Melee Class Analysis: Arms Warrior
Okay, so next, we’ll move on to the melee. We have the Arms Warrior to kick things off. Now, the tier set for Arms Warrior next season is actually giving the spec “Funnel,” which is very interesting because they are going to be able to delete priority mobs in an AOE pack if they want to. Of course, it’s going to depend on if the damage is worth it, but if it’s a dangerous mob, they can just feed these executes into a priority mob. It’s also going to do a little bit of extra AOE damage to their Thunderclap. That’s nothing really to write home about. However, the tier set does feed into the problem with Arms of not being able to spend enough rage.
Spec Dynamics and Potential Issues
Along with the fix to Ignore Pain, because you’re getting these free execute procs from your tier set, you’re now spending even less Rage. This is, in turn, going to make Anger Management worse because you’re not going to be getting the CDR from spending the rage. Also, now you’re probably not going to take Test of Might because of the Ignore Pain fix and also the free execute you get from the tier set. I don’t know if that is probably going to hurt the spec quite a bit.
Comparison with Other Plate Wearers
However, as with all of the plate wearers that are melee (which is all the plate wearers), the legendary is bigβbig stones for the legendary. This could completely take Arms, Fury, Ret Paladin, Frost DK, Unholy DK to the next level. I feel like a lot of these specs as well aren’t looking that great for next season. They’re not insane, so maybe it’s banking on a strong legendary to kind of prop them up, you know.
Arms Warrior’s Damage and Utility Assessment
Arms has great AOE damage but parable single-target damage that is not being helped that much by the tier set either, so that is not looking great for it. Unfortunately, because Warriors in general don’t bring that great utility to the group, the damage kind of has to carry, and it’s not seeming, without legendary, that it’s going to do that. It’s not looking great utility-wise. You do bring a battle shout, which is going to help another S tier spec that you might see down the line, also your tank obviously, and you’ve got Rallying Cry, which has been nerfed.
Final Placement in Tier List
So, it is definitely more valuable in raid now, but it’s not looking… I mean, it’s still a very good piece of utility that you can bring to Mythic Plus, but outside of that, you don’t bring too much. You can talent into a single-target and AOE stun through Shockwave and Stormbolt, but it’s just not enough. The damage is not enough to carry it. So, for the Arms Warrior, we’re going to put it in the bottom of B tier for now. I would place it behind these two specs, like I mentioned.
Legendary Impact on Melee Classes
I need to keep mentioning with the legendary, this could easily be, I mean, it could be S tier depending on how strong it is, but for now, I’m going to place it in B.
Fury Warrior Analysis
Next, we’ll move on to Fury, which has very, very good burst. Fury’s always been a very bursty class. It’s going to be amazing in cleave situations, very respectable single-target damage as well, getting lots of damage from your blood bath, which is what the new tier set is basically based around.
So, yeah, Fury is going to be better for those low mob density dungeons, which, in all honesty, I don’t know if we’re seeing that much of next season. There seems to be lots of big pulls going on.
Because it’s bursty, it is therefore lacking on sustained damage. You do get your cooldowns back frequently, which sort of bridges that gap a bit, but it does fall off a bit after that burst window that you have.
Utility and Defensives in Warrior Specs
Again, Fury is one of those classes, or specs, that can get the legendary, so it could definitely be pushed up here. And again, much like Arms, being a Warrior, you don’t bring that much utility to your group.
What I did forget to mention for Arms is the defensives. Arms is quite tanky. You’ve got your Ignore Pain, your Defensive Stance for both Fury and Arms, which is a 15% damage reduction, or 10, I’m pretty sure it’s 15. You got Die by the Sword for Arms, which is a nice defensive cooldown.
You’ve got lots of passive leech or self-sustain for Fury as well, so that’s going to help with your healers just not having to heal you as much. You’ve got your Impending Victory too, which is a nice instant heal if you ever need it.
