Shadowlands 9.2 DPS Tier List for Mythic+ Season 3 - Dratnos and Tettles Predictions

Posted 2022/02/28 at 6:26 AM by tettles

Disclaimers About This Tier ListIf you want to make an argument that your spec should be in a higher tier, you are saying that you do not believe it deserves a buff!Patch 9.2 Shadowlands DPS Tier List Predictions for Mythic+ Season 3DPS Tier List Definitions

S: Specs that we expect to dominate the metagame, with groups using these specs massively outnumbering those that don’t.

A: Great specs that bring fantastic damage profiles for mythic plus while also providing a healthy combination of utility and survivability.

B: Good specs that will be in many but not all of the top performing raid compositions, we expect these to be slightly behind in either damage or utility when compared to the A tier specs, but to still be very frequent choices.

C: Solid specs that would be unsurprising to see a copy of in some raid compositions, but we don’t expect them to be stacked and we wouldn’t be surprised to see them missing from many compositions either. Sometimes these are specs with situational damage profiles that will have value on specific types of fights, and may be incredibly valuable if the important fights of the tier have those damage profiles.

D: These specs are the toughest to play effectively in dungeons as even when played very well they’ll struggle to compete with the top specs in damage. They either have fundamental mechanical problems that make their damage not work well in dungeons, or they suffer from low tuning on the abilities they use in Mythic Plus.

F: A spec with horrifying weaknesses that is in immediate need of developer attention and we’d be surprised to see played in many raid compositions at all. No DPS in this tier.

VideoPatch 9.2 Shadowlands DPS Rankings and ExplanationsS Tier Specs for Mythic+ Season 3

Subtlety Rogue is the premier damage dealer for high-end mythic plus teams. This spec does phenomenal damage, which is even better than it appears on damage meters since so much is dealt to the most important targets in each pull. On top of this, they provide huge amounts of utility in the form of Shroud of Concealment (which is somewhat more replaceable this season with the Encrypted Decrypted Urh Cypher but still offers so much flexibility). They can also control enemies with effects like Sap, Kidney Shot, and Blind, and this patch their AoE damage has been enhanced to the point that it’s hard to pinpoint any real weaknesses of the spec. We expect almost every top run on the leaderboards to include a Subtlety Rogue this season.

Survival has had a phenomenal showing over this PTR cycle, and it remains unclear how many remaining bugfixes are coming that will effectively nerf the spec, as there are still a few interactions with their new set bonuses (Mad Bombardier & Mad Bombardier) that could potentially get changed or might be left as is. If the spec remains in its current state it will deal unmatched AOE damage in a mythic plus setting, to the point that we believe it warrants inclusion in the S Tier despite being lighter on utility and survivability than many other top specs.

A Tier Specs for Mythic+ Season 3

Destruction Warlock lacks single target damage, but its AOE is phenomenal especially with the 4pc set bonus Ritual of Ruin + Avatar of Destruction and potentially the Venthyr Legendary Impending Catastrophe, which is a competitive covenant after double legendaries become available against the more traditional Night Fae covenant in Mythic Plus. Destruction Warlocks are a sturdy ranged class that lack an immunity but do have access to Dark Pact, which you can think of as basically an immunity if you’ve never played with it before. Healthstones provide a large amount of value to the whole group in higher level content, and Demonic Gateway has a few fantastic uses in dungeons.

Frost Mage took a massive AOE nerf towards the end of the PTR cycle, and it remains an open question whether the nerfs may have taken it below the A Tier or whether they may in fact not have done enough to dislodge it from the S Tier. For now, we have it in A Tier due to their consistently high damage that, like Subtlety Rogue, can be focused onto an important priority target. Frost for a lot of the PTR cycle gained a significant amount from Encrypteds Decrypted Urh Cypher which gave them an insane amount of CDR on abilities such as Frozen Orb & Shifting Power. Frost Mages are also very durable, with Ice Block and Cold Snap to survive several boss mechanics with ease and Ice Barrier granting them large effective health pools against unavoidable damage. Frost is also gaining some interesting build options with Necrolord potentially becoming an unwieldy but powerful option once set bonuses and double legendaries unlock.

