DPS Rankings for Vault of the Incarnates Raid - Dragonflight Season 1 Tier List

Live Posted 2022/11/28 at 3:08 PM by Dratnos

About the AuthorTwitchYouTubeDisclaimers About This Tier ListOn Raid BuffsMystic TouchDevotion AuraPower Word: FortitudeMark of the WilddoesPatch 11.0 War Within DPS Tier List for Nerub-ar PalaceHow We Ranked the Specs

S: Specs that we expect to dominate the compositions and the damage meters of raid compositions. The average number of copies of specs in this tier is expected to be two or higher, as they bring tremendous amounts of damage with useful damage profiles and often other helpful pieces of utility or defensive options.

A: Great specs that can work well in multiples. We’d be surprised to see raid compositions that are missing at least one copy of these, unless there are other specs of the same class at this tier or higher. High single target damage output is almost always a characteristic of these specs, though many also have several other areas where they excel. Sought-after utility effects are also very common among these specs.

B: Good specs that will be in many but not all of the top performing raid compositions, we expect these to be slightly behind in either damage or utility when compared to the A tier specs, but to still be very frequent choices.

C: Solid specs that would be unsurprising to see a copy of in some raid compositions, but we don’t expect them to be stacked and we wouldn’t be surprised to see them missing from many compositions either. Sometimes these are specs with situational damage profiles that will have value on specific types of fights, and may be incredibly valuable if the important fights of the tier have those damage profiles.

D: Specs with serious issues that are apparent when trying to use them in a raid setting, these may work well in very niche circumstances that rarely appear in raid, but single target damage is typically a big challenge for specs in this tier.There are no DPS in this tier.

F: A spec with horrifying weaknesses that is in immediate need of developer attention and we’d be surprised to see played in many raid compositions at all. There are no DPS in this tier.

Patch 11.0 The War Within DPS Rankings and Explanations

Arcane Mage (S Tier)

Enhancement Shaman (S Tier)

Fury Warrior (S Tier)

Elemental Shaman (A Tier)

Frost Death Knight (A Tier)

Frost Mage (A Tier)

Arms Warrior (A Tier)

Devastation Evoker (A Tier)

Augmentation Evoker (B Tier)

Retribution Paladin (B Tier)

Havoc Demon Hunter (B Tier)

Outlaw Rogue (B Tier)

Subtlety Rogue (B Tier)

Assassination Rogue (B Tier)

Demonology Warlock (B Tier)

Affliction Warlock (B Tier)

Destruction Warlock (B Tier)

Windwalker Monk (B Tier)

Shadow Priest (C Tier)

Feral Druid (C Tier)

Beast Mastery Hunter (C Tier)

Marksmanship Hunter (C Tier)

Survival Hunter (C Tier)

Unholy Death Knight (C Tier)

Fire Mage (C Tier)

Balance Druid (C Tier)

S Tier Specs for Nerub-ar Palace Raid

Arcane looks like it’s going to do BIG DAM this tier! It’s taken a minor nerf during the first week of The War Within, but this nerf has affected the rotation more than the actual damage numbers, which remain incredible. Arcane is in many ways the most fragile Mage spec, lacking Cauterize or Cold Snap, but it’s still a Mage spec which means that it has a million defensive buttons to survive any incoming damage.

Mages of all types bring Arcane Intellect, which is a mandatory raid buff in almost all cases, even post-nerf. This tier, however, we expect Arcane to be strong enough that many guilds will want to play multiple copies.

The Hero Talent decision for Arcane is a non-decision for competitively minded players - Sunfury outperforms Spellslinger in all cases except ones where your damage meter has been turned upside down.

Enhancement has lost the unique Windfury Totem effect that pseudo-locked at least one into high end raid rosters for the last few years, but Shaman as a whole has gained a raid buff in Skyfury. Enhancement looks quite strong on its own merits, doing massive damage especially once it gets its 4-piece set bonus.

Actually using Enhancement in high end content requires significant player skill, as its defensive suite is a bit narrower than most specs’, especially as a Melee DPS that’s often in harm’s way!

Enhancement has access to two interesting Hero Talents, though Stormbringer looks to be both easier to pick up and generally better. The rotation has been widely praised, so if you’ve ever played or liked the idea of Enhancement, this is a great tier to try it out!

