Mastering WoW PvP: Class Tier Rankings and Insights for the Upcoming Patch

We examine the upcoming WoW patch’s class rankings through a PvP lens, revealing where each class stands and what changes to expect. Listeners gain insights into individual class strengths and weaknesses, preparing them for the competitive landscape ahead.
• Frost Death Knight struggles at D tier due to low survivability
• Unholy Death Knight ranks C tier with decent pressure but consistent challenges
• Demon Hunters elevate to A tier with recent buffs and synergies
• Balance Druid shows promise in A tier with updated talents
• Feral Druid sits in B tier due to anticipated nerfs
• Resto Druid remains at B tier, hindered by global intensive mechanics
• Evoker struggles for utility, with Pres Evoker at S tier
• Marksman and Beast Mastery Hunters rank A tier, sustaining competitive viability
• Mage rankings show Frost and Arcane in A tier while Fire is C tier
• Mistweaver Monk rises to S tier due to exceptional healing capabilities
• Holy Paladin falls to C tier following nerfs, while Retribution stays strong in A tier
• Both Priest specs struggle at B tier but Shadow Priest manages A tier
• Rogues find themselves in B tier with mixed performance expectations
• Shaman specs vary widely with Resto Shamans landing in A tier
• Warlocks and Warriors maintain a strong position in A tier with solid plays

Hope you all enjoy and hope you relate to any of these stories. And I will speak to you all in the next episode!

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:39

Music do . Hello and welcome to the Pig and Whistle Tales from Azeroth . As always here at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind , I go through a variety of subjects with regards to World of Warcraft . I grab a bottle or a pint , sit back and enjoy this midweek episode . As promised , I'll be going over a tier list on where I think the next sort of patch will leave us in terms of classes . Now I can do supports , not supports . Sorry , I've been playing too many games . I can do healers and DPS Tanks .

Speaker 1 1:23

I'm afraid I'm not putting on the list because I have more of a pvp perspective of this . Um . So I'm really sorry if you are a tank or wanted to hear the tank , but I cannot give you a solid sort of tier list on it . Um , I can only do it from a pvp perspective and , to be honest , all tanks in pvp are pretty much f tier . So this tier list will range from s tier being at the very top to d tier , which I think are going to perform less uh well than others in my honest opinion . So , and again , this is very much from a pvp standpoint . So we will be going over why it might be good , why it might be bad , why it might be a stupid decision or whatever , but this is where I have put them . So if you have any sort of disputes , please do realize that this is my own opinion .

Speaker 1 2:12

Okay , we'll start off with DK , because DKs it will do this numerically , not numerically alphabetically . So DKs , frost DK . I have put this in D tier . Okay , now , the reason I put this in uh d tier . Okay now , the reason I put this in d tier is because frost is very much a setup based uh class . It has slowly been getting better , it's better than what it was in dragonflight , but I still think that it's going to underperform , especially with the nerfs to the survivability of DK in general , not just Frost DK . I think that this is going to really weaken the value of it and it means that DKs , frost DKs , for example , will only be played in very specific comps . I'd say DK Boomy , frost DK Boomy or Frost DK Devavoka , something like this . This is where they will be played and you wouldn't see much else of them anywhere else , I'm afraid . So that's where I'm going to put Frost DK . For Unholy DK they are one above C tier into the C tier . Now , this is mainly because Unholy has a lot more pressure and it has a bit of a different DPS output when it comes to consistently out-damaging your opponents Now , or not out-damaging , but consistent damage . Frost DK very much has burst windows and if you get shut down on your burst window you're kind of useless . Unholy DK , on the other hand , can utilize the consistent damage to a very good basis , but again , I think this is going to be a lot lower because you're going to be looking at sort of playing in a melee cleave with unholy decay , and your survivability , being hit quite hard , is going to have a massive impact on you . So this is where I think that you will be dropping down into the lower tiers , mainly due to the fact of your survivability going down by quite a substantial amount .