Fury Warrior is another spec that blasts a tremendous amount of damage in 9.2. Their set bonus is quite strong, and the additional crowd control from either Spear of Bastion or Ancient Aftershock is a nice bonus. Those cooldowns are further empowered after the addition of the double legendary, making their damage on pull astronomical, although depending on the tank and whether the group has access to threat redirection effects, ripping aggro and dying can be a real danger. Battle Shout adds a nice extra bit of damage to the group, and Rallying Cry can be a potent cooldown against dangerous AOE damage from nasty trash pulls or bosses like the third boss in Sanguine Depths or the last boss of Plaguefall.

Balance Druid is the support DPS spec for M+. With things such as Force of Nature, Call of the Elder Druid healing, Ursol's Vortex, Typhoon, and even more, Balance Druid was built for mob control in M+. Their damage is definitely on the average end for both bosses and trash pulls and needing to play Venthyr in M+ can definitely hold them back a bit as it is complicated to play at times. At the same time they speed up your group with invisible time saves due to being able to keep mobs grouped up a lot more and just make your runs a lot safer. On the upside of their damage, they do not lose a lot of Single Target to play for AOE and vice versa meaning that you are never getting gutter overall. You are definitely bringing them for their utility and they are probably a low A-Tier spec.

Windwalker Monk was a dominant spec in previous patches this expansion and remains a fantastic choice despite having slightly less excitement surrounding it going into patch 9.2. Its burst and sustained AOE damage remain very strong, though it does struggle with single target damage. It has several powerful defensive tools but it needs to use them correctly in order to survive in higher keys, and it also brings tools like Ring of Peace that are very powerful but particularly difficult to use as a DPS player rather than the tank or healer. A good windwalker monk is one of the best things that can happen to a mythic plus group, but a windwalker monk that is less proficient will find the spec less of a cakewalk in 9.2 than before.

B Tier Specs for Mythic+ Season 3

Arms is a strong choice that we expect will appear to be a worse choice than it actually is due to the fact that many top Warriors will primarily choose Fury, especially once set bonuses and covenant legendaries are fully available. Its single target damage, burst damage, and cleave are all strong but we do expect it to be outclassed by Fury except in situations where Sweeping Strikes gets really fantastic value against exactly two targets.

Fire Mage has some nice damage potential in dungeons, both against trash and bosses, and Combustion remains a premier cooldown, but its set bonuses are in the lower half and the addition of the covenant legendary isn’t as great as it is for some other specs. Though Fire’s damage is strong in both single target and AOE, it lacks the ability to do serious incidental cleave while focusing on an important single target, a characteristic of its damage that was an asset of the spec in previous expansions. With Cauterize and Ice Block, Fire is a durable ranged spec and in dungeons it offers a very fun high skill ceiling playstyle!

Havoc Demon Hunter may have fallen off somewhat in the overall damage department when compared to previous patches, prompting us placing it in the B Tier despite a nice utility and survivability package. Though a Venthyr raid-style build will work in Mythic plus, a high-skill Night Fae build with First Strike, Blazing Slaughter, Collective Anguish, and potentially an on-use trinket can deal substantial burst damage. Unfortunately we suspect even played well that this damage will be behind our A and S tier specs in AOE, though Havoc’s single target should be a strong point of the spec, especially if they sacrifice some of that AOE burst to play the Venthyr build instead.

Demonology Warlock is less well suited to dungeons than to raid, where its single target damage truly shines. It may surprise you this patch with respectable AOE damage and a short cooldown on damage in Summon Demonic Tyrant that makes the spec flexible and powerful, especially when the Warlock is able to think about the texture of upcoming pulls and plan accordingly. Though we expect Destruction to occupy the highest spots on the Warlock leaderboard, Demonology’s raw damage numbers earn it a respectable spot in the B Tier.

Arcane gains some fantastic damage and quality of life in Patch 9.2, with the set bonuses and the double legendary really enhancing the Kyrian playstyle and granting Arcane a priority damage profile that makes the dungeon experience potentially more varied than the Arcane Explosion spam of previous seasons (though a fair number of pulls will still look exactly like that!)

