Going ranged in BfA

[er4di]

Hey Guys,

in classic and BC I used to play ranged dps (affliction and destro warlock). Later on I switched to the melee train (mainly warrior and recently DH).

With BfA at hand, I want to go back to my roots and play ranged again.

My personal 'content' and goals are the following:
- M+ pushing (around 20)
- little PvP (Arena and Open world)
- Heroic Raid

Can you share your experiences which ranged class might fit the best for my personal goals - and why?

[Uko]

Till the balancing pass happens on dps it will be impossible to tell you what is best for those goals since right now all you can do is get a feel for rotations and playstyles. Demo warlock on beta is a blast to play but tuning will determine what talents or spec is best for bfa.

[Gaidax]

Till the balancing pass happens on dps it will be impossible to tell you what is best for those goals since right now all you can do is get a feel for rotations and playstyles. Demo warlock on beta is a blast to play but tuning will determine what talents or spec is best for bfa.

I think this bit is a bit incorrect, whatever the balancing will be - the class/spec general idea will be retained.

To elaborate what I mean, you can take the easiest cases to gauge like Warlock and Mage. No matter the balancing - Mage will have better mobility and Warlock will have better upkeep and sturdiness, while damage-wise you can expect them to be competitive one way or another with all the difference being the damage delivery mechanism and special perks (for example for Destruction - Havoc cleave will be a thing for a spec tuning or not, etc).

Trying to understand what will be OP or not is futile, even after tuning happens all it can take to to flip this house of cards upside down and take it apart is one .5 patch, like Fire Mage which on Legion launch was almost god tier and since got tamed a lot, while flipside Warlocks on launch were very meh and now they rock everything.


Then you have ranged hybrids - no matter the tuning - hybrid can flip to healing and will have healing spells baseline too for whatever personal benefit it gives. Shadow Priests will play around Void Form and will be a dot/nuke mix etc...

Basically, just understand what you want - class theme, mobility, survivability, hybrid and damage delivery.

[Uko]

Which is basically what I said since like you said mage will have mobility warlock will be about sturdiness ect which boils down to rotation and play style are all you can see right now the tuning will determine the best spec/class for his goals.

[Jigglypuff]

I'm going to base my suggestion around M+ because it is top of your list, you speak about PvP like a casual/fun thing, and heroic raids aren't competitive in regards to getting a spot.

When it comes to M+ in BfA, you will no longer see Tanks doing these ridiculously large pulls and then have it all AoE'd down.
There will be more emphasise on other ways of doing DPS like cleave, multi-dot and ST, and probably other types of CC that should matter like Polymorph for example. This will create a more competitive landscape for all specs overall and should be taken into consideration.

My suggestion: Mage/Hunter

They both have a Lust/Heroism ability.
They both have immunity abilities to cheese one-shots in high keys.
They have 3 dps specs meaning more flexibility and likely better number-wise than hybrids. E.g. Tyrannical is one of the affixes and you have a preference for ST damage to make the bosses easier. Ele, Boomkin, Spriest can only switch talents where as a Mage might be incredible for the job as Arcane.

However there are more things to consider when picking:

What motivates you? Playstyle, numbers, being able to provide unique utility, etc.
Is there a specific strength that you enjoy playing with? Mobility, tankiness, sustain, etc.
Is there a specific DPS strength you prefer? Would you rather have strong ST and mediocre AoE or strong AoE and mediocre ST?

If playstyle matters more then you should definitely give Demo lock a whirl once pre-patch hits... then you should give every other ranged spec a go.

[er4di]

Thanks for your answers,

well as you said Mage/Hunter both play quite okay - what about Shadowpriest ? (i like the fantasy, but would get stuck with only one dps spec).

How are Hunters and Mage in PvP and Openworld Pvp ? (currently)

[rogoth]

Hey Guys,

in classic and BC I used to play ranged dps (affliction and destro warlock). Later on I switched to the melee train (mainly warrior and recently DH).

With BfA at hand, I want to go back to my roots and play ranged again.

