WoW Classic Best DPS Class Spec For PVE. WoW Classic Best DPS Class Spec For PVE Tier List is about how much damage to can do in Dungeons, Raids, Questing. Since trying to stay alive versus other players isn’t as important of a focus here, we can value doing damage specifically AOE(Area of Effect) a bit more.
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- Jul 30, 2019 So I am having a hard time deciding what I am going to roll for classic. I have gotten it down to either an undead mage or a tauren warrior dps. I played as a warlock in classic casually, looking to play bit more “hardcore” this time around, but not server first or anything like that. So with the Mage, these are the pros I see: They have great aoe farming, very fast leveling, free drink.
Which class should you play in Classic WoW?
Here is a guide to help you choose the best class for you to have fun with in Classic WoW. You will find the pros & cons of each class for Leveling, PVE and PVP.
Warrior
A quick tour of the Warrior, a very important class in World of Warcraft. Because of the lack of Spirit on their equipment, their leveling is relatively slow, and they’re likely to spend some time running back to their corpse. In dungeons, warriors are the best at tanking groups of mobs in WoW Classic.
You won’t have any trouble finding partners up to level 60 if you are properly geared. Once level 60 is reached, you will be preferred to other classes for raids if you’re using the Protection tree.
If you succeed in becoming your guild’s main tank, you will be a cornerstone of your group.
Warrior isn’t the best class for world pvp, especially if you’re alone. You will have to be very attentive to your environment. On the other hand, with a healbot by your side, you will be able to shine and win multiple fights in a row!
Warrior’s strengths:
- Best DPS class in vanilla (Fury for PvE and Arms for PvP)
- Best tanking class
- No mana, so you can kill mobs with no downtime with good gear
- Very powerful in a group PVP setting with a pocket healer.
- Easy to find dungeons as a tank
- Can be rich if you are blacksmithing and find the Arcanite reaper recipe.
- You can enjoy all the 3 specs as warrior
- Good duo leveling class
Warrior's weaknesses
- Very hard to level 1-60, one of the slowest classes but see our leveling warrior guide to be faster.
- Most gear depends on your class in WoW.
- Overpopulated class, so a lot of competition for gear and finding a good spot in a guild / dungeon.
- Having to collect multiple sets (PvP gear, tank gear, PvE dps gear, resistance gear)
- Repairing plate gear is also very expensive
Hunter
The hunter is the best leveling class in the game. With your pet who tanks for you, you can easily kill multiple mobs in a row unlike other classes that have to spend more time regening. Moreover, the hunter does not depend on his gear to be effective, green weapons from vendors are good enough for leveling.
In raids, the hunter is not the leading class in terms of dps, he is outperformed by warriors, mages, rogues, warlocks who do significantly higher dps.
As far as PvP is concerned, hunters are OK because they have a lot of control, can continually attack from far away and excel at capturing and recovering the flag in Warsong.
Pros:
- The best class for leveling solo and speedrunning 1-60 (world record 4 days and 20h) – Check out our hunter leveling guide 1-60
- Thanks to your pet, you can go from mob to mob quickly and kill elite targets easily.
- Epic hunter quest that adds challenge to the class.
- T2 looks epic.
- Taming a pet is fun and adds more depth to the class.
- Kiting gameplay is really cool in solo PVE and PVP.
Cons:
- One of the worst pure DPS classes after the nerf at the end of vanilla.
- High skill cap ceiling if you want to be competitive in PVE or PVP.
Rogue
Rogue will be THE best class for all the WORLD PVP lovers. Being stealthed and starting the fight first is the main strength of the rogue in WoW Classic.
Indeed, cloth classes will be your favorite targets, such as mages / warlocks / priests, who barely survive a surprise attack by a well-equipped rogue.
In PVE, it is a T1 DPS class, but sadly rogue are an extremely popular class in Classic WoW so it can be tricky to get a spot in raids/groups.
Finally, although rogue is a very powerful class in Classic WoW, it is also very dependent on gear, and especially weapons to be effective.
Pros:
- Best class for 1v1 world pvp (stealth for choosing when to start the fight)
- 2nd best DPS class in PVE
- Stealth is the best spell in the game.
- Skip all the mobs for quick questing
- Very fun to play.
- 3 different and very good specs.
- Undead rogue is the way to go for PVP with the racial skill for breaking fear
Cons:
- A little bit squishy when solo leveling or when you don’t start the fight in PVP
- Like warrior, it’s an overpopulated class so a lot of competition for gear and spots in groups.
- High skill celling, hard to master.
Priest
At level 60, the priest is the best of all healers: he has a powerful shield and excellent single-target healing, you will always have a place in any dungeon or raid by playing this class.