Though we expect Arcane to be the lowest performing mage spec of all three, it’s difficult to be certain at this point, and mages that either like to experiment or want to only play Arcane should have a great time this patch relative to the average patch.

Assassination suffers from not being Subtlety in a world we expect to be dominated by Subtlety rogues, but it does offer a fun mythic plus playstyle and likely a pleasantly surprising amount of damage when piloted well. Vendetta, especially when enhanced by Obedience (the Venthyr legendary)-buffed Flagellation, deals an obscene amount of damage to both bosses and dangerous lieutenants on a relatively short cooldown, which can be a very valuable addition to the group and would potentially advance Assassination to A Tier if the seasonal affix were Prideful again.

Outlaw is in a bit of a pickle for M+, as the traditional dungeon covenant of Necrolord has fallen even farther behind in single target due to the pure AOE nature of (finally bug-free) Deathspike, the Necrolord legendary. Outlaws may instead choose to be Kyrian to gain the powerful Echoing Reprimand, though it’s difficult to find a reason why Outlaw would be a better choice than Subtlety except for personal preference, but the best potential answers would be the Necrolord AOE and, if you’re really stretching, the extra stop from Gouge.

Marksmanship damage is not something to be scoffed at. They have some of the strongest AOE burst in the game and with their 4 set (Focused Trickery & Focused Trickery) being mostly multi-target focused they can pump out high overall. They do unfortunately run into issues where their sustained AOE damage is not that great, and the builds they need to play make their ST pretty lackluster. They also do not gain a ton from a second legendary for M+ which makes their damage good but not great. When you look comparatively to other trash specialists like Destruction Warlock, MM is definitely just a B-Tier spec.

Frost DK damage is good, no copium. Unfortunately they do not have stand-out utility to be able to couple with their decent damage. A lot of their power is also forced into a Breath of Sindragosa style build for m+ which generally is pretty difficult to play overall and can lack on some pulls where you struggle for uptime. At that point you get tunnel vision, have Windwalker brain, and die for the BOS uptime. A lot of the reasons that Frost DK got put into B-Tier was the lack of real polarizing dungeon utility while not being top tier damage. It does a really good balance of Single Target and AOE DPS, but you’re going to need a bit more to bust open into A-Tier.

Elemental is currently benefiting from a beneficial "interaction" when using Storm Elemental + Fireheart. They are able to keep 20 stacks of Wind Gust from their elemental permanently by re-pressing storm ele and allowing it to have 100% uptime. If this stays then Ele will probably be one of the best specs in the game and able to drag their storm elemental around the dungeon. Definitely A or S-TIer. The justification written below is assuming that the interaction will get fixed?

Elemental burst AOE and priority damage remains quite good while their utility isn't super subpar. Ultimately where Ele is lacking is on the ST department for dungeons and just the fact that they gain less than other classes with their second legendary acquisition. They do gain a lot from their 4 set Fireheart as they are able to get great value from Storm Elemental. The storm ele build is one that is quite typical for M+ and anything that interacts positively with Ele is going to be a great bonus. Ultimately they are in the b-tier because of the projection of them not being absolutely top tier damage and getting lightly outclassed by some of the other DPS options.

C Tier Specs for Mythic+ Season 3

Enhancement Shaman, though a phenomenal inclusion in raid, has a very awkward time in Mythic Plus. Their damage numbers are great against bosses, but in AOE they don’t gain all that much and they have a bit of an identity crisis between priority damage and cleave that ends up with them not doing much of anything well. They also suffer from being a melee dps without an immunity and without a depth of defensive options, with the fantastic short cooldown Astral Shift quickly giving way to… Reincarnation as their next defensive option? For shredding bosses, Enhancement Shaman are not a bad addition to the group, but Mythic Plus is about much more than that, and there are many specs that can come close on bosses and shoot way ahead in the rest of the dungeon.

Shadow is a spec that took some pretty beefy nerfs towards the end of the PTR cycle. Before that, Shadow seemed to be a potential A-Tier candidate as their group support from abilities such as & Vampiric Embrace was quite good. Their 4-set (Darkened Mind & Living Shadow) also allowed them to do an insane amount of stacked AOE with .