My personal 'content' and goals are the following:
- M+ pushing (around 20)
- little PvP (Arena and Open world)
- Heroic Raid

Can you share your experiences which ranged class might fit the best for my personal goals - and why?

i just want to make something very clear to you, the only reason people are pushing M+ levels above 15/16 atm is purely due to power creep from artifact traits and gear scaling up the ass, when BFA hits you will struggle to do even a +10 in time nevermind hitting the +15 milestone, you would need to drastically improve your gameplay to get to this level, which doesn't really fit well with being a 'heroic raider' since majority of the gear you get from raiding might not be so useful in M+ (there's no definitive proof of this yet as blizz have been super secretive about what azerite traits raid gear has vs M+ gear etc), but from the limited view we have so far it looks very much like the gear you get from each area of the game will be somewhat relevant in that mode and not so useful outside of that, but we won't know that until it hits live, same with balance tuning, if you want to play something that is powerful you will need to wait until they start doing tuning passes on the numbers, if all you care about is how something plays, for the most part stick to specs that have few cooldowns and you will be fine, with the GCD change incoming any spec that has myriad of cooldown effects that augment gameplay will be nearly impossible to play competitively and will be left to the 'fun' side of things, that's the best advice i can give you right now, good luck with the search.

[Enchant]

It will be hard to validate which will be best for which scenario, since there are still class changes incoming. Any caster/range will be fine for Heroic, well as any casual PvP. I can't speak for Mythic Plus, besides go with something that has a lot of utility or has access to multiple roles. Will you be pugging or doing them with friends? Do you want to be stuck in one role or have multiple roles available to you? Do you want to be a caster or a hunter? The reason I play a mage, because I want to only worry about DPS. I don't want to be pushed into healing or tanking.

[Jigglypuff]

Thanks for your answers,

well as you said Mage/Hunter both play quite okay - what about Shadowpriest ? (i like the fantasy, but would get stuck with only one dps spec).

How are Hunters and Mage in PvP and Openworld Pvp ? (currently)

Spriest plays similarly to how it does on live, no drastic changes. It will be capable of high keys but won't be cutting edge. Where it does excel is any fight with 2+ targets that survive long enough. In PvP it does crazy damage in RBGs, it's viable in arena but hard to play and struggles solo.

Mage and Hunter will both be R1 viable in arena with RMP and Jungle comps respectively. Mage are looked on unfavourably in RBGs, I think Hunters are wanted as flag defenders (pretty boring lol). Open world, Mage and Hunter are both good at kiting and will do well against most melee but struggle against tankier ranged dps like warlock.

[butchh]

shadow priest for the win!!! . great fun class in beta bfa.

[Jaigar]

Spriest plays similarly to how it does on live, no drastic changes. It will be capable of high keys but won't be cutting edge. Where it does excel is any fight with 2+ targets that survive long enough. In PvP it does crazy damage in RBGs, it's viable in arena but hard to play and struggles solo.

Mage and Hunter will both be R1 viable in arena with RMP and Jungle comps respectively. Mage are looked on unfavourably in RBGs, I think Hunters are wanted as flag defenders (pretty boring lol). Open world, Mage and Hunter are both good at kiting and will do well against most melee but struggle against tankier ranged dps like warlock.

Uh what? Spriest is a trashfire of a spec, its in a worst state than survival was on Legion release. Its a spec without direction.

[er4di]

Well, I scrolled a bit through the class forums.
Nearly everyone is complaining, that their class suck now in some circumstances.

The least crying comes from mage and Hunter, only thing ele shamans complain about is the lost of gust of wind.

Seems like I could pick anything, because everything sucks now....(except demolock)

[Brewhan]

Seems like I could pick anything, because everything sucks now

BFA in a nutshell enjoy bruddah (40+hrs clocked in beta)

[Gaidax]

Well, I scrolled a bit through the class forums.
Nearly everyone is complaining, that their class suck now in some circumstances.

The least crying comes from mage and Hunter, only thing ele shamans complain about is the lost of gust of wind.

Seems like I could pick anything, because everything sucks now....(except demolock)

It's the usual crap really, just disregard. Everyone is whining about everything they can as long as they don't totally demolish everything that stands in their path. Same old same old.