What Were the "Working" Roles + Specs in TBC?

[Tojara]

Can play pretty much anything and be fine in TBC. Only caveat being that the there will be less spots for certain DPS classes, healers and hybrids to fit in your group.

Healing wise most groups would only want one restoration druid, with the rest of your healers being whatever (although shaman healers are generally the best, and will likely be stacked.

Tanking wise most groups will run a single protection warrior and a bear druid. A third tank is rarely needed, but having a flexible paladin that plays all three roles is pretty nice to have, and protection paladins are the best at tanking dungeons and raid trash.

For DPS it's a mixed bag and it 100% moves away from norms that you saw in Classic WoW. Gone are the days of stacking warriors (especially warriors), rogues and mages. Most groups will likely run 1-2 warriors, 1-2 rogues, and 1-2 mages at best. Why? That's all you really need to utilize all the buffs they bring. DPS classes that people typically stack in TBC are hunters and warlocks at the expense of the previously listed classes. Rogues still pump damage towards the end of TBC but are reliant on a melee stacked group (most guilds will have 1), whereas hunters and warlocks work well in most groups and do a crazy amount of damage too while offering more buffs.

Finally that leaves you with hybrid DPS classes (shadow priest, enhancement shaman, elemental shaman, balance druid, feral cat, and retribution paladin). The first two listed are the strongest hybrids and it's not uncommon to run with a 2 shadow priests and 2 enhancement shamans. The other options really aren't that bad, and most groups will fill with a few of those options to round out their raid group.

Obviously there's an optimal raid group in TBC, but shifting from the 'meta' isn't going to hurt your raid group all that much. While a balance druid won't do top tier DPS, the buffs they bring are good enough that the downside to bringing one over another 'pure' DPS class is either neutral, a slight loss, or slightly beneficial. The bottom line here is that rounding out your roster with some hybrid DPS spreads gear out a bit better and that hybrids aren't a colossal overall performance loss for your raid group like they were in Classic WoW (and some of the hybrids are so strong in TBC that it's stupid not to bring them).

What I outlined isn't a free pass to get mad at groups for not taking your retribution paladin or balance druid. There will absolutely be groups out there that will take multiple of these roles, but most are still going to take 0-1 of a lot hybrid classes. A lot better than Classic where most groups take exactly 0 unless it's a friend of yours or they made the guild and are in a leadership position.

The real losers from Classic to TBC transition are DPS warriors, mages and rogues. DPS warriors are literally inferior rogues (you still bring one for buffs) while mages are scuffed warlocks. Rogues are technically good like I mentioned, but you can't really find room for many beyond your 1 melee group.

[kail]

The great thing about tBC that I recalled was the most specs "worked". They were playable and provided something to the group and raid with unique buffs and/or debuffs. Was it balanced? Not even close, but it felt more inline than compared to what I saw in Classic where some specs were borderline unplayable.

[Thorgash]

Illidan had an ability called Shear, which would reduce a tank's health by 60% unless it was blocked, dodged or parried. That meant druids were entirely out of the picture and paladins were at a severe disadvantage because warriors could guarantee a block using Shield Block. They were the only ones able to consistently tank him.

Shear was actually not too hard to counter for Protection Paladins, since any BT raiding Paladin worth their salt was uncrushable. It was more tricky to achieve for the Paladin than for a warrior for sure and required a careful selection of gear (primarily a lot of block since that gave the most % per rating) but was definitely an early goal to reach.
The one tricky thing about shear was that it could not miss, which Paladins had to adjust their gear for.

So, shear wasn't really the big problem about Illidan, more the fact that he hit hard and Warriors had a slightly better passive damage reduction as well as actual defensive cooldowns to use, which the Paladin lacked at that point.

So, Illidan definitely wasn't one of the problematic bosses.
What gave them trouble were things like mana burn, AE silence and basically everything that was meant to punish spellcasters that got into melee range (Mother Sharaz comes to mind).
And the aforementioned Reliquary of souls which was specifically designed to have its tank use spell reflect.

[Thunderball]

Healer: Anything. Classes with strong AoE healing capability (so RSHamans and HPriests) were more sought after.

DPS: MM Hunters, Arcane (1 per raid, it relies on innervates but it's the strongest DPS otherwise) and Fire Mages (assuming it's 2.4.3 from the start, so spell haste is strong), DWarlocks, Rogues to some extent (they were the best melee dps in TBC but it was heavily anti-melee in general).

