Which class should you pick in Season of Discovery? This is the biggest question everyone faces right now because each and every class from Classic World of Warcraft is getting massive changes that completely redefine the way we experience the game. Hopefully, by the end of this WOW Classic SoD PvE and PvP class picking guide, you should have a much better understanding of which class is the best to play. 

WoW Classic Season of Discovery Best PvP & PvE Class - SOD PvP & PvE Tier List

Today we’re going to give you all the pros and cons of each class in WoW Classic Season of Discovery as well as what to expect from their performance and play style. If you're wondering if the class that you love so much is going to be good? Probably. Because every single class in the game gets a lot stronger, every single build in the game gets a lot stronger even the ones that were conventionally thought up as meme builds. To be noted, each class can have class changes happen to them after our Season of Discovery PvP and PvE picking guide. Next, let's break down the SoD best DPS, healer and tank class in Phase 1. 

Warrior

Warriors are the quintessential Kings of Classic and they're the kings of Classic for a reason because they scale incredibly well as the game progresses. Getting stronger gear and more buffs benefits the play style of Warriors completely. Because the more damage they do, the more rage they generate, and the more rage they generate, the more damage they can continue doing. 

DPS

With runes Fangellation, Consumed by rage, Warriors are guaranteed powerhouses at the higher levels. They also have runes that buff both dual-wielding and two-handed specializations, making it so that you can play with either of these play styles if you want a DPS. 

Tanks

As tanks, there was some data mining of a hidden gladiator sance which would allow Warriors to wear a shield while also still doing pretty strong damage and having incredible threats. 

Cons

The only downside to Warriors right now is that at level 25, they're missing a massive part of their toolkit. As the class scales with the more power they get, the lower levels also tend to feel the most weak. For DPS, the talent Flurry alone would give them 30% more attack speed and bring their class more online. Don't worry if you're not the absolute Giga Chads within Phase 1 because Warriors are still the best class for scaling in World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery and they always have been.

Paladin

Paladins are looking like one of the biggest winners of Season of Discovery. 

Tanks

As tanks, they finally have a much-needed taunt ability. 

Paladin tanks are built for pulling a large number of enemies and aoeing them down. Walking with their shields to reduce incoming damage and the new Hand of Reckoning Rune finally gives them that much needed taunt. It also gives them an added 80% to all of their threat generation, so they no longer will have to worry about losing aggro. They can also do more AoE damage if they decide to grab Divine Storm and Avenger’s Shield is a ranged ability that absolutely pumps. 

DPS

As damage, they rise from the ashes to be DPS Kings. 

Healers

As healers, they remain one of the most versatile and powerful healer specs in WoW Classic SoD with a completely well-rounded kit that makes them necessary for every raid group. 

Cons

As far as damage goes, Retribution Paladins just received quite a large nerf. But that nerf is not actually hurting them enough to bring them down from one of the strongest DPS classes in the WoW Classic Season of Discovery. The nerf they received specifically made it so that their Seal of Martyrdom no longer hit three targets at one time for sustained cleave. Instead, it is now a seal to return mana to the Paladin himself as well as the rest of the raid. The Paladins can just choose to grab Divine Storm instead and the cooldown of Crusader Strike was brought up from 4 seconds to 6 seconds. Just making it a little bit longer for you to be able to use that ability again.

Buffs

As always, Paladins still come with Blessings. Some of the most powerful buffs in the entire game. Salvation alone is one of the reasons why most guilds actually go Alliance. Those things combined with their ability to bubble themselves and anyone else in their party to instantly save their lives or instantly drop a full heal into the tank make Paladins an absolutely top Season of Discovery best class to pick.

Shaman

The Horde received a lot of buffs to their unique class the Shaman. 

Healers

Shamans were the most sought-after healer in Classic because of their ability to heal multiple targets and because they brought Wind Fury totem with them. Shaman healers continue to shine with new abilities that increase both their AoE healing as well as some single target healing runes that put them on par with Paladins at keeping tanks alive. Shamans can also finally play the beloved enhanced specialization and not get kicked out of the raids.

DPS

Shamans might completely missing out on the two-handed enhance build that would run around and one-hot people in PvP. The dual wield play style of enhancement will turn them into incredibly powerful and sustained damage dealers. They also come with runes that can help deal with any sort of mana issues they might have experienced beforehand. 

