WotLK DPS PvE Tier List/Rankings - Phase 2 WotLK Classic

By NerdEgghead Last Updated: 2023/01/18 Changelog Patch: 3.4.3

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Disclaimers About This Tier List

Classes will be ranked assuming that the group is optimizing primarily for boss DPS rather than trash DPS. This is a sharp contrast to our analogous TBC tier lists, where AoE and cleave damage was weighted to a much greater degree than single target output when evaluating each spec. The reason for the swap in priorities this time is two-fold:

Unlike many vanilla and TBC raids, boss encounters will constitute the large majority of time spent clearing Ulduar, simply due to the limited quantity of trash packs in the instance and the low health of trash mobs (which were not "tuned up" at all in the way that several bosses were). This means that even competitive speedruns will be looking primarily at boss DPS performance when optimizing their raid compositions to achieve the fastest clear times.
Ulduar is the first raid in Classic WoW that features stringent DPS checks that must be met in order to kill several bosses on their hardest difficulty mode. As a result, single target DPS is of central importance even for non-speedrun guilds looking to progress through Hard Modes for the first time.

When scoring the utility of each specialization, extra weight is given for stackable sources of raid utility when multiple members of a given class/spec are present in a raid comp. In WotLK, mostly highly impactful raid DPS buffs were made raid-wide (compared to party-wide in TBC) and were given multiple redundant sources, meaning that it is easy to bring the full suite of impactful buffs in pretty much any 25-man comp. As a result, simply bringing a mandatory raid buff no longer elevates a spec to S or A utility like it did in TBC, since several classes not only provide one or more such buffs but also provide significant value beyond the first member that is brought. For example, each Druid brought to a raid provides an additional Innervate and , and each Rogue brings with them an additional Tricks of the Trade, whereas a second Frost Death Knight for example brings far less value to the raid than the first.

These rankings are min-max evaluations under the assumption that players of each spec are executing their rotations perfectly and fully maxing out their character's performance via professions and consumables. Remember to keep in mind that player always trumps class in any realistic raid environment, and in practice, your raid team will benefit more from simply recruiting and retaining the top players you can find regardless of the spec they play, rather than hyper-focusing on a single meta comp. In Ulduar, player skill is more important than ever before in Classic, both during progression and for achieving competitive clear times, since a player's real DPS contribution on a fight is disproportionately influenced by their ability to maximize the benefit of encounter-specific buffs like Rune of Power and Toasty Fire while still dodging all dangerous boss mechanics.

DPS Tier List Predictions for Phase 2 of WotLK Classic

S: The raw DPS throughput of this spec, including its synergy with the powerful encounter-specific damage buffs in Ulduar, is so high that it will be heavily stacked (5+ raid spots) in optimized raid comps. You will pretty much never go wrong adding another one of these to your roster.

A: This spec also contributes exceptional personal DPS throughout Ulduar, either from its raw throughput alone or from the unique value it brings to encounters with specific DPS buffs or burst damage needs. It is not the premier spec to heavily stack, but running several of each will be common in many raid teams. Even when only one raid slot is theoretically optimal for this spec (to provide a required raid buff), running more than one is completely fine even in highly competitive raid environments.

B: In a fully min-maxed comp, this spec is brought primarily for the mandatory buffs and debuffs it brings, as its personal DPS across Ulduar encounters is not quite high enough to merit stacking them. Bringing one of each is often mandatory in an optimal comp, as it is the most effective way of bringing its associated utility to a roster, but more than one is not ideal relative to an A-tier spec. A lot of physical DPS specs find their home in this tier despite simming comparably to their A-tier brethren, simply because Ulduar mechanics are overall extremely biased in favor of casters.

C: This spec should only be brought in a competitive Phase 2 roster if there is no other way to obtain a mandatory raid buff that it provides within the constraints of your raid team. As such, the spec generally will not be seen at the top end of competitive raiding, but can be used to fill holes in a given raid's suite of buffs and debuffs.

D: The spec is technically viable, but is significantly outperformed by most other specs and does not bring enough utility to merit using it in lieu of alternative options.