Speaker 1 4:07

For Demon Hunters , I have put you at a B tier , a very high B tier . Now . I say this because over the past few patches we've also been getting a slight increase in buffs for DHs . Now this is something that we call a power creep . All right , now , a power creep is essentially when a class slowly gets buffed until everything else is nerfed and then you're basically the top dog . Yeah , so you didn't get a massive buff to just make you top dog . You slowly got buffs and then whoever was at the top got buffed or nerfed sorry and then you're suddenly the top dog kind of thing .

Speaker 1 4:49

I think it's a very high b tier . You know what scratch that ? I'm going a tier , it's going to be put into a tier . Um , I think that it's in a very solid spot . I think it just needs a few things to get weaker , and I think that that is what is going to happen , because I think the thing that keeps demon hunters out of the equation at the moment is rogues . Rogues are so good at shutting down dks or demon hunters . I think that's where , um , you're going to see a bit more demon hunters when rogues slowly fade out of the meta , if they ever do . That is so an A tier for Havoc , demon Hunter , for Druids now , obviously we have a few Druid specs , but we will start off with the balanced Druid . So for me , I'm going to put in an A tier . Now , you can put me as biased , you can do whatever .

Speaker 1 5:41

I think this is an A slash B tier . I don't think it's going to be bad , I don't think it's going to be great . I need to test out the talents myself , but I think that some of the talent changes that Boonmeat got they weren't even talent changes really . They were just shifting talents from a bad position into a better one . I think that this is going to open up the talent tree a lot more and allow you to take a bit more , a few bits and pieces that you actually want , rather than shit that you don't .

Speaker 1 6:10

Essentially , feral I am going to put Feral at a B tier Now . Feral has been very good , but they are getting a lot of nerfs in this patch , mainly due to their rip and ferocious bite damage , if I'm not mistaken . And again , feral can just be looked at once you get their wall and essentially you're dead . I'm also putting it at a B tier mainly because it's quite hard to learn for newer players and some people might not have the time to learn . It is very complicated , it's very intensive in terms of its global cooldown usage , so it's very tough and I think that that doesn't lend itself to uh , like the tier system .

Speaker 1 6:57

But I think the b tier is a very solid place for it to be . I don't think it's great , I don't think it's awful , though I think it's going to be a very middle of the range . You're going to have your great comps with it , which is hunter for jungle . You're going to have your mage , feral . You're going to have what other things go with feral . See , that's the problem . Not many things . That's why it's b tier , because it doesn't have that flexibility I would say for resto druid . Now , resto druid obviously got a bit of changes , and mostly buffs , in my opinion , but I still think it's going to come in at a solid b tier . Now , the reason for this is because purges exist in the game and a lot of the buffs are mainly due to . Some of them are due to damage or down to damage , um . But the thing is it's so global , intensive , you're having to put all hots up on the target and the thing is , if you fall behind on your hots , you're going to struggle . You will simply struggle and it's not going to be fun for you . It is that simple . It's it's awful , but it is that simple , um . So I think it's a solid b tier .

Speaker 1 8:04

We don't really know exactly how big of an impact this new tree form is . I know that you're immune to cc and stuff , but you're very slow , so you can't kind of like guardian angel or spirit of redemption . You can't reposition on the fly or be very active or mobile . You kind of need to sit there , heal your team and then hopefully they don't go out , go out of your los , but who knows , who knows with resto druids . So b is a very safe spot . If I had to guess , I'm going with c tier . Um , if it was to go either way , up to an a or down to a c tier , I would honestly push it down to a c tier , but only time will tell . With resto druids or evokers , you're looking at devastation and org or devastation , org and um press evokers or org evokers . You're going to be at the bottom of the barrel , I'm afraid .

Speaker 1 8:56

For pvp d tier is where you're staying . Okay , you offer nothing . Really you're just a awful dps because you have to cast a lot , which is a bit of a shame , but I like the experimentation they did in dragonflight with this . But yeah , you're just . The casting really does kill an auger voker in arenas . You can't get anything off . Therefore you're kind of useless . And with the survivability , going down for uh auger vokers , it's just not great all around . Going down for uh auger vocas , it's just not great all around , whatever vocas .

