The War Within DPS Rankings: Manaforge Omega Raiding Tier List (Patch 12.0 / Midnight Pre-Patch)

Devastation Evoker received its fair share of changes leading up to the Midnight expansion. Both of their Hero Talents received major reworks, with Flameshaper winning the rework race due to the Engulf being replaced by Consume Flame. Their damage profile will continue to be bursty and extremely strong in an AoE environment, especially with the uncapped extension of Dragonrage paired with their great Apex talents. Apart from some new cool talents added ( Azure Sweep being my personal favourite), Devastation Evoker lost some defensive options and will be slightly more squishy in Midnight.

Unholy Death Knight has received a major rework coming into Midnight expansion. This is one of the few specs that had a complete 360. Some of the highlights being: No Festering Wound, you now have Lesser Ghouls, Death and Decay no longer a must, smart disease spreading and a brand new minor cooldown - Putrefy. Honestly, a lot has changed rotationally for Unholy DK. Still, one thing is for sure: this is the biggest rework they have received in the past decade, not just rotationally but also visually.

Affliction Warlock has seen a complete 360 degree rework following the release of the expansion, with its core rotation moved back to Seed of Corruption as an AoE Spender and Unstable Affliction as a single-target spender, applying Agony for shard generation ( Vile Taint is gone, Shared Agony is being introduced) and waving Haunt for priority-target damage and Apex talents triggering. Overall playstyle feels way smoother, resembling what Affliction used to look like it back in the Legion Expansion. This is one of the few Ranged specs I had a lot of fun testing due to its playstyle, and I am looking forward to seeing what the future tuning has in store for the spec.

Elemental Shaman has received a major rework coming into the Midnight expansion, with some of the biggest changes being the removal of Icefury, Echoes of Great Sundering, Deeply Rooted Elements and Ascendance nerf. Your rotation is now severely pruned with only Chain Lighting/Lighting Bolt (generator) and Earthquake / Elemental Blast as a spender, while using Tempests (if you go Stormbringer) or some passive damage if you decide to opt in for Farseer. The priority-target damage has been hit severely, as well as the survivability area (due to removal of Stoneskin Totem. We are still far away from the release of the expansion, but for now, I remain hopeful that with the right tuning, Elemental will shine through!

Survival Hunter received a major rework leading up to the Midnight expansion, with some of the highlights being: duel-wield option, physical ( Boomstick) and Fire ( Flamefang Pitch) major pruning of their core rotation (Example: Butchery removed, Coordinated Assault and Spearhead now being one talent - Takedown). Their core rotation has become significantly easier, all while keeping their great sustain-damage profile. At last, Hunter specialization will become slightly more durable in Midnight, followed by better utility options - new Hunter's Mark raid buff and Roar of Sacrifice external defensive option.

Shadow Priest received a complete rework again with their playstyle and the majority of their talents leading to the Midnight expansion. Some of the highlights are: Devouring Plague is now called Shadow Word: Madness (same features, different name), Shadow Crash is now Tentacle Slam (more quality-of-life DoT application) and so much more. Their damage profile is quite similar to TWW; you can still expect great priority-target damage while doing AoE (thanks to Psychic Link) and good on-demand burst during Voidform & Power Infusion combo.

Fury Warrior received its fair share of changes going forward to Midnight. The core rotation of Fury will remain quite similar to what players are used to in TWW, but this time around, they are getting one of the biggest utility-package buffs any class has seen so far. Extra interrupt thanks to Javelineer, uncapped AoE stop - Intimidating Shout (previously target-cap), extra movement speed for allies once you pop Piercing Howl and much more. Unfortunately, some of their issues persist in Midnight, and that is the target cap talks, although an attempt has been made recently ( Odyn's Fury going to 8-target cap instead) ,this issue but further improved for them to shine fully.

Subtlety Rogue received likely the biggest pruning across all DPS specs so far in the Midnight Beta, to the point where it might actually be a 2-button spec to play the majority of the time ( Shuriken Storm / Black Powder in AoE). Not only that, but several other changes were made to further help ease the rotation flow, such as the removal of Rupture, Flagellation, Symbols of Death, baked inside Shadow Dance and much more. Despite all of that, their damage profile is looking great for Mythic+, short offensive cooldowns, good on-demand burst and the ability to funnel/prio-target damage when needed. Only future tuning will showcase how they will end up doing!.

Enhancement Shaman received a complete rework leading up to the Midnight expansion, with some of the highlights focusing on its extreme rotational prune. The button bloat is a thing in the past for this, as it no longer feels like you actually need have PhD to fully optimize its rotation. The main focus of the rotation is put upon Crash Lightning, which your Apex talents further boost. Their damage profile remains strong, a good way to do priority-target damage while doing AoE, as well as having funnel damage on demand. Unfortunately, the issues from the past continue to haunt them, a weak defensive profile and target-cap issues.

