Most Difficult DPS class/spec to master

[F4ulty]

Shame how unorganized the specs are in the poll lol.

Voted Feral.

[Bigbazz]

It's hard to really make a real unbiased opinion. You kinda have to play all specs in relatively equal gear and learn them to a point where you're proficient enough to understand the finer elements (whether or not you can master them is another thing)... Without that then you really can't make any conclusion about this. On top of that it really changes based on the situation.

For example, is it easy to AOE as an enhancement shaman? Yes and no, if you can't easily spread your flame shock then it becomes pretty damn clunky, if things are spread out too far or if things are chaotic, or if mobs are dying too quickly then it can become a mess. Now move to a Warrior, thunderclap is instant and it requires no setup, same with Bladestorm and the same with sweeping strikes (aside from rage cost)... In an ideal situation the Enh Shaman has it no more difficult than the Arms Warrior, in a less than ideal situation the Enh Shaman has it multiple times more difficult than the Arms Warrior.

I've only really played Warrior, Monk, Rogue, Hunter, Shaman to a level somewhat worthy of me making judgement... I'd say that Enhancement is the most difficult of those. A lot of people play it with addons to figure out their priorities in real time, as there are so many different abilities and cooldowns to keep hold of you could just as easily just hit random abilites on CD and not think about it... and probably do ok, but to play it properly takes quite some skill.

Fury/Arms Warriors are very simple in high end gear, pray to RNG gods and mash away, Combat/Assasination have barely changed in years, very simple... Survival Hunters pretty much the same, it's hard to really go wrong.

[Blithe]

Feral and Rogue have always been hard for me to play with the facing requirement because of my bad latency, but none of the rest are really all that hard to be honest. Anyone can pick up a class and do well with it, it's just highly dependent of specific variables as I aforementioned.

[Chasavaqe]

I'd say the hardest is feral and the easiest is retribution.

[Deleted]

Went for affliction warlock. It was either that or feral druid with DoC. To get the best out of affliction, you need to be on the ball with refreshing DoTs properly, though sadly it seems in WoD the changes will make it one of the most piss easy specs instead.

People have said they find demo the hardest, though I found you had more control than affliction and didn't have to react as quickly (however, the last time I played demo properly was before 5.2, when I quit for a while).

I've been told subtlety rogues are hard to play, but haven't played sub for a very long time, so couldn't say.

[FuxieDK]

I'd say Enhancement Shaman..
It's pretty easy to learn, but have a retarded hard learning curve..

Second is probably Feral Druid, but with CP being moved from target to player in v6.0, it,will becomea great deal easier..

[Overdispersion]

I could never play balance druid in the start of the expansion. Applying DoTs in the right eclipse while also keepign track of trinket procs was really hard. Atm it's really easy with all the Starsurge procs you get.

I've tried all specs recently and despite reading several guides, I can't manage to play demonology and feral properly.

[Raiju]

Nope. It's no more a caster/melee hybrid than Windwalker is. In fact, I take that back. Windwalker is far, far more caster than it is. You can spam their ranged attack and fire off ranged bursts. Enhancement cannot sustain ranged attacking.

ranged damage =/= caster. Windwalker does not suffer incombat penalties (interruptible, major loss of dps from silences) that enhancement does. Enhancement can also sustain weak ranged damage for a long time, as lightning bolt is cheap mana wise, couple with shocks, UE, ascendance, and SR.

Not that this is relevant to the difficulty on 95% of fights, just that it is there and once per tier blizzard likes to make you keep an eye out with it (such as thok, ragnaros 2.0, etc.)

[psychok9]

Feral Druid.

Insanely much stuff to look out for. Noone else comes close.

I just started getting back into Feral, and GOD do I fail!
This is the only class where I am in desperate need for addons, to keep up what I need to and also get the best damage on my bleeds.

It's such a hard time after maining Lock all expansion

I've more problems with Paladin Retribution... I don't know why, but I hate the rotation and it seems to me chaotic... I hate this class for it.
On feral, I look combo point and debuff with Tidy plates.

[Deleted]

Feral Druid. Has been for some time too. At least in order to make the most of your DPS, the ceiling is high.