Tanks

Not only that, Shaman can also become tanks now and they might even be the strongest AOE tanks in WoW Classic Season of Mastery. Throwing a shield and receiving mana back every single time you block a physical attack. This means Shaman tanks are incredibly powerful for tanking a ton of mobs at one time. They have a frontal cone of cold ability that's currently uncapped on how many targets it can hit and it generates a huge amount of threat. They finally have a single target taunt and they're one of the most fun tanks to play.

PvP & PvE

Shaman can also become a ranged caster that pumps with runes like Lava Burst and Overload. Shaman can not only on-shot people in PvP but they will be continuously pumping in PvE.

Cons

The only drawback in phase one is that Shaman don't yet have chain lightning at level 25.

Druid

A lot of work has been put in to make sure that all four Druid specs are completely viable because Druids can also now differentiate between tanking and Feral DPS. Every single melee in Classic is going to absolutely fight over whoever gets the Feral Druid in their group. That's because Druids now bring a new and improved wind fury called Wild Strikes. We now have wind fury for Alliance and this is even a better wind fury for Horde. That's because Wild Strikes does not take up a weapon enhancement slot, meaning that Rogues and Warriors or anyone else can also use sharpening stones or poisons and still benefit from getting those huge wind fury procs. 

DPS

Feral DPS will get Savage Roar, a new finishing move that gives the kitty a raw 30% extra damage. This combined with mangle will make Feral Druid DPS extremely sought after in all raid environments. 

Tanks

As tanks, Feral Druids get a lot more survivability with Survival of the Fittest. But they can also bring that wind fury buff if they need to. 

-Feral Druid finally gets an interrupt and they have more threat generation than ever before with the new ability lacerate. 

-Balance Druid gets Sunfire and Starsurge as new spells that round out their arsenal. But they also completely forgot any sort of mana issues because they can get a rune that makes their wrath spell completely free to cast. This means while leveling, you will never have to stop to drink. 

Healers

As for healers, in Classic, Druids originally weren't even able to use most of their abilities that's because of the way that buff cap works. You could only have up to 32 buffs on you at one time and Druid heals would also count as a buff themselves. If you accidentally threw a reju on your main tank, you might have actually pushed off their most important world buff. This is no longer the case. Druids can finally use all of their abilities, not only that but they finally get some new abilities as well. Runes like Wild Growth will make Druids one of the most powerful raid-wide healing classes in the entire game. 

If you're ever anticipating a lot of damage to go out, the Druid can perfectly prepare for all of that and have everyone healed up right after. 

Hunter

Hunters are the last remaining pure DPS class in Season of Discovery. With multiple play styles, from pet builds to range, snipers, and even a fully melee Hunter. 

Melee

Melee Hunters are actually a thing in this game and Thunderfury might genuinely only now be a Hunter weapon. It's crucial to mention that Hunters can now bring the Blessing of King's buff over to the Horde side with Aspect of the Lion. This increases everybody's stats by 10% and gives the Hunter himself an extra 10% to that bonus. This will be absolutely essential if you're the only Hunter in a group. Although the melee build might not be fully fleshed out in phase 1 of Season of Discovery, you get the new ability Flanking Strike where you and your pet both hit for 100% weapon damage and it also buffs your raptor strike and mongoose bite abilities. 

Melee Hunters also get an incredible cleave ability that is quite literally one of the only uncapped cleave abilities in the entire game. If your tank pulls the entire dungeon at one time, it looks like there's no damage falling off of you hitting every single target all at once.

Range

Range Hunters can go with the Lone Wolf talent to get rid of their pets and increase all of their damage by 25%. Comparing this with the Sniper Training talent that gives all of your abilities an extra 30% crit chance makes Hunters an absolute force to be reckoned with. Hunters can also choose a new ranged ability between Explosive Shot or Chimera Shot. Although Explosive Shot itself will share a CD with Am shot and Arcane Shot. 

Pet Builds

Hunter pet build will give you an actual tank with your pet. Making their taunt significantly more effective basically not being useless. You can also learn kill command to buff your pet's damage even further and these runes will make Hunter one of the most powerful leveling classes in WoW Classic SoD. 

In the open world PvP, Hunters can just stand back at range and have the leeway to absolutely delete everyone in front of them which is going to make them one of the best classes in WoW Classic Season of Discovery. 

Rogue

Rogues is one of the WoW SOD best classes for both PvP and PvE. 

PvP

Just for PvP alone, Rogues are getting a ranged Kidney Shot and a ranged slow ability that's reminiscent of Outlaw Rogues if you've ever played retail. This solves one of the Rogue's biggest issues when fighting other players. That was if someone ever got out of range of you, Rogues turned from the predator to the prey. There was very little to do to close the gap and that issue has been completely solved with these abilities.

