Mastering WoW PvP: Class Tier Rankings and Insights for the Upcoming Patch

We examine the upcoming WoW patch’s class rankings through a PvP lens, revealing where each class stands and what changes to expect. Listeners gain insights into individual class strengths and weaknesses, preparing them for the competitive landscape ahead.
• Frost Death Knight struggles at D tier due to low survivability
• Unholy Death Knight ranks C tier with decent pressure but consistent challenges
• Demon Hunters elevate to A tier with recent buffs and synergies
• Balance Druid shows promise in A tier with updated talents
• Feral Druid sits in B tier due to anticipated nerfs
• Resto Druid remains at B tier, hindered by global intensive mechanics
• Evoker struggles for utility, with Pres Evoker at S tier
• Marksman and Beast Mastery Hunters rank A tier, sustaining competitive viability
• Mage rankings show Frost and Arcane in A tier while Fire is C tier
• Mistweaver Monk rises to S tier due to exceptional healing capabilities
• Holy Paladin falls to C tier following nerfs, while Retribution stays strong in A tier
• Both Priest specs struggle at B tier but Shadow Priest manages A tier
• Rogues find themselves in B tier with mixed performance expectations
• Shaman specs vary widely with Resto Shamans landing in A tier
• Warlocks and Warriors maintain a strong position in A tier with solid plays

Hope you all enjoy and hope you relate to any of these stories. And I will speak to you all in the next episode!

Want some 3D printed Merch, find it here!
https://pigandwhistletales.etsy.com

Support the show here:

• https://www.buzzsprout.com/1196870/support
• patreon.com/Pigandwhistle
• https://www.buymeacoffee.com/PigandWhistle

Socials :
Twitch : https://www.twitch.tv/pigandwhistletales
Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAOi6rHO3x90lOmmb82Jv1w
Website : https://www.pigandwhistletales.com/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/pigandwhistletales/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/PigAndWhistleTales

Try out Buzzsprout yourself! https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1154066

Listen to the podcast on other platforms:
https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/pig-whistle-tales-from-azeroth-gabriel-nsa902LrQVw/
https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/pig-whistle-tales-from-azeroth-1315927
https://open.spotify.com/show/5ZTkLtQvRSm4PStUfZquWk
https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/3032607

The Music at the start is from Tony Catch they do many amazing cover songs for games you can find the link here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHiF0dAkbpPMtQSwvAxcapQ

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:39

Music do. Hello and welcome to the Pig and Whistle Tales from Azeroth. As always here at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind, I go through a variety of subjects with regards to World of Warcraft. I grab a bottle or a pint, sit back and enjoy this midweek episode. As promised, I'll be going over a tier list on where I think the next sort of patch will leave us in terms of classes. Now I can do supports, not supports. Sorry, I've been playing too many games. I can do healers and DPS Tanks.

Speaker 1: 1:23

I'm afraid I'm not putting on the list because I have more of a pvp perspective of this. Um. So I'm really sorry if you are a tank or wanted to hear the tank, but I cannot give you a solid sort of tier list on it. Um, I can only do it from a pvp perspective and, to be honest, all tanks in pvp are pretty much f tier. So this tier list will range from s tier being at the very top to d tier, which I think are going to perform less uh well than others in my honest opinion. So, and again, this is very much from a pvp standpoint. So we will be going over why it might be good, why it might be bad, why it might be a stupid decision or whatever, but this is where I have put them. So if you have any sort of disputes, please do realize that this is my own opinion.

Speaker 1: 2:12

Okay, we'll start off with DK, because DKs it will do this numerically, not numerically alphabetically. So DKs, frost DK. I have put this in D tier. Okay, now, the reason I put this in uh d tier. Okay now, the reason I put this in d tier is because frost is very much a setup based uh class. It has slowly been getting better, it's better than what it was in dragonflight, but I still think that it's going to underperform, especially with the nerfs to the survivability of DK in general, not just Frost DK. I think that this is going to really weaken the value of it and it means that DKs, frost DKs, for example, will only be played in very specific comps. I'd say DK Boomy, frost DK Boomy or Frost DK Devavoka, something like this. This is where they will be played and you wouldn't see much else of them anywhere else, I'm afraid. So that's where I'm going to put Frost DK. For Unholy DK they are one above C tier into the C tier. Now, this is mainly because Unholy has a lot more pressure and it has a bit of a different DPS output when it comes to consistently out-damaging your opponents Now, or not out-damaging, but consistent damage. Frost DK very much has burst windows and if you get shut down on your burst window you're kind of useless. Unholy DK, on the other hand, can utilize the consistent damage to a very good basis, but again, I think this is going to be a lot lower because you're going to be looking at sort of playing in a melee cleave with unholy decay, and your survivability, being hit quite hard, is going to have a massive impact on you. So this is where I think that you will be dropping down into the lower tiers, mainly due to the fact of your survivability going down by quite a substantial amount.