In PVP, discipline and holy are quite squishy and lack mobility, but the best spec is shadow, because it can inflict great damage on the enemy. In addition, the priest also has good control such as fear / mind control and mana burn which are perfect for the PvP.
For leveling, shadow spec is the most effective. All you have to do is use a spell and finish the enemies with your wand and have a good farming cycle without stopping to regen your mana.
Pros:
- Best and most versatile healer in the game
- Guaranteed spot in any group / raid.
- Priest is the best teammate anyone can imagine, you’ll have a lot of friends!
- Very interesting class to play with across the board healing ability and high skill celling
- Shadow priest does serious damage in PVP with a lot of fun tools to enhance your gameplay (fear, mana burn, mind control etc..)
- Shadow priest is extremely efficient for leveling.
- Quest class for an awesome staff
Cons:
- Annoying to level until shadow form, a lot of respeccing during your 1-60 (see the guide here)
- Shadow priest could be difficult to gear because it’s hard to find a place in raids (people prefer mages / warlocks)
Mage
The mage is a very versatile class in WoW Classic. Effective during leveling thanks to its ability to AOE and generate its own food / drink, it will be easy to reach lvl 60 quickly.
Regarding PVE, the mage is the best Ranged DPS, especially once AQ40 / Naxx opens because mages will be able to spec FIRE.
In PVP, the mage has an arsenal of extraordinary skills which allows him to achieve amazing moves such as 1vs3, thanks to their sheep, frost nova and various slowdowns. A mage who mastered his class will be deadly in Wold PVP and Battlegrounds.
Pros:
- Great class for a quick leveling (Single target or aoe leveling, see our guide)
- Gear Independent
- Highly Engaging Dynamic Gameplay
- Free Consumables (Food / Water / Mana Pots)
- Fantastic Group Utility
- Strong in Open World PvP
- Get good tips from people for trading food / water / portal
- All 3 spec are viable so you won’t get bored
- Good gold maker (Aoe farming in elite zones / raids, etc…)
Cons:
- Slow Leveling 1-20
- Frost spec mandatory during the first 2 stages of Classic because of fire-immune enemies.
- No Self-Healing
- Very Squishy in PVE / PVP
- A lot of Downtime Drinking during the leveling.
Warlock
The Warlock’s performance (like the hunter) during the 1-60 leveling phase is surely one of the most impressive. Easy and fast, the warlock shines in solo PvE.
In lvl 60 dungeons / raids, it is a real support that brings damage and control. The Healthstone and the imp can bring important bonuses in complicated situations.
Regarding PvP, the warlock is also very comfortable out of 'instanced' fights. In future phases, when Blizzard will set up the BGs, hide behind a melee frontline and you can control the opponents with the Fear spell while your DoTs do the rest, feels damn good.
Pros:
- Great class for leveling solo thanks to your pet (like hunter)
- Bring a lot of utility in groups / raids with all your dots / buffs.
- Free mount at lvl 40 and another one at lvl 60 thanks to the class quest.
- Summoning players to get in dungeon faster.
- You have your own free healing pots.
- Really good duo leveling with a healer because you can trade your health into mana (life tap skill)
Cons:
- Great in PVE but not the best.
- Great in PVP but not the best…
- Can be hard in PVP if you are alliance and you fight undeads with “Fear Immunity”.
Druid
Second on the podium for leveling speed 1-60, the druid is indeed a leveling machine thanks to the different animal forms. He is able to heal, tank and DPS making it a hybrid character that can do anything. Very useful when you want to do some dungeons.
His ability to resurrect in combat is unique and makes it a class to pamper in raids like Molten Core or Zul'Gurub.
Good in instanced PvP, the druid defends himself well in battlegrounds but remains squishy depending on the spec that he is using during WORLD PvP sessions. He will tend to survive thanks to his ability to changeform but will not necessarily kill his attackers.
Pros:
- Least played class in vanilla, so if you love this class, you’ll get all the gear.
- Resto is the only good way to play a druid in PVE and you’ll always find a place in raid.
- Best PVP healer (Healing over time, bear form to tank, etc..)
- Unique ability in PVE with “Battle rez” that can save a raid and innervate.
- Best flag carrier in WSG.
- Early travel form to level faster.
- Good leveling skill when you hit 20 as feral.
Cons:
- Balance and Feral druid are kind of useless (much worse than other classes)
- Hard leveling until you hit lvl 20, then you can spec feral and be a cat
Shaman
The shaman is an excellent healer, he is the only class to have an AOE heal. He is in great demand for these totems that give a big advantage both in dungeons and raids.