Note that these definitions apply only to the "Overall Ranking" given to each spec. A given spec might be S tier in one or more individual categories but still may not be worth stacking in a raid comp!Phase 2 DPS Rankings and Explanations

Affliction Warlock (S Tier)

Arcane Mage (A Tier)

Balance Druid (A Tier)

Shadow Priest (A Tier)

Assassination Rogue (A Tier)

Demonology Warlock (A Tier)

Unholy Death Knight (B Tier)

Frost Death Knight (B Tier)

Fire Mage (B Tier)

Combat Rogue (B Tier)

Enhancement Shaman (B Tier)

Survival Hunter (B Tier)

Marksmanship Hunter (C Tier)

Feral Druid (C Tier)

Fury Warrior (C Tier)

Elemental Shaman (C Tier)

Retribution Paladin (D Tier)

Overall Ranking

Spec

Raw DPS Score

Encounter Synergy Score

Utility Score

Affliction Warlock

Arcane Mage

Balance Druid

Shadow Priest

Assassination Rogue

Demonology Warlock

Unholy Death Knight

Frost Death Knight

Fire Mage

Combat Rogue

Enhancement Shaman

Survival Hunter

Marksmanship Hunter

Feral Druid

Fury Warrior

Elemental Shaman

Retribution Paladin

S Tier SpecsAffliction Warlock

In Phase 2, Affliction Warlocks will rise to the very top of the DPS totem pole and occupy a tier of their own. Even prior to the announced Gargoyle nerfs for Unholy Death Knights, it was expected that Affliction Warlocks would supplant them as the premier spec to heavily stack in Ulduar, but the nerfs fully seal the deal in favor of Warlock dominance for the foreseeable future. Not only is the single target throughput of the Affliction spec exceptionally high, simming at the top echelon of all specs on Patchwork fights in Phase 2 BiS gear, but simply by virtue of being the top caster DPS, it convincingly outperforms comparably simming melee specs like Assassination Rogues under real raid conditions due to the plethora of caster-exclusive DPS buffs in Ulduar encounters: Singed on Hodir and Shadow Crash on General Vezax, for example. On top of this, Warlocks are highly valuable DPS during progression due to their elevated health pools and the combat resurrection utility provided by Demonic Soulstone. As a result, expect to see large numbers (5+) of Affliction Warlocks in the highest ranked competitive clears of Ulduar, both during the Day 1 progression race and in speedruns throughout the tier.

A Tier SpecsArcane Mage

Arcane Mages are another exceptional caster DPS specialization that are expected to rise in popularity for competitive Ulduar clears compared to Naxxramas. Compared to Affliction Warlocks they will deal less personal DPS on average, especially given the much longer average fight lengths in Ulduar relative to Phase 1, and are also harder to heavily class stack due to their reliance on Innervate for dealing optimal damage. However, they fill a valuable DPS niche that is extremely important on several Hard Mode encounters: concentrated single target burst damage. An Arcane Mage's ability to unload their entire Mana bar over a short duration can allow your raid to meet difficult burst damage checks such as killing Steelbreaker before Overwhelming Power expires. Additionally, the Arcane specialization is the most efficient way to bring the 3% damage raid buff to an optimized comp (via ), and also provides some stackable raid DPS utility via .

Balance Druid

Balance Druids are utility powerhouses in all senses of the word: they are the most efficient source of multiple mandatory raid buffs (3% Haste, 5% Spell Crit, and 5% Armor Penetration), considerably buff Arcane Mage throughput (or healer longevity during progression) via Innervate, and provide an additional source of combat resurrection that can easily convert a wipe into a kill early on in the phase. On top of this, they provide indispensable encounter-specific utility in Ulduar, such as for Detonating Lasher waves on the Freya encounter, or the ability to solo heal the brain room in Phase 2 of Yogg-Saron without respeccing. A moonkin also fills a complementary DPS niche to an Arcane Mage by offering massive on-demand burst AoE damage via , which is near-mandatory for meeting the Hodir Hard Mode DPS check when undergeared, due to the importance of unfreezing friendly NPCs as soon as possible on pull and after a Flash Freeze. As a result, most guilds will be better off with multiple Balance Druids in their Ulduar roster, even though the raw DPS output of the spec does not scale quite as well as other casters throughout the phase.

Shadow Priest

Both the single target and AoE damage output of Shadow Priests continue to scale very well into Phase 2, so it is no surprise that the spec finds itself in the A-tier of a caster-friendly raid like Ulduar. The spec does not fill a unique niche on most encounters, often functioning as just a budget Affliction Warlock that provides another source of the valuable Replenishment buff (from ) in exchange for lower throughput. Nevertheless, this spec is a safe pick since multiple Replenishment sources are required in Ulduar, combined with its ability to negate dangerous raid mechanics using Dispersion plus its dispel utility.

