Solo Questing DPS

[PeopleReady]

I was lucky enough to get into the beta last week and have been testing every class and spec I have time for. One thing I really wanted to do this expansion is change roles from tank to DPS as there is just never enough of a need for raid tanks - everyone already has their two. I've leveled several DPS specs to 105/106, but I keep running into the problem of being unable to kill elite mobs 1v1 - they drop me well before I even get them down low, even blowing all cool downs. When I tried the same as a tank, I can kill packs of elites no problem...but it takes a while. Despite wanting to change for raids, this worries me for world quests down the line. Can anyone in the beta speak on if there are DPS classes who can solo quest and kill same level elites without death or serious downtime? Thanks so much.

[Maudib]

I was lucky enough to get into the beta last week and have been testing every class and spec I have time for. One thing I really wanted to do this expansion is change roles from tank to DPS as there is just never enough of a need for raid tanks - everyone already has their two. I've leveled several DPS specs to 105/106, but I keep running into the problem of being unable to kill elite mobs 1v1 - they drop me well before I even get them down low, even blowing all cool downs. When I tried the same as a tank, I can kill packs of elites no problem...but it takes a while. Despite wanting to change for raids, this worries me for world quests down the line. Can anyone in the beta speak on if there are DPS classes who can solo quest and kill same level elites without death or serious downtime? Thanks so much.

Once you get a little more gear... Elites aren't much an issue. And you can gear to 825 in the blink of an eye. 840 is pretty easy to get as well. AT that point Elites are fairly easy and quick to dispense with.

[PeopleReady]

Once you get a little more gear... Elites aren't much an issue. And you can gear to 825 in the blink of an eye. 840 is pretty easy to get as well. AT that point Elites are fairly easy and quick to dispense with.

Thanks a ton for the quick response - I know my DH is hovering somewhere in the mid/high 700s, so that could definitely be the problem. Have you found a spec that was better for leveling than others? I'm intrigued by Mage but hear horror stories of trying to kill more than a single mob at once. Same for rogue.

[ceall]

Thanks a ton for the quick response - I know my DH is hovering somewhere in the mid/high 700s, so that could definitely be the problem. Have you found a spec that was better for leveling than others? I'm intrigued by Mage but hear horror stories of trying to kill more than a single mob at once. Same for rogue.

Easiest classes for that purpose is hunter and warlocks, as their pets can tank the mobs you attack.

[Maudib]

Thanks a ton for the quick response - I know my DH is hovering somewhere in the mid/high 700s, so that could definitely be the problem. Have you found a spec that was better for leveling than others? I'm intrigued by Mage but hear horror stories of trying to kill more than a single mob at once. Same for rogue.

Fire mage isn't bad... You can pull 2 at a time... much more than that will get you into trouble... once you get gear though, they are pretty good at wiping out 3-4 mobs fairly quickly. Not as fast as some of the melee AoE monsters... but doable.

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Easiest classes for that purpose is hunter and warlocks, as their pets can tank the mobs you attack.

I don't know about Warlock pets.. but hunter pets are made of paper...

[Nihilan]

If you are looking for OP solo dps specs, it really boils down to Affliction warlock and Ret pally. Tanks are the solo gods however. But as mentioned, you will eventually outgear the elites even as squshies.

And yes, Hunter/Lock pets seem to have been nerfed as tanks from what ive heard. (I played my Afflock petless.)

[PeopleReady]

If you are looking for OP solo dps specs, it really boils down to Affliction warlock and Ret pally. Tanks are the solo gods however. But as mentioned, you will eventually outgear the elites even as squshies.

And yes, Hunter/Lock pets seem to have been nerfed as tanks from what ive heard. (I played my Afflock petless.)

Thanks man, appreciate it! I tried ret pally and seemed to do lower dps than my DH/DK tanks, but that could've been a result of bad gear for sure. I didn't even think of affliction warlock! Thanks for the advice, I'm just worried about being able to handle world quests while also finding a class that's fun enough to stick with.

[Hhavok]

I don't know about Warlock pets.. but hunter pets are made of paper...

I was playing around with affliction lock in a PTR invasion a couple of nights ago. I felt like it was pretty sturdy for a clothie, with the passive shield generation, and the instant cast health drain dot (forget the name) and drain health or whatever it's called.

Anyways, I summoned a voidwalker, and he got killed in an instant. I was back to cloth tanking mobs, which wasn't too bad really. I only have a small sample of playtime, but I'm leaning towards leveling using grimoire of sacrifice rather than using a tank pet.

It may be that only the improved pets can tank, and not the voidwalkers anymore.

[Miggy]

I've only played around in the lower 100's but hunters and warlocks still stand out as being the better/easier classes to solo with - hunter pets definitely took a nerfing as did mend pet, but as tenacity they can still take a bit of beating. Affliction lock is just head and shoulders above everything in my opinion, pets with constant aoe threat, all the self healing and a far superior pet heal to hunters, if it wasn't for the DoT playstyle boring me to death I would probably change mains from hunter.

[Deleted]

Isn't that the whole concept of elite mobs? That you require others to deal with them?

[PeopleReady]

Isn't that the whole concept of elite mobs? That you require others to deal with them?

well, yes and no. as acknowledged above, the tank specs have no trouble dealing with multiple elites solo. my problem is that if I want to go for DPS, I haven't been able to even kill one elite solo on a class I've tested yet. If the answer is simply "no, there is no DPS class who can solo-kill a same level elite" then OK that's good to know. But I suspect its more nuanced than that, as to my knowledge many world-quests require killing elites and it'd be odd for blizzard to require tanks for even mundane questing.

[Nihilan]

Ret pallies can solo basically anything that is stunnable due to one of their talent that give them a massive self heal if used on stunned mobs.

Aff locks can drain tank as many mobs as they can keep siphon up on - which is basically limited only by your ability to actually select the mob you need to select in order to refresh the dot. It gets dicey at half a dozen+ just due to the difficulty of sorting out the nameplates. It helps to set up your nameplates so that they do not overlap. Ugly as hell, but a big QoL improvement for Afflocks.

[Arenis]

BM hunter with spirit beast for heal over time(on pet self) and tenacity spec. Can solo every "solo" elite and 3-man elite so far.

[PeopleReady]

BM hunter with spirit beast for heal over time(on pet self) and tenacity spec. Can solo every "solo" elite and 3-man elite so far.

How does one get a spirit beast with tenacity? :O

[l33t]

How does one get a spirit beast with tenacity? :O

You can choose spec for your pet, since, like, forever.

[papajohn4]

I was thinking exactly the same thing as OP... I was always playing a tank, but this time around, since Open world will be much more valuable (legendaries, professions revamp, world quests) I was thinking changing to DPS and thought to roll Hunter to be able to solo as much as possible...

sad to see that hunter/warlock pets got nerfed that hard On the other hand, this maybe will promote grouping for questing/farming.. but still have not decided on which class to main

[Maudib]

I was playing around with affliction lock in a PTR invasion a couple of nights ago. I felt like it was pretty sturdy for a clothie, with the passive shield generation, and the instant cast health drain dot (forget the name) and drain health or whatever it's called.

Anyways, I summoned a voidwalker, and he got killed in an instant. I was back to cloth tanking mobs, which wasn't too bad really. I only have a small sample of playtime, but I'm leaning towards leveling using grimoire of sacrifice rather than using a tank pet.

It may be that only the improved pets can tank, and not the voidwalkers anymore.

Yeah fro mwhat gather, the blueberry is a no go... supposedly the Infernal is a much better tank now.