Shadowlands 9.2 DPS Raid Tier List for Sepulcher of the First Ones - Dratnos and Tettles Predictions

Live Posted 2022/02/28 at 12:01 AM by tettles

predictionsDisclaimers 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 Sepulcher of the First OnesDPS Tier List Definitions

S: Specs that we expect to dominate the compositions and the damage meters of raid compositions. The average number of copies of specs in this tier is usually three or higher, as they bring tremendous amounts of damage with useful damage profiles and often other helpful pieces of utility or defensive options. There are no DPS in this tier.

A: Great specs that can work well in multiples, we’d be surprised to see raid compositions that are missing at least one copy of these. High single target damage output is almost always a characteristic of these specs, though many also have several other areas where they excel. Sought-after utility effects are also very common among these specs.

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: Specs with serious issues that are apparent when trying to use them in a raid setting, these may work well in very niche circumstances that rarely appear in raid, but single target damage is typically a big challenge for specs in this tier.

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. There are no DPS in this tier.

VideoPatch 9.2 Shadowlands DPS Rankings and ExplanationsA Tier Specs for Sepulcher Raid

Demonology Warlock has a superb niche at low movement single target, but whenever they are able to achieve it they are one of the best specs in the game. They do fall off a bit on encounters where spread AOE is the preferred damage profile, but that profile is not overly shown in raid. Overall it is hard to have an encounter where you do not want 1 Demonology Warlock and 2 will be far more common than 1. Their 4-set (Malicious Imp-Pact & Ripped From the Portal) is also incredibly powerful giving them a pretty high damage gain on top of being generally pretty high DPS. With a lot of other ranged specs being lackluster, Demonology seems like it will be one of the premiere ranged. This means that you will likely bring a few of them

Fury pumps a tremendous amount of damage, and Rallying Cry is a hugely powerful raid cooldown that has scaled with a Finesse Conduit Inspiring Presence to even greater heights as the expansion has gone on. Fury in particular will excel once the second legendary hits the field, where before that it may be Arms that sees play on a slight majority of bosses. Fury also does well in sustained cleave situations, and they have covenant flexibility to allow them to specialize in AoE burst on multiple different cooldown timings or to instead go with Necrolord and deal massive sustained Single Target damage once the 4pc (Frenzied Destruction & Frenzied Destruction) and the Memory of Unity is available.

Arms is a solid warrior choice that has a potent execute phase and benefits from a solid set bonus (Pile On / Pile On). Both Kyrian and Night Fae are strong choices for Arms that lets the Warrior fine-tune their cooldown timings on a fight by fight basis, though unlike Fury they lack the exciting unlock of a single-target covenant as they gain their set bonuses and the Memory of Unity. Even once those are available, Arms will continue to be a reasonable choice, especially for fights where Kyrian or Night Fae’s AoE cooldowns are providing value to the raid.

Balance Druid is a very solid choice for a large number of the bosses in the raid as a whole. With the projection of this tier being very melee centric, and a lot of the range specs being lackluster as a whole this opens up a large amount of opportunities for Balance Druid. They currently have the strongest 2 + 4-Set in the game (Celestial Pillar & Umbral Infusion) and gain a lot of additional power from double legendaries. The ability to play Night Fae or Venthyr on fights depending on what is required whether it be 1 minute or 3 minute burst is very important.

Enhancement Shaman has gained the ability to do a lot of standalone DPS in patch 9.2. With the addition of their 4-set + double legendary, they are one of the highest patchwerk single target specs in the game. Of course this can be slightly misleading due to the fact that they really desire 100% boss uptime to achieve this high single target. However, when you factor in Windfury Totem and having pretty decent utility from things such as Wind Rush Totem they are a solidly A-Tier spec. Running a second Enhancement Shaman is typically difficult due to the diminishing returns on Windfury Totem, but if there was ever a tier for it this would be it.

Havoc Demon Hunter is definitely the bottom of A-Tier, but still A-Tier nonetheless. They do not excel at one specific damage profile, but do a really nice balanced amount of damage for most DPS profiles. They do have some of the best target swapping capabilities and highest mobility in the game, which definitely plays into their favor on certain encounters. They also bring Chaos Brand, which the likelihood of you playing a Vengeance Demon Hunter isn’t overly high. At the same time Havoc Demon Hunter does not seem super stackable, but one to two is pretty common.

B Tier Specs for Sepulcher Raid

Despite some recent nerfs on the ptr, Frost remains a solid choice for mage players, particularly in fights where sustained damage is important. Many of the other damage specs have trended heavily towards burst damage, which is traditionally more valuable than sustained damage, but frost occupies a very important niche in that their damage is almost always available and they can make a huge contribution during any important damage moments where everyone else is cooling down. Compared to the other Mage specs, frost has the advantage of Cold Snap allowing them to use Ice Block more often, and while their damage is somewhat resilient if they’re forced to move at any given moment, it will certainly suffer if their uptime is seriously diminished, as they rely on being able to hit the boss to maintain their Icy Veins through Icy Propulsion.

After some PTR nerfs to their 4-set (Fiery Rush & Fiery Rush), Fire’s damage numbers are less exciting than the other specs, but there are some strong points about Fire that often tend to increase its value on the most important raid fights of a tier. In particular, they do well in fights where the boss is most dangerous in its final phase and where damage is most important in the final phase, as they can freely move and cast Scorch with Searing Touch during this time, a slight damage boost and a huge boost to mobility and potentially to the amount of their potential damage that they can achieve. Cauterize remains a potent piece of defensive utility in a progression raiding environment, complemented by the Podtender soulbind that they often run, making it difficult to be an early death that impedes your guild’s progress if you’re playing Fire.