Speaker 1: 4:07

For Demon Hunters, I have put you at a B tier, a very high B tier. Now. I say this because over the past few patches we've also been getting a slight increase in buffs for DHs. Now this is something that we call a power creep. All right, now, a power creep is essentially when a class slowly gets buffed until everything else is nerfed and then you're basically the top dog. Yeah, so you didn't get a massive buff to just make you top dog. You slowly got buffs and then whoever was at the top got buffed or nerfed sorry and then you're suddenly the top dog kind of thing.

Speaker 1: 4:49

I think it's a very high b tier. You know what scratch that? I'm going a tier, it's going to be put into a tier. Um, I think that it's in a very solid spot. I think it just needs a few things to get weaker, and I think that that is what is going to happen, because I think the thing that keeps demon hunters out of the equation at the moment is rogues. Rogues are so good at shutting down dks or demon hunters. I think that's where, um, you're going to see a bit more demon hunters when rogues slowly fade out of the meta, if they ever do. That is so an A tier for Havoc, demon Hunter, for Druids now, obviously we have a few Druid specs, but we will start off with the balanced Druid. So for me, I'm going to put in an A tier. Now, you can put me as biased, you can do whatever.

Speaker 1: 5:41

I think this is an A slash B tier. I don't think it's going to be bad, I don't think it's going to be great. I need to test out the talents myself, but I think that some of the talent changes that Boonmeat got they weren't even talent changes really. They were just shifting talents from a bad position into a better one. I think that this is going to open up the talent tree a lot more and allow you to take a bit more, a few bits and pieces that you actually want, rather than shit that you don't.

Speaker 1: 6:10

Essentially, feral I am going to put Feral at a B tier Now. Feral has been very good, but they are getting a lot of nerfs in this patch, mainly due to their rip and ferocious bite damage, if I'm not mistaken. And again, feral can just be looked at once you get their wall and essentially you're dead. I'm also putting it at a B tier mainly because it's quite hard to learn for newer players and some people might not have the time to learn. It is very complicated, it's very intensive in terms of its global cooldown usage, so it's very tough and I think that that doesn't lend itself to uh, like the tier system.

Speaker 1: 6:57

But I think the b tier is a very solid place for it to be. I don't think it's great, I don't think it's awful, though I think it's going to be a very middle of the range. You're going to have your great comps with it, which is hunter for jungle. You're going to have your mage, feral. You're going to have what other things go with feral. See, that's the problem. Not many things. That's why it's b tier, because it doesn't have that flexibility I would say for resto druid. Now, resto druid obviously got a bit of changes, and mostly buffs, in my opinion, but I still think it's going to come in at a solid b tier. Now, the reason for this is because purges exist in the game and a lot of the buffs are mainly due to. Some of them are due to damage or down to damage, um. But the thing is it's so global, intensive, you're having to put all hots up on the target and the thing is, if you fall behind on your hots, you're going to struggle. You will simply struggle and it's not going to be fun for you. It is that simple. It's it's awful, but it is that simple, um. So I think it's a solid b tier.

Speaker 1: 8:04

We don't really know exactly how big of an impact this new tree form is. I know that you're immune to cc and stuff, but you're very slow, so you can't kind of like guardian angel or spirit of redemption. You can't reposition on the fly or be very active or mobile. You kind of need to sit there, heal your team and then hopefully they don't go out, go out of your los, but who knows, who knows with resto druids. So b is a very safe spot. If I had to guess, I'm going with c tier. Um, if it was to go either way, up to an a or down to a c tier, I would honestly push it down to a c tier, but only time will tell. With resto druids or evokers, you're looking at devastation and org or devastation, org and um press evokers or org evokers. You're going to be at the bottom of the barrel, I'm afraid.

