Summary
World of Warcraft: Season of Discovery brought a completely new class-meta to the Classic Era. As thousands of players head into the dungeon-turned-Raid, Blackfathom Deeps, the true power-level of these rune-empowered classes is revealed.
Although things in this version of WoW are always subject to change, with Blizzard releasing frequent balance patches and players figuring out new interactions, the strength-level of DPS classes has mostly solidified by now byhaving the top gear. Some of the classes are where we expected them to be, but others have been really pleasant surprises.
9Priest
Shadow Priest Isn’t Online Until Level 40
Priests just really need more levels to truly shine. Without Shadowform’s 15 percent damage increase to all shadow damage, their numbers just aren’t big enough. Homunculi is a very strong rune when it comes to utility and Penance is a very versatile damaging and healing tool, but when it comes to raw DPS, our priests just aren’t good enough.
Their position in the DPS rankings will almost surely change when Phase 2 of Season of Discovery comes around, but for now they’re the weakest damaging class in the game.
8Shaman
The Fancy New Runes Just Aren’t Enough
The masters of the elements looked really promising with runes like Lava Burst and Overload, but they ended up falling a bit short. Although they can deal some damage with Lava Lash in a dual-wielding Enhancement build, they just don’t reach the heights of other classes.
Their damage depends a lot on their weapons and, since they can’t use swords andBlackfathom Deepsdoesn’t drop any one-handed axes, their damage ceiling is not that high at the moment. With some stronger weapons in the future, they can become a true menace.
7Mage
Mages Will Be Much Stronger In The Future
Frost mage looked extremely promising with the new engraving runes, but it fell completely flat. They’re the weakest specialization of the class and one of the weakest in the game overall. Arcane and Fire, though, are in a pretty decent place. You can essentially pick whichever you prefer, as the damage difference between the two is negligible.
The level 25 cap means they lack a few very important talents, though, so they aren’t as strong as the classes that aren’t as talent dependent.
6Warlock
Firelock Is Fully Unleashed
The demonic casters are thriving with their fancy new runes. Destruction Warlock utilizing Lake of Fire, Incinerate and the Chaos Bolt runes are dealing very respectable amounts of damage, which makes them the strongest caster in Season of Discovery.
This build does have one downside, though, which is a lack of AOE damage. You will be shining when you only have to hit the boss, but when killing packs of mobs you will fall a bit behind in the damage meters.
5Paladin
Blasting Heretics Has Never Been This Fun
Retribution Paladins are shining in SoD, and it’s not just because of their holy light. Divine Storm, Crusader Strike and Exorcist is an extremely powerful rune-combo that takes them to the top of the damage meters, getting them in top five overall.
Alongside the powerful runes they acquired, they benefit a lot from Druid’s Wild Strikes, with their two-handed weapon dealing as much damage as possible. They’re also very powerful when it comes to AOE fights.
4Druid
Wild Strikes Is The Strongest Rune In Season Of Discovery
Druids are a literal must-have in any raid group. Their utility is simply too strong and the strongest DPS classes in the game would be much weaker without it. The fact that they can dish out extremely high damage by themselves on top of all that utility really shows how powerful the shapeshifters are.
The rune combo of Savage Roar, Wild Strikes and Mangle is the strongest available at the moment and buffs both the druid and their raid group.
3Warrior
Warriors Can Be The Most Fearsome Class In SoD
Warriors are quite a surprise in Season of Discovery. This class usually needs a lot more levels to become online, but their powerful runes and the utility brought by Druids turned them into a powerhouse.
Just grab the biggest two-handed weapon you may find, get Raging Blow, Consumed by Rage and Wild Strikes runes, and you will be topping the meters in single-target damage. In the perfect scenario, with the best raid-group possible, Warriors have the highest damage ceiling in Season of Discovery.
2Rogue
Ignoring Armor Is Pretty Good, Uh?
Our sneaky Rogues have a lot in common with Warriors. They need Wild Strikes and Mangle to truly shine, but when they have those tools at their disposal, they can dish out some ridiculous amounts of damage in single-target fights.
Deadly Brew, Envenom and Saber Slash are their strongest runes and make them the only class that can truly compete with Warriors when it comes to the highest damage numbers achievable in Season of Discovery.
1Hunter
The Kings Of The Jungle
Despite constant patches aimed at nerfing or reverting nerfs, Hunters have been mostly unfazed. They can sometimes reach the damage ceiling that Rogues and Warriors get to, all while being self-sufficient and much more consistent.
Aspect of the Lion, Sniper Training and Beast Mastery are their strongest runes, giving both the Hunter and their Pet very high damage output.