I think Fury is looking slightly better than Arms for next patch. Imagine you could equip double legendaries as well, that would be bonkers, never going to happen, but Fury’s going in B here as well, just above Arms.
Rogue Spec Overview
Okay, onto the Rogue specs then. We’ll start with Assassination Rogue, but spoiler, all of the Rogue specs are looking very, very solid for next season. Assassination Rogue is looking well, I mean, Rogue in general got a rework, right? So they’re all looking very strong, probably because of that.
Assassination Rogue is looking the best it has ever looked in Dragonflight so far. It’s got great damage regardless of how many mobs are present. You’ve got great single-target damage, great cleave, very good AOE damage as well.
So, being a Rogue spec, the Assassination Rogue has great CC and utility for Mythic Plus. Obviously, Assassination specifically has great lockdown, especially of cast the Mobs, with their Garrote, which is now being able to apply to much more mobs through their Indiscriminate Carnage rework. Getting those Garrotes off from stealth with your Shrouded Suffocation, is that what it’s still called? Being able to silence those mobs and also apply Iron Wire to them.
Assassination Rogue Analysis
So, they’re dealing less damage, but there’s huge potential for lockdown of mobs from the Assassination Rogue right there. All Rogue specs going into next season as well are getting an AOE blind, which is something the Rogue has always been lacking, in inverted commas. Rogues have a lot of single-target stops but have always lacked an AOE interrupt or stop or stun, so AOE blind is going to fill that gap nicely, being able to interrupt multiple mobs at the same time, especially if they’re casters, as long as they’re not immune to the blind.
That is going to be a huge W for locking down mobs even more and bringing even more CC to the group, and it’s finally nice to see Assassination Rogue performing really well. For that reason, Assassination Rogue is going in the top of A tier, again could potentially go in A+, but spoilers alert, with the other Rogue specs or maybe spec, I haven’t decided quite yet, it can’t go in the same tier as them because the other specs are better.
Subtlety Rogue Evaluation
Next, we’ve got Subtlety, and I’m honestly not that confident with where I should be placing Sub because on the PTR, Sub was bugged for like the majority of PTR. It was doing no damage at first, and then suddenly a load of bugs came out of nowhere. Black powder was doing like 4 million bloody damage, and it was just doing incredible things, and then that got fixed as well, but that was towards the end of the testing cycle.
It’s a Rogue spec, it’s got reworked, it brings all of that amazing utility. You’ve got multiple cheap shots with your Shadow dances, you’ve got kidney shot, youβve got AE blind, you’ve got gouge if you talent into it.
Defensively, Rogue is super strong as well. You’ve got your cloak of Shadows, you’ve got your cheat death, which is an absolute lifesaver in Mythic plus, youβve got evasion, youβve got healing, which is not anything to write home about, youβve got faint as well, youβve got two charges of faint, which is a massive W. I mean, you can just negate so much damage as a Rogue.
Subtlety Rogue’s Damage and Placement
I did see one dungeon with Sub after the fixes, and it was doing slightly less damage than Outlaw would have been. I know where I’m putting Outlaw. Sub’s just a bit of an iffy one for me, but yeah, I think Sub’s damage is still super strong. You’ve got amazing AOE, great consistent AOE damage as well, youβve got amazing burst damage as well, which is something to note for next season because a lot of the bosses seem to have damage amp phases, so Sub is going to pump a lot of damage into those periods and just delete bosses.
That’s going to be huge. You can funnel with Sub, Sub always used to be kind of the funnel King until people realized how much AOE you were losing for it, but if you do need to delete a dangerous mob, Sub is going to be able to shuriken storm and then just feed eviscerates into that priority target and delete it.
I think I’m going to place Sub Rogue in the top of A tier, just above Assa. These two could be interchangeable, but the best Rogue spec is the Outlaw Rogue, that’s going in A+ tier. God, I don’t know where to put it, like the thing is, is like with this tier here, any of these.