Utility DPS: SPriests, Enh and Ele Shamans, BDruids, RPaladins, Fury Warriors depending on what buffs your raid lacks. Some were more sought after than others obviously, but all of those classes werent brought for their DPS.

Tanks: Everything depending on the situation. Prot Warriors were generally good, Prot Paladins were gods of AoE tanking (assuming it's 2.4.3 again, their strength got patched in) but shit at main tanking, Feral Druids were great early, had very good TPS and a lot of utility, so assuming you dont need AoE tanking FDruids were a prime choice for offtanking.

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Shear was actually not too hard to counter for Protection Paladins, since any BT raiding Paladin worth their salt was uncrushable. It was more tricky to achieve for the Paladin than for a warrior for sure and required a careful selection of gear (primarily a lot of block since that gave the most % per rating) but was definitely an early goal to reach.
The one tricky thing about shear was that it could not miss, which Paladins had to adjust their gear for.

So, shear wasn't really the big problem about Illidan, more the fact that he hit hard and Warriors had a slightly better passive damage reduction as well as actual defensive cooldowns to use, which the Paladin lacked at that point.

So, Illidan definitely wasn't one of the problematic bosses.
What gave them trouble were things like mana burn, AE silence and basically everything that was meant to punish spellcasters that got into melee range (Mother Sharaz comes to mind).
And the aforementioned Reliquary of souls which was specifically designed to have its tank use spell reflect.

Noone ever bothered with prot paladins on Illidan. It was much easier for a dps warrior to tank instead.

[vashe9]

most specs were totally viable. And True Dps© like hunter, rogue, mages, warlocks outdps the hybrids by a small margin.

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Healer: Anything. Classes with strong AoE healing capability (so RSHamans and HPriests) were more sought after.

DPS: MM Hunters, Arcane (1 per raid, it relies on innervates but it's the strongest DPS otherwise) and Fire Mages (assuming it's 2.4.3 from the start, so spell haste is strong), DWarlocks, Rogues to some extent (they were the best melee dps in TBC but it was heavily anti-melee in general).

Utility DPS: SPriests, Enh and Ele Shamans, BDruids, RPaladins, Fury Warriors depending on what buffs your raid lacks. Some were more sought after than others obviously, but all of those classes werent brought for their DPS.

Tanks: Everything depending on the situation. Prot Warriors were generally good, Prot Paladins were gods of AoE tanking (assuming it's 2.4.3 again, their strength got patched in) but shit at main tanking, Feral Druids were great early, had very good TPS and a lot of utility, so assuming you dont need AoE tanking FDruids were a prime choice for offtanking.

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Noone ever bothered with prot paladins on Illidan. It was much easier for a dps warrior to tank instead.

MM hunter ? Really ?! I was BM in the Hyjal/BT/Sunwell era and it was the top dps spec with 1 button macro and KC outside of GCD. MM lol...
BM is the best hunter spec (that's why I love BC). I killed Brutallus pre nerf as BM hunter and I remember being one of the top dps (beind the op warlocks)

BM gives a 3% dmg buff to all your party (not raid, party), it's awesome

[Thunderball]

most specs were totally viable. And True Dps© like hunter, rogue, mages, warlocks outdps the hybrids by a small margin.

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MM hunter ? Really ?! I was BM in the Hyjal/BT/Sunwell era and it was the top dps spec with 1 button macro and KC outside of GCD. MM lol...
BM is the best hunter spec (that's why I love BC). I killed Brutallus pre nerf as BM hunter and I remember being one of the top dps (beind the op warlocks)

BM gives a 3% dmg buff to all your party (not raid, party), it's awesome

Warlocks werent anywhere near top dps in Sunwell. Mages and Hunters were much higher. I remember the buff, but I'm pretty sure all the crazy hunter shit in Sunwell was MM.

[vashe9]

Warlocks werent anywhere near top dps in Sunwell. Mages and Hunters were much higher. I remember the buff, but I'm pretty sure all the crazy hunter shit in Sunwell was MM.

I'm 200% sure I was BM in suwell and BT/Hyjal. Hell I'm still playing BM in retail...

[Thunderball]

Hell I'm still playing BM in retail...

Yikes. I'm not saying you could have been BM, but afair MM was stronger in Sunwell.

Also, I forgot Surv Hunter and DPriest.

[zhorteye]

I've tried searching this on Google and haven't really found anything.


Pretty much, I'm inquiring about the viable roles (tanks, healer, DPS) for the specs in TBC. For example, I know in vanilla/Classic WoW Protection Paladins had a tanking spec but had no Taunt, making them not very viable.


