Which classes & specs do you think looks good and bad?

[Tyze]

I don't have alpha but YouTube helps.

So far of what I like (the ones I mostly care about):

Balance Druid: Basically the old Starfall, mmm delicious!

Ret: Honestly seems to be the best, Wake of Ashes, Consencration, HoW, Auras, all baseline. Pretty epic.

Prot Paladin: Basically Holy Power back, that's what I missed. Also the covenant ability with the Avenger's Shield is so sexy.

Enhance Shaman: Looks solid, more Windfury now.

Elemental Shaman: Happy to see the Maelstrom gone here too.


Bad:
Mage: All specs seems dull

MM Hunter: was exciting about this one, but Hunters Mark can gtfo

I've heard SPriest seems crap too

[Saltysquidoon]

Obviously shadow priest feels bad for open-world content and the weird bloodtalons change doesn't address the deeper issues with feral.

I think the deeper issue that's going to become more prevalent as more people get access (alpha testers have to kiss the ring) is that while most specs play fine basically none of the issues each spec has from bfa is being addressed.

Generally, this is the lack of talent rebalancing and the lack of baselining skills that shouldn't be talents (I'm lead to believe this is largely what mage is suffering from), for example:
Enhancement has to pick talents to make lava lash and rockbiter do anything but damage when you press them (and these talents compete);
WW still have to talent into whirling dragon punch which is essentially the final skill of their 'combo' and the talent hit combo is just their mastery;
Poison bomb for muti is a completely passive aoe skill that increases ST damage by virtue of the fact it exists and even in AoE you can just ignore it because it procs off your normal CP spenders.

[Gaidax]

Destruction will again stumble down the food chain only to get back up by 9.2 or so.

The usual, the way spec plays it's super dependent on all these procs, boosts and shit that comes with the usual glued on patch mechanics down the road.

None of the covenant abilities seem to synergy particularly well with it so far, except for Kyrian, which is funny enough a shitton better version of existing Destruction talent and will very likely be a key there if pulled out right by the player, especially in the beginning of the expansion.

[lllBlackSunlll]

I've heard SPriest seems crap too

Seems like Spriests need a good overhaul. A lot of people are calling for the removal of voidform and replace it with a more bursty, less rng mechanic.

I think all they need to do is make Lingering Insanity and Surrender to Madness base abilities at a higher level. But give Surrender to Madness less of a drawback, but also a little weaker.

Compare the Fury Warrior ability Recklessness, this is a very strong ability, pretty short cd and ironic to the name has no drawbacks. Surrender to Madness is different, it is bad in groups because it puts a strain on your healer at the end of your buff, and risky in solo because then you need to heal yourself. The only benefit it is very strong and lasts a long time.

Instead make Surrender to Madness reduce healing received by 50% and cannot generate insanity for 10s, but increase insanity generation by 100% and can cast while moving for 30s. 2min cd.

Still a useful ability for burst situation and long battles without worrying about the downside outcome, while not being such a strong ability that would only justify being a talent. Since that talent space still needs to be filled, just make a talent that buffs Surrender to Madness to be competitive against Dark Ascension and Legacy of the Void.

[TigTone]

I am happy with Monk Brewmaster and Mistweaver but windwalker could use something to help with down time when all my main abilities are on cool down.

[mauserr]

Seems like Spriests need a good overhaul. A lot of people are calling for the removal of voidform and replace it with a more bursty, less rng mechanic.

I think all they need to do is make Lingering Insanity and Surrender to Madness base abilities at a higher level. But give Surrender to Madness less of a drawback, but also a little weaker.

Compare the Fury Warrior ability Recklessness, this is a very strong ability, pretty short cd and ironic to the name has no drawbacks. Surrender to Madness is different, it is bad in groups because it puts a strain on your healer at the end of your buff, and risky in solo because then you need to heal yourself. The only benefit it is very strong and lasts a long time.

Instead make Surrender to Madness reduce healing received by 50% and cannot generate insanity for 10s, but increase insanity generation by 100% and can cast while moving for 30s. 2min cd.

Still a useful ability for burst situation and long battles without worrying about the downside outcome, while not being such a strong ability that would only justify being a talent. Since that talent space still needs to be filled, just make a talent that buffs Surrender to Madness to be competitive against Dark Ascension and Legacy of the Void.

can't generate insanity for 10 seconds but increase insanity generation by 100?% seems kinda contradictory, no?

[Shadowferal]

The original unholy spec for deathknights.

[kaminaris]

Same as BfA, all of them so pretty fine.

Except for MM which has aids (hunters mark)

[Tyze]

Same as BfA, all of them so pretty fine.

Except for MM which has aids (hunters mark)

Oh right fuck I forgot the hunters Mark. It's off my list now

[lllBlackSunlll]

can't generate insanity for 10 seconds but increase insanity generation by 100?% seems kinda contradictory, no?

I'm referring to the existing stats to the buff and how they should be changed.

Currently:All your Insanity-generating abilities generate 100% more Insanity and you can cast while moving for 1 min.

Then, you take damage equal to 90% of your maximum health and cannot generate Insanity for 15 sec.

3min cooldown.

Change: All your insanity-generating abilities generate 100% more Insanity and you can cast while moving for 30s.

Then, you take 50% reduced healing and cannot generate Insanity for 10s.

2min cooldown.

[wetul]

You need to think about classes without azerite and essences, just the base. A lot of specs are not in a good place.

[Great Destiny Man]

Difficult to really say without being able to try it firsthand. I'm not thrilled about how the Balance druid's rotation is changing so far. Sure the Starfall change is great but pushing eclipse mechanics just seems forced for the sake of slight nostalgia.