Enhancement is the most used spec for PvP, mainly because of 'Windfury' which can lead you to potentially oneshotting an enemy if you are lucky. A second PvP spec is a hybrid elemental / restoration that gives you significant DPS ability, while still being a healer support for the team. However, the weakness of the PvP shaman is that he does not have mass crowd control unlike mages and warlocks, nor does he have mobility to escape from enemies.
The shaman is not the best class for leveling, but becomes interesting from level 20 thanks to 'Ghost wolf' which allows him to increase his movement speed by 40% with a casting time of only 1 second if you have the right talents. It will allow you to complete your quests faster and you will avoid unnecessary deaths when you are in danger.
Pros:
- One of the most wanted healer in PVE thanks to the amazing totems. (Windfury especially)
- One of the only classes with AOE healing.
- High Burst Damage in Elem and Enhancement spec.
- You have a unique skill at Level 20 : Ghost ( 40% movement speed ) to improve leveling speed.
- Amazing Group Utility
- Can Tank / DPS / Heal
- Strong Self Healing
Cons:
- Like all hybrid class in Vanilla, Healing is the only viable PVE spec.
- Constant Mana Management
- Struggles vs. Multiple Targets
- Not really good at leveling
Paladin
The paladin is a hybrid class and like all hybrid classes in Classic WoW, they are 'average' in every aspect. The paladin's main problem right now is his leveling speed which is one of the worst of any class.
However the paladin will shine in PVE where his buffs will be very valuable for a group / raid. Healing spec will be the way to go in PVE if you want to find a spot in a group.
Wow Classic Best Warrior Race
For PVP, the paladin is OK in Healing spec or RET spec, with a good equipment you can have fun and kick ass!
Pros:
- Best single target healer in PVE and PVP (as good as a priest) once you are geared.
- Really good utility in raid with all your unique BUFFS
- As a ret paladin with good gear, you can kick ass in PVP !
- Free mount at lvl 40 and another one at lvl 60 thanks to your class quest.
Cons:
- Worst class for leveling (even worse than warrior) because you are always out of mana.
- “Boring” class to play, your main source of damage will be auto-attacking as ret.
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Embarking upon a new adventure in World of Warcraft Classic is an exciting prospect, but the choices you make in character creation will stick with you for the hours of exploration to come. When it comes to choosing your class, there’s a wealth of wisdom available to you from the experiences of veteran players.
Trying to decide which WoW Classic class to play? Classic WoW Leveling from 1-60 takes a considerable amount of time, and there are no ‘trial characters’ in vanilla, so choosing the right class up front is more important than it is on Live. Talents are expensive to swap and gold is hard to come by, so you won’t be changing your Classic WoW class on a whim. Gear frequently does not swap well between specs either, so players who want to play more than one specialization may want to create a second character and level it up to do so.
You’ll have eight classes to choose from, depending on your faction: warriors, priests, mages, rogues, warlocks, shamans for Horde, paladins for Alliance, hunters, and druids. We cover them all below. Note that while we refer to specializations in this guide, they aren’t an up-front selection like they are in contemporary Warcraft. Instead, players choose from packed talent trees, spending a few points here and there in the three specializations available to them. Truly hybrid builds are rare, but do exist.
The best vanilla WoW classes are:
Top pick: Protection Warrior
Warriors are a staple choice for Classic, not because of their damage, but because they are the only realistic choice for tanking in vanilla: monks and demon hunters weren’t in the game initially, paladins are primarily for healing and buffing other players (see below), and druid bears are a joke, comparatively. Warriors are more mobile, better at keeping threat than any other tank class (there’s a reason why ‘wait for three Sunders’ is a tanking meme even today), and fairly beefy when it comes to taking damage. As a bonus, if you’re interested in the full Classic experience, they’re one of the few classes able to create and wield Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker, which is a fun questing experience if you are lucky enough to get the starter drops.
As with all tanking classes in Classic, gameplay is very different than it is on Live. For example, Active mitigation – buttons that you press to reduce damage that comes in, or recover from damage taken – is less emphasized, and in some cases is reduced to just cooldowns that you predictably hit during times of high incoming damage. Instead, keeping threat on the monsters so your damage dealers can unload is a priority, along with whatever tank-swap or other mechanics exist in the fight.
In PvP, warriors do middling damage as either Arms or Fury, and are adept at carrying the flag in Warsong Gulch as Protection.
Top pick: Holy Priest
The second in the traditional warrior-mage-priest RPG archetype (sorry rogues), priests are the go-to healers in WoW Classic. They have the most tools to play with, and while druids and paladins offer some refreshing variations on healing gameplay, priests are the powerhouses of the raid and equally viable in PvP.