Speaker 1 9:29

I'm putting you at a c tier . Now , the reason that I'm putting you at a c tier is because , firstly , um , I don't like evokas no , no , I'm joking . Um , firstly , mainly because you only have one ability disintegrate . If you get kicked on it . It's kind of shit . Secondly , your range actually hinders you quite a fair amount . Um , thirdly , again , you're only good with certain compositions dk , dev , dev evoker , maybe a rogue and dev evoker , but nothing really beyond that in my honest opinion .

Speaker 1 9:59

And then we have the first S tier of the list Presovoka . They got no changes , pretty much . They got one where your Dream Breath now heals yourself and five injured allies was five injured allies , it's just yeah , um , prez Evoker hasn't changed . But Prez Evoker is on the boundary of being S tier this patch already , and with everything else dropping off , like Resto Druids and pre-skinning reworks and stuff , I think it's easily going to be up there . You have a Purge , you have a stun , you have a sleep CC , you have damage , you have healing , you have big cooldown usage such as Rew , emerald communion , you have it all . And I think prez is easily going to be an s tier . It really , really is , and honestly , keep an eye out for it because it's going to be there for a while .

Speaker 1 10:52

I'd say now , looking at hunters , hunters are going to be tough to gauge because they are getting a rework while mm hunter is . But genuinely I think mm hunter might be 80 . So you have jungle with it . You have boomy hunter . Hunters can just be in any sort of annoying comp that's going to be doing a lot of burst damage . You can have like uh hunter warrior , for example not amazing , but it can still do the job . But like these sort of things can just burst you down without having to cc . And if that fails , hunter does bring the cc . So I would say mm hunter is a very optimistic , a tier . Very optimistic because I haven't really seen enough to give it a four . Yeah , it's good or not kind of um grade , but I'm going to be optimistic and say A for the rework , genuinely . Also , I saw that they can move while casting aim shot . Now what the hell is that ? That's some bonkers . But yeah , a tier for MM hunters .

Speaker 1 11:52

For BM hunters I've gone A tier as well . Nothing much is changing with them . There's a few bits and bobs that are obviously um getting changed , but nothing that's like majorly impactful for your usual current kit . So stuff like barrage is getting updated , like more damage , less focus costs , etc . But you don't really take that at the moment and with other things being or staying the same or being buffed , I think that you're going to stay at a healthy A tier , maybe even going into S tier as the sort of DPS , but it's very tough to say . I would say very much A tier for BM hunters . Still , for survival hunters , I've gone a tier lower with them , mainly gone to B tier , and the drawback is obviously you have a lot of melee complications to deal with when you become a survival hunter . Now , again , not really much has changed for survival hunters . You have a few balance updates , but mostly it's just fixed an issue or this has been updated , this has been updated and no real . This is a damage increase , this is a damage increase . That's a nerfed kind of deal . So this is why I put them at b , because you don't really have as much to go on , um , when you're a survival hunter in terms of compositions . Uh , that's why I've gone with uh , b tier for survival hunter .

Speaker 1 13:18

For mage let's just get this out of the way frost and arcane , mage a tier . Okay , you might be thinking why is frost and arcane in the same tier ? Because frost is clearly better . Arcane is a sleeper spec . Um , what I mean by this is it is waiting for one person to play it in awc , maybe like cubsy or something , and everyone will be like , yeah , this spec is busted , it's absolutely busted . Arcane is a sleeper spec . Honestly , it can disintegrate you so quickly . Um , if you get the damage off right and if you get the right setups and stuff , it is honestly so , so good . But people are sleeping on it because it is a very tough spec to actually get going . So it very much depends on the meta and if everything is super fast paced , I don't know if it will have a spot in the meta . If that's the case , then it will drop down to a B tier .

