Analysis of Shadowlands DPS in Mythic Sanctum of Domination - Weeks of August 24th and August 31st

Live Posted 2021/09/11 at 2:50 AM by Anshlun

Warcraft Logs Mythic Sanctum of Domination statisticsDisclaimers and SourceSanctum of Domination Statistics Page on Warcraft Logs

Specs that are considered underpowered are generally played less and tend to appear weaker than they actually are.

This happens as many performance-oriented players will tend to play the strongest spec or class, increasing even further the gap between top and bottom specs.

Position of specs for the 95th percentile might be skewed by alternative strategies and parse funneling. For that, we're including the chart showing the result for all percentiles to paint a better picture for all specs.

DPS Rankings in Shadowlands Season 2 - Mythic Sanctum of Domination Weeks of August 24th and August 31st

Position

Spec and Class

Population Size

Windwalker Monk

15916

Arms Warrior

43445

Affliction Warlock

4676

Demonology Warlock

19672

Fury Warrior

4831

Balance Druid

53999

Subtlety Rogue

16539

Elemental Shaman

13860

Feral Druid

4711

Arcane Mage

16880

Fire Mage

17717

Outlaw Rogue

5567

Retribution Paladin

13829

Frost Death Knight

5665

Havoc Demon Hunter

37627

Survival Hunter

1016

Marksmanship Hunter

31488

Shadow Priest

26831

Assassination Rogue

15985

Frost Mage

24833

Beast Mastery Hunter

31152

Unholy Death Knight

22004

Destruction Warlock

28106

Enhancement Shaman

10957

Spec Analysis for Weeks of August 24th and August 31stDemonology Warlock

I am known around these parts of the internet by my in-game name of Not. I have been playing a Warlock since the start of Cataclysm and have not really deviated from it since. Over the years I became more involved in theorycrafting to the point of developing and maintaining a resource dedicated to all Warlocks, Lock One Stop Shop.

You can catch me online on Twitter, Twitch, and Youtube.

With the raid being cleared by all specs of every shape and size we are still seeing Demonology at or near the top of rankings. Most of the reasons why that is the case are still relevant even from way back before the raid released; the one minute damage cycle of Demonology fits in extremely well on basically all encounters, especially since there has tended to be a number of situations where stopping DPS and bursting is relevant.

As previously suspected with boss kills getting shorter and each cooldown cycle being more impactful we are still able to reap the benefit of
Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning reducing the cooldown of Soulbound Tyrant and pairing extremely well with Power Infusion and Soulletting Ruby, especially with the increased item level available on it.

Demonology is the predominant Warlock spec to play on all but two bosses Sanctum of Domination (Soulrender Dormazain and Kel'thuzad) because of the impactful cooldown cycle available to you basically on demand. Most groups continue going the route of buffing us through the use of Power Infusion to even further buff Soulbound Tyrant as much as possible. Power Infusion stacked with the on use effect of Soulletting Ruby makes the Demonic Tyrant dish out very high crit rate at a very quick pace.

The caveat for Demonology to do this well in damage and that is of course Power Infusion. If you aren't getting this buff for your raid you will see a significant drop off in your overall damage making Demonology a somewhat less desirable spec to play, however it is still more than viable. Your damage goes from through the roof powerful to more of a middle of the pack situation without Power Infusion. At which point playing Demonology is essentially the same as playing Destruction or Affliction without external buffs as well.
Windwalker MonkPeakofSerenity Monk class discordPeakofSerenity.comOccasional ExcellenceUS-Turalyon

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Windwalkers continue to dominate the overall meters on WarcraftLogs. This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows how many of the fights are designed, and how strong Windwalker is on those fights. The main culprit for this continues to be Soulrender Dormazain, where Windwalkers are in first place by a huge margin, more than 13% higher than Affliction Warlocks at #2 and more than 20% higher than Elemental Shaman at #3. Painsmith Raznal paints a similar picture, albeit more muted, with Windwalkers at #1 but only slightly higher than Retribution Paladins at #2. Fatescribe and Kel'Thuzad both place Windwalkers solidly toward the top of the lists as well.

However, this is in contrast to how Windwalker performs on other bosses, and can easily paint a different picture of Windwalker's capabilities. Clearly, Windwalkers are one of the kings of AOE, but that can hide Windwalker's weakness in single target. With the exception of Eye of the Jailer, Windwalkers are in the bottom 5 of all specs on every other boss. There are many facets to this, from Windwalkers focusing more on AOE setups, or maximizing any AOE on those bosses, to most playing Necrolord, which is stronger for AOE, in place of Kyrian which is slightly stronger in single target. There are clear reasons that this problem would be exaggerated, but that doesn't change that Windwalker is one of the weakest specs in single target situations.

Thankfully, Windwalker is able to lean even harder into our strength of AOE, and many fights in Sanctum of Domination are designed very well to take advantage of that. Windwalkers are similarly insane in Mythic+ right now, able to delete whole packs in a few seconds with good procs. This is almost entirely due to the Dance of Chi-Ji talent and Calculated Strikes conduit that take Windwalker's decent AOE, make it exceptional, then have a chance to triple it and make it for free. A Windwalker with Dance of Chi-Ji can make quick work of Mawsworn on Soulrender, Shadowsteel Horrors on Painsmith, all the adds on Kel'Thuzad, and the arrows and P2 adds of Sylvanas. Unfortunately, Windwalkers aren't much help on actual boss damage, but fortunately, we can cover the AOE well enough that others can pick up that slack.

