Which class has the easiest DPS rotation?

[gunchix]

And I find this the HARDEST to play. spens ome hours on it and realized I would never learn it to a degree that it would be useful. In wotlk I mained demo lock, nowadays I find it very confusing.

tbh, it was a bit weird when we got the new talents and stuff. But after some heroics I got used to it.
Btw try demo for a multi target fight, such as stone guards or wind lord. keep doom up on all targets and you'll see some nice numbers. (it's what I've seen that many demo locks forget about multidotting doom). And include imps in your starter rotation.

[Reyzzz]

the easiest dps rotation: guardian druid.

[Athorha]

Honestly it depends on what kind of player you are. Some people pick up melee rotations really quickly and in general would find most / all melee rotations to be incredibly easy compared to ranged. Vice versa, and less often can people pickup on both types of rotations.

As for which is easiest, in general no rotation is incredibly difficult and no answer can be given simply for the above reason. It's subjective to the player. But from a strict number viewpoint I'd say it goes to the class/spec which has the lowest apm, not saying it's a good way to judge difficulty but generally speaking what's the difference between pressing 1-1-2-1-1-2-1-1-3 and pressing 1-3-4-5-1-2-7-3-4-1-2-3-5 ? By now (reaching level 90) hopefully you've begun to understand where each key is and what action they perform, and after an additional 24-48 hours of raiding muscle memory usually can perform a series of tasks no matter how complicated (in terms of pressing keybinds) with very little thought put into it.

[Thorim]

Balance really isn't too taxing past the opener (repeat every 3 minutes) you basically just press one button (Wrath or Starfire) keeping dots up and SS on CD/proc.

[Xzan]

You guys make it sound like complicated rotations/priorities are somewhat good for the game. Well, in my opinion it's not so. I like to keep things simple. So the easier the spec is to play, the better. There always is some depth, so there always will be difference between better and worse players.

But then again I was completely fine with spamming Shadowbolt while keeping dots rolling and watching out for the pesky Felguard in tier5 raids (god bless Void Star Talisman that made demonology raiding somewhat possible back then). And I was even fine with spamming just the Shadowbolt as destro later on...

Complicated playstyles may be rewarding when you do it right and top the meters. But combined with some complicated encounters it quickly becomes a pain to play and you'll just be bitter that you gotta click your ass off for mediocre results when someone with less fubar rotation/priority is still doing just fine..
Ergo complicated playstyles are bad.

[Cybran]

shadow priest is real easy - from my experience there isnt a massive gap in dps between good and bad spriests.

I agree with this. I used to enjoy topping the meters in Cata, but haven't even leveled my Spriest past 86. It's too damn easy to play now.

[tyry]

This thread is stupid. You can easily argue that feral druid is the only difficult dps spec to play this expansion. Pretty much pick anything else and your raid awareness will instantly increase.

I'd recommend ranged dps though. It's much easier to see everything that's going on from range and positioning usually isn't as important as melee. Usually.

[Rorschachs]

From what I have seen in mop so far..

There is a big dps difference between good and bad players playing these specs :

Fire Mage
Demonology Warlock
Fury Warrior
Arms Warrior
Balance Druid
Feral Druid
Hunters

but there is very little dps gap between good and bad players playing one of these specs :

Arcane Mage
Frost Mage
Enhancement Shaman
Elemental Shaman
Shadow Priest
DKs
Retribution Paladin
Destro Lock
Affliction Lock
Rogues
Monks

I don't know if this is just because I have raided with some bad people.. I don't know. But this is what I've observed.

[Deleted]

---------- Post added 2013-01-14 at 12:10 PM ----------

From what I have seen in mop so far..

There is a big dps difference between good and bad players playing these specs :

Fire Mage
Demonology Warlock
Fury Warrior
Arms Warrior
Balance Druid
Feral Druid
Hunters

but there is very little dps gap between good and bad players playing one of these specs :

Arcane Mage
Frost Mage
Enhancement Shaman
Elemental Shaman
Shadow Priest
DKs
Retribution Paladin
Destro Lock
Affliction Lock
Rogues
Monks

I don't know if this is just because I have raided with some bad people.. I don't know. But this is what I've observed.