Speaker 1 14:16

But so far I'm putting Arcane Mage at A and Frost Mage always going to be good . You have your Mage locks , you have your RMPs , you have all of them sort of comps and Frost is usually the go-to for most of these comps . Always going to be good for Fire . Okay , fire Mage has had it rough . It's had it really , really rough this past patch . Now I'm going to be very generous to it . I will be very generous and put it at ct . It's . It doesn't look like it's going to improve anytime soon . I'm not going to lie to you . I'm really sorry , fire mage , but yeah , you don't look like you're going to improve and it's sad . Um , I hope that you do , but I hope you don't get as crazy as you did in shadowlands where you press combust and 20 things die within 0.2 seconds . But the buffs and stuff are mainly due to mythic plus buffs and nerfs , that is , they are for mythic plus players . So on a pvp standpoint , I don't think you're going to get in most groups if you are fire mage , unfortunately .

Speaker 1 15:22

Moving on to monk Now Mistweaver monk when is this gone ? This has gone as the last S tier . Okay , now hear me out on this . Mistweaver monk now does 1.8 mil grit with their Crackling Jade Lightning . Okay , it's ticking for about 1.2 mil if you can get the right um buffs on you at the time and that ticks for five times . So what's that ? Six mil , something like that ? Um , that's really good , because a average player's health in pvp in the next patch is about nine mil , so you can almost solo someone in three seconds with crackling jade lightning . Always good fun , isn't it ?

Speaker 1 16:05

Um , not to mention shayloons gift being an instant cast on a 40 second cooldown . Technically , uh , and I know it doesn't have a cooldown , but the like mists that you produce , uh , fill up the charges for shayloons and it takes 40 seconds to get all the charges . So I'm passing it as a 40 second cooldown . Instant cast heals them for pretty much their entire health bar . Amazing , um , yeah , they're gonna be a fucking menace . They're gonna be an absolute menace to try and kill , to try and like kill through their cooldowns . They're getting everything buffed , including , like the other hero talents , celestial uh conduit where it just does more damage .

Speaker 1 16:48

But I don't get that , because why would you ever go off of aspect of harmony ? If you're doing pvp , your chi cocoon absorbs more damage . Your yulon's getting buffed with more healing . You're you're just getting buffed all around . That's why I've put it in s here . It's very solid , healing wise . It just lacks the sort of damage and the utility but or not utility but the damage . But that damage is there and it has been there since the start of um season one . To be honest , with the rushing wind , kick build um . But yeah , people will just be lightning , lightning using the crackling jade lightning from about 40 yards away , killing people very easily . It is what it is . I'm really sorry but s ?

Speaker 1 17:33

Tier for misdweaver monk and I'm loving it , and all for it . For wind walker monk , I've put them at a solid , solid 80 now . They recently got nerfed on their karma but the damage that they're getting and the sort of other bits and bobs that are kind of uh , floating around windwalker , as well as everything else getting a bit worse , I would say it puts them at a very healthy 80 . Um , because you obviously have your TP , you have Diffuse Magic Karma , you have your Wall in the Fortify Brew , you have multiple different ways to save yourself and your damage getting increased . You know that's pretty good . It's pretty , pretty good . I would say a solid A and if you're good at the class , yes , you can definitely do wondrous things with Windwalker Monk .

Speaker 1 18:23

Paladin For Holy Paladin , I'm putting it at a C tier . I'm really sorry . The recent nerfs to Lightsmith are so substantial that it's going to be gutted . I'm afraid Lightsmith is going to be absolutely gutted and the thing is they're not offsetting this with buffs to Dawnlight , so Dawnlight is still going to be very meh to like play with . I'm not gonna lie , it's not looking good for you paladins . All you get is holy shock , damage increase and stuff , um , and a small bit of healing increase , but honestly , the hero talents are getting nerfed like massively . I don't think you're going to be looking at a lot . Plus , if you're a holy paladin , you lose two uh bops . Now you can either go for one spell bop , one physical bop . You don't get two anymore in the game , so there's one of your cooldowns already gone . You just straight up don't have it anymore , so enjoy that . Um . Yeah , it's got to be a c tier , I'm afraid , for me , for holy paladins .

