate the battlefield or simply enjoy your journey, it’s essential to steer clear of common traps and pitfalls. Let’s dive in and explore how to make the best choices for your playstyle.

Damage Rankings and Class Performance

Take a look at the damage rankings, specifically at Fire Mage. It’s right in the middle. Now, if you main Fire Mage and get skilled enough to produce upper quartile parses, you would outperform a median Outlaw Rogue, even though Outlaw has the highest rank. This shows that switching to a “flavor of the month” spec might not always yield better results if you’re already skilled at your current class.

Making the Right Choice for Your Playstyle

The simple question to always ask yourself is: If I play my main excellently, will I perform better than trying to switch to a different spec? The reality is that being skilled at your current class or spec can often lead to better performance than chasing after what’s currently considered the best.

Choosing the Right Class for Consistent Improvement

You’ll get better results by sticking with your main class and continually improving, rather than swapping to a “flavor of the month” class and getting average results. In most cases, compounding your own skill with a class you enjoy leads to better performance, especially since you’re picking it for the right reasons.

Comparing Mythic and Heroic Rankings

This analysis uses Mythic numbers, but if you bring that down to Heroic, you’ll see different rankings. For example, in a Myr’il Season 3 Heroic, the time frame is the same as Mythic. If you’re a Retribution Paladin with a median damage ranking of 20th in Mythic, it might seem depressing, but a top quintile parse would still outperform most averages.

The Impact of Difficulty Levels on Rankings

When you lower the difficulty to Heroic, Retribution Paladins rank 12th because Heroic parses are more representative of the average World of Warcraft player. This highlights the importance of sticking with a spec that you can consistently improve, rather than chasing the top spec of the moment.

The Value of Long-Term Commitment to a Spec

The core lesson is to pick something you can stick with to maximize your potential. As you become more skilled with each patch, you’ll compound your own experience, becoming a better player. Using your spec’s utility will make you an excellent teammate, especially in challenging content like dungeons. However, the question remains: What if your spec is considered “dead”?

Buffs, Nerfs, and Raid Performance

When the raid rolls out, Blizzard will be buffing and nerfing things like mad. Outside of Mythic, where differences are often exaggerated due to the skill level of players, it’s rare for a pure DPS class to have no good options. The same goes for classes with two DPS Specs. The majority of players will be fine, as these differences are less impactful in non-Mythic content.

Class Rankings Overview

Let’s dive into the class rankings. If you want a more detailed analysis, check out our article on the winners and losers of War within. Here’s the TLDR: I’ll split classes into three categories. First, those that are excellent—where you simply can’t go wrong unless you dislike the theme. Death Knight, Paladin, Mage, and Monk all fall into this category, each seeing meaningful positive changes moving into this expansion.

Top Performing Classes

Death Knight offers two fantastic yet different DPS Specs, and Blood is an amazing tank spec. Mage, overall, is probably the best pure DPS class in the game, with each spec playing excellently, especially after the revamp done to Arcane. These classes are solid choices for any player looking to excel in the current expansion.

Paladin and Monk: The Kings of Hybrid Gameplay

Paladin and Monk are the joint kings of Hybrid Gameplay in World of Warcraft. Whether you want to tank, heal, or DPS, each one has a fantastic spec for you. Holy Paladin has vastly improved from expansion to expansion, and Mistweaver Monk has seen some really nice, surgical changes. These are four classes where you simply cannot go wrong.

The Middle of the Pack: Solid Choices

Now, let’s move on to the next bucket of classes. These are the ones where I’d say they’re good, and I don’t think you’ll regret choosing them. The middle of the pack is large, which is actually good news because Blizzard has done a good enough job. Demon Hunter, Evoker, and Priest haven’t seen many changes, but their hero talents range from solid to excellent in some cases.

Improvements and Fun Classes

Shaman has seen vast improvement from its once worrying place in the beta, and the same goes for Warlock. Warriors continue to be solid, and I’ll definitely call out that they’re a bunch of fun. As for Hunters, while they haven’t been fully revamped, they are significantly better than before, even if their hero specs are somewhat middling. None of these classes are dead in terms of design, and most players will find enjoyment in any of them.

Bottom Tier Classes: Approach with Caution

Finally, we have the bottom category—the classes that need work. These are the ones you should select with caution. Rogue, for instance, has simply not seen enough class design work, and as a result, may not perform as well as other classes.

Unloved Classes and the Need for Changes

Some classes feel completely unloved, with loads of problems that should be solved but haven’t been. Druid has seen changes, but they’ve often been middling to bad. Balance Druids, for example, just aren’t in a good place. Guardian Druid is almost comatose, while Feral has made some improvements. Restoration Druid, however, is fantastic, but it doesn’t compensate for the rest of the class feeling subpar.

The Need for Surgical Changes

It wouldn’t take much to fix these problems. Some surgical changes could go a long way for both Druid and Rogue, as they feel neglected. It almost seems like Blizzard ran out of time. If there are any class changes queued up for patch 11.0.1, Rogues and Druids should be at the top of the list. I wouldn’t recommend these specs unless you already love their fantasy and gameplay.