I know you've stated that this is based upon your own personal observations, but from playing a Retribution Paladin as my main char since before 2.3, I can tell you that there is still a difference in MOP between a "good" Ret paladin and a "bad" Ret paladin. Heck, even with a HC blue weapon I was keeping up with fully geared Rets with amped up Shin'Ka's; and yes, they weren't afk, as they were actually popping cd's in fights, and this showed in boss fights.

---------- Post added 2013-01-14 at 12:11 PM ----------

If you haven't played every spec then you can't answer this question.

---

I'm inclined to go along with this too, however, as I said in a previous post, an Arcane Mages rotation is trivial. I couldn't imagine another spec having a simpler rotation that allows for such snoozefest. I mean, 3 single target offensive spells, and 2-3 aoe offensive spells depending upon your distance from the mobs makes life easy on the fingers and cortisol levels. With the in built graphical aura proc notifications, your only having to watch your Arcane charge stacks and manage your mana, which is something all mana dependant classes do, granted there is a difference though. To make matters yet more trivial, you can even have all your CD's macro'd to 1 button, as all cd timers correspond with one another (granted a glyph is need for all of them to be on the same timer). I don't know, it just feels so...leisurely compared to the other spec's that I've played - I just don't feel stressed in the slightest when i'm playing my Arcane Mage.

[gulder]

---------- Post added 2013-01-14 at 12:10 PM ----------



I know you've stated that this is based upon your own personal observations, but from playing a Retribution Paladin as my main char since before 2.3, I can tell you that there is still a difference in MOP between a "good" Ret paladin and a "bad" Ret paladin. Heck, even with a HC blue weapon I was keeping up with fully geared Rets with amped up Shin'Ka's; and yes, they weren't afk, as they were actually popping cd's in fights, and this showed in boss fights.

---------- Post added 2013-01-14 at 12:11 PM ----------

---

I'm inclined to go along with this too, however, as I said in a previous post, an Arcane Mages rotation is trivial. I couldn't imagine another spec having a simpler rotation that allows for such snoozefest. I mean, 3 single target offensive spells, and 2-3 aoe offensive spells depending upon your distance from the mobs makes life easy on the fingers and cortisol levels. With the in built graphical aura proc notifications, your only having to watch your Arcane charge stacks and manage your mana, which is something all mana dependant classes do, granted there is a difference though. To make matters yet more trivial, you can even have all your CD's macro'd to 1 button, as all cd timers correspond with one another (granted a glyph is need for all of them to be on the same timer). I don't know, it just feels so...leisurely compared to the other spec's that I've played - I just don't feel stressed in the slightest when i'm playing my Arcane Mage.

For a moment I considered leveling my mage... then I realized that even if they added 5 abilities to the hunter and removed 3 of the mage's ones I would still prefer a hunter. We play what we like I suppose.

I may need to grow a third arm though.

[Deleted]

I've been maining my ele shaman for ~2 years now and I would have agreed with most of you about having a pretty simple rotation (along with rogues, mages, fdks and imo also warriors). Thing is, I've never thought of myself as a very good player. Betterthan average at most. But in those 2 years I've been playing my shaman I've met exactly one, ONE single ele shaman who could keep up with my damage. I've mostly raided 25 man, except for DS, and switched guilds quite a bit in that timeframe and I don't know what most people do wrong, but it appers most do something wrong. Before I got into main-raiding with my shaman I would have never imagined that so many (talking about a sample size of maybe 50 ele shamans with comparable gear here) would perform so sub-par in terms of pulling dps.

I still think ele is a pretty simple spec. I just have a different view on the people who play ele nowadays... To be fair though, it's probably the playerbase in general, since there are possibly the same amount of sub-par players in every spec/class group. Ele shamans simply got highlighted for me.

[Saegno]

Assassination Rogues and Fire/Arcane Mages.