Potential Meta Specs for DPS
Specs could be a possible meta choice. I don’t really think there’s too much in between any of them in this list, honestly. I think these specs are better and probably more likely to fill the third spot for DPS, but Outlaw is definitely a strong contender. It is doing some of the most damage in cleave scenarios, so like anything up to eight targets, Outlaw Rogue is doing incredible, incredible damage, some of the best damage in the game.
Outlaw Rogue Damage Profile
And better than that, it’s feeding all of that damage into a priority target, sorry, and just passively cleaving with Blade Flurry, which is probably the best damage profile you could ask for for Mythic plus. So that’s everything noted for Outlaw Rogue damage-wise, and again, being a Rogue, just like incredible amounts of utility, CC, you bring it all. You bring shroud, which I didn’t mention for the other specs, going to be super nice for optimal pathing throughout a dungeon, getting lust on cooldown where you need it to be instead of just getting it on cooldown for the sake of it.
Rogue Utility and CC
The final piece of utility also that I forgot to mention for the Rogue specs is they are one of two, no, one of three classes in the game that have a flat-out hard CC in sap. The other ones are Imprison and Slumber, whatever it’s called for Aoka, don’t care, um, where they can sap the mob or imprison the mob and then walk past it without entering combat. So that’s super nice if one mob is obnoxiously in the way, can really help out with routing there too. So A+ for Outlaw Rogue.
Survival Hunter Analysis
Okay, next we have the final hunt spec, the only melee hunt spec, which is Survival Hunter. I’ve always thought this spec was slept on. It’s been decent, honestly, throughout Dragonflight. People just don’t play it, so they don’t know.
It’s got very front-loaded bursty damage, with much greater improved, was that even English, the single-target damage and priority damage has greatly improved thanks to the tier set and thanks to the changes to the spec as well.
You’ve got insane cleave, like on up to four, I mean like even with five or six targets, but up to four targets because of your Kill Shot in your Coordinated Assault windows, you just delete mobs in cleave. In my opinion, Survival does some of the best cleave damage in the game.
The tier set is going to give you a great 45-second or less burst cooldown window through your Fury of the Eagle. You can reduce this cooldown with your Kill Command resets as well, amazing for Mythic plus because you’re going to have cooldowns and damage up for every single pack. It’s going to give you massive crit damage that’s going to help you with your mass AOE.
Survival Hunter’s Performance and Tier Set Impact
That survival isn’t the best at anyway, it does decently but it’s not by any means amazing. However, this tier set is going to help with that. Fury of the Eagle is pumping now, which I’m personally a huge fan of, and you’re also going to be able to feed priority damage through your bombs as well.
Defensives and Healing in Survival Hunter
It does lack on defensives because, as a Survival Hunter, you’re going to have your leech pet out, which is going to passively heal you, and that’s definitely going to be noticeable over the course of a dungeon. But I don’t really like it because you lose out on your Fortitude of the Bear, which is just a flat defensive that you can press if you need the extra HP and the heal from it on demand, instead of just passively gaining throughout the whole dungeon through the leech.
Unique Utility of Survival Hunter
Again, like the other Hunter specs, you have unique but helpful utility. You’ve got your Binding Shot, which can be subbed out for Scatter Shot. I feel like people always forget about that, but it’s an extra single-target stop.
You’ve got your Intimidation from your pet, which is a nice single-target stun, which MM doesn’t have, so that’s huge for the spec.
You have your Freezing Traps, Tar Trap, which can help out the tank kite as well as your Binding Shot, like I’ve said.
Finally, you have your Hunter’s Mark as well, which is new going into this patch. You’re going to get that extra 5% damage from 100 to 80% Health, which is going to help out on those Tyrannical weeks.
Survival Hunter’s Placement in the A Tier
I don’t know if I’m going to bother putting it on any Trash; you can put it on like priority deadly mobs in trash on fortified weeks, but it’s really not going to be that noticeable, but it will be nice for Tyrannical week, so that’s somewhat of a W for the Hunter spec, getting that pseudo group buff, but it’s nothing like the other specs bring.
