If you prefer to play a certain role or want to give something new a try you have never seen before in the Wrath of the Lich King. Here's a Wotlk best melee dps tier list and see how the melee class will be rated.

Wrath of the Lich King Best Melee DPS - WOTLK Melees Tier List & Ranking

We will check the WOTLK best melee dps and cover areas that take into account how Wrath of the Lich King is expected to work. We split the performance into early games and later games or scaling as many classes change in power as itemization is updated. We will then have the complexity of the specialization how difficult is it to play on a baseline level, how stackable is it, and whether are you likely to bring more than one of them or even two or three. The utility is in by buffs or debuffs and finally, PVP is more concerning Arena. Each class will be rated from 1-5 stars.

1 Star - Poor

1 Star - Below Average

3 Star - Average

4 Star - Above Average

5 Star - Great

Wotlk Melee DPS Ratings

Frost Death Knight

Early: *****

Scaling: ****

Complexity: **

Stacking: ***

Utility: ****

PVP: **

Death Knight is a new hero class. They have two DPS specializations both for Frost and Unholy. Frost begins wrath as a hard-hitting single target spec with Excel and AOE burst although very proc dependent.  They don't require a ton of gear to really start pushing excellent damage putting them as a strong contender for top DPS in early raids as the expansion progresses though they don't fall off and even begin to scale up with Armor penetration gear in the trial of the crusader and beyond. 

Play style wise the Frost Death knight is on the simpler end of things apply your diseases, keep them up and dish out huge crits through killing machine and rhyme. Frosty case is expecting certainly don't mind seeing more than one of in your raid but it doesn't feel super necessary either. In general, Frost in particular doesn't have the most utility overall but the way it provides it is just super consistent. Talents giving your entire raid 20 melee haste. Other alternatives to get this buff just are not as good. PVP wise sure it can hit hard but it's ultimately overshadowed hard by its Unholy counterpart which just does nearly everything better. 

Unholy Death Knight

Early: ****

Scaling: ****

Complexity: ****

Stacking: ***

Utility: ****

PVP: *****

They are more on par with frost. If boss fights are short enough, your gargoyle and pets just do an absolutely dumb amount of damage during the opener. They certainly scale well to favoring more strength over Armor penetration. Both Death Knight DPS specs start well and only get better. Complexity-wise, they have more going on than fosters, maintaining your desolation bar for 5% damage. Your ghoul frenzy uptime keeping diseases going time in gargoyle right with snapshotted guffs. It's a pet class, don't forget that. One more thing there's been a great deal of experimentation with dual wield Unholy instead of the more traditional two-handed spec. It could very well be the case that both DK DPS want two one-handers. Backing on Unholy feels similar to frost doesn't hurt but often you won't be actively looking for it. 

Unholy could go up to 5 stars because it's so good and that's ebon plague bringer. This makes your diseases passively apply what is essentially cursive elements causing 12% more magic damage taken. The other alternatives to apply this debuff are only single targets, making Unholy DK's have a fantastic niche here. Finally, in the arena, this is a total monster of a specialization. At quite literally no point is it bad and finds itself in some of the strongest arena teams throughout Wrath. It's a utility and damage-dealing machine.

Assassination Rogue

Early: *****

Scaling: ***

Complexity: *

Stacking: ****

Utility: ***

PVP: **

This is the top-performing single spec in the game early on in raiding content, needing next to no gear but a couple of daggers. This class just gets so much power through its baseline talents and poisons. Its AOE is good too but not top tier. Scaling wise if blizzard bustled while gear which they very well might from a recent blue post, we could see Assassination Rogues do things we've never seen them do to DPS meters before in Wrath. If not, they are expected to remain consistent consistently high. That is as for how hard this spec is to play. This is the easiest melee in the game, the license dice are auto-refreshed thanks to talents. 

You only need to press mutilate and genuine venom. Rogues Assassination you could early if you're gaming multiple Rogues in your raid or you want them for later game content as we progress through well. Utility-wise, Rogues don't bring a huge amount but tricks of the trade get them more or less all of the credit for the score here offering a great threat transfer and a damage buff EVP. 