Speaker 1: 8:56

For pvp d tier is where you're staying. Okay, you offer nothing. Really you're just a awful dps because you have to cast a lot, which is a bit of a shame, but I like the experimentation they did in dragonflight with this. But yeah, you're just. The casting really does kill an auger voker in arenas. You can't get anything off. Therefore you're kind of useless. And with the survivability, going down for uh auger vokers, it's just not great all around. Going down for uh auger vocas, it's just not great all around, whatever vocas.

Speaker 1: 9:29

I'm putting you at a c tier. Now, the reason that I'm putting you at a c tier is because, firstly, um, I don't like evokas no, no, I'm joking. Um, firstly, mainly because you only have one ability disintegrate. If you get kicked on it. It's kind of shit. Secondly, your range actually hinders you quite a fair amount. Um, thirdly, again, you're only good with certain compositions dk, dev, dev evoker, maybe a rogue and dev evoker, but nothing really beyond that in my honest opinion.

Speaker 1: 9:59

And then we have the first S tier of the list Presovoka. They got no changes, pretty much. They got one where your Dream Breath now heals yourself and five injured allies was five injured allies, it's just yeah, um, prez Evoker hasn't changed. But Prez Evoker is on the boundary of being S tier this patch already, and with everything else dropping off, like Resto Druids and pre-skinning reworks and stuff, I think it's easily going to be up there. You have a Purge, you have a stun, you have a sleep CC, you have damage, you have healing, you have big cooldown usage such as Rew, emerald communion, you have it all. And I think prez is easily going to be an s tier. It really, really is, and honestly, keep an eye out for it because it's going to be there for a while.

Speaker 1: 10:52

I'd say now, looking at hunters, hunters are going to be tough to gauge because they are getting a rework while mm hunter is. But genuinely I think mm hunter might be 80. So you have jungle with it. You have boomy hunter. Hunters can just be in any sort of annoying comp that's going to be doing a lot of burst damage. You can have like uh hunter warrior, for example not amazing, but it can still do the job. But like these sort of things can just burst you down without having to cc. And if that fails, hunter does bring the cc. So I would say mm hunter is a very optimistic, a tier. Very optimistic because I haven't really seen enough to give it a four. Yeah, it's good or not kind of um grade, but I'm going to be optimistic and say A for the rework, genuinely. Also, I saw that they can move while casting aim shot. Now what the hell is that? That's some bonkers. But yeah, a tier for MM hunters.

Speaker 1: 11:52

For BM hunters I've gone A tier as well. Nothing much is changing with them. There's a few bits and bobs that are obviously um getting changed, but nothing that's like majorly impactful for your usual current kit. So stuff like barrage is getting updated, like more damage, less focus costs, etc. But you don't really take that at the moment and with other things being or staying the same or being buffed, I think that you're going to stay at a healthy A tier, maybe even going into S tier as the sort of DPS, but it's very tough to say. I would say very much A tier for BM hunters. Still, for survival hunters, I've gone a tier lower with them, mainly gone to B tier, and the drawback is obviously you have a lot of melee complications to deal with when you become a survival hunter. Now, again, not really much has changed for survival hunters. You have a few balance updates, but mostly it's just fixed an issue or this has been updated, this has been updated and no real. This is a damage increase, this is a damage increase. That's a nerfed kind of deal. So this is why I put them at b, because you don't really have as much to go on, um, when you're a survival hunter in terms of compositions. Uh, that's why I've gone with uh, b tier for survival hunter.

Speaker 1: 13:18

For mage let's just get this out of the way frost and arcane, mage a tier. Okay, you might be thinking why is frost and arcane in the same tier? Because frost is clearly better. Arcane is a sleeper spec. Um, what I mean by this is it is waiting for one person to play it in awc, maybe like cubsy or something, and everyone will be like, yeah, this spec is busted, it's absolutely busted. Arcane is a sleeper spec. Honestly, it can disintegrate you so quickly. Um, if you get the damage off right and if you get the right setups and stuff, it is honestly so, so good. But people are sleeping on it because it is a very tough spec to actually get going. So it very much depends on the meta and if everything is super fast paced, I don't know if it will have a spot in the meta. If that's the case, then it will drop down to a B tier.

