Least gear dependant DPS spec ?

[jimmy valmer]

Looking for a class/spec that doesn't need the top gear to shine. Melee or ranged is fine. I am a casual player and looking to get into casual raiding as well.

Thanks!

[spoolatarygos]

Rogue. Every class requires gear to some extent, but rogues and locks "should" excel even at low gear levels. Elemental shamans also have obscene burst and damage in 5 mans and shorter fights

[fangless]

There are specs that need more rating of some stat to actual do normal dps, but not so much the other way around.

More gear is needed for more dps.

[Tearyn]

Rogues are inherently good at single target dps, and warlocks are damned close to being straight out overpowered at the moment for most things, but really, most classes can do more than fine with LFR / heroic-scenarios gear. There obviously isn't a class you can hit 90 on and instantly be topping meters.

Pick a class because you enjoy it though, it'll last you longer that way, and like i said all classes can do well if you put some effort into them. Even without access to normal or heroic raid gear.


That being said there are spesific specs that do badly at low gear levels, i would avoid playing a fire-mage or a fury-warrior with low crit%, that shit just won't work for ya. You can be a frost mage or an arms warrior and do fine however.

[Reyzzz]

Frost mage is pretty good with low gear levels.

[Drikkink]

In terms of casters, I'd go Destro Lock (outright OP compared to other warlock specs as a fresh 90), arcane mage (frost is too haste reliant, fire too crit reliant) or ele shaman (pretty sure their secondaries are so weak they still value int over secondaries). Melee.... idk

[re1gn1te]

Probably frost mages and all three hunter specs, honestly just going off of 468ilvl sim's but in my experience they do preform quite well @ low ilvls. Rogues and locks are actually quite bad @ low ilvls especially rogues.

[Glurp]

Hunters are very good at low gear level. My Alt Hunter is 483 with horribly itemized gear and does 100k single target with ease.

[Purrberry]

Been said but rogue is by far the least gear dependent as unlike all other melee classes their damage isn't effected as much by weapon ilevel as so much is from poisons and thus requires less gear to still do well. On the flip side, I would avoid moonkin/feral, shadow priest and ret paladin as they seem to me to be very gear dependent and while their damage is competitive (or amazing in terms of moonkin) with gear, if you don't expect a lot of gear on this guy, don't roll one of those 3.

[Scoop]

People saying Rogue are incorrect. I would think Frost Mage or BM Hunter.

[Halifax]

I have a level 90 of every class, with only a couple of them geared up. Of all my un-geared characters I can pull the best DPS on my Frost Mage and Destro Lock. This is only based on Heroics and MSV/HoF LFR. I can't rate Monk/Shaman because I'm well geared on those.

[Squirl]

Rogues are very gear dependent; I don't know what these people are smoking. They must not remember rogues hanging out at the bottom of the meters until we got gear at the start of MoP. Look at a rogue's damage in CMs (scaled to ilvl463); it's pretty much the worst in the game.

Hunters (SV or BM), frost mages, and ele shaman do a lot of damage at low gear levels.

[Deleted]

Frost dk. Even with crap gear you're doing great.

[Deleted]

Rogues are VERY gear dependent, don't know what some people are on about in this thread lol.

Hunters not so much, have heard the same about Mages too.

[jayinjersey]

DK...always a safe bet.

[marklar]

what you're looking for is a class that scales poorly with gear. usually, this is a bad thing and people complain about it.

an arms warrior would be a good example.

[Noorri]

Gear is so important to DPS that I can't really recommend anything.....

[jimmy valmer]

My WW monk heroic blues is doing more dps than my warlock that's in some lfr gear...

[Normie]

what you're looking for is a class that scales poorly with gear. usually, this is a bad thing and people complain about it.

an arms warrior would be a good example.

Well, there are two cases.

One is a class that starts out fine but scales poorly with gear. That would be: Hunter (any spec).

Another is a class that scales just fine with gear, and starts out high to boot. Yay! That would be: Mage (frost in particular, but all specs are fine) and Enhancement Shaman. Note, however, this situation is often subject to something called "nerf bat."

Whatever you do, avoid Arms Warrior and Shadow Priest. Not sure why Blizzard is hating so hard on spriests this time around.

[Lanthanum]

The way that stats scale with ilvl has become very noticeable during this expansion, especially for DPS. Going from 480 to 508 on my arms warrior has more than doubled my output. So to improve your DPS you should get better gear. It sounds obvious and stupid but it really makes that much of a difference at the moment.

OT, from personal experience I would say that Hunters and Frost DK's are good at lower gear levels. Most other melee struggle until they have decent weapons.