Fury is a very cozy melee to play in raid, with a cooldown suite that can be adjusted easily to work well on most encounters of pretty much any amount of targets or add spawn timings. Its overall damage is very high too, though it has quite a weak 4-piece set bonus so it may fall off as players gain their bonuses.

Warriors have brings Battle Shout, which is valuable, and Rallying Cry, which was nerfed substantially in Dragonflight and is much less of a consideration than it used to be. Fury in particular is quite strong defensively with some passive self-healing and a large effective health pool.

Slayer dominates Mountain Thane currently in the Hero Talent decision for Fury Warriors, which is a shame as Mountain Thane is thematically very cool for the spec, though many warriors enjoy the current Slayer playstyle!

A Tier Specs for Nerub-ar Palace Raid

Elemental looks like another solid overall damage dealer, and with the addition of Skyfury they have more of a fighting chance for that raid spot than ever before! Though we’ve tiered Enhancement higher, Elemental may be equally good or even have the edge on later boss fights which feature spread cleave, a damage profile at which they excel.

Elemental is another spec that greatly rewards skilled play, as it does have a limited amount of defensive options. It’s also important to plan ahead for movement or risk being caught standing in the bad or losing a lot of damage to quickly relocate.

Farseer and Stormbringer are both competitive for Elemental, with Farseer having the edge for now in most cases but Stormbringer not too far behind, especially in AoE intensive situations.

Frost DK took a moderate nerf early in The War Within, but it still looks like a solid damage dealer. DPS Death Knights suffer from not having a raid buff, and they have a worse version of Death Grip than Blood Death Knights (25 second cooldown instead of 15 seconds), so sometimes they’re left on the bench after all of the raid buffs, overpowered specs, and corrupt officers total up to 20 players before they’re really considered.

If you’ve been afraid to play Frost because of its reliance on the Breath of Sindragosa playstyle in previous tiers, you’ll be excited to learn that playing without it is viable this tier if you want a straightforward and less punishing rotation, though Breath remains a strong option that may pull ahead in many fights.

For Hero Talents, Frost Death Knights are likely to play Deathbringer over Rider of the Apocalypse in almost all high end cases this tier. Deathbringer is a very fun and satisfying Hero Talent Tree, but we hope future tiers improve the viability of Rider as it has an undeniable coolness factor!

Frost has been outshone by Arcane in the hype wars, but it’s still a powerful spec in its own right! If you’re returning after a long break, Frost is no longer a consistent DPS spec and is instead quite bursty now, with a slightly shorter than 2 minute burst window which might be uniquely effective on the right fight. Frost also shines in stacked 2-target situations due to Splitting Ice, which may well be valuable on the later fights in Nerub-ar Palace.

The downside of Frost is that it’s somewhat punishing to rotational errors, especially with the Spellslinger Hero Talent interactions, and any downtime during Icy Veins is a disaster. Speaking of Hero Talents, Spellslinger does dominate Frostfire for most raid situations, so it is worth learning how to play optimally around Splinterstorm.

Arms does well at two-target situations, but outside of those cases (and even inside of them), Fury is likely to be the easier spec to get good mileage out of, as it also offers a slightly stronger self-healing kit, and can adapt to different cooldown timings and target counts more easily than arms, which tends to be a little more locked into specific burst windows and talent builds for specific target counts.

For the Hero Talent decision, Arms Warriors look likely to use Slayer on most, if not all, encounters as it’s looking stronger in both single target and AoE situations.

Devastation has lived in Augmentation’s shadow ever since that spec’s release. Their damage is not bad but it is hard to compete for a precious raid spot in very high end guilds that already likely have 2 Augmentation Evokers (and potentially a Preservation Evoker!), which is the context of this Tier List. For guilds where that’s not the case, there’s a stronger argument to use a Devastation Evoker to gain access to Evoker utility, but if that utility is redundant then Devastation is just a decent damage dealer with a shorter range than usual and an AoE toolkit that requires mobs to be quite tightly packed.