Speaker 1: 14:16

But so far I'm putting Arcane Mage at A and Frost Mage always going to be good. You have your Mage locks, you have your RMPs, you have all of them sort of comps and Frost is usually the go-to for most of these comps. Always going to be good for Fire. Okay, fire Mage has had it rough. It's had it really, really rough this past patch. Now I'm going to be very generous to it. I will be very generous and put it at ct. It's. It doesn't look like it's going to improve anytime soon. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm really sorry, fire mage, but yeah, you don't look like you're going to improve and it's sad. Um, I hope that you do, but I hope you don't get as crazy as you did in shadowlands where you press combust and 20 things die within 0.2 seconds. But the buffs and stuff are mainly due to mythic plus buffs and nerfs, that is, they are for mythic plus players. So on a pvp standpoint, I don't think you're going to get in most groups if you are fire mage, unfortunately.

Speaker 1: 15:22

Moving on to monk Now Mistweaver monk when is this gone? This has gone as the last S tier. Okay, now hear me out on this. Mistweaver monk now does 1.8 mil grit with their Crackling Jade Lightning. Okay, it's ticking for about 1.2 mil if you can get the right um buffs on you at the time and that ticks for five times. So what's that? Six mil, something like that? Um, that's really good, because a average player's health in pvp in the next patch is about nine mil, so you can almost solo someone in three seconds with crackling jade lightning. Always good fun, isn't it?

Speaker 1: 16:05

Um, not to mention shayloons gift being an instant cast on a 40 second cooldown. Technically, uh, and I know it doesn't have a cooldown, but the like mists that you produce, uh, fill up the charges for shayloons and it takes 40 seconds to get all the charges. So I'm passing it as a 40 second cooldown. Instant cast heals them for pretty much their entire health bar. Amazing, um, yeah, they're gonna be a fucking menace. They're gonna be an absolute menace to try and kill, to try and like kill through their cooldowns. They're getting everything buffed, including, like the other hero talents, celestial uh conduit where it just does more damage.

Speaker 1: 16:48

But I don't get that, because why would you ever go off of aspect of harmony? If you're doing pvp, your chi cocoon absorbs more damage. Your yulon's getting buffed with more healing. You're you're just getting buffed all around. That's why I've put it in s here. It's very solid, healing wise. It just lacks the sort of damage and the utility but or not utility but the damage. But that damage is there and it has been there since the start of um season one. To be honest, with the rushing wind, kick build um. But yeah, people will just be lightning, lightning using the crackling jade lightning from about 40 yards away, killing people very easily. It is what it is. I'm really sorry but s?

Speaker 1: 17:33

Tier for misdweaver monk and I'm loving it, and all for it. For wind walker monk, I've put them at a solid, solid 80 now. They recently got nerfed on their karma but the damage that they're getting and the sort of other bits and bobs that are kind of uh, floating around windwalker, as well as everything else getting a bit worse, I would say it puts them at a very healthy 80. Um, because you obviously have your TP, you have Diffuse Magic Karma, you have your Wall in the Fortify Brew, you have multiple different ways to save yourself and your damage getting increased. You know that's pretty good. It's pretty, pretty good. I would say a solid A and if you're good at the class, yes, you can definitely do wondrous things with Windwalker Monk.

Speaker 1: 18:23

Paladin For Holy Paladin, I'm putting it at a C tier. I'm really sorry. The recent nerfs to Lightsmith are so substantial that it's going to be gutted. I'm afraid Lightsmith is going to be absolutely gutted and the thing is they're not offsetting this with buffs to Dawnlight, so Dawnlight is still going to be very meh to like play with. I'm not gonna lie, it's not looking good for you paladins. All you get is holy shock, damage increase and stuff, um, and a small bit of healing increase, but honestly, the hero talents are getting nerfed like massively. I don't think you're going to be looking at a lot. Plus, if you're a holy paladin, you lose two uh bops. Now you can either go for one spell bop, one physical bop. You don't get two anymore in the game, so there's one of your cooldowns already gone. You just straight up don't have it anymore, so enjoy that. Um. Yeah, it's got to be a c tier, I'm afraid, for me, for holy paladins.