Speaker 1 19:29

As for ret paladins , they are very much on the higher scale of things . I've put them at an a tier now . Ret paladins are very simple , um , spec wise . They don't have a lot of buttons , they have very good defensive utility and none of this is really getting changed all that much . So yes , I would put them at an eight here because they have very good comps . They have cupid , cleave , ret , warrior , um , as main staple points of these comps . But yeah it , nothing's really changing with ret and I think those passes that don't change apart from , obviously , mr Evil Monk , probably will be the more benefit benefactors , the beneficiaries of this patch . It's that simple , in my opinion .

Speaker 1 20:18

For Priest , now , both Disc and Holy are getting big reworks . Disc and Holy , I've put in B tier and this is a very generous B tier . I think that this can go more towards C tier than A tier . Okay , so low B , we'll put them at low B tier . Now , the main reason for this is because this , priest , yes , it's getting a lot of changes , you're getting more stuff put into your normal sort of kit , but you're losing Rapture . Now .

Speaker 1 20:47

Rapture is one of your biggest cooldowns in the game . It's so , so good , um , and I don't know if what they've baked into your like um other spells is going to offset that . Genuinely , I don't think it's going to offset that and I think that you're going to be stuck in sort of a oh shit , I'm out of buttons , what do I do ? Kind of deal and you're just not going to have anything . Or , holy priest , I think that they're trying to circle it around , this renew and hot build , but in pvp it's just gonna get purged and it's not gonna be great with apotheosis getting like nerfed as well , um , nerfed and buffed kind of deal , um , with longer duration or less cooldown , um , but the cooldowns on your holy wood serenity charges , uh , recharge a lot less faster . It's 200 now instead of 300 , so it's a big sort of nerf to that . So I've put it in b , both of these specs , but I expect them to go down to c more so than go up to a .

Speaker 1 21:50

As for shadow Shadow Priest , I've put this in A . I think this is a very good sleeper spec . Again , I think that it lends itself to a lot of the other classes quite well , such as Feral Demon Hunters , warriors , anything like that . Any melee Shadow Priest seem to get along with relatively well , so I think that they are a sleeper sort of a like a . What is it ? A tier ? Yeah , a tier . Again , nothing got changed with Shadow Priest , so the winners at the moment are those that have had no changes to them essentially .

Speaker 1 22:30

But that isn't to say , by the way , I do not like these changes . I love that they are changing so many things about classes consistently . I really , really do , and I think that they need to do more of it . I really do because it allows people to say , yes , this was really enjoyable and something that we should do more like try and mess around with the class a bit more . Or it's like , no , this was really enjoyable and something that we should do more , like try and mess around with the class a bit more . Or it's like , no , this was awful , just stick to small changes . But I think a lot of people like the change up quite heavily .

Speaker 1 23:00

To be honest with you , or rogues now rogues are a tough one . Um , there's usually one outlier with rogue Now I've put this as Assassination Rogue . Now , assault Rogue is such an annoyance with the multiple Garote silences , the CC that you still have on demand . But I think the main thing about this is Outlaw got a little change . Oh no , it got no changes , sorry . Neither did Sub . Well , well , all of the rogue specs didn't , basically , but sub did lose shadowy jewel , which is huge for them . It is a massive um loss for sub rogues to lose that pvp talent and outlaw rogues are just going to be a little bit less tanky when it comes to PvP . So I think that sub and outlaw are B tier , but the damage that Acer rogues can bring is going to put them in that A tier . Now , this is a very low A tier , but you can see why I think that demon hunters , going back to that point are going to be a bit higher because rogues will not be as rampant . But only time will tell with rogues .

Speaker 1 24:13

Rogues are very weird . It can be hit or miss with them or shamans . Now shamans have a few specializations enhance , ellie and resto . I've put these all in different um tier lists or tiers . So we'll start from c tier . C tier and this one might surprise you is ellie shaman and people might be thinking well , that's fucking stupid . Ellie shaman losing the primordial wave where it hits every single target To put out spread pressure Is crazy . It very much depends on If Primordial Wave starts one shotting people , then they'll be good . But honestly I don't see it impacting as much . I see it doing maybe 2 mil damage At the peak , but I don't see it doing any more than that and I don't think that they have the kill potential that they probably would In this season . So that more than that , and I don't think that they have the kill potential that they probably would in this season like . So that's why I've put them at C .

