What are currently the best performing DPS Classes/Specs in the game right now?

[NordWitcher]

So am not sure how these tier lists are done. Are they done with max level gear or at low level gear while gearing up? How do they determine how much DPS a particular class/spec can pull? Considering everyone is gearing up right now, a lot of players are going to have different gear levels.

So my question is taking all into consideration what are the fun melee DPS specs and what are the best performing DPS Specs/Classes overall currently in the Mythic + Dungeon part of the game?

Also how does DPS work for Timewalking dungeons? Is everyone on the same level playing field? No enchants, stats, etc?

[Ladey Gags]

Unholy dk, fire mage, balance Druid are the top 3 in m+ and raiding

[NordWitcher]

Unholy dk, fire mage, balance Druid are the top 3 in m+ and raiding

Unholy DK just feels a bit clunky in a rotation and feels like it has too many CDs. You've got to manage too many things, runes, CDs, pet, runic power, procs, diseases. It was fun early on to level, but its kind of gotten really frustrating to play.

What other melee spec would be a good option?

[Biomega]

What other melee spec would be a good option?

Windwalker. It and UH DK are the only top-tier melee right now.

It also really depends a lot on what you're doing. If you're just doing heroic raid and some M+ you can play whatever you want. If you're doing mythic raiding and 15+ keys, it gets a bit tighter and the above-mentioned classes really do pull ahead (plus MM Hunter, which is great in pretty much anything).

If you're just raiding, Affliction Warlock is also very good right now, though Warlock in M+ is a bit awkward (though not terrible by any means).

PvP I have no clue, though apparently Boomkin with Night Fae is free 1,800 rating right now I'm told.

[lordjust]

So am not sure how these tier lists are done. Are they done with max level gear or at low level gear while gearing up? How do they determine how much DPS a particular class/spec can pull? Considering everyone is gearing up right now, a lot of players are going to have different gear levels.

So my question is taking all into consideration what are the fun melee DPS specs and what are the best performing DPS Specs/Classes overall currently in the Mythic + Dungeon part of the game?

Also how does DPS work for Timewalking dungeons? Is everyone on the same level playing field? No enchants, stats, etc?

How tier lists are done depends which tier list you're looking at. In most guides, simulationcraft, bloodmallet, raidbots and so on, the list is simulated dps with best in slot gear. Other tier lists like the ones wowhead posts on a weekly basis are based on warcraftlogs and shows the dps players with different gear and skill are doing in the raid with different options to visualize dps performance. Most people only look at the 99% percentile which shows the maximum dps people are doing (so best gear and highest skill) but you can also visualize all percentiles to see how specs performe with different gear and skill levels (order of specs changes slightly at the bottom).

For timewalking the itemlevel of your gear is scaled down to ilvl35 which means the stat distribution stays the same but the total stat budget is lower. You can cheese the system with some items like legendaries or the heart of azeroth that have a higher stat budget (stat budget is determined by gear quality). Same with some lower level enchants that are better than higher level enchants scaled down.

[Pandragon]

Windwalker.

Unless you like to constantly switch, do not choose Windwalker. WW is only doing good right now because it's the start of the expansion, as raid tiers release, WW will drop in power until it's the bottom of the list.

[NordWitcher]

How tier lists are done depends which tier list you're looking at. In most guides, simulationcraft, bloodmallet, raidbots and so on, the list is simulated dps with best in slot gear. Other tier lists like the ones wowhead posts on a weekly basis are based on warcraftlogs and shows the dps players with different gear and skill are doing in the raid with different options to visualize dps performance. Most people only look at the 99% percentile which shows the maximum dps people are doing (so best gear and highest skill) but you can also visualize all percentiles to see how specs performe with different gear and skill levels (order of specs changes slightly at the bottom).

For timewalking the itemlevel of your gear is scaled down to ilvl35 which means the stat distribution stays the same but the total stat budget is lower. You can cheese the system with some items like legendaries or the heart of azeroth that have a higher stat budget (stat budget is determined by gear quality). Same with some lower level enchants that are better than higher level enchants scaled down.

Ah perfect. Thanks for the information.

So I mean like right now considering Unholy DK is too DPS, could it not be possible that other classes do as well if not better while gearing up?

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Windwalker. It and UH DK are the only top-tier melee right now.

It also really depends a lot on what you're doing. If you're just doing heroic raid and some M+ you can play whatever you want. If you're doing mythic raiding and 15+ keys, it gets a bit tighter and the above-mentioned classes really do pull ahead (plus MM Hunter, which is great in pretty much anything).

If you're just raiding, Affliction Warlock is also very good right now, though Warlock in M+ is a bit awkward (though not terrible by any means).

PvP I have no clue, though apparently Boomkin with Night Fae is free 1,800 rating right now I'm told.

I don’t even plan on raiding but if I did would most likely be Heroic max. Mostly just looking and hoping to get my +15 keys for the mount. Trying to pick a class that will be easy to get groups with.

[Poppincaps]

MM Hunter is another solid pick if you don't like Balance or Fire but want to play a ranged spec.

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Also Outlaw Rogue is one of the top M+ and Raiding Melee specs atm.

[Biomega]

I don’t even plan on raiding but if I did would most likely be Heroic max. Mostly just looking and hoping to get my +15 keys for the mount. Trying to pick a class that will be easy to get groups with.

MM Hunter, Fire Mage, or Boomkin.

Those are by far the easiest DPS to get invites to M+. Outlaw Rogue is also popular but has the downside of being not very good in raids, while the above 3 are also some of the best raid performers. UH DK is also good but you mentioned you don't like it.