One further argument in favor of additional Evokers this tier is The War Within's nerfing and consolidation of two powerful Evoker movement effects, Time Spiral and Spatial Paradox. These used to be 2 minute cooldowns, and Spatial Paradox used to be on the Augmentation tree, but now they're both 3 minute CDs and they're a choice node against each other on the Evoker Class Tree, which means if either (probably Time Spiral) is super valuable, more Evokers will be needed to get a similar coverage given the longer CD.

For Hero Talents, Dev Evokers will likely choose Scalecommander for most cases, granting them two of the coolest Hero Talent effects of the whole expansion: Mass Disintegrate and Maneuverability.

B Tier Specs for Nerub-ar Palace Raid

Augmentation is a very polarizing spec, with many among the playerbase loving the support playstyle and others cursing the day it was added to the game. It’s also a spec that varies wildly in value depending on the group - this Tier List is based on optimized high end gameplay, where we think that the first two Augmentation Evokers will be strong and contribute high amounts of DPS on many fights, but that value will fluctuate wildly as the skill levels of the Evokers and their targets change!

Augmentation’s defensive value (both for themselves and other players) and utility kit have been somewhat nerfed going into this expansion, but it remains true that Augmentation brings a bit more in these departments than Devastation.

One problem with Aug on the hardest fights of this tier like Queen Ansurek is that positioning and range are doubly painful with both friendly and enemy range requirements.

Ret Paladin has a tremendous amount of utility, and Paladins do bring Devotion Aura, which is very valuable but is something that most guilds have brought a Holy Paladin for in previous tiers and that trend looks likely to continue into Nerub-ar Palace. That leaves Ret being considered only for its combination of damage and utility, which looked weak all through beta but has dramatically overperformed with the release of Nerub-ar Palace!

A bugfix to Herald of the Sun late in the process also led to the spec overperforming, though we caution against extrapolating a strong Heroic Week performance too much into Mythic - Ret in particular overperforms in an environment like Heroic Week with uncoordinated groups, players dying and proccing free Wings, and specs with more punishing rotations and cooldowns that require more planning doing worse in unfamiliar content. Even after a small nerf to Herald, we do expect Ret to continue to be a solid choice.

Havoc DH is doing more damage than you’d expect based on the somewhat negative community sentiment that’s surrounded the spec during The War Within’s beta cycle. It remains one of two spec options to bring Chaos Brand, a mandatory raid buff even after being nerfed from 5 to 3 percent. Since Vengeance DH doesn’t seem likely to be used by many guilds, it’s therefore required to play a Havoc Demon Hunter, but we do expect that most guilds won’t feel the need to play more than one or two, even though their damage does look competitive in the sims.

Many complaints from the community have been leveled at the playstyle of Havoc this expansion, having lost the very fun Amirdrassil Set Bonuses and being given two Hero Talent trees that have had a mixed reception at best. Aldrachi Reaver does do a solid amount of single target damage, though new Fel-Scarred sims look promising on that end as well, and offer a much more straightforward playstyle. There are also multiple viable builds using different amounts of the movement-focused talents, so if you have a strong preference for or against movement for damage you’ll likely be able to do competitive damage this tier, though of course if you want to be fully optimal you should be able to play all of the builds!

Outlaw has been simming quite well throughout The War Within’s beta and release, but it remains to be seen whether this potential can be realized in the fights in Mythic Nerub-ar Palace. Outlaw has a pretty high degree of reliance on full uptime to maintain its buffs and get full value out of its cooldown reduction effects, plus there is a decent amount of variance in the kit which sometimes scares progression-minded players off to specs that are more reliable from pull to pull so that they can learn what buttons they’re pressing when and then focus more on the fight, rather than reacting to a unique set of rotational variables in addition to the boss’ mechanics.

For Hero Talents, Outlaws look likely to use Fatebound for most encounters, though some of Trickster’s issues are associated with bugs which may be fixed at any time (copium)!

All three Rogue specs bring Atrophic Poison, which is valuable enough that at least one Rogue will likely always be present in top compositions. The fact we’ve tiered them all so close to each other indicates we think that anyone maining any of the three specs should be fine, and top guilds will likely experiment with multiple throughout progression.