Windwalkers shouldn't be surprised to see our AOE damage reigned in in 9.1.5, but hopefully that will come with a boost to our single target damage, so we don't need to be so one-dimensional.
For more information on specs in the Shadowlands Season 2, check out our Sanctum of Domination Class Guides!

Blood DKFrost DKUnholy DK

Havoc DHVengeance DH

Balance DruidFeral DruidGuardian DruidRestoration Druid

Beast Mastery HunterMarksmanship HunterSurvival Hunter

Arcane MageFire MageFrost Mage

Brewmaster MonkMistweaver MonkWindwalker Monk

Holy PaladinProtection PaladinRetribution Paladin

Discipline PriestHoly PriestShadow Priest

Assassination RogueOutlaw RogueSubtlety Rogue

Elemental ShamanEnhancement ShamanRestoration Shaman

Affliction WarlockDemonology WarlockDestruction Warlock

Arms WarriorFury WarriorProtection Warrior

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Comment by EninaCovenants radically swing the WCL measured performance, and so many fights effectively wastes when looking at damage numbers (coughKTZcough).Comment by jgellingWow, DPS might be overall more balanced than healers for a change (healer balance seems the worst I've seen it since Legion), which is no small miracle considering the moving parts of shards, covenants, soulbinds, and legendaries to balance across.Comment by NiccoloMLook... From a Warlock who's been playing Demo since the day the raid opened and tested the 3 specs in the raid, Demonology may have the best single target, but it's the most exhausting to play.

The spec analyst just assumed the best possible scenario throughout the raid and reckoned there will always be a priest to give Power Infusion in every fight and for the duration of every fight. Just look at the logs, each warlock demo in the fights is receiving at least 3 power infusion.

The class is very frustrating to play if you don't receive Power Infusion, especially in fights with a lot of movement... Did you start to build up for the burst and did some mechanics affect you? You can count on losing the burst and having to wait for the next rotation. The class is dependent on the procs of dogs and demonbolts for the player to feel like they can make a "full" burst. If you miss a burst for having to do some mechanics, the class's dps goes down.

Affliction may not have the best single target of the 3 specs, but it is Warlock's most mobile spec and the player doesn't have to rely on other players or RNGs to burst.Comment by hashtagswagHow comes on the picture Survival hunter is 2nd.. but in the table its 16th?Comment by selkie47Me, yesterday: man, I kinda feel like dusting off my old shammy and getting her some gear!
/comes here
Me: ...oh.

Enhance lolComment by Snowy6one thing is clear..
the 9.1 changes for the hunter class was a complete fail!Comment by imahichenhnc is very important for us melee your still usefulComment by Novirtue1980Nah, beastmaster forever, I don't care to be meta slave and we always get buffs :DComment by KryplixxEnhancement aside, that looks like a pretty healthy meta.

I thought Assassination was going to dominate the top, though? Not sure why they fell off.Comment by BobinkaHonestly only last 4 could use some buffs, others are pretty much close compared to Castle Nathria where it was like 20% difference between Boomkin and 2nd group and another 10% gap in another group of specs.Comment by MrSkullcandy95% almost means nothing.
Look at the difference between 95 and 100Comment by MrSkullcandyFunny how good feral looks in these charts while he is completely unviable.
Only reason Feral looks good in overalls like these is cause only the OTP's play Feral which inflates its dmg a ^&*!ton, ontop of Feral not being delegated to play mechanics, the only thing he does on each boss is pure dmg the entire time, which is why the graph is further inflated.

Just look at overall 100's and you see the potential of each class/spec.Comment by BanquettoLooks pretty good to me. On the 95th Percentile stats there's only ~10% difference between the best and worst specs, and on the Overall stats, the central range of every single spec overlaps.Comment by PatronerDust off those polearms, survivors!Comment by SarthoriusDust off those polearms, survivors!Comment by SpacetaurenEnhancement aside, that looks like a pretty healthy meta.

I thought Assassination was going to dominate the top, though? Not sure why they fell off.Comment by BullseyedFor some reason it doesn't even surprise me Enhancement is so low. Even the top outliners are below everyone else!

The spec that's being used @ SoD has so much RNG baked into it, with poor AoE and not enough burst that it feels only normal this would happen.https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/28#boss=2436&dataset=95https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/28#boss=2434&dataset=95Comment by Frawtariusone thing is clear..
the 9.1 changes for the hunter class was a complete fail!Comment by hrlqnUnholy dk once again bottom of the barrel, thank you for nerfs Blizzard....Comment by NetspookSo depressing.

Destro warlock always among the very worst on these charts, 2nd last this time. And it's not like it's a minor differences compared to best, it's often around 20% lower.

Just yet another reason to give FFXIV a chance, so I'll take a break while doing that.

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