Havoc Demon Hunter received its fair share of changes, most notably trimming some spells ( Sigil of Flame / Sigil of Spite, which shortens your opener), adding great quality-of-life updates such as Glaive Tempest being a passive, all while keeping its core rotation similar. On top of this, Havoc will now benefit from having 2x charges of Blur which benefits from the build in reworked Netherwalk and Demon Muzzle. You can expect this spec to be just as much fun, while having great damage profile and even better defensive options!

Windwalker Monk received major rework leading up to the Midnight expansion, with some of the most significant changes being: One combined major cooldown - Zenith (a minor cooldown added if you play Conduit instead of Shado-Pan), Strike of the Windlord is now a choice node with Whirling Dragon Punch and extensive nerfs of behalf of your defensive choices. Your core rotation has been changed, and it will vary depending on the Hero Talent choices. Your damage profile will, unfortunately, still suffer from being target-cap, which means at large pulls, you will fall behind. Although it is quite fun playing Windwalker monk, numbers are just not there (for now).

Devourer Demon Hunter is the newest (semi) Ranged DPS added in the Midnight expansion. The spec has several core abilities like Void Ray as a spender, Reap, Consume, Soul Immolation & Voidblade as a generator. The playstyle is focused on building Fury, spending it and collecting enough souls to activate their major cooldown - Void Metamorphosis, during which all damage is massively increased. Their major cooldowns also introduces a mini game - once you collect "30" souls, you will be able to cast Collapsing Star, which is the culmination of your Void Metamorphosis. They do have similar utility as Havocs, but benefit exclusively from Intellect, unlike them.

Arms Warrior received a lot of changes going forward to the next expansion, with a primary focus being their Apex Talents, which makes juggling Heroic Strike procs to your Slam a core part of your rotation (tons of fun). Just like its sibling specs, Arms Warrior will benefit greatly from better party-wide utility. Their damage profile will further expand in the execution-orientated playstyle thanks to its brand new talent - Mass Execution. It's too early to have a stance on how they currently perform, but one thing is sure: they have added some extra flavour to Arms, and we love it.

Arcane Mage received its fair share of changes leading up to the Midnight expansion, with some of the most notable being a complete Evocation rework (no longer used as an offensive CD), better minor cooldowns (2x Touch of the Magi) and a brand new talent to replace the "melee mage", (due to Arcane Explosion) - Arcane Pulse. Although it is early to speculate yet, Arcane damage profile will remain one of the unique ones, offering great priority-target damage as always, but this time around also a better mass AoE thanks to Arcane Pulse. At last, playing around Arcane Salvo will definitely be the new "mini-game" which can be a ton of fun.

Beast Mastery Hunter received quite a lot of changes leading up to the Midnight expansion, with the most notably being the great addition of their Apex talents and significantly easier Beast Cleave management due to Wild Thrash addition. The spec will remain particularly welcoming for newcomers while simultaneously offering min-max possibilities with the newly reworked Hero talents. Last but not least, BM will become slightly more durable in Midnight and offer better utility too, thanks to the new Hunter's Mark raid buff and Roar of Sacrifice external defensive.

Frost Death Knight received minor changes leading up to the Midnight expansion, with the most notable one being their Apex talents. The core rotation of the spec will remain similar to the version of TWW, with the only difference being the addition of Frostwyrm's Fury It is now a must-pick since it interacts with your Apex talents. Frost DK will continue to excel at high burst damage, having high durability, and retain its unique utility toolkit.

Outlaw Rogue received a substantial rework going forward to Midnight, significantly lowering the barrier to entry to play the spec. While core rotation remains quite similar, ( Sinister Strike and spending your combo-points on Between the Eyes, Dispatch / Killing Spree) not having to play around Stealth / Crackshot windows is already a huge quality-of-life update. You won't have 100% uptime on Adrenaline Rush, which can be a game changer, as well as, complete rework on Roll the Bones (less RNG right now). Beside current tuning, the only other area where I would love to see Outlaw benefit is their energy regen, at times they do struggle too!

Marksmanship Hunter received a ton of changes leading to the Midnight expansion, with some of the most important being that they are the only Hunter spec that will feature Kill Shot and a much slower rotational pace. While the core rotation remains identical, Aimed Shot / Rapid Fire loop with consuming Precise Shots and Trick Shots, it is worth pointing out the harder-hitting but much slower Aimed Shot cast-time. Although the spec will continue to have its signature burst-oriented damage profile, it currently struggles with sustaining damage and single-target, hopefully in future tunings they will address that.