Combat Rogue

Early: ****

Scaling: *****

Complexity: **

Stacking: **

Utility: **

PVP: ***

Combat is also in a great spot for Wrath of the Lich King. Much like Assassination, it comes into early raids offering great damage with a niche strength of clove damage through blade flurry. It also has a powerful set of DPS cooldowns to blow through. The scaling on Combat is also top tier, Combat benefits heavily from Armor penetration games that are offered in late game rate tiers. So it should start well and only get better as we go on. Much like Assassination not the most complicated spec in the game after your cooldowns are through is back to maintaining slice and dice and weaving in some finishes in between. 

It feels less attractive to stack Combat early compared to Assassination. But the opposite can be said for later in the expansion where multiple Combat Rogues can be a great choice. The utility also gets a pass thanks to tricks of the trade though Combat also brings the 4% physical damage taken debuff which is more or less going to be the only specialization providing that late game. In PvP, you run in you press all your cooldowns and you hope you've won the game by then. Because if you haven't, you're probably going to lose.

Subtlety Rogue

Early: *

Scaling: *

Complexity: ***

Stacking: *

Utility: ***

PVP: *****

Subtlety Rogue is secretly overpowered but nobody has figured out how to play it yet. Perhaps that's what it is or maybe it's just so bad in PVE that there's nothing to really say about how it performs in raid content. PVP wise a completely different story. This is one of the most iconic PVP specs in the game with your standard Rogue Suite of CC burst and utility. In Wrath, there's definitely a chasm between the viable PVP and PVE specs for Rogue.

Arms Warrior

Early: ***

Scaling: **

Complexity: **

Stacking: *

Utility: ***

PVP: *****

Arms Warriors should be the go-to DPS specialization for the class early in the expansion. But don't expect anything too great from them quite yet. Nice sweeping strikes into bladestorm can certainly decimate on trash or air weeps, but the single target often leaves a lot to be desired as the expansion progresses. Sure they scale well with Armor penetration but at a certain point in time, every Arms Warrior will really want to be hitting that respect button and considering that other DPS spec. The specialization is also very simple to play in that you keep up your rent and you use your procs in sudden death and taste for blood as they come up. There's no need for a swing timer anymore because slams and regular auto attacks are tracked separately. In between that blade storm away, it's simple but it is satisfying. 

Stacking-wise, you don't need to but chances are you're going to be gearing more than one Warrior at some point in time for later in the expansion. Utility-wise, they're pretty good actually bringing the 4% physical damage debuff and a major Armor reduction. Enjoy arguing between yourself and the Rogue for literally the entire expansion as to who has to do Sunder. In PvP, Arms is legitimately one of the strongest melees in Wrath of the Lich King that  has extremely high damage and pressure through the mortal strike, decent mobility, and much-improved survivability compared to TBC. As they gain armor penetration, they own only ever get better highly recommended for PVP enjoyers.

Fury Warrior

Early: *

Scaling: *****

Complexity: **

Stacking: *

Utility: **

PVP: *

Fury exceeded expectations in TBC, powerful far earlier than expected for Wrath. This time around surely it'll be the correct prediction that Fury will be way down on the meters during the start of the expansion. Scaling-wise, there is quite literally nothing that compares to a Fury Warrior. Late game they are absolute beasts with insane single target and AOE capabilities, they just need an absolute ton of gear to really come online. But stacking, it kind of goes without saying early game no, late game yes. They need that trial of the crusader and beyond gear to be worth really stacking. Because on top of that, the utility is kind of bad. They do bring a number of buffs but nothing that's hard required or there isn't already another class doing it. In PvP, if Arms exist, play Arms.

Feral DPS

Early: ****

Scaling: ****

Complexity: *****

Stacking: *

Utility: ***

PVP: ****

Feral DPS is a highly anticipated specialization for Wrath Classic. Early on, we expect them to perform well on single Target with a great burst on AOE. Their bleeds can crit now and they bypass armor making them a solid starter. They also scare well with armor penetration in later game raids due to a sizeable portion of the damage still coming from the likes of auto attack and shred. However, despite being a good performer, the class is hard to play. It's the most complicated spec in the game to play and if you aren't playing well, its performance suffers enormously. It's a juggling act of managing buffs and debuffs and you really can't afford to drop anything. 