Subtlety is a very bursty spec that rewards full uptime and perfect play during cooldown windows. Outside of those windows, it’s not the end of the world to lose some uptime on the boss, though it is still unfortunate if it happens a lot. The playstyle remains similar to the version of Subtlety that existed at the end of Dragonflight, so if you enjoyed playing Subtlety in Amirdrassil you’ll likely enjoy it in Nerub-ar Palace too!

Sub rogues must choose between Trickster and Deathstalker, both of which are plagued by several bugs, but for most encounters if the bugs and tuning remain as they are currently it looks like Trickster is a safe bet in all but pure single target situations, where Deathstalker may have a slight edge.

All three Rogue specs bring Atrophic Poison, which is valuable enough that at least one Rogue will likely always be present in top compositions. The fact we’ve tiered them all so close to each other indicates we think that anyone maining any of the three specs should be fine, and top guilds will likely experiment with multiple throughout progression.

Assassination has been simming the lowest of the three Rogue specs, but it does have the advantage of being the most resilient to downtime. It’s also consistent and slow paced rotationally which can lead to a lower gap between potential and results, and it lines up very well with many boss mechanics and on encounters with multiple targets.

For Hero Talents, Deathstalker generally looks stronger for Assassination, despite a few bugs, though Fatebound isn’t far behind!

All three Rogue specs bring Atrophic Poison, which is valuable enough that at least one Rogue will likely always be present in top compositions. The fact we’ve tiered them all so close to each other indicates we think that anyone maining any of the three specs should be fine, and top guilds will likely experiment with multiple throughout progression.

Demonology Warlock offers a strong consistent damage profile with a good mix of damage in and outside of its cooldowns. Though Warlocks don’t bring a raid buff, one is basically required for any serious (or non-serious) guild thanks to summons, healthstones, and Demonic Gateway.

Demonology is a little bit more difficult than Affliction, with a little more punishment, but the reward is potentially slightly higher damage, with passive cleave that doesn’t rely as much on cooldowns.

Both Soul Harvester and Diabolist are powerful options for Demonology, with Soul Harvester looking slightly stronger for raid, but it’s close enough that it’s worth being ready to use either!

Affliction Lock is very similar to Demonology, offering pretty good damage and strong cooldowns. In particular, Affliction’s cooldowns can be incredible if they line up with add spawns.

Like all Warlock specs, Affliction is inherently tanky and unlikely to require much healer attention, and is another option to bring summons, healthstones, and Demonic Gateway.

In general, Affliction looks likely to play Soul Harvester for most raid uses, though Hellcaller may be an option for sustained AoE situations.

Destruction has the Warlock advantages of tankiness and unique utility like Demonic Gateway, Ritual of Summoning, and Create Soulwell, and its damage is competitive with the other Warlock specs, especially in situations where mobility during execute windows is valuable thanks to Shadowburn. Destro's mobility has been reduced over the past few years, but so have the other Warlock specs, and under many common Nerub-ar Palace damage profiles Destruction can perform very well.

Destruction Warlocks will likely run Hellcaller as their Hero Talent in raid, though Diabolist has some advantages in AoE situations.

Windwalker got a major overhaul coming into The War Within, notably fixing a problem the spec’s had since its inception of not scaling well with haste! Mystic Touch is the Monk raid buff and it is powerful enough to justify always bringing one, and Windwalker may well be the best option for it!

The spec’s damage profile is well suited to target switching and add spawns, which may well cause them to shine on three of the final four fights. They are also highly mobile and can survive many dangerous fights if played well, though they have had a defensive pruned coming into The War Within.

Shado-pan looks to generally be the best Hero Talent for Windwalkers, though Conduit of the Celestials might be an option to emphasize burst damage on certain fights.

C Tier Specs for Nerub-ar Palace Raid

Shadow has continued to evolve as we’ve moved into The War Within, with their damage profile now featuring a largely single target rotation that cleaves onto extra targets primarily through Psychic Link rather than pure multi-dot damage. This means that both their Single Target and Cleave damage can be decent, but both require active gameplay and are punished by even moderate movement requirements or downtime.

Priests bring Power Word: Fortitude, which is a powerful and effectively mandatory raid buff, though healing priests are often present which removes the need for a DPS priest. If this ends up being the first tier in a long time where healing priests aren’t desirable, however, at least one Shadow Priest will become a mainstay!