Recommendations for Class Choices

As it stands, if you’re looking to play a tank or healer, the first thing to ask yourself is whether you want access to other roles as well. If tanking is your goal, I’d rank them like this: Death Knight and Monk at the top, followed by Paladin, Warrior, and Demon Hunter. Unfortunately, Druid is the least appealing choice for tanking.

Healer Class Recommendations

For healers, it’s much harder to give advice because they’re all great, each with different playstyles. It really comes down to your personal preference and what type of gameplay you enjoy the most when choosing a healer class.

Healer Class Options and Flexibility

Our winners and losers episode on healers turned out to be almost clickbait because there were no losers, which is a great sign. This means it’s all about style and options. Priest is WoW’s only double healer, offering amazing flexibility. Holy is simple and can feel powerful, while Discipline has a higher skill ceiling but is very rewarding to play, especially after my experience with it in the last expansion.

High-Skill Healers and Specialized Choices

Preservation Evoker is definitely a high-skill pick; some people dislike it, but those who love it really do. It offers plenty of room to flex your skill and make plays. Restoration Shaman is a terrific group healer, and Mistweaver Monk has vastly improved, especially with the loss of Essence Font, which freed up space for the rest of their kit to shine.

Healer Classes with Specific Strengths

Restoration Druid is still there if you prefer the hot-based gameplay, though it comes with three specs that don’t look as strong in this expansion. Paladin is a strong pick, especially if you prefer being in melee range. It benefits from Holy having fantastic changes in this expansion, making it a reliable choice.

Class Selection and Versatility

I would say Rogues are not a great pick because they definitely need some class fixes. However, most other classes have two DPS Specs along with another role, so choosing a Death Knight, Evoker, Shaman, Warrior, or Druid is a solid choice. These classes provide access to multiple DPS Specs, insulating you from any one spec performing poorly and offering the flexibility to tank or heal, which can be invaluable for faster grouping times.

Social Pressures and Role Flexibility

There are some traps to avoid. For instance, if you only want to play DPS but your class also has a tank or healer spec, you might feel social pressure to switch roles if the group needs a healer. This can lead to a feeling that you’re holding your group back if you stick to DPS. My advice is to consider the social dynamics of your play environment and choose accordingly.

Narrowing Down the Choices

I won’t enjoy solo delves as Shadow, so that essentially rules out Priest. Druid is also out of the running; while Feral is okay for me, most of the changes seem unappealing. Balance is in a rough state, and I find Guardian to be the most boring tank in the game. Restoration is solid, but that’s just not enough to keep Druid in the mix, so it’s out as well.

Considering Evoker and Preferences

Evoker is almost tempting because of its cool hero talents, but I don’t care much for the Dracthyr, and I prefer melee over ranged. That leaves me with Paladin, Monk, and Shaman. Each of these classes has seen positive changes and is fantastic in its own right. However, Shaman loses out for me because I don’t enjoy ranged casters as much. While Enhancement is great, I prefer the other DPS Specs in my shortlist.

Choosing Between Monk and Paladin

The choice between Monk and Paladin is incredibly tough. Both are terrific versions of themselves, but for me, Paladin edges out Monk. I just prefer the look and feel of Paladin, and I think the transmog options are more fun. While this might not be about game mechanics or numbers, it’s an important part of the gameplay experience for me.

Why Paladin Stands Out

I enjoy the open world and delving utility of the Paladin. Retribution feels really punchy to me. That being said, Mistweaver Monk is also super alluring; some of its changes have been fantastic. However, I’ve been won over by the removal of Glimmer and the rework of Holy, which has made Holy Paladin one of the best versions of itself ever. That’s kind of exciting.

Choosing an Alt

When it comes to alts, which are easily one of the best aspects of this expansion, Paladin will satisfy my needs for both healing and tanking. So, I’d likely go with a pure DPS alt. My first pick is Hunter, purely due to personal bias—Hunter was my long-time main, and it’s looking much better in this expansion, especially with Marksmanship and Survival.

Considering Mage as an Alt

My next choice would be Mage, mainly because the new Arcane spec is just insane. I absolutely want to be unleashing barrages and orbs on entire dungeons full of mobs. That looks really fun and makes Mage an appealing choice for my DPS alt.

Matt’s Choice: From Druid to Death Knight

I also asked Matt, one of our team members who writes for many of our articles. You might also know him from our Monday live streams. Matt has made the shift from Druid to Death Knight for some straightforward reasons. Druid, in his opinion, has taken a big downturn, while Blood Death Knight is a terrifically fun spec. The changes to Unholy make it more enjoyable for him, and he also likes Frost. Plus, Riders of the Apocalypse is probably the coolest hero tree—you get mounted combat in the open world and backup from the Four Horsemen.

Warrior: A Close Second

Warrior was a close second for Matt, but both Arms and Fury are just a tad under Unholy and Frost in terms of enjoyment. However, the high skill ceiling of Blood Death Knight ultimately won him over, making it his top choice.

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