In this WOTLK Classic DPS tier list, we are ranking the best DPS specs and classes for patch 3.3.5. Throughout this article, we will also talk about why most tier lists are actually way inaccurate and what you should be on the lookout for when determining a class is worth. One last thing to mention is this WOTLK DPS class tier list will be based on having best-installed gear, not progression gear just to keep it simple. We are going to go through this class by class to keep it a little bit clean.

Wrath of the Lich King Best Classes & Specs - WOTLK Classic DPS Rankings

Patch 3.3.5 will be the final patch in Wrath of the Lich King where all of the major and minor adjustments have been fixed. For example in patch 3.3.0 shadow priests got their damage significantly buffed from their previous class situations in previous patches. Improved devouring plague now deals 10/20/30% of its initial periodic damage or periodic effect instantly up from 5/ 10/15%. Literally doubles the effect of that talent. Shadow form now also causes devouring plague and vampiric touch to benefit from haste. This is an obvious DPS increase as your damage over time effects will take. Faster death might also have significant buffs in patch 3.2 which will still be active in patch 3.3.5. Such as plus 15% increase in damage done by both blood plague and frost fever. 

Not only were the class changes throughout Wrath of the Lich King but they also adjusted how classes react to different stats and their benefit from each individual stat. Such as patch 3.1 where all classes now receive 25% more benefit from armor penetration rating. Once again that adjustment will still be active in patch 3.3.5. All of these changes mean that any patch 3.0 or 3.1 to your list that you have seen up to now will not be representative of what will happen in phase 1 or phase 2 of Wrath Classic. Because it's all based on patch 3.3.5. So with that said let's get into the Wrath of the Lich King DPS tier list.

S Tier On WOTLK DPS Rankings

Fire Mage

Fire mages are incredible and the best DPS class in Classic WOTLK. This is because of many different factors such as class tuning, and stacked optimization, and having that 4 set bonus is absolutely ridiculously overpowered for fire mages. Fire mages will be the absolute kings of icecrown citadel and if you're playing a mage, you are in for a treat.

Paladin

Paladins only have one DPS spec available, aka retribution. Retribution is pretty good in patch 3.3.5. Not much more to say about it, paladins in general are pretty good in Wrath and you can't go wrong with choosing a paladin. Paladins are high s tier.

Marksmanship Hunter

Marksmanship hunters on the other hand scale very well with gear. It gets better over time as you get more and more gear well obviously and obtain better weapons they scale incredibly well with agility critical strike and your actual weapon damage. They are very strong ranged DPS with lots of sustainable damage allowing them to perform well on both short and long fights marksmanship hunters are s tier on this Wrath of the Lich King DPS tier list.

Affliction Warlock

The affliction of warlocks is even better compared to demonology warlocks and the destruction of warlocks. With damage over time effects deal the majority of your damage. This class is incredibly strong on most fights and this puts it all the way at the top of the s tier.

Fury Warrior

Fury warrior climbs all the way up to one of the best WOTLK DPS specs. Rivaling fire mages on the damage meters performing like actual beasts. The reason why fury is better than arms is the fact that fury scales better with the gear and abilities. Bloodthirst scales with attack power which makes fury react better to stats such as strength and armor penetration and wielding two two-handed weapons through the titan's grip. Also, it gives you more stats to scale off 5.

Feral Druid

Feral druids are in s tier simply because of how they scale with the gear and boomkins gets a lot of small quality of life upgrades throughout the patches of Wrath. Which allows them to sustain very high damage while not going out of mana. Making them a pretty good class overall.

A Tier On WOTLK DPS Ranking By Tier

Frost & Unholy Death Knights

For death knights, frost and unholy are usually pretty similar in terms of DPS. The main difference is usually that frost is the easier spec while unholy is a little bit more difficult to master. But once you do master it, you might be able to deal a little bit more DPS than the moist defroster death knight. Regardless we putting both specs into high a tier, potentially s tier especially if you're able to grab shadow mourn.

Assassination Rogue

Assassination on the other hand is quite good, not the best but also not the worst pretty much right in the middle. We've chosen to put this into a tier year. However, this spec could fit into both the tier and the s tier based on you play it. If you pull the most rows based on average skill levels, the average as a rogue will be a tier.