On top of that, you may have heard of the likes of power shifting in the past from the likes of Classic WOW TBC and that is no longer a thing. But Feral Druids in the apparent endless quest to make the spec harder than it needs to be have come up with something new called bear weaving. Which is shifting into perform when there's nothing that needs to be done in cat and applying lacerate and other abilities during that downtime. The utility is good you still bring that 5% crit buff somebody has to do it after all and the Combat Res never goes amiss either giving them an average score. They improve in PvP a lot compared to TBC with each 5 combo points spent on their next spell. Such as cyclone is instant cast giving them a very high pressure and a large amount of CC from melee spec.

Retribution Paladin

Early: ***

Scaling: *****

Complexity: *

Stacking: *

Utility: *****

PVP: ***

This is already a popular choice and one of the best WOTLK Classic melee classes. Early game in raids, they are solid on AOE and middle of the pack on a single target. They do deal a ton of their damages wholly through bypassing armor and Naxx is full of undead meaning spells such as exorcism are always going to crit. The scaling for Retribution is probably the only time where we'll put an asterisk next to it, as most of the time classes begin to take off in the trial of the Crusader Barrette. However, it's a tier set bonus that they very specific need and that is the tier 10 2 set. This gives the auto attacks a 40% chance to reset the cooldown on the divine storm. 

This is possibly the most powerful tier set bonus that has ever existed in Classic so far and completely changes the power of the spec albeit RNG is heavy. Basically don't expect to do super well until ICC. Retribution is also very straightforwards to play. It has a priority system of short cooldown abilities, you press them in the correct order when they come off cooldown. There's definitely some learning to be done there and making sure you're pressing the right button at the right time. But on a baseline level, Retribution is very simple.

 A stacking rare timing maybe an ICC, before that you wouldn't exactly go looking for it. Retribution is an absolute utility powerhouse and they are one of the single best additions you can make to any raid team. By themselves, they provide 7 separate buffs and debuffs. No other spec in the game comes close to this. On top of that, you can spec into aura mastery or even divine sacrifice for a raid-wide cooldown. They have sacrificed and protection and freedom lay on their hands and so much more. 

Sure Ret is a bit easy to play but you can really stand out by making the most of your huge toolkit of utility. PVP-wise, they're again improved compared to TBC but have a much different play style. In TBC, it was all about packing that win Fury and trying to Global somebody. These days rat is under a lot more consistent with pressure with a strong amount of utility and CC in their toolkit as well.

Enhancement Shaman

Early: ***

Scaling: *****

Complexity: *

Stacking: *

Utility: *****

PVP: ***

They come out the gates as a very impressive specialization for both single target and AOE encounters dealing a good mix of physical and magical damage. The scaling is a bit up in the air. The scaling can be difficult to assess because their specialization is kind of hard to play. There are just a lot of different buttons you need to be managing between your cooldowns, your totems, your totem placement, and even pet management with feral spirit active. If you drop the ball, your DPS can suffer fast. There is also an alternative play style for enhancement too known as spellhance where you will use spell power jewelry, trinkets, and weapons. This variation focuses more of its damage on fire by the likes of flame tongue weapon and fire nova. 

Typically people won't look to stack enhancement either due to the fact that Shaman utility takes a huge hit moving from TBC to wrath. Other classes can now do what they do and often easier. However, if a raid does not have a Shaman, they instantly become the best utility class in the game. Heroism and bloodlust are just too good not to have. In PvP, they can pack a serious amount of burst in the opener applying high pressure with feral spirits heroism and purge though they often need to score a takedown fairly fast or they'll begin to get kitted out. 

A short rundown of each melee DPS specialization in Wrath Classic with a bit of a different format. So you will know how to choose the best WOW Classic WOTLK melees. If you need to buy WOTLK gold, welcome to visit MTMMT.COM.