PvE

As for PvE, Rogues have always been able to choose between daggers and swords as to how they want to deal incredible damage. The strongest single Rune that Rogues have seen so far is one that reduces the energy of their backstab and ambush abilities by a whopping 20 energy. That rune itself is one of the strongest runes we've seen this entire season. 

They also get a new double dagger play style with Mutilate. This hits with both of your daggers at the same time and pairs with the Deadly Brew and in Envenom runes to jump up the Rogues damage. Rogues can use both of those runes as well and gain the new hard-hitting ability called Saber Slash but Rogues aren't pigeon hold to just being a DPS class anymore. 

Tanks

Rogue tanks were used in hardcore Classic to dodge all of the attacks on bosses and that play style is exactly translated to the new Rogue tanking in Season of Discovery. Like the other tanks, Rogues get their very own taunt. But unlike other tanks, Rogues prefer to actually not be hit at all. Instead, all of the Rogues tanking abilities increase their avoidance. With things like Perry and Dodge getting so strong even that at level 60 and the current runes in the game right now, you can hit over 100% avoidance with all world buffs. This means, Rogue tanks would never get hit by any of the boss's melee swings and only take damage from things like magical spells. 

Cons

The biggest flaw Rogues have currently is their lack of AOE abilities. They are a purely single target class, especially at level 25 but Blizzard intends to change that as we learn new spells moving towards max level. With that in mind, Rogues are a very strong pick especially if you want to do both PvP and PvE.

Warlock

You've probably heard that Warlocks can turn into giant demon tanks in Season of Discovery. Warlocks as a class are probably getting the biggest changes in this season and not only aesthetically. While Warlocks in the original Classic only had one or two abilities to use and even in TBC. That is no longer the case, because Warlocks had the option of going with a fire damage build, a damage overtime build with Affliction or they can become demons themselves and be one of the most powerful AoE tanks in the Classic Season of Discovery. 

Runes

-The Metamorphosis Rune alone completely changes the class. This gives them 500% more armor an instant cast searing pain, a melee taunt, a melee cleave and it turns their drain life into a more powerful siphon life. This one Rune will also make Warlocks almost impossible to kill in any PvP situation. So if you thought snuts was already a monster at 1v1 before, just wait until he gets his hands on something like this. 

-Warlocks finally have solid AoE with the new Shadow Bolt Volley Rune. Then they can swap this out on boss fights for the huge damage of chaos bolt or the damage overtime boost of haunt. 

-Fire builds with incinerate and Lake of Fire turn Warlocks from shadowbolt spamming soggy pancakes to Gigachad DPS pumping waffles. 

-Affliction will most likely receive more runes in the future allowing the class to truly ramp up their damage. 

But either way, Warlocks are finally looking as strong as they've always claimed to be.

Priest

The Priest runes focus on increasing their healing and making the shadow spec more viable. 

Runes

-Shadow Priest can get Mind Sear which is an extremely powerful AoE ability if the raid pulls packs large enough. 

-One of the coolest new abilities is called Homunculi. This splits the Priest Soul into three miniature copies of itself and they all start attacking the target, putting up some of the game's most powerful debuffs. Including reducing the targets attack power, attack speed, and armor. If these stack with things like sun armor, this is going to be one of the most powerful runes in the entire game. 

-Priests can also finally grab Shadow Word: Death.

-Healing Priests get some of the class's most iconic spells like Penance, Prayer of Mending, and Circle of Healing. 

Cons

While Priest may struggle with mana a bit at the lower levels. There's no denying that both Healing and Shadow Priests are getting huge buffs as we move throughout this season. 

Mage

Mages remain the master of the elements whether it be Fire, Frost, or Arcane. Not only that but Mages are now actually going to be healers as well. Although Mage healing has already received nerfs before the game even comes out. 

Abilities

Mages now have three unique healing abilities that can allow them to do a ton of damage while also keeping everybody in the party or Raid alive. 

-Fire Mages are getting huge abilities with things like Living Bomb and Living Flame.

-Arcane Mages are moving away from consistently casting Frostbolt to using things like Arcane Blast and Arcane Surge.

-Although Frostbolt might no longer be the meta ability within PvE situations, Frost Mages get a ton more ways to deal out extra damage with abilities like Ice Lance pairing with Fingers of Frost. Making them absolute powerhouses in PvP that can delete people in seconds.