PvP DPS Spec Rankings: A Tier List For Midnight (Patch 12.0.1) (Patch 12.0.1 / Midnight)

Subtlety Rogue is looking to be the most dominant melee early into the season. With incredible burst damage, the best crowd control in the game, decent defensives, and a wide variety of composition options in the current meta prediction, Subtlety is the apex predator for season 1, putting it highest in the S tier.

Windwalker Monk has received a bit of a mini rework, and is looking to be very powerful in Season 1. It has great damage, high burst, good utility, and great mobility. In addition, its best compositions are also looking to be very strong, and it is therefore an S tier pick.

Unholy Death Knight has taken a blow with a 20% damage reduction on season start. A few compensatory buffs to Virulent Plague and Epidemic might make up for it though. These nerfs were justified changes, as Unholy was doing illegal levels of damage, but Blizzard has pulled a bit back on them with a rebuff hotfix, putting Unholy back to S tier once again.

Fire Mage is potentially the best caster coming into Midnight. It offers relatively easy to execute damage, and a powerful burst tool through Combustion. At present, Fire is simply big on numbers, even if it does not bring anything unique compared to the other mage specializations. The easy access to large amounts of damage is all it needs to land land in the S tier for Season 1.

Fury Warrior received a damage buff and is now doing crazy damage, especially in cleave situations. Mountain Thane is contending for the best cleave in the game right now, with almost unhealable damage and pressure. Fury is very strong into anything it has uptime on, possibly the most pressure in the game next to Windwalker, with its primary weakness being against the meta casters, and having weaker defensives than the S tier specs.

Retribution Paladin got a great deal of damage buffs to almost all of their abilities, and a flat 15% damage reduction in PvP to compensate, but this still results in a buff overall. This ups ret to the A+ tier, becoming a scary threat with its diverse and flexible utility kit. In shuffle, Retribution easily jumps to S tier, as immunities like Blessing of Protection and Divine Shield gain a lot more value.

Arms Warrior continues to receive buffs every week so far, and is a strong competitor in the meta right now, only held back by Subtlety Rogue and Mistweaver Monk being strong counters with their utility and presence in the meta. Arms currently has the most potent cleave damage in the game, and absolutely crushes melee cleave compositions, while struggling with casters.

Devastation Evoker has, since its inception, been a very easy to play high damage-dealing caster, and this season is no different. Devastation is very powerful and almost untouchable into melee compositions, but can find itself struggling a bit against casters. Devastation could be an S tier specialization right now, but falls down to A+ tier because Mage and Warlock are shaping up to be very strong as well, which the spec historically struggled against quite a bit.

Balance Druid is arguably among the strongest casters right now. The damage output is crazy, as Incarnation: Chosen of Elune is one of the strongest burst buttons in the game. Balance also brings good utility, decent defensives, and fits well with the other predicted meta specializations. If you plan to play a DPS druid, Balance lands at a solid A+ tier, with the potential to jump to S tier with a few meta shifts.

Destruction Warlock is shaping to be a very powerful caster, with Chaos Bolt still being one of the most threatening abilities in the game. Destruction carries a lot of crowd control and strong passive defensives, but struggles into melee cleaves without a proper composition to help it. There is potential for Destruction to have the best composition in the game through Shadowplay or MLX, giving it a safe A+ tier.

In shuffle, you may struggle more as you lack that safety net of a proper composition, but Destruction is still an overall strong selection.

Marksmanship Hunter has potential to land in a decent spot this season, due to the strength of Mage and Warlock, giving it good matchups. The damage, however, leaves something to be desired, and the loss of Scatter Shot is going to impact your survivability a lot. It remains in the B tier, but will likely see development as the season begins and gear levels go up.

Frost Mage has strong potential, being not quite as strong as the other two Mage specializations, but also not far behind either. Its main weakness is its reliance on hard-casting its burst damage, which can be offset by a skilled player and a good composition to support them. It lands in the A+ tier, with the potential to reach the S-Tier in the right hands.

Survival Hunter received a bit of a mini-rework coming into Midnight, and overall does a lot of damage. Hunter in general brings a lot of utility, with Survival having a slight edge over the other Hunter specializations, due to the ease of landing Freezing Trap with Harpoon. It stands as a solid A tier pick, able to fit in with a decent amount of compositions and bringing a bunch of tools to each.

Enhancement Shaman struggles with having a proper identity in PvP. It has some of the strongest burst in the game as Stormbringer with Ascendance, but it is also easily shut down. Enhancement has decent utility against casters, but often gets crushed when running into other melee comps. The last round of buffs ups Enhancement a tier, with the spec potentially being capable of dealing some serious damage now.