When TBC first came out, I spent the entire expansion leveling a fresh toon so I never experienced the end game of Heroic Dungeons and Raids. I'm not really sure what class Specs will be best suited for come Burning Crusade Classic.

Everything in tbc works.. while some are less optimal everything works and can do every single piece of content.

[vashe9]

Yikes. I'm not saying you could have been BM, but afair MM was stronger in Sunwell.

Also, I forgot Surv Hunter and DPriest.

There was one surv hunter for the debuff, it's raw dps was lower... BM was the top hunter spec for raids after the KC change....

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https://legacy-wow.com/tbc-hunter-guide/

are they wrong ?

Marks is the WEAKEST SUSTAINED DPS BUILD (IT FAILS) for Hunters up until you have retardedly good gear. Even then, if you were to pick NOT BM, Surv would be better.

2.4.3 of course, and well get 2.4.3 classes if I'm not mistaken

[facefist]

The one you enjoy most. Stop FOTMing

If you wanna get invited, then better go fotm.

[Akka]

Almost every class has a spec that seems to be more pvp focused or at the very least falls behind the others for almost all stages of pve. Frost mages, cat feral druids, BM hunters, arms warriors, disc priests for example. Honestly for priests if you want to do much pve it is holy or bust in most settings because groups will normally want 1 or 0 shadow priests.

No raid won't include a shadow priest.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

BC honestly has fewer "completely unusable specs" compared to Classic. Most everything is usable, if you want "what's top DPS" try asking that directly next time. Though I'm pretty sure we have like 3 threads now asking that.

[draynay]

Yeah, nobody was playing MM, we were BM steady-shot-macro mashing with one survival hunter, that was the setup everybody had.

[alt-ithist]

Warlocks werent anywhere near top dps in Sunwell. Mages and Hunters were much higher. I remember the buff, but I'm pretty sure all the crazy hunter shit in Sunwell was MM.

What Sac/warlock was getting beat by a mage in sunwell? Did you not have shadow priest to sky rocket that locks damage? Mages had the term “Sunwelled” for a reason, most of them were benched until farm.

[kranur]

I've tried searching this on Google and haven't really found anything.


Pretty much, I'm inquiring about the viable roles (tanks, healer, DPS) for the specs in TBC. For example, I know in vanilla/Classic WoW Protection Paladins had a tanking spec but had no Taunt, making them not very viable.


When TBC first came out, I spent the entire expansion leveling a fresh toon so I never experienced the end game of Heroic Dungeons and Raids. I'm not really sure what class Specs will be best suited for come Burning Crusade Classic.

Pretty much everything works in TBC. Of course not everyone is a top dps and some bosses require a tank with a shield but anything you pick really will have it's place in the group.
My opinion, pick what you like the most.

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If you wanna get invited, then better go fotm.

If you wanna get invited to speedrunning guilds and aoe farms, then better go fotm. Otherwise play what you enjoy, this isn't classic classic

Corrected for you

[Sevyvia]

Having raided at the time, up to and including Sunwell, I recall that we had all classes in the raid.

Tanks: Warrior, Paladin, Druid. All viable, though Paladin was a bit more niche as mostly the AoE tank in raids. The problem was mostly their taunt situation.
Healers: Priest, Druid, Shaman, Paladin.
DPS: All classes viable. It should be said that, obviously, some specs were just better than others. Towards the end, certainly, almost all mages were Fire, for example. But you should be safe on any class. All of them had a spec/reason to be brought to raids. It's my impression that Classic stacks Warrior like mad. That wasn't my impression of TBC at all, so if you're currently a Warrior, might be an idea to consider rerolling. There won't be as many spots for Warriors. Mana was a factor for lots of classes, so Shadow Priests were very welcome. I recall we preferred having 2-3 of them.

You need to slot in 3 paladins for blessings. We did that with 1 tank, 1 healer and 1 DPS back in the day.

Again, this is mostly based on my time raiding back in the day.

[Aphrel]

These are my anecdotal experiences from a top10 tbc raiding guild. Will be interesting to see what's changed the last decade.

First off, the specs are more balanced than in vanilla. There is no 20-50% outlier like current classic warrior meta. If we ignore shadowpriest the best specs are only around 10-15% better than the crowd.

2ndly, groupbuffs are superstrong in tbc. So making a raidcomp will revolve much around making synergized 5man groups within your 25man raid.

Now to the specs:
all 3 shaman specs are working and viable and optimal. You will want 4-5 shammys in any meta raidcomp. something like (1-2 ele 1 enhance and 2-3 resto).