[Putin-Chan]

Feral druid, i love my feral druid but it was extremely hard to play at first, and I think it will be an easier spec in WOD when the only useful talent; savagery eliminates the most annoying buff ever; savage roar

[Aphrel]

Of the classes ive dpsed with in raids (mage, shaman, hunter, priest, warrior), i think mage is the hardest. However that could be because thats my main and thus the one i push the limits most with. once you are pushing for ranks all those small tricks start to become so much more important..
Getting a perfect combustion is something that requires more planning then anything ive done with any other dps class (cant wait to get rid of that annoying alter time spell. however its movement component allows us to get 5 pyros within a window of 4sec by first running away then toward the boss after AT is canceld wich leads to a roughly 25% more powerfull combustion)...
And keeping 2set staks up (keeping evobuff and LB up often causes the damn stack to drop) by playing around with scorch and often gamble on your pyro procs makes it a far more demanding spec to play then any hunter/shaman (havent played enhance)/priest (shadow)/warr dps spec imo.

If the often mentioned feral spec is worse then im glad im not playing it, whould tair my hair out trying to rank with it.

Survival hunter is probobly the easiest spec ive tryed, so little to think about, just button smash with a fiew dots and cds to keep your eye on, its so relaxing somehow.

[Ilgaktroop]

Melee: Feral Druid / Enhancement Shaman
Feral is just complex and makes you think about what you are going to do in the next 10 seconds.
Enhancement is extremely fast paced and complex. It's basically GCD capped button smashing with a huge punishment if you waste your GCD on the wrong skill.

Range: Balance Druid by far
There is a stereotype that Balance Druid is hard to learn / easy to master but I think it is the opposite way around. If you have ever been in a guild with a top ranking Boomkin, their planning and decision making is absolutely fucking beautiful. From my experience, there is a huge gap between mediocre and good boomies.

Healers: Mistweaver Monk
Ridiculously high skill cap

That said, I play a frost DK, BM hunter and a Fire mage currently so my opinions may be skewed.

[Pixies]

What about in WoD, what top three DPS classes is looking to be the hardest?

Looks like enhancement got untouched for the most part, but looks like the skill-cap on feral got tossed out.

[WanderingBreezes]

but looks like the skill-cap on feral got tossed out.

Not sure how you're getting that. Feral is one of the specs that's getting to keep snapshotting due to having flat damage increasing cooldowns they can flag to be saved by the bleeds.

[Pixies]

Feral is one of the specs that's getting to keep snapshotting due to having flat damage increasing cooldowns they can flag to be saved by the bleeds.

Sorry, what do you mean exactly? Can you give an example of how that plays out in real-time?

[Daws001]

I boosted a Boomkin and couldn't quite wrap my head around the spec. Haven't played it in a while but may give it another go.

[Raiju]

What about in WoD, what top three DPS classes is looking to be the hardest?

Looks like enhancement got untouched for the most part, but looks like the skill-cap on feral got tossed out.

Enhancement is hopefully looking to go back to wrath style speed with haste stacking and lower CD on spells but with a lot more active proccing than today. Basically taking the best of both worlds (my opinion).

Pixies what he means with snapshotting (generally considered very important for maxing dps) is where a spell/ability/summon will retain your characters stats for its entire duration, even if your stats lower or increase because of trinket procs / weapon procs / potions / cooldowns going off.

This means you can gain significant dps by using your bleeds as a feral at the right time, making the most out of trinket procs and cooldowns. Refreshing a bleed when both trinkets are procced is going to cause it to operate on about 2.5x the AP it may do without the procs, and therefore be much stronger (and generally worth refreshing early) Feral are one of few specs keeping this mechanic in general - as of current intent.

[Deleted]

Feral is hardest spec 2 master since wotlk came out, except ds raid when sub rogue was just as challenging. Once you master cat durid... you can rape as any dps spec 2ez.

[WanderingBreezes]

Sorry, what do you mean exactly? Can you give an example of how that plays out in real-time?

Exactly the same way it does now. The only difference is currently if you have a trinket proc you try and have a bleed carry that for as long as it can. In WoD, if you use Tiger's Fury, your DoTs will still be flagged as having it until they fall off. Same with Boomkin and Eclipse.