Holy priests are the strongest healers in the vanilla World of Warcraft for raids, and are nearly unstoppable when paired up with a Protection warrior. In arenas, Disc and Shadow priests are legitimately viable, though they were seen less often in raids back in 2004.
For raids, priests also offer the powerful stamina-boosting Fortitude buff. Dwarven priests give Alliance players the incredibly powerful Fear Ward, which protects a player from receiving the Fear effect. As several major bosses use Fear, including Magmadar in Molten Core, a rotation of Dwarven priests is useful to have.
Holy priest healing styles are a bit different in Classic than in contemporary WoW. Holy Nova is a short-range AoE heal that means you’ll be clumping up with melee or ranged players. There is no Halo, Binding Heal, or pretty much anything that starts ‘Halo’, so instead you’ll be casting a pile of Renews and Greater Heals at various ranks. Your top-of-tree talent is Lightwell, an interactive font of healing that no other players will ever click.
Top pick for single target spell damage: Fire (or situationally Frost) Mage
For single-target damage, mages truly are the ‘glass cannons‘ of Classic Warcraft classes. They can quickly pile on the damage from afar, though they are highly susceptible to death: from fire on the ground, PvP opponents, or even a single mob.
Outstripped by their warlock brethren in terms of AoE damage, mages nevertheless are the consummate casters, able to pour on the DPS; crowd control opponents by turning them into sheep or freezing them in place with Frost Nova; and provide utility to a raid by summoning food or buffing other players’ intellect.
Classic rogues and mages are designed to be counters to each other in PvP, and many rogue-versus-mage contests both in PvE damage and in PvP contests come down to player skill, making both viable in most situations. For survivability, both classes are designed to escape rather than tank incoming damage.
Typically, mages pursue mostly Fire talents in PvE and mostly Frost talents for getting away in PvP, with the exception of the fire-based Molten Core and Blackwing Lair raid instances, where having Frost spells is a huge advantage. Some of these monsters are immune to fire damage altogether.
Contemporary mage players will find that while they miss some of their current utility spells, the gameplay isn’t that much different, as many iconic mage abilities (fireball, pyroblast, frostbolt, arcane missiles) have survived intact for the past 15 years since vanilla Warcraft. Frost mages will miss Ice Lance, but will revel in the power of the spec in fire-boss raids.
Top pick for AoE spell damage: Destruction or Affliction Warlock
Warlocks bring some of the best AoE damage of all the Classic WoW classes, with the ability to annihilate entire groups of creatures – the tradeoff is somewhat less single-target damage than mages and rogues. On the plus side, their ability to apply stack multiple damage-over-time (DOT) spells make them ideal for fights that require a great deal of movement, and makes Affliction the top warlock spec in PvP.
On the down side, the limited number of debuffs on a single creature in Classic WoW means that they may not be able to use all those DOT spells in favour of debuffs cast by other classes, which often makes the difference for whether Affliction or Destruction specs do more damage. Demonology typically lags behind the other two.
In addition: Check out the best WoW Classic addons
For utility, the warlock offers the group healthstones (which do not share a cooldown with potions) and soulstones, which can be used on a player in advance to allow them to resurrect if they die. This is helpful in groups as it allows a tank or healer to fight on, but also as it grants a degree of wipe protection so that the whole group does not have to run back if everyone dies. Warlocks also have the ability to summon group members with the help of two other players. These abilities and others use soul shards, which must be farmed by tediously, individually killing creatures before raids and group outings, and which then take up the majority of the warlock’s bags or fill a special soul pouch. Look, we’re saying the warlock is a powerful class, not a fun one.
Warlocks can banish demons and elementals, which makes them useful for crowd control – including druid ‘tree’ healers in PvP, who are classified as an elemental in tree form. Also in PvP, warlocks make heavy use of fear and Drain Life, allowing them to scare off an opponent and then restore their own health by draining their enemy.
Top pick for melee DPS, PvP and general sneakiness: Subtlety Rogue
Subtlety Rogues have always been superb for PvP, and it shows in their toolkit: Classic WoW rogue classes are loaded with options for crowd control, surprise damage, and avoidance. In PvE they aren’t terrible, but are less dominant, ceding more slots to ranged damage-dealers such as mages and warlocks.
Soloing as a rogue can be frustrating, as it’s more difficult to escape the loving attentions of an angry monster while still dishing out damage than it is in group play or PvP, and this WoW Classic class is fairly fragile. That frustration wanes as your gear gets better and that super-powerful opening sequence becomes enough to nearly kill your enemy, especially when combined with the multitude of Classic mobs that run when they get to low health. Rogues excel at slowing and then killing those opponents, especially when equipped with the proper poisons on each dual-wielded weapon.