Assassination Rogue

The single target output of this spec will continue to be exceptional throughout Phase 2, and it can easily top damage meters on fights without caster-specific buffs or mechanics that limit melee uptime. In "Patchwerk" simulations of Phase 2 BiS setups, Assassination Rogues compete directly with Affliction Warlocks for maximum single target throughput, but unfortunately can only realize that top spot on the meter on a select few fights in Ulduar (when playing with equally geared and skilled DPS). For this reason, the spec will not be heavily stacked at the top end of competitive raiding, but most groups will not go wrong bringing multiple Rogues to Ulduar simply due to Tricks of the Trade, which can be flexibly used either as a strong external DPS cooldown (usually on an Affliction Warlock) or as a phenomenal source of snap Threat for tanks. The latter use case was generally reserved for trash packs in Phase 1, but will see more common use on boss encounters during Phase 2, especially on fights where DPS players receive damage boosts that the tank does not get (like Starlight on Hodir) or when tanks are gearing for maximum survivability during progression.

Demonology Warlock

Demonology Warlocks competed neck and neck with their Affliction counterparts in Naxxramas, but are expected to fall off in performance during Phase 2 due to the spec's intrinsically poorer gear scaling combined with lower uptime on the much longer fight lengths in Ulduar. Bringing one Demonology Warlock is absolutely mandatory in any raid comp due to the buff they provide, which is the strongest caster buff in the game and unique to the spec. More than one will never be strictly optimal given that the Affliction spec exists, but additional Demonology Warlocks in a raid will still compete effectively on the meters and can be useful to fill holes in your raid's burst damage capabilities. Note that the ability to cast in demon form while buffed with opens up some unique strategies such as diverting Steelbreaker's Overwhelming Power cast away from a tank in order to squeeze out more DPS.

B Tier SpecsUnholy Death Knight

This Phase 1 titan is expected to fall from grace as the premiere stacked DPS spec for competitive raids. While the recently implemented nerf to Summon Gargoyle is certainly a factor in the spec's demotion from the top tier, the impact of the nerf has been greatly exaggerated by the community overall. The reality is that the damage contribution of an Unholy Death Knight's Gargoyle was already greatly suppressed in Ulduar compared to Naxxramas due to (a) the significantly higher boss HP values in Ulduar leading to much longer fight lengths, and (b) the necessity of saving Bloodlust / Heroism for specific burst damage phases of Hard Mode encounters, making it much more difficult to overlap Haste procs for a maximally effective Gargoyle. Even post-nerf, the Unholy spec will still put out very competitive numbers throughout Phase 2, but will now perform much more comparably to its Frost counterpart. With this in mind, the main reason for a lower tiering of both Death Knight specializations here is their lack of stackable raid utility, but keep in mind that at least 1 Unholy Death Knight should always be present in a raid to spread via .

Frost Death Knight

The nerfs to Summon Gargoyle mentioned above mean that the Frost specialization is now an equally competitive choice for Death Knight players in Ulduar, and the optimal choice will likely depend on the details of a given encounter. Note that at least one Frost Death Knight should be present on all encounters in any raid composition to provide the buff (freeing up your Shaman to drop to mitigate raid damage), but others can freely respec Unholy on encounters that favor Gargoyle usage.

Fire Mage

Similar to Death Knights, Mages should use the dual specialization feature liberally when progressing through Ulduar for the first time, as the Fire specialization provides unique advantages on several fights despite simming lower than Arcane in a vacuum and providing lower single target burst potential. For example, respeccing to Fire on the Freya encounter for provides your raid with an additional source of crowd control for Detonating Lasher waves that complements . Likewise, the AoE capabilities of a Fire Mage can also be superior, especially on fights with a lot of movement.

Combat Rogue

Just as in Phase 1, most competitive raid compositions in Phase 2 will include a single Combat Rogue specifically for the debuff, with all other Rogues playing Assassination for its superior single target damage. The only other source of the 4% physical damage debuff is the Arms Warrior specialization, which unfortunately performs so poorly that it should never be used in a serious raid. Note that the Combat specialization is not too far behind its Assassination counterpart in single target throughput, and will in fact be the higher performing spec on cleave fights like Kologarn where the Combat-specific cooldown Blade Flurry can shine.