BM shines on mass AOE, mass sustained AOE, it’s also got very good single target. MM has amazing front-loaded bursty AOE damage and great single-target damage, and Survival has great, great, great, great cleave damage and also some better single-target damage than before.
Enhancement Shaman’s New Talents and Burst Damage
So, Survival is in the A tier. Onto Enhancement Shaman then. The changes to their spec talents have really helped out the class. They’re getting some priority damage from their Tempest strikes. They’re now able to not take Lashing Flames, which personally for me, is a huge W because that just makes the spec too hard. But they can, yeah, they can dabble with some other talents.
They have great burst damage through their tier set, well, not their… yeah, their tier set definitely helped with their burst damage because you’re getting that CD reduction on your Primordial Waves, which is obviously massive burst damage from those lightning bolts that you fire out, giving you massive haste as well. You’re getting those wolves resets, which is then in turn going to reset your Prim wave even quicker, so there’s just a lovely little gameplay loop right there for Mythic plus, which just means you have damage and cooldowns up for every single pack, if not even sometimes twice a pack.
Enhancement Shaman’s Funnel Damage and AOE Cap
As an Enhancement Shaman, you have some of the, if not the best, funnel in the game. If there’s multiple mobs present and you need to delete a priority mob, Enhancement Shaman is your guy. It just deletes priority mobs; the funnel damage is crazy. It brings decent single-target damage by itself. Normally, to get the best out of Enhance, you’d want to bring a few mobs onto the boss, so then it can really start chunking down the boss’s health.
But the only drawback for the Enhancement Shaman is that it is AOE capped. It’s not going to be too noticeable until you’re pulling maybe over 10 mobs. If you are pulling that amount of mobs, you’re only going to be hitting a certain amount, or you’re going to be hitting a lot of the mobs for much less damage, which is unfortunate. It’s not going to be too much of a problem, especially in pugs and even coordinated groups to an extent, you’re not really going to notice that too much.
Utility and Group Support from Enhancement Shaman
It brings great utility to the group. I personally think Enhancement Shaman is a super underrated spec for just like carrying groups in Mythic plus. You’ve got your AE stun in your Capacitor Totem, you’ve got AE knockup or AE stop in Thunder Shock, you’ve got Sundering if you do talent into it. I’m not 100% sure you will going into next season, but that’s another AOE stop. You’ve got amazing off heals with your Ancestral Guidance, so that’s going to help up your group massively. You got Wind Fury as well, which would be nice for any melee comps.
Shaman’s Role in Group Dynamics and Limitations
We do have a very good melee DPS that might be coming up next on the tier list that would benefit from your Wind Fury Totem, as well as any Rogue specs in your group, or, I mean, even Warriors, whatever melee specs will benefit from that. The only problem is with the Shaman spec, as we all know.
Elemental and Enhancement Shaman Analysis
I said for Elemental, it is squishy. Elemental Shaman struggles more with healing themselves because it’s not instant like you can do with the Enhancement Shaman. You lose a lot of damage for it, but if you’re going to die, then you’re going to lose a lot of damage anyway, so that’s irrelevant. You have your Astral Shift, which is a big defensive, but it’s on like a relatively medium-sized cooldown, and it is your only defensive, so that is not ideal.
You can talent into stuff like Stone Skin Totem, but I just don’t see a world where you would ever do that, so probably not even worth bringing up. But regardless of that, Enhancement Shaman is looking very, very strong for next season. It is up there with the greats for sure.
Enhancement Shaman’s Position in Meta and Defensives
It’s definitely an A+ spec, like I mentioned. Don’t worry too much about how I place them in this tier; any of these specs could easily be placed into the meta composition. Enhance is definitely a possible meta spec for sure. It could easily slot into that last spot, no doubt about it.
To be fair, I feel like this A+ tier is sort of placed in the right order. Enhancement needs more defensives to creep up here. These specs just bring so much to the group. I mean, everything brings so much to the group, but like, enhancement lacks on mass AOE and also defensives. Outlaw lacks on mass AOE, whereas these specs just kind of have no downside to them, honestly.