Combat Rogue

Combat rogues are at the top of the WOTLK DPS rankings. Combat is absolutely amazing especially if you're able to cooperate with a death knight into giving you hysteria and coordinate that with your own cooldowns. It is so much fun and you're dealing a metric ton of DPS. A seriously fun class indeed!

B Tier On Best DPS Tier List WOTLK

Enhancement Shaman

Enhancement shamans on the other hand can be put into any of the tiers from c tier to s tier depending on who plays it.  The average enhancement shaman will probably be stuck at around a high c tier to a low b tier. But if you're very good at your class, you can go all the way up to s tier. To keep it simple, we are going to put them into the b tier.

Demonology Warlock

Demonology warlocks on the other hand are a little bit better. They also rely on their minions to deal some of their damage and we saw how that turned out for beast mastery hunters. But demonology of warlocks actually has decent DPS and because of that, they are pretty much in the middle of this list.

C Tier On Classic Wrath DPS Ranking Tier List

Arcane Mage

Arcane is one of the specs with a pretty okay burst but you also go out of mana pretty fast. This means that arcane mages can actually be close to top DPS for the first 10 seconds of a boss fight and then it's all downhill from there. In certain speed running matters with incredibly short bursts, it might be okay. But on fights such as the Lich King which is a 15-minute fight, you are going to spend the majority of that fight literally out of mana and you'll be near the bottom of the damage meters. Overall arcane is c tier at best.

Arms Warrior

Warriors are the classic wow mains that we roll to warlocks and are now rolling back to warriors to once again. Meet the kings of the jungle. One major difference from Classic WOW to Wrath of the Lich King is that arms warrior is not the best spec. And arms are actually ranked quite low on the DPS meters all the way down to c tier.

Shadow Priest

Shadow priests did get some of their damaging abilities buffed in patch 3.3 such as devouring plague and and vampiric touch. Now also scales with your haste. Because of this, shadow priests actually rank right in the c tier. That being said shadow priest also brings a lot of hidden utility to the raid. So shadow priests are not only good for the damage output, they do a lot of carrying on the back end.

D Tier On Wrath of the Lich King DPS Rankings

Beast Mastery Hunter

While we e talking about classes that can be both good and terribly bad at the same time depending on which spec you play. Let's talk about hunters. Hunters are fun they have different class fantasies tied to each and every individual spec. You can even have spectral beasts as pets by taming some rare pets in Wrath. But no matter how fun beast mastery is and how it looks on paper. The fact is that most of your damage is being dealt with by your pet and your pet doesn't scale that well with your gear. Relying on a minion to deal your damage for you is not a good idea and beast mastery hunters should be in the d tier.

Frost Mage

Mages can be incredibly strong or they can be very weak. It all depends on which spec you play and that is why this tier list is here. Each spec has its own strengths and weaknesses and while frost might be the go-to spec for leveling up. Even PVP because of the deep freeze and your water elemental is definitely not the spec to go for raiding. You are much better off playing any of the other two specs and frost gets put into the don't play category.

Survival Hunter

Throw survival hunters in d tier as well because once again while being a melee hunter sounds fun on paper. That is pretty much where the excitement stops.

Elemental Shaman

This class can actually go pretty much anywhere on the Classic WOTLK DPS list. First, if you're going to be in a range class to the reign, there are about 753 better options than elemental shamans, and elemental shamans are put into the d category. The only reason is if you don't have any other shamans and you can't find the rest of the shaman or an enhancement shaman and you desperately need those totems.

Destruction Warlock

Destruction of warlocks is not really played that much on the Wrath series in the latest patches. For good reason, they don't perform too well on the damage meters. For that, we put them into the D category.

Subtlety Rogue 

Throw subtlety rogue into the don't play category. Subtlety rogues are great for PVP but horrible for PvE. To deal even a fraction of the damage of a combat or assassination rogue, you have to be beyond an expert at the spec. So it's harder to play and you deal less damage, just don't play it.

That is the final to Wotlk DPS rankings 3.3.5. Keep in mind that this is with the best in-stock gear from Icecrown Citadel including a tier 4 set bonus. This is not going to be what the DPS meter is for phase one of Wrath Classic really look like but it might be what the DPS meter is for the final phase of Wrath Classic looks like. If you need to buy TBC Classic gold, MTMMO.COM will be a safe choice!