Enhancement Shaman

Enhancement Shamans fall in the same bucket as Combat Rogues, being a spec with a singular mandatory member in optimized comps to supply a required buff, which in this case is . Just like Combat Rogues, Enhancement Shamans do put out very respectable single target damage and particularly shine on cleave fights, but their throughput alone is not quite high enough to roster several of them. Note that there are other viable sources of the 10% Attack Power raid buff but they are simply less ideal: Marksmanship Hunters () deal less personal DPS while Death Knight off-tanks () will not be in Blood spec for the entirety of a raid. Also keep in mind that at least one Shaman must be present in any viable comp for Bloodlust / Heroism, and not every comp will necessarily use a Restoration Shaman healer for this purpose. Finally, provides a ton of value when progressing through Ulduar, whether by providing your tank with just enough damage reduction to survive Steelbreaker's Fusion Punch or by mitigating raid damage from Unstable Energy and Iron Roots on the Freya Hard Mode.

Survival Hunter

Survival is expected to retain its place as the best performing Hunter specialization even in Phase 2 BiS gear, and will continue to earn its raid spot by virtue of supplying another source of the valuable Replenishment buff (from ) while putting out very respectable personal DPS and providing Hunter-specific utility tools like Misdirection. As ranged damage dealers, Survival Hunters are not punished quite as hard as other physical DPS by melee-unfriendly mechanics like the Proximity Mines and Shock Blast in the Mimiron encounter, but also do not scale nearly as well as casters from magic damage buffs like Singed and Shadow Crash, so they occupy a middle ground in their synergy with the raid as a whole.

C Tier SpecsMarksmanship Hunter

As mentioned just above, Hunters in competitive raid environments should expect to play Survival throughout Phase 2, as it is the higher simming spec throughout Phase 2 gear progression even on fights that are not amenable to trap weaving. Nevertheless, the Marksmanship specialization is given an honorable mention here as an alternative source of the 10% Attack Power raid buff for compositions lacking an Enhancement Shaman. In this scenario, the difference in personal throughput between the Survival and Marksmanship specs is small enough that it is highly recommended to run the latter for the sake of .

Feral Druid

When playing a pure DPS role, Feral Druids in a competitive raid environment will find themselves in pretty much the same spot in Phase 2 as in Phase 1, namely the bottom of the damage meter. Unfortunately, a lot of the previous community perception of the spec as being "S tier in Ulduar" has turned out to be nothing more than myth and misconception, as both PTR logs from the recent Ulduar testing in Classic as well as simulation projections for full Phase 2 BiS setups support the same conclusion of Ferals remaining near the bottom of the pack across all commonly used DPS specs in WotLK. That being said, WotLK is overall an extremely balanced expansion, so even the specs near the bottom of the meter can expect to perform within 10% of the very top specs on Patchwerk-style fights. For this reason, raid teams that elect not to use a Feral off-tank in Ulduar should still roster a pure DPS Feral as the most efficient source of the 5% Crit and 30% bleed damage raid buffs. In addition to the stackable utility from Innervate and provided by all Druids, Ferals also bring the unique raid healing buff , which was unnecessary in Naxxramas but provides an enormous amount of effective healing in Ulduar based on PTR progression logs.

Fury Warrior

Just like vanilla WoW and TBC, Fury Warriors are one of the best scaling DPS specs in WotLK as well, but unlike prior expansions, their starting point in early Wrath was so low relative to other specs that they still will not have caught up to the middle of the pack by the end of Phase 2. In early Phase 2, even a pure DPS Feral Druid will be a better source of the 5% Crit raid buff due to their higher personal DPS. By the end of the phase, Fury Warriors will catch up to (and possibly overtake) Ferals in single target output, but a Feral's total raid DPS contribution from and Innervate is projected to still be larger. As a result, a fully min-maxed raid composition will only roster a Fury Warrior in Phase 2 if the buff is required, which is a subjective call that depends on the raid's pain points during progression and risk tolerance on farm.

Elemental Shaman

Similar to the other C-tier specs above, Elemental Shamans will generally not be found in top-end raid compositions for Ulduar, since they do not provide any essential buffs that are not more efficiently brought by other higher DPS specializations. However, their personal DPS in Phase 2 BiS gear is not bad by any means, simming comparably to Marksmanship Hunters for example, so they are a fine choice for raid teams lacking a Shaman for Bloodlust / Heroism. The most common use case for this spec in a competitive raid is as a flex swap for a Restoration Shaman healer on fights where fewer healers are required.