[Sámsa]

MM Hunter and Balance Druid are probably the top specs atm.

Fire Mage is very good, too. Especially in m+ but is generally harder to master and needs a bit more setup in m+.

Those are probably the specs that guarantee an invite to groups.

Despite MM being so strong, BM is actually not that far behind.

So overall my pick would be Hunter.

For melee it is UH DK and Windwalker.
WW does great atm. Feral is strong too.
In m+ outlaw and Subtelity are decent picks, too.


So my ranking would be:

Hunter
Balance
Fire
WW
UH DK
Outlaw
Feral
Sub

Shadow has the potential to be really good. But somehow it seems really hard to unlock that potential.

[Tekko]

Frost Mages are top right now.

[Xorzor]

With respect, your question will become redundant in time. Patch 9.1 could buff/nerf anything. I know the appeal of choosing a FotM class. Instead, I say choose to play what feels fun. BM Hunter does for me, and it doesn't hurt that it can also solo stuff too.

[Mightytasty]

Honestly you’ll be safe with anything but warrior/DH

[Echo of Soul]

The one you're most comfortable playing.

[Rumex]

All im saying is if you don't have a group of friends to play with you NEED to play one of the meta classes, or you will basically waste too much time trying to find groups. That is for me the biggest downside of WoW, and i can't imagine how people with limited time even can play the game when you have to spend 1-2 hours trying to get in to groups, but maybe you can only play for 3 hours a day, so you basically spend your time doing nothing. That is not fun game-play and i just hope specs will be more balanced in the future. I mean in BFA Rogues was meta and everyone had atleast 1 Rogues for higher keys, but now i feel like it's even worse when you have 3-4 classes that is meta and everybody basically just pick those classes over anything else.

[deenman]

Unholy DK just feels a bit clunky in a rotation and feels like it has too many CDs. You've got to manage too many things, runes, CDs, pet, runic power, procs, diseases. It was fun early on to level, but its kind of gotten really frustrating to play.

What other melee spec would be a good option?

ret and fury are easy to play,ret is middle of the pack and fury kinda low,but thats a good place to be honestly,complex specs should perform better,granted this isnt the case for every spec,but it seems to be getting better in sl with unholy/feral/winwalker being good dps wile the easier ones arent,now if only survival could also climb a few


anyways personaly i think unholy feels amazing and not clunky at all,its meticulous a bit yeah,kinda like how an arms warrior should feel but doesnt

[NordWitcher]

ret and fury are easy to play,ret is middle of the pack and fury kinda low,but thats a good place to be honestly,complex specs should perform better,granted this isnt the case for every spec,but it seems to be getting better in sl with unholy/feral/winwalker being good dps wile the easier ones arent,now if only survival could also climb a few


anyways personaly i think unholy feels amazing and not clunky at all,its meticulous a bit yeah,kinda like how an arms warrior should feel but doesnt

Well Unholy being Melee makes it even worse considering you have other stuff to watch out for as well as your CDs. The thing right now with Unholy is that its got soo much going for it. Is it a pet class, a disease and dot class, then you have its 4-5 different CDs to manage, runes, runic power procs + dealing with all while being melee.

I wouldn't really call it "meticulous". And after all that, your pet does more damage than you. So even though its rewarding playing it well on the DPS charts, it does not feel rewarding cause your pets does almost all your damage. Every UH DK that I've been with in a dungeon has Army of the Dead contribute 14-20% of their DPS.

Retribution kinda felt similar with balancing all their short CDs in BFA. Its a lot better and more fluid and streamlined this time around.

[deenman]

Well Unholy being Melee makes it even worse considering you have other stuff to watch out for as well as your CDs. The thing right now with Unholy is that its got soo much going for it. Is it a pet class, a disease and dot class, then you have its 4-5 different CDs to manage, runes, runic power procs + dealing with all while being melee.

I wouldn't really call it "meticulous". And after all that, your pet does more damage than you. So even though its rewarding playing it well on the DPS charts, it does not feel rewarding cause your pets does almost all your damage. Every UH DK that I've been with in a dungeon has Army of the Dead contribute 14-20% of their DPS.

Retribution kinda felt similar with balancing all their short CDs in BFA. Its a lot better and more fluid and streamlined this time around.

well unholy has a few advantages over other melee,it can do a shit ton of dps from range,epidemic doesnt need you to actualy melee anything,also your pets do a lot of the damage,so you can very often run out of anything bad and still do fair damage,wile other melee get completly shut down

[ymirsson]

So am not sure how these tier lists are done. Are they done with max level gear or at low level gear while gearing up? How do they determine how much DPS a particular class/spec can pull? Considering everyone is gearing up right now, a lot of players are going to have different gear levels.

The better tier lists will say exactly what the circumstances were.
But no list can define fun, better try it out yourself.

[NordWitcher]

The better tier lists will say exactly what the circumstances were.
But no list can define fun, better try it out yourself.

Sure but I’ve not seen many mention what ilevel gear they are basing it on. I’ve seen Noxxic that has an option for classes at 226 and I think 200 but again those are just simulation numbers.

So you have one site doing something but then leave out the other variable. I’ve yet to see any one site actually give a complete detailed breakdown, including legendaries, gear levels, etc.

Like per launch a lot of people were just saying Unholy DKs had insane AOE so that makes them S tier. They did the same with Frost Mage but turns out their bottom tier currently. Yet these same lists had Fire at the bottom but the tables have turned for both specs.