This ranking guide includes all of the adjustments from beta to up to Castle Nathria tuning pass that’s happened on December 15th. Disclaimer though, these rankings are based on how specs are looking both higher Mythic Plus keys and Mythic raiding. Every single DPS spec on this list is more than capable of just making up your keystones and such but we still recommend playing the spec that you enjoy playing with the most.
DPS specs performance in Castle Nathria raids
| TIER | SPEC | PROS AND CONS |
| C-TIER | Fury Warriors | • lowest damage specs in the game. • mediocre utility with a rallying cry and battle shout. |
| Assassination Rogues | • The other two rogues are more preferred making assassination quite undesirable. | |
| Survival Hunters | • decent damage but the two other hunters give out more damage. • ranged DPS will always be valuable than melee which puts survival at a disadvantage. | |
| B-TIER | Frost and Arcane Mage | • lacking when it comes to damage when compared to their fire counterpart. • solid mobility and immunity and arcane intellect. |
| Beast Mastery | • similar damage to survival while also being ranged and most mobile spec in the game which is extremely useful when needed to do mechanics and DPS. • access to immunity. | |
| Havoc Demon Hunters | • below average to damage output. • solid utility with immunity in netherwalk. • raid cooldown in darkness. • course chaos brand for magic damage. | |
| Demonology and Destruction Warlocks | • better damage and durability than the mentioned mage specs. • behind on the mobility front. • has important utility. | |
| Frost Death Knights | • below-average damage but makes up with utility. • important raid cooldown. • losing out to a superior sister spec: unholy death knight. | |
| Arms Warriors | • exact same utility as fury but bring better damage. • overall damage below average but excels in amazing execute damage. • fantastic at two target cleave. | |
| Retribution Paladins | • extremely strong single target dmg and decent execute damage. • lacking in multi-target scenarios. • spectacular utility that includes immunities. • lacking in the mobility front. | |
| Elemental and Enhancement Shamans | • decent in spot damage. • lacking in utility front. • general lack of tankiness. | |
| Feral Druid | • well above average damage. • lacking in the utility front. • Boomkin can still pull ahead while having added advantages | |
| Outlaw and Subtlety Rogues | • more damage than assassination. • extremely durable compared to other melee specs. | |
| A-TIER | Fire Mages | • better damage than the two mage specs while bringing the same utility. • powershifting due to nightfay ability allowing for short cooldowns. |
| Windwalker Monks | • solid mobility and one of the tankiest melee specs. • above average spec. • utility wise: important physical damage debuff and mystic touch. • can lose utility if there is a brewmaster and/or mistweaver. | |
| Affliction Warlock | • brings the most damage out of the three warlocks. • same utility as all of them but is mostly picked. | |
| Reworked Shadow Priest | • multi dotting capabilities. • strong execute damage. • stamina buff and a leap of faith. • brings unique tools like dispersion. | |
| S-TIER | Unholy Death Knight | •insane damage. • exact same utility as all death knights but has an extremely valuable cooldown and anti-magic zone. |
| Boomkin Druid | • exceptional damage. • strong utility with strong damage: stampeding roar and movement cooldowns. • great consistent range damage. • high mobility and durability | |
| Marksmanship Hunter | • highest damage out of all hunters. • exact same utility as all hunters. • exceptional burst damage with a fairly short cooldown. |
DPS specs performance in Mythic Plus dungeons
| TIER | SPEC | PROS AND CONS |
| C-TIER | Survival Hunter | • choosing between AoE damage or single target damage. • sister specs are dominating. |
| Assassination Rogue | • struggling with damage output. • sister specs are dominating. | |
| Fury Warriors & Demonology Warlocks | • struggling with damage output. • sister specs are dominating. • the biggest problem being their ramp time / lacking on the mobility front. | |
| B-TIER | Arcane and Frost Mage | • dungeon utility is better than raid utility. • lacking when it comes to damage when compared to their fire counterpart. • solid mobility and immunity and arcane intellect. • aren’t as good as fire mage when it comes to damage. |
| Frost Death Knights | • more bursty cooldown reliant spec compared to unholy. • access to battle resurrection. | |
| Beast Mastery Hunters | • the more consistent in damage spec. • beaten by the burst of marksmanship. | |
| Havoc Demon Hunters | • extremely mobile. • decent burst damage. • brings important magic damage to increase in chaos brand. • debuffs do not stack. | |
| Arms Warrior | • pump out great priority target damage. • powerful execute damage great for tyrannical weeks. • solid defensive cooldown. • lacking in self-sustain. | |
| Retribution Paladin | •strong raid utility transfers well into dungeons. • pumps out great priority target damage and solid execute damage. • lacking in self-sustain. • cooldown reliant to pump out damage. | |
| Feral Druid | • suffering from melee DPS. • solid damage while being less durable than other melees. • fantastic utility in dungeons. | |
| Destruction Warlock | • burstier than demonology relying on infernal cooldown. | |
| Affliction Warlock | • steadier sustained damage output. • struggles in lower keys and tyrannical weeks. | |
| Windwalker Monk | • sturdy DPS with strong cleave and mobility. • dungeon utility is much more favorable than in raids. | |
| Enhancement Shaman | •good sustained damage as opposed to burst. • struggles in melee. • great dungeon utility in general. • shortest cooldown kick in the game. | |
| A-TIER | Elemental Shaman | • range spec with exact same utility as an enhancement. • earthquake’s the most powerful over-enhancement: knocks down AoE enemies. |
| Shadow Priests | • reduced ramp-up time and powerful talent choices. • small skips across different dungeons. | |
| Outlaw and Subtlety Rogue | • can skip certain mobs to spawn the pride flat. • quite durable with additional and tricks. | |
| S-TIER | Boomkin Druid | • uncapped AoE and extremely powerful ranged damage. • general abilities like stampeding roar. • one drawback: sharing a lot of their utility with restoration druids. |
| Unholy Death Knights | • pretty good utility and insane uncapped AoE damage. • ridiculous damage with their utility spells. | |
| Fire Mages | •uncapped AoE damage. • ability to reduce combustions cooldown all the way down to one minute. • Nightfae ability and kindling talent allowing them to have consistent burst damage in dungeons. • amazing mage utility they bring: an immunity, cheat death, solid mobility, and bloodlust. | |
| Marksmanship Hunters | • insane burst damage on short cooldowns. •consistency of trick shots and single target damage. • utility is decent with many traps. • lack of uncapped AoE outside of their window. |
Video chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:48 C-Tier (Raids)
2:03 B-Tier (Raids)
6:35 A-Tier (Raids)
8:32 S-Tier (Raids)
10:17 C-Tier (M+)
11:29 B-Tier (M+)
15:56 A-Tier (M+)
17:36 S-Tier (M+)
Credits
| Author | Alice Parilla at Freedom! |
| YouTuber | Tactyks |
| Publisher | MGN TV |
| Game | World of Warcraft: Shadowlands |