Speaker 1: 19:29

As for ret paladins, they are very much on the higher scale of things. I've put them at an a tier now. Ret paladins are very simple, um, spec wise. They don't have a lot of buttons, they have very good defensive utility and none of this is really getting changed all that much. So yes, I would put them at an eight here because they have very good comps. They have cupid, cleave, ret, warrior, um, as main staple points of these comps. But yeah it, nothing's really changing with ret and I think those passes that don't change apart from, obviously, mr Evil Monk, probably will be the more benefit benefactors, the beneficiaries of this patch. It's that simple, in my opinion.

Speaker 1: 20:18

For Priest, now, both Disc and Holy are getting big reworks. Disc and Holy, I've put in B tier and this is a very generous B tier. I think that this can go more towards C tier than A tier. Okay, so low B, we'll put them at low B tier. Now, the main reason for this is because this, priest, yes, it's getting a lot of changes, you're getting more stuff put into your normal sort of kit, but you're losing Rapture. Now.

Speaker 1: 20:47

Rapture is one of your biggest cooldowns in the game. It's so, so good, um, and I don't know if what they've baked into your like um other spells is going to offset that. Genuinely, I don't think it's going to offset that and I think that you're going to be stuck in sort of a oh shit, I'm out of buttons, what do I do? Kind of deal and you're just not going to have anything. Or, holy priest, I think that they're trying to circle it around, this renew and hot build, but in pvp it's just gonna get purged and it's not gonna be great with apotheosis getting like nerfed as well, um, nerfed and buffed kind of deal, um, with longer duration or less cooldown, um, but the cooldowns on your holy wood serenity charges, uh, recharge a lot less faster. It's 200 now instead of 300, so it's a big sort of nerf to that. So I've put it in b, both of these specs, but I expect them to go down to c more so than go up to a.

Speaker 1: 21:50

As for shadow Shadow Priest, I've put this in A. I think this is a very good sleeper spec. Again, I think that it lends itself to a lot of the other classes quite well, such as Feral Demon Hunters, warriors, anything like that. Any melee Shadow Priest seem to get along with relatively well, so I think that they are a sleeper sort of a like a. What is it? A tier? Yeah, a tier. Again, nothing got changed with Shadow Priest, so the winners at the moment are those that have had no changes to them essentially.

Speaker 1: 22:30

But that isn't to say, by the way, I do not like these changes. I love that they are changing so many things about classes consistently. I really, really do, and I think that they need to do more of it. I really do because it allows people to say, yes, this was really enjoyable and something that we should do more like try and mess around with the class a bit more. Or it's like, no, this was really enjoyable and something that we should do more, like try and mess around with the class a bit more. Or it's like, no, this was awful, just stick to small changes. But I think a lot of people like the change up quite heavily.

Speaker 1: 23:00

To be honest with you, or rogues now rogues are a tough one. Um, there's usually one outlier with rogue Now I've put this as Assassination Rogue. Now, assault Rogue is such an annoyance with the multiple Garote silences, the CC that you still have on demand. But I think the main thing about this is Outlaw got a little change. Oh no, it got no changes, sorry. Neither did Sub. Well, well, all of the rogue specs didn't, basically, but sub did lose shadowy jewel, which is huge for them. It is a massive um loss for sub rogues to lose that pvp talent and outlaw rogues are just going to be a little bit less tanky when it comes to PvP. So I think that sub and outlaw are B tier, but the damage that Acer rogues can bring is going to put them in that A tier. Now, this is a very low A tier, but you can see why I think that demon hunters, going back to that point are going to be a bit higher because rogues will not be as rampant. But only time will tell with rogues.

Speaker 1: 24:13

Rogues are very weird. It can be hit or miss with them or shamans. Now shamans have a few specializations enhance, ellie and resto. I've put these all in different um tier lists or tiers. So we'll start from c tier. C tier and this one might surprise you is ellie shaman and people might be thinking well, that's fucking stupid. Ellie shaman losing the primordial wave where it hits every single target To put out spread pressure Is crazy. It very much depends on If Primordial Wave starts one shotting people, then they'll be good. But honestly I don't see it impacting as much. I see it doing maybe 2 mil damage At the peak, but I don't see it doing any more than that and I don't think that they have the kill potential that they probably would In this season. So that more than that, and I don't think that they have the kill potential that they probably would in this season like. So that's why I've put them at C.