Havoc Demon Hunter’s Dominance
Okay, so any guesses for where Havoc’s going to go? Straight into S, no questions asked. We all know it. Havoc has been nerfed over the course of the PTR, but to be fair, and I like this from Blizzard, they’ve nerfed it slowly but surely. Whether it’s got more nerfs to come, I don’t know, but even with more, I still think it’s going to be at least A+, but probably still stay in the S tier. It’s got some of the highest DPS output currently amongst any of the DPS specs, just like deleting everything whether it’s single-target damage or mass AOE damage.
Havoc Demon Hunter’s Damage and Cooldowns
You’ve got your Rage Fires to do massive damage, amazing cleave which Havoc always has, to be fair, for your Blade Dance. Your tier set’s also going to feed into your sustain cleave with throwing out your glaives and your Soul Scard just taking damage over and over throughout the fight. You don’t even have to worry about your tier set because your Blade Dance procs it. You just cannot fault this spec in any shape or form.
It’s got amazing burst AOE damage as well, which is also a super valuable damage profile for Mythic plus, so that’s a huge W. Also, all of its damage is on short cooldowns. You’ve got Ibeam, your Essence Breake if you do take it, although I’m not convinced it’s going to be the go-to build. You’ve got your Fae Barrage, which has been reworked to just like delete mobs around you on a 1.5-minute cooldown, which is a relatively short cooldown for Mythic plus, honestly, like you’re going to have in high keys.
Havoc Demon Hunter’s Performance in Mythic Plus
You’re going to have that for every pack, maybe every other pack, and you’re going to be able to buff this up with your momentum or probably inertia damage amps. Havoc is just looking Giger for next patch, and we all know it. It seems like you’re maybe somewhat proc reliant for your emo Wars resetting to get the utmost damage out of your Havoc DH, but regardless, even if you don’t have those procs, you’re still on top of the pack every single pack; it just doesn’t matter.
You have great defensives as well, you’ve got blur, you’re able to talent into nether walk now, you’ve got passive leech in your meta windows which is up for the majority of the time, you’ve got passive damage reduction as well just through your class talents too. So, you’re a super tanky spec, healers don’t really have to worry about you too much in comparison to other specs.
Havoc Demon Hunter’s Utility and Overall Impact
Fell option is now baseline in terms of utility. You got your Chaos Nova, you got your Sigil of Misery, you’ve got your imprison which is one of those CCs that can be used to skip mobs too. Havoc literally, if you could build the perfect spec for Mythic plus, delete augmentation from the game, Havoc is your guy. Havoc is just perfectly built around Mythic plus. When Havoc’s good, it’s great.
Also, something to mention is like I’ve seen a lot of people say because of how strong Vengeance Demon Hunter is that Havoc might not be meta. That is pure copium. Havoc does way too much to even be considered not to be brought to your dungeon. It doesn’t matter the overlap of utility.
Havoc Demon Hunter’s Unique Position in Meta
Oh, the biggest part of the utility I forgot is bloody Chaos Brand on top of all of that. They bring 5% magic damage gain for your group. Like, it’s just the spec is mental. Havoc is S tier, no questions asked. These are the two guaranteed picks in every composition if you’re pushing the highest key levels, and even outside of that, be trolling not to take these two, honestly.
Feral Druid’s Tier Set and DPS Boost
Feral Druid is next. So, Feral’s tier set is going to bridge the gap that they’ve always struggled with, which is their single-target DPS. You’re going to be pigeonholed into your Feral Frenzy, which is going to help your single-target damage regardless, but it’s also going to give you 20% damage and then another 10% damage from all of your abilities on top of that. So, it’s really going to help out your single-target damage here, which is a huge W for Feral.
Because Feral’s AOE damage, especially sustained AOE damage, is up there with the greats. Feral’s AOE damage is nuts. It’s sort of rampy. I mean, it’s not that rampy; you sort of get off with good damage, but then you just ramp up even more, and then you just sustain that damage.