The sad part is while the group support is good, the damage from their 4-set and Necrolord legendary Pallid Command got absolutely slammed. This hurt them greatly for M+ as well bringing their damage down quite a bit for dungeon content.

Beast Mastery Hunter overall struggles to be able to output any reliable AOE for M+. Their 2 typical covenant options of Night Fae and Kyrian are quite subpar once you gain access to a covenant legendary specifically for M+. Fragments of the Elder Antlers & Pact of the Soulstalkers while they are situationally decent for M+ just do not compete compared to other specs covenant legendaries. That coupled with Beast Mastery's relatively lacking AOE and BM is a solid C-Tier spec.

Unholy only does single target damage, which is a useful damage profile for raids, but whenever it comes to M+ they really struggle to do reasonable amounts of AOE. Unholy has been an AOE specialist in expansions past, but this expansion they are lacking a lot of support on that front. It does not help that their tier bonus and second legendary options does them no favors for M+ damage and they did not gain enough from secondary power sources to be a strong option in M+. They do also suffer a lot from the "worse than their counterpart" syndrome. This is where Frost DK is just a more compelling option for M+ and if you were looking for other melee there are a lot of better options.

D Tier Specs for Mythic+ Season 3

Feral is a spec in tremendous pain. Before this patch, they suffered in Mythic Plus from being primarily a single target specialist with weak AOE that also had some ramp-up time. The early PTR developments offered a ray of hope to the beleaguered cats, who saw a 4-set bonus Sickle of the Lion that was potentially powerful but awkward to use get changed such that it wasn’t awkward at all. It blasted damage in AOE and for the first time, players could queue up in the PTR group finder and the very first group would hit invite, without even checking to see if they were a moonkin or a feral druid. Blizzard then soft-capped their 4-set to 8 targets, which was met with some grumbling but was largely seen as fair, as it had been doing some insane things on large AOE. Then, just as players began to let themselves hope, a 65% nerf blew into town like a hurricane and left Feral druids attempting to claw their own eyes out, only to find that even to themselves they could not do any damage.

Affliction Lock is a solid trash specialist that saw a lot of play in 9.2. However, with the addition of double legendary (which they benefit very little) and having one of the worst tier sets in the game in Deliberate Malice & Calamitous Crescendo, you can probably see why they are in D-Tier. Ultimately their AOE damage is not that bad, but their single target is just so low that we felt like it was justified putting them in D-Tier. They also lack any real polarizing utility and while they do have an AOE stun, curses, and the occasional gate cheese, this is where the utility really stops. They definitely need a single target buff for them to be considered, and if they did receive one I could see this spec having decent upward mobility.

Ret Paladin is feeling similar to Feral Druid this patch. Tremendous pain from no borrowed power gain, terrible 4 set, and no real sustained AOE are some of the problems that plague Ret Paladin. A lot of what has landed them in D-Tier is the just lack of solid AOE as the Paladin utility suite is typically one of the most desirable ones. They are quite difficult to bring and make work effectively in most situations just due to this tremendously low tuning on their AOE DPS.

Class Guides

Blood DKFrost DKUnholy DK

Devourer DHHavoc DHVengeance DH

Balance DruidFeral DruidGuardian DruidRestoration Druid

Aug EvokerDevastation EvokerPreservation Evoker

BM HunterMM HunterSurvival Hunter

Arcane MageFire MageFrost Mage

Brewmaster MonkMistweaver MonkWindwalker Monk

Holy PaladinProtection PaladinRetribution Paladin

Discipline PriestHoly PriestShadow Priest
Assassination RogueOutlaw RogueSubtlety Rogue

Elemental ShamanEnhance ShamanRestoration Shaman

Affliction WarlockDemo WarlockDestro Warlock

Arms WarriorFury WarriorProtection Warrior

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Comment by akaRavenI was close, I said Feral would be F rank, my poor Feral. Guess I am on tank duties this tier.Comment by BigBadLionWhile I can agree on Tettles for raids I don't quite do on his M+ predictions and it's mostly because he's just looking at things from a general view.

