The Mages Are Taking Over - MoP Classic Phase 2 Terrace of Endless Spring DPS Rankings

Posted 2025/10/08 at 1:09 PM by Passion

Warcraft Logs Terrace of Endless Spring, Heart of Fear, & Mogu'shan Vaults statisticsToES & HoF DPS Rankings in MoP Phase 2 - October 8th

Overall Damage

Damage to Bosses

Overall Damage

Damage to Bosses

Biggest Changes This Week Mage
Now that it's been a couple of weeks since the release of 5.1 Landfall, which brought with it the balancing of some specializations, including Frost and Arcane Mage, we can look at the data in more detail and see the results.

Arcane Mage had its previous 29% buff to Arcane Blast nerfed slightly, down to a 15% buff. This resulted in an overall nerf of approximately 4% to the spec in single target damage. It's relevant to note that its cleave damage via Mage Bombs and Arcane Barrage remained unaffected. Within the last couple of weeks this change resulted in Arcane going from the be-all Mage specialization, to one more used by either Arcane lovers or guilds more focused on faster kill times, including speedruns since in shorter fights Arcane remains ahead of Frost and Fire, while being far more consistent.

Frost Mage instead received a buff, 15% to all three of its main rotation spells (Frostbolt, Ice Lance and Frostfire Bolt). This resulted in it catching up to Arcane and even passing it on some bosses. It was a successful balance in the sense that it didn't overshoot the goal nor did it undershoot and actually became a viable option for Mages who either want to play Frost, or do better with a simpler rotation that doesn't punish movement or timing like the way other Mage specializations do. Although the damage graphs on Warcraftlogs show Frost still being below Arcane and Fire, someone parsing 95 with Frost will likely not be able to replicate the same performance and fit into the same bracket once they swap, since to perform at the same level as Arcane requires far better kill times and fight knowledge, and as Fire it requires massive RNG in order to get a solid Ignite for Combustion. This means you can safely compare the 95th bracket of Frost with a slightly lower bracket like 95th or even 80th percentile for Arcane and Fire.

Lastly, there's Fire Mage, this specialization remained unchanged but with the increased 8 item levels given to us with the 5.1 patch via the upgrade system, it scaled slightly higher. Although not quite enough to be considered worthwhile playing if you're aiming for highest damage possible on every boss. If all you want is to play Fire Mage and not the class itself, it's already at an initially acceptable level as long as your raid is okay with it. To explain it better, the graphs on Warcraftlogs are looking at a collection of kills within that percentile of each boss, but as an individual player in a single raid, you might get that performance (90-99%) in 1 or 2 bosses, and those performances of yours would add on to those brackets, but Fire as a specialization cannot yet get consistently replicable results where you'd get into those numbers. Instead you'll get those two previously mentioned 90-99th bosses, and then go on to parse between 75-80 on every other boss assuming you're not getting horrible low rolls on your critical strikes. There is no exact point anyone can point to where one specialization passes the other, but as we get into Throne of the Thunder the gear we get access in that tier might well be enough, assuming Fire doesn't get some of its pre-Mists of Pandaria buffs (i.e. Critical Mass from 1.3x up to 1.5x) rebalanced like Arcane did.

Overall all three are perfectly playable: Fire can produce massive results if you high roll, but on average is still a bit disappointing on an individual level. Arcane seems to be the most consistent in shorter fights, but requires more specific knowledge of the fights, mechanic timings, required movement, and the specialization itself. Lastly Frost went from a very underwhelming DPS specialization, to one that stands on its own and can produce results that are easy to reach regardless of your own knowledge of the fight due to its many movement tools, as well as how meaningless the fight length itself is for its damage profile.

Mogu'shan Vaults DPS Rankings in MoP Phase 2 - October 8th

Overall Damage

Damage to Bosses

Overall Damage

Damage to Bosses

Disclaimers and SourceTerrace of Endless Spring, Heart of Fear, & Mogu'shan Vaults Statistics Page on Warcraft Logsincomplete picture of Mists of Pandaria balance

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

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

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

Statistics displayed below show data for 25-player heroic difficulty. For 10-player difficulty, please visit Warcraft Logs.

Mists of Pandaria Classic Class GuidesFor more information on Mists of Pandaria classes & specs, check out our Class Guides!

Comment by LordOuranosMan these rankings make me think Ret needs a little help :/Comment by copege7Shamans need a buff. Are blizzard devs just purposely ignoring them? They let this class rot through wrath and cata. And again in mop. What is the hiring criteria for blizzard? Being a sexist predator only? Can you guys hire devs that have played more than 1-2 classes? Maybe devs that have played more complicated class/spec combinations?Comment by PlusTechShamans need a buff. Are blizzard devs just purposely ignoring them?Comment by FoolipeShamans need a buff. Are blizzard devs just purposely ignoring them?Comment by hazzxThe hero class has 3 specs in the top 5? Sounds like Blizzard balancing.Comment by SHNAZAGet rid of the PvP quest required for a gem slot on Sha-Touched weapons. It was a horrible idea back then, and it’s an incredibly stupid one now.

Waiting 25 minutes for a match only to get deleted on a fresh alt is ridiculous. Nine other players shouldn’t have to carry a 480 ilvl celestial-geared alt.Comment by KilonosLol "nice" class balancing. All 3 rogue and mage specs in the top 10 with both Druid dps specs while you have Shadow, Ret and both Sham dps specs being out dps'd by Guardian druids..Comment by BegroovedShamans need a buff. Are blizzard devs just purposely ignoring them?Comment by TendeGet rid of the PvP quest required for a gem slot on Sha-Touched weapons. It was a horrible idea back then, and it’s an incredibly stupid one now.

Waiting 25 minutes for a match only to get deleted on a fresh alt is ridiculous. Nine other players shouldn’t have to carry a 480 ilvl celestial-geared alt.Comment by SkarekrowLoL Ret coming in at rank 22 on overall damage