Feral Druid’s Enhanced Damage Profile
Procs, which means you can feed priority damage into a priority target through your ferocious bites that are free, and then also those ferocious bites that are free, going into your priority target, are also going to cleave on everything around you through rampant ferocity. It’s just this endless cycle of mass AOE damage into priority damage.
Even better, single-target damage now with a tier set that feeds back into cleave damage through your W and ferocity. It’s some of the best damage profiles I’ve seen in the game. You cannot fault their damage profile at all.
On AOE as well, it’s not really that cooldown reliant at all. Obviously, you’re going to do more damage on AOE with your Incar up, but it’s not necessary.
Feral Druid’s Sustained Damage and Tankiness
It definitely helps you with single target, that’s for sure. But with your Feral Frenzy windows on a 45-second cooldown now, you’re going to get those damage windows every 45 seconds regardless, and Incar is just going to add on top of that. So, you’re just going to do constant damage on every single pack, every single boss.
It’s going to be a good season for Feral for sure. It’s tanky; you’ve got your bear form if you do need to drop into it for big hits or anything like that. You’ve got your Barkskin, you’ve got your Survival Instincts as well, which is a huge defensive, and then you’ve got Nature’s Vigil for some off-healing, which also feeds into the utility Druid brings.
Utility Brought by Feral Druid in Mythic Plus
Druid brings some of the best utility in the game for Mythic plus. You’ve got Mark of the Wild, you’ve got Incap Roar, Vortex, Typhoon, Nature’s Vigil, like I just mentioned. Yeah, you can’t fault the Druid’s utility in any way, shape, or form. It really just does add so much value to your group.
So, Feral, on that note, is going to be in the A tier. I’m going to put it above Dev. It’s going there. I think people are sleeping on Feral. I think people always kind of see Boomy and then just forget about Feral. I think Feral’s looking very strong for next season.
DK Tankiness and Utility Overview
Next, we have the Unholy, we don’t have the Unholy DK. Next, we’ve got the Frost DK and the Unholy DK, we got DKs in general. So, I’ll start off by talking about their tankiness and utility because then we can bash that out both at the same time.
DKs are super, super tanky. You got AMS on a short cooldown, which is lovely for soaking any magic hits. You got Icebound Fortitude, Lichborne, you’ve got, you can talent into Will of the Necropolis.
Death Knight Survivability and Utility
I think that’s what it’s called where you take less damage the lower health you are, or you can take the talent that heals you when you get low. It’s impressive to die on a DK; they are super, super tanky. You got Death Strike to heal you after you’ve taken any big chunks of damage. So yeah, you can’t fault the DK’s survivability at all.
It brings niche but unique and powerful utility. You’ve got your Death Grip, which can displace mobs. Super niche, but it is the only spec in the game that can do this type of stuff, so that is huge for the spec. You bring a battle res to the group, which is nice, especially with what’s looking like the meta comp, so that’s a big W for the spec. Unholy brings a single-target stun as well from their pet, which is nice, and something I feel like people always forget about.
DK’s Additional Utility and Frost DK’s Damage Analysis
What other utility does it bring? You’ve got an AOE stop in Blinding Sleet, I think it’s called. You got that; you shoot out the frost and disorient all mobs, so that’s a nice AOE stop to lock down any packs, especially casters. Huge utility right there.
Frost DK damage-wise, for next season, I mean, especially with the legendary, you’re definitely going to be going with the Obliteration cleave build, which is super, super bursty and does a lot of damage in cleave scenarios. Frost DK can pump out some serious numbers, so that’s going to be really nice for pugging.
Frost DK’s Tier Set and Placement in Tier List
If you’re going through just doing the standard pulls of around five to eight mobs, you’re going to be doing a lot of damage through your Obliteration cleave right there. The tier set, although it buffs up your damage in general, Chill Streak doesn’t affect your AOE damage in any way, so that is not great for the spec.