Protpalas should not only be working, i think they will be even more meta now than last time. Given that we will have the last patch they will have their unique taunt (and with 40 yards range so they could be very meta in some unexpected places), not sure if they are maintank material or not. Was mainly used for adds/aoe trash tanking at wich they outpreformed the other tanks by miles at threat. also another blessing on the raid is great.

guardian druids are working and should be very close to warriors in maintank viability.

shadowprists are on the lowside of dps but gives mana to group so great to have at least one in a healer grp.

Boomkins are definetly viable, not sure if meta. The crit aura might make them an optimal choice to have 1 in a lockgrp.

Retri is viable but not meta. On undead/demon bosses they might be but not too many of those.

Locks/hunters are S-teir dps.

Mage/rogue is A-teir. Wich is the most unfortunate role to have since they only bring dps and no groupbuffs. All the B-teir hybrid specs with groupbuffs will be picked over these.

Rest B-teir DPS.

Shadowpriest C-teir dps: but with the unique support of giving ur healers tons of mana.

[facefist]

If you wanna get invited to speedrunning guilds and aoe farms, then better go fotm. Otherwise play what you enjoy, this isn't classic classic
Corrected for you

If you wanna get invited to even semi-serious groups instead of shit groups.
Corrected for you. Even when every spec is viable, you still will be struggling to get into groups, just wait and see since you seem to be only guessing.

[Paoz]

Played the whole TBC as a guild officier and raid leader in a decently competitive guild (not top of the server, but close to that)

Paladin (blessings are goooood)
- Protection: awesome trash/aoe tank
- Holy: insane single target heals
- Retribution: did not see them that much in PvE (at least in our guild)

Rogue: we had two very good combat rogues, but the class felt quite underwhelming. SSS tier in PvP in sub spec, still useful to have. As retridins, they suffer from some fights being not confortable for melee specs. With endgame gear they get quite strong (though it could be because our two rogues were literally gods )

Shaman
- Enhancement: we did not have any, but having one for Windfury in the melee group is really nice
- Restoration: great AoE healing and great utility (plus Heroism/Lust)
- Elemental: Being Mail and INT based is good for them, loot is quite specific. Good DPS but Hunters and Locks are better

Druids:
- Restoration: our Tree literally raided the whole expansion with 3 buttons, being Lifebloom, Rejuvenation and Tranquillity (joking, still used swiftmend every now and then). They are in a good spot
- Feral Tank: Kind of a jack of all trades ... not really amazing AoE as paladins, not really amazing on single target as warriors ... some fights where you would need a 3rd tank, like Hyjal waves or trash in general, it's good to have the choice of someone swapping. We had only one Feral DPS swapping to Feral Tank, but we did not really rely on him for progression
- Feral DPS: quite underwhelming. As said above, we had only one, plus we did give priority in leather equip to Rogues and to Hunters for trinkets/agility jewellery and so on
- Balance: quite underwhelming. We had a good Balance druid, but it's mostly for utility, other than pure DPS

Priest
- Shadow: good to have mostly for utility (they were usually called "mana batteries"). DPS was decent but not amazing, worth to have but expect Locks to have prio on cloth dps loot
- Holy/Disc: I group them because they are both OK and both worth to have one in the raid, especially 25man. Holy is more Raid focused, Disc is more single target focused.

Hunter: BM is one of the top dps specs in the whole expansion, together with locks. Survival is ok-ish, like Enha Shaman, just get one, especially if the raid is really heavy on melee (which should not be). Never found MM to be amazing, as a Hunter myself, I saw some other Hunters trying MM but i never felt better than BM

Mage: Fire for PvE has good damage, Arcane is meh (though we had a few good ones during T5 raids), Frost is PvP and one of the top PvP specs

Warrior: One of the better all-round classes of TBC. Protection is the top single target tank spec, Fury and Arms (though Arms is mostly for PvP, but still good to have 1 in raid) have really good DPS

Warlocks:
- Demonology: no
- Affliction: Good in PvP, good with low gear, but does not really scale well.
- Destro: top lock spec and one of the top dps specs of the whole TBC. Scales greatly with better gear, most of our locks did abandon Affliction during T4 content, other after it. During BT/SWP we had only destro locks

TL;DR:
Tanks: Warrior >= Pala >> Druid
Healer: all quite good to have, useful to have at least 1 each
DPS: BM Hunter/Destro Lock/Warrior > Rogue/Mage > Shaman > Both Druids/Priest/Pala