For Hero Talents, Shadow Priests have the promise of a very interesting decision, though as of right now it looks like Archon will likely outperform in most cases.

Feral has historically been passed over in many raid tiers due to being a melee DPS spec in a class that can instead be brought as ranged, a healer, or even a tank. This tier, however, the other Druid specs look pretty weak, which might make one Feral Druid a compelling option for top teams.

Defensively, Feral Druids are in an interesting situation this expansion where there’s quite a lot of new power for them but it’s concentrated in one Hero Talent tree. Luckily, that tree, Druid of the Claw, is also the prime choice for single target damage!

Beast Mastery Hunter retains its historic niche of full mobility moving into The War Within, but unfortunately its single target damage is only good, and its AoE is quite bad. Furthermore, in order to even do decent AoE, it needs to sacrifice quite a bit of single target.

For Hero Talents, Dark Ranger is the primary choice for Beast Mastery, as it leans further into the single target strength of the spec.

Hunters bring Hunter's Mark, which is on the weaker end for raid buffs, but still strong enough that we expect one to be present in every composition unless the boss has a damage stop causing damage above 80% health to not be relevant, in which case guilds may shave down to 0. We think that the top guilds’ hunters will likely play multiple specs based on whether fights call for AoE or Single Target.

Marksmanship suffers from the opposite problem as Beast Mastery, being excellent at AoE, particularly burst AoE, but quite anemic single target damage. They are also much less mobile than Beast Mastery, but with sufficient foresight it’s possible to adapt to the movement patterns of most encounters.

The Sentinel Hero Talent tree further enhances Marksmanship’s AoE niche, and also has the benefit of adding very little rotational overhead, whereas Dark Ranger generally doesn’t look competitive in any raid situations.

Hunters bring Hunter's Mark, which is on the weaker end for raid buffs, but still strong enough that we expect one to be present in every composition unless the boss has a damage stop causing damage above 80% health to not be relevant, in which case guilds may shave down to 0. We think that the top guilds’ hunters will likely play multiple specs based on whether fights call for AoE or Single Target.

Survival was reworked coming into The War Within, but it remains a melee hunter which makes it fundamentally have a higher throughput bar for usage than the ranged specs. Luckily for survival hunters, the current tuning relative to the ranged specs looks like it’s potentially strong enough to justify consideration for the hunter spot.

Sentinel will likely be the Hero Talent of choice for Survival Hunters, as it looks better at both Single Target and AoE than Pack Leader, and both the Single Target and AoE does look quite solid.

Hunters bring Hunter's Mark, which is on the weaker end for raid buffs, but still strong enough that we expect one to be present in every composition unless the boss has a damage stop causing damage above 80% health to not be relevant, in which case guilds may shave down to 0. We think that the top guilds’ hunters will likely play multiple specs based on whether fights call for AoE or Single Target, and whether or not an extra melee DPS would be detrimental.

Unholy has been less hyped than Frost of the two DPS Death Knight specs going into The War Within, but with recent nerfs to Frost it’s possible that Unholy may usurp it as the go-to raid spec, in which case we’ll update this Tier List! Their burst damage is quite good, as is their AoE, which can combine for powerful burst AoE windows that might be perfect for some of the harder fights later in Nerub-ar palace.

For Hero Talents, Unholy has two competitive options, with Rider of the Apocalypse looking slightly better if big 1.5 minute cooldowns are needed, while San’layn does smaller burn windows every 45 seconds. San’layn is also more complicated and RNG-reliant, which may make Rider the preferred option for indifferent Death Knights.

Fire has a very strong inherent kit, with all of the main Mage defensives plus Cauterize, and a ton of instant cast spells that mean they’re highly mobile. They also inherently AoE through Mastery: Ignite, a very valuable trait on many raid encounters. Unfortunately, their damage looks lackluster compared to other options, especially other Mage options like Arcane, so for now we’ve placed them in the C Tier.

If you do choose to play Fire, Sunfury looks like the stronger of the two Hero Talent trees, though it’s received several nerfs throughout the beta cycle which were largely aimed at Arcane, but Fire’s version caught some collateral damage.