For example, I play Enhance and he totally missed that the spec can now be played with 3 different styles of gameplay and each of them providing something different for the party.

Regardless, we'll see as things advance during the patch if he was wrong with any of these or not.Comment by zulefAs someone who enjoys Survival but its always been trash or we've had a billion melee *sees it as S tier*... "Oh it's only good because its bugged." nvm thenComment by runicpoweryay unholy is trash again :*(Comment by TomM92Did you bother speaking to a single person who understands ret before spewing absolute nonsense or did it come naturally?Comment by jasonx666hmm, affliction
tier D raid
tier D m+
pepeHandsComment by XNQrEAnything above level 20 and the gametype is just broken. Way too few characters in a 5man to not create extremist metas. That's why they should make a couple of mythic 10man instances too so there's some balance between 20man and 5man hard mode.Comment by RexhanDk frost being b-tier? No.
Even if BOS leaves u naked while doing a huge burst, frostwyrm fury is the real terror on aoe (using cube + pillar even more).
2-tier bonus giving free 8% during remorseless winter is very helpful, as it helps to proc kill machine and then glacial advance by 4-tier bonus, which is a good potential cleave even for sustained dmg, which dk frost lacks by a lot without rage of frozen champion legendary.
You can also add necrolord legendary which increases 20% the dmg taken from adds (open burst) + extra rime frequency which gives more rp & sustained dmg

I hadnt that many troubles in previous patches to top in dmg in m+, as long as u dont miss your BOS and coordinate cooldown its ezComment by 0Morara0have you taken a look at ret pally? my poor spec is beyond trash tier, bordering on "just *!@#ing delete that specc already blizz" because we get it, you HATE ret paladin and you've shown us this mentality for years now in M+Comment by jenrai"We still think survival sucks and your damage is a bug but I guess we have to put you here". Just let us have this one moment in the sun, guys.Comment by DreadfuryDKYEAR OF THE SPEAR

BOTTOM TEXTComment by BullseyedDoes this guide really call antlers for BM hunter subpar? It is their best legendary and it has been used for the last 9 months.

I'm not sure anyone involved with this has ever played hunter.Comment by BullseyedAs someone who enjoys Survival but its always been trash or we've had a billion melee *sees it as S tier*... "Oh it's only good because its bugged." nvm thenComment by zugzugzuugbut max ranked enhancement good for raid and mytthic +Comment by Swerthwhy does Blizzard literally hate Feral druids? it is mind blowingly baffling. They take one of the worst performing classes for idk how many patches in a row now, and they take its tier set and instead of setting it at a fair level of damage, they just absolutely break the entire thing so its unplayable. Why don't they just remove this spec from the game so people who actually like it, cant even be tempted to play it, and thus then be miserable every time they log in, instead of just making it a literal JOKE/MEME. It's literally pathetic. All I want to do in this game is play my cat in decently high M+, without feeling like I'm literally HURTING my group bringing them.Comment by Immortalzzserious guys 9.2 tier list based on 9.1.5 gear :D
this is an early tier list without gear. (9.2 mythic gear).Comment by TailleventThen, just as players began to let themselves hope, a 65% nerf blew into town like a hurricane and left Feral druids attempting to claw their own eyes out, only to find that even to themselves they could not do any damage.Comment by LumineusThese guide writers are on crack. Praise Sub Rogue for its trash AoE but dump on Ret's for being "unreliable." Praise Survival's RNG set bonus for buffing its non existent AoE but dump on Ret's. Do you have any idea how much damage Wake of Ashes does? Just because it's meh on single target because it displaces Expurgation doesn't mean *!@# in M+. Also everything you said about Decrypted Urh Cypher applies to Ret's damage profile too.Comment by Basphomy@Lumineus
Did you actually just say Survival has non-existant AoE? Survival does incredible AoE damage, what they lack is decent single target damage. Perhaps learn what you're talking about before calling out anyone else.Comment by JakoThey really just took a dumb on Ret pallies huh? unbelievable that Ret is this bad in shadowlands. i changed to Ele shammy months ago because of this.

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