D Tier SpecsRetribution Paladin

As noted when discussing Feral DPS above, the entire band of DPS specializations discussed thus far, all the way from S to C tier, spans only about a ~10% variation in simulated DPS output, which is a testament to how well balanced WotLK is overall as an expansion. Unfortunately, for any rule there are always outliers, and Retribution Paladins are that outlier for Wrath, simming several thousand DPS lower than the average spec in Phase 2 BiS gear and falling further and further behind the curve over the course of the phase (unlike Fury Warriors who start catching up for example). This makes it extremely difficult to justify rostering a Retribution Paladin in an optimized raid comp, even though the Paladin class offers hands down the best stackable raid utility of all classes for Ulduar, via their insanely powerful raid cooldowns Aura Mastery and . The sheer power of these cooldowns for mitigating tank damage and raid damage means that many guilds will end up using a Retribution Paladin anyway just to fill a required Paladin slot for Hard Mode progression, but using an additional Holy specialization for this instead is preferable if at all possible.

WarriorHunterRogueDeath KnightMageWarlock

These are specializations that were deliberately not ranked because they are strictly inferior in all aspects to one or more specializations of the same class that shares the same raid role (melee vs. ranged) and similar gear. While players should feel empowered to play off-meta specializations that they find enjoyable, the purpose of this tier list is to rank specs in the context of a competitive raid environment, so it does not make sense to list specs that are just a respec button away from being competitively useful. Note that several of these specializations are not actually bad in terms of their DPS throughput relative to other specs ranked earlier, but it simply does not make sense to ever play them competitively.

Comments

Comment by NerdEggeadkekw

Made an account just to tell you how terrible and wrong this tier list is, agressively bad even. The numbers in the sims dont lie, Combat, Unholy and Frost in B tier is delusional, especially Combat does very similar damage to Assassination but also brings an essential debuff. If every Shaman spec (I checked your healer list too) is B or C tier and mediocre, who will cast your heroism? Demo lock utility score A lol, it's not like they still sim as good or better than the other casters but also bring a buff of literally hundreds of spellpower with them. Frankly terrible list and I hope Wowhead never has you cook up a tier list again, your healer and tank tier lists suck too.

Comment by Bloodbro

I'm confused about why Survival Hunter is at the bottom of B tier. In most encounters where you are standing STILL the whole time, about 45% of our dps is fire damage when trapweaving alongside ~3% from serpent sting, so we're sitting at about 50% of our damage being magical, which is a pretty significant amount to get buffed by the spell damage modifiers throughout Ulduar at bosses like Ignus and Vezax - and that's the minimum - even more of that % will be magic if you're forced to move very quickly without stopping. Survival is rated as A / B / A in the ranking which is just straight up better ratings than a couple of things above it on the tier list as well (I'm looking at Frost DK A / C / C and Enh Shaman A / C / A here). I know some of those other classes do provide some good buffs, but to be totally fair stuff like icy talons falls under the "poor physical damage synergy" argument made in this article. And secondly to that point I realize the Letter system is just comprised of buckets where some A's are better than others and vice-versa, but I would argue that Survival is probably near or at the top of the A dps bucket, and the A utility category from misdirection being huge right off the rip and for pulling tough pats (Auriaya) + replenishment + FD. Speaking to DPS - taking the iconic winning guild Beef Bar as an example - their survival hunter(s) are consistently sitting near the top of meters in the #5-#10 position, (notable mentions being arguably some of the most important and challenging fights like #4 spot on mimiron, #5 on council, and #5 on yogg) basically right behind UH DK's and Affl Locks, and not by *that* much. I think we can all agree that they had either an ideal comp, or something VERY close to ideal, and yet the survival hunter was making a very strong showing. I'm not saying that I can't be wrong about this take, but all of the things I've seen seems to deem them at mid-to-high A tier by the criteria you posed and the actual evidence on live streams of raids (as well as UHDK probably being S or top of A), so I'm curious if there are other reasons for the rating that I have not considered. Regardless definitely gonna be leveling my lock to 80 ASAP hahaha. Cheers friends and happy Ulduar-ing!

Comment by inmydream

kekw tier list :)

WotLK DPS PvE Tier List/Rankings - Phase 2 WotLK Classic

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