Frost does kind of struggle on burst, especially single-target. It’s not known for its single-target damage, so that kind of holds back the spec a bit, but you are going to be able to keep up with a lot of the specs on the overall meters. You’ll be doing a lot of damage.
So for that reason, I’m going to whack the Frost DK in the B tier. It could potentially bump itself up to the A tier, potentially with a legendary. It’s going to depend again on how strong the legendary is for these next three specs, including Frost. But yeah, I think Frost is sleeper good next patch.
Analysis of Unholy DK’s Damage
I think it’s going to do a lot of damage, and then moving on to Unholy for its damage, it seems it’s been reworked slightly in the fact that its damage is now going through like a 3-minute all-out Mega burst window into feeding your damage into these 45-second windows with your apocalypse and your tier set that spawns these Mages of the Dead firing out Shadow Bolt volleys, which is cleaving, and that is going to fill the gap very nicely for Unholy because that’s something they always struggled with: the cleave damage.
They always had amazing single Target if they were talented into it, amazing Mass AOE, like up there with the best AOE damage in the game on mass AOE, but that void in between of the cleave is going to be really fleshed out with their tier set because those Shadow Bolt volleys are doing a hell of a lot of damage.
Unholy DK is going to go into a tier, I think. I’m going to put it just in front of demo; maybe these two could be interchangeable. I’m not sure bottom of a tier for Unholy, yeah. I think it’s looking a lot better next season than it was this season for Mythic plus. Part of me even thinks it could climb up a bit higher through a tier. I don’t know, yeah, but a tier regardless for the Unholy DK.
R Paladin’s Performance in Mythic Plus
Okay, right, so we have the Ret Paladin. Ret has got an ideal damage profile for Mythic plus. You’ve got very, very bursty upfront damage on a one-minute cooldown which, regardless of if it is AOE or single Target, we all know that Rett struggles on single Target, but we’ll come to that later. You’re going to do insane damage at the start of packs or the start of bosses.
It’s like the tier set is also adding to the Giga AOE for the Ret Paladin because your spenders are going to Echo for a percentage of the damage. It’s going to help your single Target as well, but this is Rett’s biggest problem: you have to either fully talent into AOE or you fully talent into single Target; there’s no in-between. So for dungeons, R always struggles with their single Target damage, which isn’t ideal.
You do have a lot of damage amp phases, so if you line up your wings with that, it’s going to be workable, right? But like R’s single Target damage is not great; it definitely could be improved for sure. However, saying that, dependent on what this legendary does that’s being introduced, it definitely could buff up R’s single Target, which would help the spec massively and potentially put it close to A+ tier. I would argue for now I’m going to place it in A tier.
Utility and Defense in R Tier
I’ll spoil that for now; we’re still going to talk about utility and defense. But yeah, it’s going to go in A tier. It brings some of the best utility in the game; it’s up there with The Druids. You’ve got freedom, you’ve got your sack, you’ve got BL, you got blop, you got your blessing of protection, blinding light which is a massive AOE stop, which is super nice for Mythic plus. You’ve got single Target stop in Hammer of Justice, you’ve got great off heals, well, yeah, you got decent off heals. So yeah, red just brings it all in terms of utility.
It also brings a battle res, almost forgot about that one. It’s insanely tanky since its rework; like you just passively reduce a lot of damage as it is. You’ve got your bubble, you’ve got two very short cooldown Shields that protect or you got one Shield, sorry, that gives you a massive absorb and the other one is on a short cooldown that gives you a lot of damage reduction. You’ve got your off heals as well; R is super good. The only thing that holds R back is its single Target damage, unfortunately.
But I feel like to be an amazing, amazing spec you need to somewhat bring both single Target and AOE damage. I’m going to put R in the A tier. I’m just looking where I’m going to put it now; I think I’m going to put R just behind Feral. I mean, arguably, no, I think the utility carries a lot for R. I’m going to keep R down here; I mean, it’s like mid A. I know this looks like it’s towards the bottom of A, but it’s solidly A here; yeah, it’s looking very strong for next season for sure.
