Prediction of classes in TBC

[Mosha]

I have been really torn between making a resto druid for tbc or stick with my shadow/disc priest for various reasons and it got me thinking... what do you guys think will become an extremely overpopulated/underpopulated class for TBC?

Personally, I think we will see a TON more Paladins/druids/shamans/and hunters.

I think mage population will plummet, warlocks should stay pretty similar, although warriors are good I believe they will also drop, priests might drop as well, and rogues will stay fairly low as well.

Druids become powerhouse pvp healers, amazing multi tank and raid healers with lifebloom, amazing tanks, ferals are needed in basically every raid, and boomkins actually have their place in raids to buff casters (especially in t5 where they can innervate mages)

Resto shamans are basically the MVP raid healer in tbc, eles for caster groups, enhance for melee group, as well as one is needed (pretty much) in every group for bloodlust/hero.

Hunters become best dps in the game with basically pressing one button

Same goes for warlocks

Mages are good and shine in certain raids, but they aren’t as dominant as they are in classic.

Priests are still solid healers, shadow is now 100% needed instead of just a niche.

Rogues do great damage, but unfortunately that’s all they do, no buffs, no nothin.

Warriors still do great damage, still great tanks, but there are other options now.

Paladins tanks are now needed for certain fights, holy still great tank heals, Ret becomes way less memey but still pretty low in dps. The buffs they bring are amazing.

[varren]

Warriors will have the biggest population drop of any class by far. Tons of people rolled them in Classic Vanilla because they were OP or their preferred spec was complete trash (ret, feral, etc). You go from at least 1/4th of the raid being Warriors, to 1-2 prot spec and maybe 1 dps (probably arms) if your lucky.

[Cheze]

warlocks and rogues, as far as the eye can see. A handful of enh shamans and ret paladins to buff the raid.

prot paladins aren't needed for any BC fights, but they're a little more playable than classic so you'll probably see some

[Vilendor]

Literally google "best dps/heal/tank BC" and you got your answer....

[hulkgor]

snip

Why exactly are you predicting class strength from an already experienced expansion where you have a ton of resources about just that?

This is silly. It's like predicting last week lottery numbers.

[ntlntl]

Anyone has a database for spell and talents for TBC final patch?
I recall class change too much. Hunter got dispell tied to arcane shot, and got removed shortly.

[Mosha]

Why exactly are you predicting class strength from an already experienced expansion where you have a ton of resources about just that?

This is silly. It's like predicting last week lottery numbers.

That’s not what I’m asking? Maybe read the post first then comment.

- - - Updated - - -

Anyone has a database for spell and talents for TBC final patch?
I recall class change too much. Hunter got dispell tied to arcane shot, and got removed shortly.

I’m pretty sure that stayed actually, could be wrong.

[hulkgor]

That’s not what I’m asking? Maybe read the post first then comment.

You're just being silly, again.

Strong, overpowered classes? Will be overplayed.

Weak, niche classes\specs? Will be underplayed.

There. We worked it out. We won the lottery, again.

(Same worked for Classic, everyone knew that warrior would be extremely overplayed because, well, it was the strongest class in the game then. No need for weird predictions or silly threads).

[Mosha]

You're just being silly, again.

Strong, overpowered classes? Will be overplayed.

Weak, niche classes\specs? Will be underplayed.

There. We worked it out. We won the lottery, again.

(Same worked for Classic, everyone knew that warrior would be extremely overplayed because, well, it was the strongest class in the game then. No need for weird predictions or silly threads).

So you just predict that a mega fuck ton of mages and warriors and priests are all just going to drop their classes and reroll into something completely different then. You have no opinions of “well I bet mages will stay populated because they have all these mounts and t3 so I don’t see them rerolling into warlocks and hunters”.

That level of thought never crossed your mind? Just a simple man here.. CLASS STRONG ERRYONE GO IT.

[ntlntl]

Why exactly are you predicting class strength from an already experienced expansion where you have a ton of resources about just that?

This is silly. It's like predicting last week lottery numbers.

because its' not 100% clear what patch we have, and how ppl would play the game.
Most we have is hearsay that x and y are good, and z is bad; That SWP only needs 1 mage

How those classes play like, and what we think is the original question.

I predict the 50% dps warriors will drop. Mages on the other is quite a fun class, I do not think ppl would ditch mages. It's quite strong in open PVP and world farming

[hulkgor]

because its' not 100% clear what patch we have, and how ppl would play the game.

Most can be hearsay, sure, but just like we got Classic at 1.12, we'll get TBC at 2.4.3*, the last patch. Isn't it kinda obvious they'll go about it the same way?