[Lethora]

I know you've stated that this is based upon your own personal observations, but from playing a Retribution Paladin as my main char since before 2.3, I can tell you that there is still a difference in MOP between a "good" Ret paladin and a "bad" Ret paladin. Heck, even with a HC blue weapon I was keeping up with fully geared Rets with amped up Shin'Ka's; and yes, they weren't afk, as they were actually popping cd's in fights, and this showed in boss fights.

Exactly this. I'm seeing differences of up to 20k dps when I play badly (e.g. being in a bad mood or just not focused enough) and when I play well.
Granted, Ret is my offspec and I only play it on several bosses that require 1 tank, it still shows that spec is very dependent on timing your abilities and hitting them in correct order.

[Saegno]

Exactly this. I'm seeing differences of up to 20k dps when I play badly (e.g. being in a bad mood or just not focused enough) and when I play well.
Granted, Ret is my offspec and I only play it on several bosses that require 1 tank, it still shows that spec is very dependent on timing your abilities and hitting them in correct order.

To be fair, this can be said of pretty much any class.
Sure on my assa rogue I could just spam mut to 5cp and envenom as soon as I have the energy for it, never use vanish, not line up CDs, not pool energy and execute the "rotation" just fine, sans a huge chunk of DPS.
There will always be that line between a good and a bad player and it extends beyond simple execution of the rotation. That doesn't mean the rotation is any harder though, just playing the class better is.

[SunbakedDuck]

its pretty funny to read all of these... im 99% sure that the guys who say like " rogue is sooo EZmode " are they kind of people who just do average dps and not heroic raid quality... for example back in cata when i was playing i manage to do +40 k dps with my rogue at only ilvl 378 , outdpsing all those people who were in full DS gear already etc..np beating people +390 ilvl .. back when cata you came out , were you pulling off 20k dps in 5man gear or around 12k like the majority of players , hmm?

[Aqua]

...I've heard everyone complaining about every dps class at one point. I would say all of them are easy. All have a slight learning curve. Learning to use everything a class has to offer with that spec is what it takes to master them.

All classes go through this curve. You might just find one easier/smoother than the other. But I think it boils down to preference.

For example. My friend cannot get their head around ret paladin no matter how much I insist it's simple. Me? I can't play rogues. It's a combination of a lack of will to learn and just not liking the feel of them. Everyone has their preferences. I find caster classes really easy but I can't stand playing them. I like melee. I like what I play. And I just stumbled upon it by chance. No one told me 'hey play this, it's super easy brah'. I just played it, something clicked. And I was hooked.

[Toxigen]

Disc Priest

[Deleted]

Windwalker Monks hands down, 2 buffs to keep up, 1 which is usually a free proc, 1 DPS ability to keep on CD, no major CDs unless you took Xuen in last tier. Other than that, rotation is spamming Jab and Blackout Kick.

And you apparently have no idea.

[Aldyth]

From what I have seen in mop so far..


but there is very little dps gap between good and bad players playing one of these specs :

Arcane Mage

Completely disagree with you, but maybe I'm inclined to disagree because I'm a mage. Yes, in the simplest form, any fool can play Arcane and pull numbers competitive, perhaps, with other classes. But you should notice a HUGE damage difference between a mediocre Arcane mage and a skilled Arcane mage.

Now, admittedly, a lot of what makes an Arcane mage skilled isn't the DPS rotation. Pre-placing RoP to limit movement, only moving when you have to scorch, pre-planning CD usage in conjuction w/ trinket ICDs, keep 6 charges all throughout the fight no matter what - these are some of the things that determine your spot on the meters. So, from my experience, I guess I could say that Arcane has the easiest rotation (6 charges -> AB(x) x = scorch/NT/AM stay above 90% mana). Doesn't make it the easiest class/spec to play though.

[Tyllis]

I don't think that rotation complexity and playing difficulty are well correlated.

Looking at Mages, Frost has the most buttons to push, but it's easy to maximize, because its cooldowns require little setup and Invocation is used. Arcane is comparatively simple with the button pushing, but proper use of RoP is hard for bosses requiring movement (pretty much all of them).