We have a brand new No.1 in the overall spec popularity charts, as the all-timer takes its throne back. Retribution finds itself at the summit, but pretty much every single top spec dropped a lot of players since last we checked. Let’s dive in.
One thing to keep in mind, Raider.io’s Break the Meta event, where players are encouraged to use off-meta specs, probably affected the stats for the week. It’s unclear how much, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind. We’ll see what happens next week when things are back to normal.
The Data
The data used in this article comes from Raider.IO‘s excellent analytics tools, taking into account all Mythic+ runs across all levels of play. The data is focused on this reset and not on the season as a whole.
The Most Popular Specs in Mythic+
We have a big shakeup at the very top, as the age of the Druid has come to an end. Replacing the top tank at the overall top is none other than the all-time favorite DPS, Retribution! Guardian takes a giant 1.4% dip to 7% and almost loses 2nd spot as well, and Ret doesn’t even gain any new players, actually also dropping, but only by 0.1%. All the top specs find themselves falling, in fact, with Beast Mastery losing 0.3%, Unholy a big 1%, Resto Shaman 0.2% and Mistweaver 0.5%. Frost Mage is the first to manage to at least keep stable.
Discipline starts us off on the risers, as it gains two spots with the 0.2% bump it got. Elemental also rises, but even the 0.4% it gained didn’t move it out of 12th place. It’s the bottom specs that almost all gained a little bit, 0.1-0.2% each, as players play around some alts near the end of the season.
Runs by Key Level
We see many more specs in the +25s, but with very small numbers.
And here are the full numbers, including the amount of runs.
Group Composition Popularity
Note: The below chart shows the percentage of group popularity in relation to the top 30 compositions. This means that, for example, the top group says it’s 30% of the compositions, but that’s just 30% of the top 30. In reality, it’s just 2% of all groups played. You can see the smaller 2% number if you hover over the group line in the chart on the Raider.IO page.
While Guardian dropped massively in popularity, the No.1 group it’s leading did not, at least not in the top comps. In fact, it’s still rising, just as it has been for the past many weeks, this time “only” gaining 1% of the top 30 specs’ playerbase, now at 34.6%. However, in the overall population the spec did lose quite a lot, dropping 0.5% to 1.8%, which helps explain Guardian’s fall. The 2nd most played group grabs a percent of the top 30 as well, moving up to 9. It has a Ret Paladin instead of the Aug Evoker, which definitely helped the pink spec grab the top spot in the overall popularity chart.
Mythic+ DPS Logs
The below logs are based on POINTS, and not actual damage or healing. This means that they log the timed completion for the specs, with higher keys getting more points, obviously. The time in which the dungeon is completed is also a factor. It is a much, much smaller factor, however. It grants only a few points for significantly faster completions compared to just any in-time finish. We’re also using the Normalized Aggregate Scores numbers, for clarity. This means that the top spec is marked as 100 and then the rest are ranked in relation to that peak point.
95th percentile DPS
We see Feral drop a bit this week, two spots into 7th in fact, making room for Outlaw and Survival. The hunter also beat out Retribution, rising two for the week as the Paladin drops one. Demonology gets a bit of a comeback, rising a very solid 4 spots, ending up in 9th. Enhancement has to move down to 10th to make room for the Warlock, while the other two Rogues are still staying together just outside the top 10.
All Percentiles
Arms takes a big fall here, slipping a whole 4 spots into 8th, letting Survival and Retribution through. Demonology also makes it past the Warrior, also rising here, but only two spots, as it was doing better before, so it less ground to cover. Feral remains in place thanks to Arms’ fall.
Very High Key Raw DPS Numbers
Note: We’re also taking a look at the raw damage numbers from Mythicstats. They take the top runs for extremely high keys (+16-25) from WarcraftLogs and list the overall DPS for the dungeon, which includes non-combat time as well. They’re ranked by the average DPS numbers, with the very top of the top shown next to it.
For more stats and spec information, you can also head on over to our class guides and tier lists, as well as the full Raider.IO, WarcraftLogs, and Mythicstats data.
