It's been a week since the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands pre-patch arrived with massive changes ahead of the expansion launch. While many players are busy questing through previous expansions in the revamped leveling experience, a number of class changes means the competitive tier list for all roles have shifted significantly.
All classes received updates such as unpruned spells, talents becoming baseline, or even redesigned abilities which change playstyles compared to their Battle for Azeroth iterations. Additionally, the removal of corrupted items further cripples some specs that heavily relied on them to stay on top of the damage charts. Although nothing is unplayable, anyone still trying to raid during the pre-patch should be aware of how each class ranks now based off the most recent log data.
Tank Pre-Patch Rankings
- Protection Paladin
- Protection Warrior
- Guardian Druid
- Blood Death Knight
- Brewmaster Monk
- Vengeance Demon Hunter
In a surprising twist, Protection Paladin has shot up to 1st place because of the Azerite trait Light's Decree which deals AOE damage during Avenging Wrath. Combined with multiple talents and Azerite traits, Avenging Wrath will be active more often than every 3 minutes which translates into more AOE burst compared to the other tank specs.
Following up, Blood Death Knight has suffered heavily with the removal of the Ossuary talent which reduced the runic power cost of their iconic damage and healing spell Death Strike. More importantly, the Twilight Devastation corruption which fired an AOE beam based off maximum health is also gone and low scaling across remaining spells means the Blood spec will have to settle for a lower position currently.
Healer Pre-Patch Rankings
- Holy Priest
- Restoration Shaman
- Discipline Priest
- Restoration Druid
- Mistweaver Monk
- Holy Paladin
Holy Priest has reclaimed the top spot because of talented and new baseline AOE that continues to synergize well with Azerite traits and their multiple raid cooldowns. Restoration Shaman is right behind since their single-target and AOE spells received increased scaling that makes them much more effective despite increased mana costs.
On the other hand, Holy Paladin's reliance on the Ineffable Truth corruption to keep Avenging Wrath up means dropping to dead last since its removal. Furthermore, Crusader Strike now costs mana which complicates its role in the rotation along with other healing spells. Finally, the addition of Holy Power as a resource means players must spend more time relearning the spec rotation compared to other World of Warcraft healers.
DPS Pre-Patch Rankings
- Shadow Priest
- Affliction Warlock
- Arcane Mage
- Beast Mastery Hunter
- Frost Mage
- Unholy Death Knight
- Elemental Shaman
- Markmanship Hunter
- Destruction Warlock
- Fire Mage
- Balance Druid
- Survival Hunter
- Outlaw Rogue
- Retribution Paladin
- Frost Death Knight
- Subtlety Rogue
- Arms Warrior
- Assassination Rogue
- Enhancement Shaman
- Windwalker Monk
- Havoc Demon Hunter
- Fury Warrior
- Demonology Warlock
- Feral Druid
While the DPS rankings have shifted the most since pre-patch, Shadow Priest's complete rework and incredible synergy with the Azerite trait Spiteful Apparition reigns supreme in the charts. However, other specs like Arms Warrior and Demonology Warlock that stacked full Expedient corruptions for haste dropped double digits compared to the competition.
In the end, these rankings only reflect recent mythic performance and every class spec remains playable in PvE and PvP currently. Note that the tier lists drastically change once everyone gets access to Covenants, Soulbinds, and other Shadowlands powers.
World of Warcraft is available on PC.
Source: Wowhead