Balance Druid has had a difficult beta cycle and release in The War Within, culminating most recently with a set of tuning adjustments that include a large buff to moonkin. Unfortunately the spec’s single target still looks quite bad, and now their AoE strength is also not incredible, though Starfall may have taken enough panic buffs that it’s finally doing respectable numbers in the spread cleave situations where it should shine.
As it stands, we think most top guilds will opt for one of the other three druid specs to satisfy their raid buff requirements, but those druids that do choose Balance should be prepared to play both Keeper of the Grove and Elune’s Chosen for their Hero Talents, as Keeper has the edge on Single Target while Elune’s Chosen wins in AoE.

After a few buffs, Balance is now strong enough to see usage as a good option for Mark of the Wild, especially on spread cleave fights.

ChangelogSeptember 13th:September 16th:September 23rd:November 2nd:

Comment by NameRedactedTier lists are bull$%^&. dont believe the hype before the climb. still time for nerf and boss changesComment by SirDanielBro ... relax ... i mean ... DRATNOS wrote it ...Comment by trummellImagine thinking to yourself, "I wonder what Dratos has to say about anything".Comment by MasqeraderAs a havoc DH main, don't waste your time believing this.

Every encounter is different and certain specs will shine more regardless of pointless bait click tier listComment by Konsa1*snores*Comment by proxy222Imagine thinking to yourself, "I wonder what Dratos has to say about anything".Comment by zymanskihTier lists are bull$%^&. dont believe the hype before the climb. still time for nerf and boss changesComment by robertmfrostBeing good at a class you have fun with > flavor of the month alt class you have to maintainComment by Alkbuttsdown with tier lists, up with playing whatever class you wantComment by ManatherThis a dumb thing to post, so early with no real data to back it up. If you want to know btw, Arcane sims 40% higher than Fire in ST, I would not put them in the same tier, even as unreliable as sims are for spec comparisions.Comment by VhyeIs this an unironic tier list? Because if so, it's garbage - tier lists are trash. This isn't news.Comment by ShirofuneWhy are these 2 still employed by Wowhead? This tier is absolute crap and should be ignored.Comment by roldy27"Havoc Demon Hunter has dealt phenomenal damage throughout the Dragonflight Beta, and has recently taken a small nerf that, if anything, should be taken as good news as it makes it somewhat less likely that they’ll receive a large nerf in the future."

That's some massive hopium. If DH overperforms too much it will eat a nerf. That applies to all and everything (except warlocks most of the time).Comment by NihilismResidentSleeper.PNGComment by RecckklessMY BROTHER IN CHRIST THE XPAC HASNT EVEN COME OUT LMAOComment by FeralSynapseLOL before they even do raid tuning? Jumping the shark much?Comment by SatsoorinoAmazing job balancing the warrior spec as always blizzard
We can always count on you!Comment by MysticUnicycleDunno why Balance would currently be ranked A. It's definitely not a bad spec, but it's damage is super average. It's really not that stackable. Stamp is already a 1min, plus your shaman will have windrush, so you don't need more stamps. Innervate is incredibly overrated, a second druid gets no benefit from MOTW. The powerful, stackable utility Balance brings is basically just Nature's Vigil, and we're already playing in a world where they had to buff the entire game because healers were too powerful, so I am unsure how useful multiple of those will end up being. Mage and Warlock are both tankier (maybe even shaman, too), hunter has an immunity, shadow priest gets a free PI, all while doing as much or more damage as balance currently does.

Balance druid has lost both of its niches going into DF - The biggest burst in the game, and one of the best priority switches in the game. It's now probably the worst ranged in the game at the later, as you have to spend two globals dotting before you can surge an add spawn. It has gained other things that make it a more well rounded performer, but you're not going to see four or even two of them like you did in Sanctum, in my opinion, unless there are some pretty significant number adjustments in the next couple of weeks. I see no reason to bring a second Balance druid over a second of any other ranged except maybe hunter or evoker or elemental.Comment by psyquestUseless tier list that will cater to the feable minded.

What is the point of such low quality useless content? Dragonflight is not yet here and you are already writting things that will have a massive impact on the game and people's choice.

Why I ask you and what on earth is the purpose of such articles?Comment by NarhwalsThis is giga useless. Even beyond the usual tierlist bs. Raidtesting was severely limited and between many tuning phases.