Speaker 1 25:16

For B tier I've gone Enhance . Now Enhance is getting a very unique rework . It kind of is a rework but isn't . But a lot of stuff is getting updated , so they're getting more consistent damage , they're getting less clutter on the screen , they're getting a lot less , you know , just shit show in general , to say the least . Um , which is always good . And I think that the buffs , that they've got their totemic , uh , hero class is going to be the outlier as to why they are in b tier now .

Speaker 1 25:48

Obviously , they don't have many compositions . They have Turbo Cleave with Warrior , they maybe have DK Enhance , bm Enhance , stuff like that , but you don't really have many , and I think this is what brings it down , because it doesn't really synergize with a lot , which is a bit of a shame For A tier , though Resto Shaman Now Resto Shaman is in a very good spot , but I think what's going to push up to that A tier is that Earth Shield change , that Earth Shield change where the stacks do no longer go down . Instead , all that can be done is purge it . I think that's the change that's going to keep them up , because it means that they don't have to press Earth Shield as much . Therefore , it frees up a global , a global 2cc kick anything or anything like that . Disrupt the enemy team . It's going to be good . It's simple as that .

Speaker 1 26:43

Or warlocks now warlocks . I think most of them are going to be a very solid pick . Where have I put warlocks ? Hold on , I'm just trying to find them on my Okay , yeah , yeah , I put them all at A tier . Now I don't think there's going to be an awful warlock spec . I think all of them are solid right now .

Speaker 1 27:10

I think demonology is the tougher one because obviously you always have to cast , but I think all of them are in a solid spot . You obviously have your compositions . You have Mage Warlock for the main one , you have Shadowplay . These are the two main compositions . You see Aflox , or just yeah , aflox getting the Soul Rot redesign is going to be huge for their survivability .

Speaker 1 27:33

Um , demonology warlocks have slowly always been on the brink of being good . They're never awful , they're never like super meta . They've always been on the brink of breaking through and other classes kind of gatekeep them from doing that . So I think if these classes fall then the gates are wide open for Demonology Warlock . For Destro Lock , it's currently being played quite a lot , so I don't see it moving all that much . And with the Dimensional Ripper-like change where essentially you can just proc a Dimensional Rift from your Immolate or Wither , this is going to be more consistent damage , which warlocks do lack . They do lack a fair amount of consistent damage . You're very much a chaos bolt build at the moment just sending in big hits of like damage . So I see all warlocks as being a tier in my honest opinion , because the compositions they run with , as well as again not getting changed that much for warriors .

Speaker 1 28:33

Now , warriors , I've moved a little bit , I just need to find them . So I've put both arms and fury in a . A lot of people are saying fury's going to be dead . I don't think so . I don't think there's enough changes for fury warrior to warrant them being dead . They are very , very good right now . They have such high single target pressure . They have so much to like prove because obviously in previous expansions not many people played fury warrior . It was kind of dog shit for most expansions . So I don't think fury warriors are going anywhere anytime soon . They bring so much pressure , they bring so much utility with intervene fears . They obviously have the strong ms . They always do same with arms warriors . Um , they have such good pressure and I don't see them going anywhere anytime soon . So a tier for both warriors for me .

Speaker 1 29:26

But what do you guys think ? Honestly , I don't think I've done bad . I think there might be a couple that I'm very ambitious for , mm hunters being one of them . I might have rated resto druid a bit too harshly . Same with fire mage , dev evoker , um ellie shaman is the most questionable one in my honest opinion . But I think the only two s tier classes that you're going to have , or specs , is that Prez and Mistweaver bunk . I don't think anything else gets near them . I think that they are going to be crazy as it stands right now . It really really does look good these two specs . But that is where I will end it for this episode . Thank you all very much for listening . Do check out all of the socials down below constant stuff happening over there , as well as stuff on Etsy more and more bits and pieces going up constantly . But thank you all very much once again and go . Eval a friend , goodbye all . Thank you .