Wind Walker Monk Analysis
Okay, so that is the tier list done; that is how all the ranged and melee specs look like. I can’t do this with a straight face because I’m forgetting Windwalker Monk. Windwalker, I haven’t seen a lot of on PTR, but from the Wind Walkers that I have played with on PTR, I’ve seen some of them, to be fair, pumping. They are a very, very bursty class on single Target and more so on AOE; however, they are quite proc-reliant. I’m not super familiar with the spec; I don’t think you’re gaining massively out of the new tier set because it has been reworked.
It’s going to be very good for low Keys, that’s for sure, because it does a lot of upfront burst damage, but I just don’t think it’s that great overall. I feel like people are dooming on the spec; though I don’t think it’s as bad as people are making it out to be. It’s going to be respectable on the overall meters for sure.
It also brings, I’m not going to say some of the best utility, but the utility that it brings is great for Mythic plus. You’ve got a short cooldown AOE stun in Leg Sweep, you got Ringer Pre, Ring of Peace, sorry, that is super good. Whether you need it to stop your tank being killed by mobs or whatever, whether you need it to stop the toxic sour rids leaping into a tower disaster, like it’s very niche, but it does seem to also come up a lot, and it is very useful when it is useful, you know.
Wind Walker Monk’s Defensive Capabilities
I mean, that makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s useful when it’s useful. It’s pretty much a walking tank as well. You have like four different defensives that you can use: you’ve got your touch of karma, you got diffuse magic, you’ve got your other two that I can’t remember what they are because I don’t play this spec, but yeah, you are very tanky as a Windwalker, that’s for sure. You also bring Mystic touch, which would be super nice for your Havoc Demon Hunter and other like Rogue specs, for example, that are like possibly meta next season. So that’s going to really help out with any melee.
Oh yeah, the other utility that the Windwalker does bring is it increases the healing taken from your party members and also what’s the other one, does it give a flat verse buff to your party as well? But I just remember them having two super strong pieces of utility in their class tree that definitely helps out at Mythic plus, just making your group tankier as a whole.
They’ve also got paralysis as well, yeah thank you, yeah paralysis as well for a pseudo single Target stop. You can also use it to skip in some scenarios where you would paralyze the mob, there we go, felt like I was being paralyzed there, paralyze the mob and then Ring of Peace out so that you can walk past without getting in combat with the mob.
I’m going to put the Windwalker in the B tier. I do think people are giving it a hard time. I’m going to put it at the bottom of B here. I think I was debating putting it up here but these two specs are just going to do outright more damage than the Windwalker.
Overall Tier List for Season 3 Mythic Plus in Dragonflight
They’re not going to bring as much utility as but the elemental shaman is, and it does do good single target in CLE so that is my overall tier list for season 3 Mythic Plus in dragonflight. We’ve got the augmentation and Havoc at the top, I don’t think there was any surprises there.
All of these specs right here could easily fill this third spot in the meta, they all bring their own positives to the group. Basically, like they basically bring it all is what I’m trying to say, but they could definitely be interchangeable dependent on your group comp, dependent on the dungeon, dependent on what gets you into Keys, etc.
In the A tier, we’ve got a lot of specs in the A tier, to be fair. I think balancing, other than these two for next season, is looking pretty solid. It’s looking somewhat similar to season 1 where like all of these specs here are like decent specs. We got two in C which is unfortunate, they are not doing great by any means but I mean don’t stop that from inviting you to your plus 15 or plus 20 weeklys, they’re going to do absolutely fine in those keys.
But yeah, we got a lot in like the A tier, B tier, so some decent balance from Blizzard except these two, just Nerf delete or from the game and Nerf Havoc a little bit more. I would, I’d be fine with havoc in a plus here, that’d be absolutely fine but for now that’s where it stands, peace out.
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