Today we're doing a ranking tier list for DPS in Classic Wrath of the Lich king. So we are going to be evaluating each spec based on pure raw damage. We will evaluate the specs based on every single phase of the game, Naxxramas, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel. This is because a number of different specs gain certain power spikes based normally on set bonuses or just getting better stats.

Classic WotLK DPS Ranking Tier List (2022) - Ranking Best DPS Specs From Naxx to ICC

When you look at these specs in the particular tiers, you can’t think that they're entirely set in stone, they are quite fluid, a certain spec might go up in a cliff fight, it might go up when it gets best in slot gear and set bonuses, it might get better when people actually have bad gear because specs are going to shine on different kinds of fights. For example, ret paladins are always going to top the meters on the cliff fights but single target probably not. Now let’s get straight into this dps ranking tier list for Wrath of the Lich King.

• Naxxramas Tier List

There are big pumpers, assassination rogue, both are definite specs and the enhancement shaman. So enhancement and assassination probably the best single target dps you're going to get. An x-ray must have been deaf knights are definitely going to be the absolute gods of this too because they're going to dominate on the clay fights and the single target fights. Some people like to put the warlock specs in S tier, but that's fine for private servers with bigger execute phases, but these bosses are going to go down really fast, so the execute phases are going to be smaller which means the wall expects will pump less. Early on in WotLK, most hunters are going to go survival, just does a little bit more damage maximum starts to take over with more armor penetration but it's still pretty good with decent agility gear, that's why it's in the B tier. 

• Arcane Mage Tier 

This could maybe squeeze up to a nest here on a melee unfriendly fight and a range-friendly fight. Ret paladin, the arms warrior, the balanced druid and the shadow priest will go up a tier on those aoe and clear fights and in fact so will the fury warrior and the warrior could easily squeeze up to an 80 on voice clear fights. All the warriors in the community are gonna surprise us, only on those clay fights, in a single target situation arms and fury are not that great, this is the age of bladestorm, so bladestorm is very strong on those cliff fights. A shadow priest can go up a tier on those multi-dot fights and put destruction mid-tier because destruction is a bit slept on and it can actually do more damage than people think. And the last oddball is the beast mastery hunter, beast mastery hunter when everyone's got really bad gear will actually do pretty good damage in naxxramas so they're probably a higher tier when everyone is just jumping into naxxramas for the first time, they're also very good for heroic dungeon farming.

• Ulduar Tier 

So feral druid and combat road definitely get power spikes when they get their tier set bonuses. Everything in A tier is definitely gonna be topping the meters like for instance the mage definitely gets a massive power spike with its set bonus. When it comes to these specs, red fury balance and shadow are going to go up on the clay fights, even on a single target fight is going to start to get really good and be more of an A tier once at best in slot geared, all to our geared like hard mode geared. Arms is more of a B to C tier, everyone's better slot alderweight that, arms will go down because all the other specs are getting big power spikes of an arms just simply isn't an ivory's beast mastery and either is destruction. 

• Trial of the Grand Crusader

The marksman hunter finally starts to activate and so does the fire mage, when the fire mage gets, they save roughly 45 to 50% crit. That's when the bits start to become a little bit nutty. As we can see the warlocks, they're dropping down a little bit to more middle of the pack and at this stage in the game elemental will drop down even further, it doesn't get any worse or anything, it's just the fact that all the other specs get much more powerful. The ret can sneak into the A tier because the dude's about great cleave dps but they really need a set bonus from icecrown citadel before they've ever become a real competitive dps on single target fights. Fury has crept up, exactly like it did in TBC.

• Icecrown Citadel

Fury right bang at the top, this because when fury does actually generate enough armor penetration, they become arguably the best dps in the game particularly when the buses lock geared with a cheeky shadow man, same goes for the combat rogue and the feral derivatives scale incredibly well with arm penetration, at this point the fire mage has so much crit that they're just hot streaking like there's no tomorrow. Death knights and ret paladin in the A tier, but we think these dps specs will outperform the fire mage and the feral on certain cliff fights. Maximum is finally the top dog spec because of its armor penetration and affliction will sneak up a little bit and that's simply because when you're doing heroic mode as crown citadel, The boss hp pulls will be bigger. And then those execute phases are also bigger but also arguing trial of crusader affliction does creep up a little bit too, but only when you're doing those heroic modes of the bigger health pools.