[Tojara]

Hunters are historically one of the most popular classes in all of WoW, so it stands to reason that you're going to see an explosion of them in TBC considering how they're one of the best classes for DPS in TBC (and pretty easy to play).

At the end of the day, the annoying part of TBC is playing tetris trying to fit as many buffs as you can into a single raid. The good news for pretty much everybody is that you won't really feel like a hindrance playing a hybrid in TBC because pretty much everything is useful. Do you want to bring several retribution paladins? No. But pretty much every Horde group back when TBC was originally released usually had a single retribution paladin in their roster.

Some hybrid classes like enhancement shaman, shadow priests and feral druid (especially performing as a second tank) are pretty much mainstays, with your raid having open spots for a few more hybrid classes before filling the rest with "core" classes.

The real losers at least from a PvE perspective in TBC are warriors and mages (both are basically budget versions of rogues and warlocks). Rogues also take a bit of a dip simply because it's easier to stack groups with ranged in mind, as opposed to melee.

You'll see "light" stacking in TBC, but nothing compared to what you see in classic these days. It's not uncommon to see guilds running with twelve to over twenty warriors in classic. The worst you'll see in TBC is five shaman (granted, it's assured you will see multiple restoration shaman, one to two enhancement shaman and one elemental shaman) and several hunters/warlocks in each group.

[kranur]

warlocks and rogues, as far as the eye can see. A handful of enh shamans and ret paladins to buff the raid.

prot paladins aren't needed for any BC fights, but they're a little more playable than classic so you'll probably see some

Don't think there will be that many locks. Sure, higher than classic but not as absurd as mages numbers are in classic.
Of course it depends on how tbc gets handled. If transfers from classic are allowed then there will still be more mages.

There will eventually be a ton of druids that's for sure.

[Creedo]

Playing on private TBC servers, its a much healthier "meta" game then compared to other versions of WoW. Sure people are doing LWing for Drums, but it is not mandatory to clear raids. The most heavy classes I see are Hunters, Warlocks, and Druids. They are filled in every raid. Even though Shamans are always needed, the seem to be average in terms of how many are played (usually I see 3-5 per raid). Warlocks and Hunters become the DPS kings in TBC, which melee catching up in SWP. I personally play Enhancement Shaman and love it, but it is far behind the back until you get geared into T6-ish gear.

Your choice of Druid or Spriest is a good one for either. Always needs druids and the mana battery is always wanted.

[Kralljin]

Most can be hearsay, sure, but just like we got Classic at 1.12, we'll get TBC at 2.4.3*, the last patch. Isn't it kinda obvious they'll go about it the same way?

Outside of 2.4 classes, almost anything would be a mistake.

Taking 2.4 at verbatim would imply that attunements are already gone, both raids and heroics are in a nerfed state (which got nerfed more than once on occassion) and 2.4 itemization.

The result would be extremely trivialized content.

One of the bigger reasons why Classic launched in a 1.12 state was that they seemingly only had a working version of 1.12 in one of their backups, but since TBC they kept a better record of each patch state (at least according to their Classic panel back in 2018).

[Nnyco]

Prediction of something we already know? lul

[erifwodahs]

So you just predict that a mega fuck ton of mages and warriors and priests are all just going to drop their classes and reroll into something completely different then. You have no opinions of “well I bet mages will stay populated because they have all these mounts and t3 so I don’t see them rerolling into warlocks and hunters”.

That level of thought never crossed your mind? Just a simple man here.. CLASS STRONG ERRYONE GO IT.

You assume that those people will not level alts before TBC, not to mention that Blood Elf is most played race which will require a new regardless. Or that TBC will even allow character transfers. It will be as simple as that - OP = popular. Or Blood Elf on OP class to be more exact.

[vashe9]

The return of "mana mana", SP will be loved
And BM too with their +3% party dmg...

and dont forget that BL is group and not raid based in bc xD Shamans will be wanted

[kail]

I'm not going to assume what will be popular because what's fun for people is entirely subjective and in tBC far more specs are "playable" in a raid/dungeon environment. Both factions get their shamans/pallys, mana issues are fixed for most specs, port pally is added as a viable tank, etc.

I'm not even sure what I would play myself tbh. I'm heavily leaning to prot pally and take it as far as I'm willing. I've also always wanted to play spriest when it fufulled that dps-support role the best in all of WoW's history. Simply put, tBC had a far better balance state (to my memory), especially after I played through Classic and realized how broken some specializations were.

[vashe9]

I want to lvl a BM hunter for one thing only :

BW makes you immune to CC... It was so good vs rogues, mages,...