Speaker 1: 25:16

For B tier I've gone Enhance. Now Enhance is getting a very unique rework. It kind of is a rework but isn't. But a lot of stuff is getting updated, so they're getting more consistent damage, they're getting less clutter on the screen, they're getting a lot less, you know, just shit show in general, to say the least. Um, which is always good. And I think that the buffs, that they've got their totemic, uh, hero class is going to be the outlier as to why they are in b tier now.

Speaker 1: 25:48

Obviously, they don't have many compositions. They have Turbo Cleave with Warrior, they maybe have DK Enhance, bm Enhance, stuff like that, but you don't really have many, and I think this is what brings it down, because it doesn't really synergize with a lot, which is a bit of a shame For A tier, though Resto Shaman Now Resto Shaman is in a very good spot, but I think what's going to push up to that A tier is that Earth Shield change, that Earth Shield change where the stacks do no longer go down. Instead, all that can be done is purge it. I think that's the change that's going to keep them up, because it means that they don't have to press Earth Shield as much. Therefore, it frees up a global, a global 2cc kick anything or anything like that. Disrupt the enemy team. It's going to be good. It's simple as that.

Speaker 1: 26:43

Or warlocks now warlocks. I think most of them are going to be a very solid pick. Where have I put warlocks? Hold on, I'm just trying to find them on my Okay, yeah, yeah, I put them all at A tier. Now I don't think there's going to be an awful warlock spec. I think all of them are solid right now.

Speaker 1: 27:10

I think demonology is the tougher one because obviously you always have to cast, but I think all of them are in a solid spot. You obviously have your compositions. You have Mage Warlock for the main one, you have Shadowplay. These are the two main compositions. You see Aflox, or just yeah, aflox getting the Soul Rot redesign is going to be huge for their survivability.

Speaker 1: 27:33

Um, demonology warlocks have slowly always been on the brink of being good. They're never awful, they're never like super meta. They've always been on the brink of breaking through and other classes kind of gatekeep them from doing that. So I think if these classes fall then the gates are wide open for Demonology Warlock. For Destro Lock, it's currently being played quite a lot, so I don't see it moving all that much. And with the Dimensional Ripper-like change where essentially you can just proc a Dimensional Rift from your Immolate or Wither, this is going to be more consistent damage, which warlocks do lack. They do lack a fair amount of consistent damage. You're very much a chaos bolt build at the moment just sending in big hits of like damage. So I see all warlocks as being a tier in my honest opinion, because the compositions they run with, as well as again not getting changed that much for warriors.

Speaker 1: 28:33

Now, warriors, I've moved a little bit, I just need to find them. So I've put both arms and fury in a. A lot of people are saying fury's going to be dead. I don't think so. I don't think there's enough changes for fury warrior to warrant them being dead. They are very, very good right now. They have such high single target pressure. They have so much to like prove because obviously in previous expansions not many people played fury warrior. It was kind of dog shit for most expansions. So I don't think fury warriors are going anywhere anytime soon. They bring so much pressure, they bring so much utility with intervene fears. They obviously have the strong ms. They always do same with arms warriors. Um, they have such good pressure and I don't see them going anywhere anytime soon. So a tier for both warriors for me.

Speaker 1: 29:26

But what do you guys think? Honestly, I don't think I've done bad. I think there might be a couple that I'm very ambitious for, mm hunters being one of them. I might have rated resto druid a bit too harshly. Same with fire mage, dev evoker, um ellie shaman is the most questionable one in my honest opinion. But I think the only two s tier classes that you're going to have, or specs, is that Prez and Mistweaver bunk. I don't think anything else gets near them. I think that they are going to be crazy as it stands right now. It really really does look good these two specs. But that is where I will end it for this episode. Thank you all very much for listening. Do check out all of the socials down below constant stuff happening over there, as well as stuff on Etsy more and more bits and pieces going up constantly. But thank you all very much once again and go. Eval a friend, goodbye all. Thank you.