Havoc Demon Hunter is a mediocre melee, which suffered a lot from the pruning going into the Midnight expansion. A lot of powerful defensive value was lost, and some CC was taken out as well, leaving Havoc a bit bare with its toolkit. A skilled player can still make this specialization work well, relying on Glimpse for your primary defense, and the spec still has access to really strong compositions through Hero Cleave and DH+WW.

With the last tuning pass, Havoc gained some more damage and is currently doing some crazy throughput and cleave pressure. You can find good success if you are a skilled DH player.

Beast Mastery Hunter lands firmly in the B tier. The saving grace for Beast Mastery is the current predicted meta looking to be very caster oriented. The loss of Scatter Shot is going to impact your survivability a lot, and the damage you deal is not all that great. It remains an easy to pick up specialization, decent for 2v2, and good for learning the class initially.

Shadow Priest is still a very durable and high damage caster, but falls short in the current meta. Shadow's main compositions are not doing the best at present, and although Shadow historically does well into a Subtlety meta, it is currently so overtuned with superior comps, that it keeps Shadow down. With tweaks to other classes, Shadow can shine again, and is still a perfectly viable choice.

Feral Druid is kind of similar to Restoration Druid, in that it gains a lot of value with skill. Feral fits well with a lot of the meta casters, but is a lot harder to gain value out of compared to a melee with a similar playstyle like Assassination Rogue. Tuning wise Feral is underperforming a little, but hits a solid B tier, with potential to climb to A tier.

Sadly, other than supplying Wicked Claws, it is hard to justify bringing a Feral over a Balance Druid right now.

Assassination Rogue took a blow, and is pretty much inferior compared to its godlike sibling specialization Subtlety Rogue. Assassination has a hard time competing as a melee right now, especially when similar playstyle classes outperform it on numbers at present.

Devourer Demon Hunter is the new specialization added to the game, which leaves it as a bit of a wild card. It has yet to be mastered, and the compositions that fit with this specialization are being actively discovered still. From beta testing and the general agreement in the high-rank community, Devourer is a B tier specialization, being mediocre at the present skill level and meta, with the potential to coinflip its way up or down the tiers once players figure out how to fit this new spec into the existing meta.

Affliction Warlock got some much needed love for to its damage output, with a reduction in burst damage to Dark Harvest to compensate. It still has the issue of being an inferior Shadow Priest, but it is at least a playable caster now. With a bit of fortune, Affliction scales up with these buffs, but will still have a hard time finding a composition that matches well with it.

Arcane Mage fell off significantly after its last round of nerfs, and is a much harder spec to play than Frost or Fire, while bringing less DPS potential than the two. It received a large buff to Arcanosphere, but whether this will be enough to return value to its niche is uncertain.

Elemental Shaman has been a very strong meta caster for a while now, able to do a lot of damage, providing powerful burst with Ascendance, and also offering great utility. However, this season the damage tuning seems to be on the low side for Elemental. It goes up a tier thanks to the damage buffs to Earth Shock, but could still use more buffs in order to compete with the other casters.

Demonology Warlock received a small nerf, which was not too big of a deal, but a bugfix to one of their abilities had a much larger impact on the performance of this specialization, than what was initially thought. Demonology has fallen off hard as a result, and needs help from Blizzard to be able to be a competitive caster again.

Outlaw Rogue is a bit of a unique melee in a unique situation. Historically it was not that great of a PvP specialization for the average player, as it does not do that much damage. However, in the hands of players at the top end, Outlaw can be turned the strongest Rogue specialization. This is only recommended if you really wish to push your skill to the max, alongside other like-minded players. For the average player, this specialization rests very comfortably in the C tier though.

Frost Death Knight has the same issues as it does pretty much every season. It is a niche spec that brings a powerful 1-minute cooldown burst, and then does pretty much nothing outside of Pillar of Frost. The specialization is due for a rework, and until then, more often than not, Frost will struggle in arena, forcing us to put it in the D tier.

Augmentation Evoker has been suffering in PvP since it entered the game. Its design as a support specialization is still not working too great in PvP, failing to deliver the pressure a second DPS would offer. It does, however, provide really strong burst damage, that unfortunately sit on too long of a cooldown to be competitively viable. Augmentation is niche, and a struggle to play, but deserves a spot as a D tier specialization - not unplayable, but never optimal in any composition.