Frost Mage received a complete rework as we advance to the Midnight expansion, as the new Frost has nothing to do with how the spec used to play before Midnight. The main goal here is managing Freezing Stacks, which, upon "popping them", you do damage. Comet Storm is now passive, castable after Ray of Frost, which is now your major cooldown following Icy Veins removal. Frozen Orb got a complete rework, Glacial Spike is now baked inside Frostbolt (it upgrades to GS once you generate 5x Icicles) and much more. This has been one of the most fun specs that I have the pleasure of testing on Bet, and I am looking forward to how the future tuning will play out for them. Sidenote, yes, as every other Mage spec, Frost is no exception to defensive toolkit nerfs.

Feral Druid has received a major rework going into Midnight expansion, with much of it focused on "dumbing down" its rotation by removing some difficult features to play around, such as lowering the snapshotting windows and the removal of Bloodtalons, Brutal Slash and Adaptive Swarm talents. Although the playstyle is much easier in Midnight, some features from your core rotation still exist such as focusing on applying bleeds via Rake and Primal Wrath while using the free combo-points for extra Ferocious Bites. They have added several new cool talents such as Frantic Frenzy and Chomp, while keeping their utility toolkit unchanged. Overall, you can still expect Feral to have that nice bursty-playstyle with significantly less energy issues as before!

Retribution Paladin received its fair share of changes leading up to the Midnight expansion, with some of the highlights being several quality-of-life talents presented to help the flow of your core rotation better, redistributing some of their power tied to Hero Talents onto its single-target ( Final Verdict and AoE ( Divine Storm) spenders and some of their offensive cooldowns reworked ( Divine Hammer is now only for Templar, Execution Sentence is combined with Final Reckoning. Overall, the spec feels if anything,g slightly more engaging in Midnight, and although an attempt was made to focus and work on their damage profile; their priority-target issues still exist. We are far away from the final tuning, but for now, we are hopeful to see some more changes coming their way.

Assassination Rogue received some of the best quality-of-life changes, leading up to the Midnight expansion, their DoT management will be significantly easier due to their newly reworked Crimson Tempest (now a combo-point generator), leaving Envenom as the only spender in Midnight. Less button bloat, no longer needing to Shiv for damage and a major focus on not needing Stealth to execute your Bleed management is also one of the features they are inheriting in Midnight. Assassination will retain its great damage profile - high burst and amazing funnel/priority-target damage, while providing faster frontload damage. Besides tuning, the only concerning issue is still Energy regen, yes, Apex Talents help, but don't entirely solve it; there are still pockets of time where energy starvation occurs.

Balance Druid received its fair share of changes leading up to the Midnight expansion, with the most prominent change being its Eclipse rework to an active button which was previous a passive thus lowering the uptime of it. You can expect the core rotation to stay similar to what it was in TWW, but now, much more conservative with your Eclipse expenditure, as it will require some cooldown management. Their utility toolkit remains mostly the same, and so will their defensive options (unfortunately). Yes, they are still exceptional at mass AoE, even after their most recent Mastery change, which lowers the ramp-up playstyle and helps in the lower-level keys where mobs die too quickly.

Augmentation Evoker received quite a few changes leading up to the Midnight expansion, with the most significant being the introduction of "arguably" the best Apex talents among all DPS specs. Overall, you can expect your core rotation to remain fairly similar, with several defensive options being removed from you, such as: Twin Guardian absorb shield and Renewing Blaze not being a separate defensive option. Overall, their personal damage is at a record high level and so is their ability to provide more damage to your allies compared to TWW. It feels like Augmentation is ready for a full comeback at the top of the bracket, or are they?

Fire Mage received a major rework as we advance to Midnight expansion with some of the highlights being: Sun King's Blessing, Hyperthermia Shifting Power and Phoenix Flames removed, Mastery and Ignite changes, and the damage instead shifted towards beefier Flamestrike and Pyroblast. Now that Combustion is flat 1 min cooldown (thanks to Kindling flat CDR), the majority of your damage is baked inside that 1-minute, which makes Fire likely the most CD-reliant spec in the game, as outside of CDs, damage is ... quite inferior. Although it's still early, this makes me believe that on the high level of keys, having Combustion on every pull will be amazing. At last, yes, as every single Mage spec, Fire defensives are also nerfed (totally deserved).

Destruction Warlock received minor changes leading up to the Midnight expansion, with the highlight of it being their newly introduced Apex Talents. Their core rotation will remain quite similar to the TWW version, with a few quality-of-life features like the Roaring Blaze rework, allowing for much easier maintenance of Immolate / Wither once Cataclysm is down. Future tuning will showcase how this spec will end up performing, but for now we remain.

Demonology Warlock got a major rework underway in the Midnight expansion, with a lot of quality-of-life updates, especially within the utility department, thanks to Grimoire: Imp Lord / Grimoire: Fel Ravager getting an extra Interrupt or Dispel option. Their core rotation has also slightly changed, with Implosion now having a cooldown, which makes you plan your cooldowns more carefully. At last, Warlock utility toolkit is expanding with the introduction of a mass curse option - Blight of Weakness or Blight of Tongues.