For utility, rogues can open lockboxes, assuming they trained up their lockpicking skills, and they can stealth through monsters to click on items or rejoin their groups while in dungeons.
Best for buffs, battle rez and beauty: Resto Druid
In WoW Classic, druids have one viable role: healing. We can remember extensive arguments between one druid who wanted to try out raiding as feral and his top guild raid leaders, who all thought he was a little insane – so even if you can make it work, others won’t believe you. If you would prefer to do damage and plan to play more than just casually, you’ll want to choose a direct damage class.
Get a job: Here are the best Classic WoW Professions
As with all hybrid classes, druids are subject to the ‘hybrid tax,’ which reduces their maximum DPS by about 15% compared to pure-damage classes. Realistically, that combined with the half-finished feel of their tanking and DPS specs means that no one ever seriously plays a druid for either role, instead focusing on a more noble pursuit: being a tree.
In Classic, that’s a literal choice, as healing generally puts you into tree form (available on Live only as a glyph). Druid heals haven’t changed all that much over the years, with the heal over time Rejuvenation and Regrowth spells still dominant, while Tranquility reigns supreme for AOE heals.
Druids bring utility to groups in the form of the powerful Mark of the Wild stats-boosting buff (cast one player at a time, using reagents), battle resurrection (using reagents), the Faerie Fire armor-reducing debuff for opponents, and the Thorns buff, which adds to tank threat by causing them to reflect a bit of damage.
If you’re planning on playing WoW Classic more casually, druids are a fun choice; the ability to shift between animal forms and their iconic races (Night Elves for Alliance, Tauren for Horde) make them a hoot for looking at on screen or using for roleplay.
Best for memes, buffs, and one-trick builds: Paladin/Shaman
These two classes are lumped together not because they are in any way similar, but because each is only available to one faction in Classic.
Classic Wow Best Dmg For Warrior Games
Shamans are exclusively for the Horde, and their ultra powerful Bloodlust buff makes it a requirement to bring at least one to raids. Their Tremor Totems are the low-rent, not-as-guaranteed equivalent of the Dwarven priest Fear Ward for bosses that cast fear.
In PvP, Enhancement shamans use Windfury buffs (unleashing multiple swings at once with their two-handed weapon), which in patch 1.12, the snapshot Classic uses, can still proc from its own swings, leading to sometimes-ridiculous chains of huge hits against an enemy. In raids, Elemental shamans bring average damage, and typically receive their invitations on the basis of their overall utility.
Paladins are exclusively Alliance in WoW Classic. While Protection paladins do exist for tanking, they’re less popular than the iconic warrior class. Instead, most paladins opt for a healing specialization in raid and a retribution specialization in PvP. In raids, they are valued for their single-target buffs and their ability to bubble, or drop all monster aggression and stop all damage.
Wow Classic Warrior Skills
Realm for one more:WoW Classic servers list
Paladin blessings include the popular Wisdom for mana restoration; their Cleanse handles one disease, one magic, and one poison debuff all at once; and they make excellent out-of-combat resurrectors in raid by staying at a safe distance and rezzing dead players throughout an encounter, making them the ultimate battle rezzer.
Closer to the action, paladin’s provide auras, such as Concentration Aura, which prevents spell pushback on damage to the entire raid.
Best for soloing, pulling raid mobs (on purpose), and running out of bag space: Marksmanship/Hybrid Hunter
Hunters can equip nearly every weapon in the game in both Classic WoW and Live, and they use more of those weapons in Classic than they do today. In addition to a ranged weapon, hunters wield two melee weapons that are typically used just for their stats (or for melee combat if the hunter gets too close to a monster). Back in the day, hunters would roll to win axes, swords, and daggers against damage players from other melee classes who used them, causing some tension in groups and leading to the meme still in effect today that every weapon is a ‘hunter weapon’.
In raids, hunters do reasonable damage overall and are useful for tapping monsters from far away and running them to the main tank/healing/dps group for fighting in the appropriate position.
Hunters use ammunition, which has its own stats, and either takes up space in player bags or requires the use of a quiver, a larger specific bag made just for ammunition and nothing else. In either case, hunters who raid find they have to stuff their inventory nearly to bursting with arrows or bullets and will still run out. Swapping from a bow to a gun or back again can also render some ammo useless.
While hunter pets are not as good at tanking or holding threat from their masters in Classic as they are today, they still make soloing creatures pleasant (if not as overpowered as it is in Live, where a well-geared hunter can easily solo elites.)