Hopefully ends up enjoyable to me but honestly I dunno.

[ro9ue]

Once I get into the Alpha/Beta I'll know. All of it right now is just watching gameplay/reading things on a website. None of which really compares to just experiencing how things feel firsthand.

[Saltysquidoon]

Yeah, I forgot to mention three expansions now of killing spree being a talent AND shit is probably one of the dirtiest things they've done to rogues.

[Dakara]

I have a spreadsheet trying to determine my main for SL... Alpha is Alpha, but I sometimes wonder if allowing players too much choice results in too many compramises and thus never being 100% happy in their decision.

I main healers so those are the ones I'm focusing on on the Spreadhseet.
Which is my Healing favorite spec? What races are available for that class? What's their Covenant abilities like? Does the "BiS" Covenant ability align with the Covenant I want to play thematically for that class?
What's the Covenant Transmog like for that Armor type?
How are the offspecs for that class in Torghast/World Content/PvP?

As it stands now, there is no clear winner. Perhaps that's a good thing, or perhaps it'll result in another expansion where I'm not 100% happy with my main because any decision is a compromise... but fwiw:

Monk - MW is my current main. Sick and tired of the rollercoaster. Not sure about Covenant.
Paladin - Ret looks solid for OS, but I hate Holy Power for Healing and HPally Mastery. Previous main to my Monk. Was thinking Night Fae for some more mobility, but hate the Seasons Aura ability.
Shaman - Resto is fun for raiding, but don't enjoy it in M+, Shamans are looking to be overly bloated with abilities in SL which can result in playing piano just to keep up. Dislike all Alliance racial options.
Druid - Resto seems to be mostly untouched. Possibly will suffer in raids again due to lack of DR. Feral and Balance are looking meh as are their covenant abilities.
Priest - Haven't looked into them too much because not a Fan of Shadow for World content etc

So yea, no clue.

[spalernTJ]

I think mostly Paladin specs look good... Holy priest looks good, shadow priest looks kind of bad... Warlock looks mostly bad... Deaths knights looks bad, but they're kinda neutral imo - Demon hunter goes into the same category. Rest of the classes / specs looks neutral.

[Captain Marvel]

Spriest looks horrible. Preach did a long video highlighting the major issues. I mean, you could say it has a unique play style in that goes the opposite of all encounter designs.

I am stuck. I played shadow since vanilla, and I am irrationally attached to the spec. I will run another class like a destr warlock and be amazed at how easy everything is, but I always go back. I took a break and didn't play in WoD or Legion. I have adjusted to void form, but I hate having my class only feel viable every few minutes.

I was also hoping for an end to the old imagery. My favourite iteration in terms of looks was the raven priest aesthetic of BC and Wrath.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Casters are kinda meh all around tbh.

Starfall doesn't change that the rest is kinda rubbish atm. Balance is still a sec with 2 dots that are essentially the same except a minor tweak and 2 direct attacks that are all about some artifical balance between two states that don't feel rewarding at all. I'm not sure I see the eclipse thing as an upgrade over the current stuff either, actually I'm fairly certain it's a downgrade.

Maelstrom change doesn't mean the rest won't be the usual shaman stuff.

If you think mage is dull then I can't for the life of me explain how you think other casters are better. but I will say: Frost is mostly fine I guess, but is completely broken right now on alpha (not in the fun way, actually mechanically not viable), fire requires Blizzard to finally pull that giant stick out of their asses and make stuff baseline and change some mechanics and arcane is just a mess like always. While I love some of the aracne theme, at the end of the day the spec only exists because some healers like to twink it beause it has 1 button to push and it feels familiar "caus mana management". Also fuck RoF, single biggest thing holding the class back.

Warlock pets are still complete and utter weaksauce, destro stlll is all about hitting like a wet noodle until you finally have enough fun-points for some chaos bolts and affliction is probably the same op shit for people that enjoy DoTing and watching bars. Not seeing the big appeal here either. It's one of these classes where I feel like I don't actually get a cool choice by using the talent system, it feels like I'm forced to play the class at 1/3 of the potential since I only have 1 choice per row.

Shadow Priest was never my favorite or even remotely likeable to me, but I think I never hated the spec as much as with the insanity mechanic, especially the castrated one one from BfA.

I'm an absolte fan of casters, but there is just nothing there that makes them worthwhile over melee which get all the cool shit without the limits. Dk and warrior seem fine all around, ret is probably pretty much the same (man I wish I could DPS as prot..). Not a fan of the leather melee, but most of them don't seem to have changed all that much. Subtlty might be worth watching. DH is DH, half the class is just a thinnly veiled excuse to play around with some mobility, the other half is about one of the most simplistic playstyles in-game. Kitty is the usual mess that kitty has always been and monks will scale like shit, but still be perfectly fine regardless if you know what you do.

Edit: Though at the end of the day it will all come down to what the legendaries will give us and what Blizzard does with the covenant abilities and soulbinds. We had that discussion enough by now and people have drawn their lines, so I will not state the obvious again.

[Dystemper]

None of the classes I play look like they will really be much improved from BFA. That is a huge shame because how they played was a massive turn off for BFA. the GCD change alone made most of them sluggish as hell to me. Looking like SL is gonna be a no Go . It showed some promise but if I dont have fun with my classes, then no point

[Saltysquidoon]

I think generally there is at least one talent every spec has to take to make it feel mechanically complete.
At the very least some of these talents need to be baselined, such as WDP or mongoose bite (irrespective of how you feel about it, without it survival has nothing to do).