Arcane needs to be doing more damage than Fire and Frost to be considered for a raid spot, as it has some structural disadvantages when compared to those two specs. Though it gains Greater Invisibility, it lacks the generally more powerful Cold Snap of Frost or Cauterize of Fire, and its single target damage is quite reliant on being able to plant and cast. Luckily for fans of Arcane, their damage numbers are looking solid on Single Target and in cleave situations, with the Kyrian build benefiting greatly once the Covenant Legendary is added to their build on the 5th week of the patch.

Assassination is a fantastic melee DPS spec especially if the raid ends up being relatively unfriendly to melee DPS, as it can often deal with the sorts of mechanics that frustrate other melee specs without losing nearly as much damage. This is due to both some features common to all Rogue specs, like the ability to hit Cloak of Shadows and keep hitting the boss, but it’s also thanks to the fact that much of their damage comes from the Vendetta window and from damage over time effects, so as long as they can stick on the boss during Vendetta, they don’t mind running away at other times. Their single target damage numbers are a few percentage points below Subtlety in the sims, but in practice they may fare as well or better on some fights.

Subtlety looks to be the rogue spec that does the most single target damage, and it brings the ability to funnel damage into a priority target if there are some extra unimportant adds nearby, which may end up being the case on Vigilant Guardian, Prototype Pantheon, Lihuvim, and Anduin of the bosses tested on PTR and potentially any or all of the three untested bosses that await us at the end of the raid.

Shadow took two very heavy nerfs towards the end of the PTR cycle after a dominating showing during raid testing. They’re in our B Tier based on a belief that their damage remains sufficient to justify many teams including one or maybe two of them, as aside from damage they don’t add much to the raid’s utility suite unless the fight calls for (which Sanctum of Domination did several times, but which was a bit of a historic outlier).

C Tier Specs for Sepulcher Raid

Feral is a spec that has one strength: single target DPS. They are at least pretty good at that, but they suffer from anemic AoE after a massive nerf to their 4pc (Sickle of the Lion) late into the PTR cycle, and their relative utility was actually nerfed this expansion with the addition of Stampeding Roar to Balance and Resto without any real compensation for Feral. We don’t expect top raid teams to go out of their way for a Feral druid, especially given the fact that there are other melee DPS like Warriors, Enhancement Shaman, and Demon Hunters that are doing comparable amounts of single target damage with way more other upsides, but we do expect guilds that have a strong Feral druid player on their roster to be able to field that player without it being a liability.

Destro is a situational warlock spec that we believe is unlikely to be better than Demo on important fights in this tier. They shine in areas where they can leverage Havoc to its full value, and if there are any fights where they can go wild with an AoE focused setup then their set bonuses can do some serious work. Historically, however, this is not the type of damage that a raid really needs to optimize for, so we expect warlocks will generally bust Destruction out pretty rarely this tier.

Beast Mastery Hunter is a spec that only does single target damage in raid reliably and even then their single target damage is not particularly strong. Their 4-set (Killing Frenzy & Killing Frenzy) is not too bad and they do gain a bit from second legendary as Fragments of the Elder Antlers was already pretty good for BM coming into 9.1. At the same time I would not expect them to be super high on the list of specs seen frequently unless there is an immune heavy fight where you need to bust out the hunter. Even then they are the worst of the immunity options.

Marksmanship is a spec that was at the top of C-Tier for us, and a lot of it comes down to their very lackluster single target damage. Their 4-set Focused Trickery also does them very few favors in this department being a largely AOE focused 4-set. This puts their ST firmly in the bottom half (maybe even bottom quarter) of specs inside of the raid. Whenever you have ST that low you definitely start to run into some issues. They do an absolute insane amount of burst AOE for targets that are stacked up, so if there is a fight that requires burst AOE in a real way MM definitely can be your go-to there. It definitely will be difficult to see multiple marksmanship hunters on boss fights though.

Survival does an absolutely insane amount of sustained AOE while being a middle of the pack Single Target damage option. It definitely runs into the issues of needing to compete versus other melee options in a melee heavy tier, thus they are likely in the C-Tier. At the same time, if you see a hunter that is being brought to raid, this is probably the best hunter specialization as a whole.

Their 4-set Mad Bombardier + Mad Bombardier is largely what propels this as they are gaining a large amount of damage from their tier + receiving a lot of bug fixes coming into 9.2 which helped them out a bit. They are also able to deal damage from range with Aspect of the Eagle if they have uptime issues which looks like it could be the case on some fights. This is a characteristic lacking from a lot of melee and could play into the favor of Surv Hunter. Ultimately the biggest problem comes down to competing vs other melee options and not being super high on the ST department.

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. Definitely A or S-TIer. The justification written below is assuming that the interaction will get fixed?

Elemental Single Target seems pretty good with 1 legendary, but once they start to get to 2nd legendary territory they fall off a bit. They are ranged in a tier where multiple slots are open for ranged, so if their ST DPS does stay as good as their 1 legendary counterpart, then you may see Ele being a decent option for some encounters. As a whole they are lacking in the raid utility category, but they can talent into Wind Rush Totem if need be.

Overall, they are pretty good at most AOE style encounters, but there is a pretty big lack of those styles of fights in Sepulcher which is very sad for the elemental shaman. A lot of the AOE style fights have unimportant mobs that can get killed passively with cleave from other specs that lose very little or even in some cases gain priority damage to kill them off.

Frost DK has one of the stronger set bonuses in the game Arctic Assault & Arctic Assault, but a lot of their issues come down to their lacking Single Target strengths. This is definitely a high C-Tier spec, but some of the biggest problems with frost happen when you start to compare them versus other melee options such as Warrior, Rogue, or DH.

They are definitely a middle of the pack Single Target spec, and while they do have decent 2 target cleave options with a Breath of Sindragosa build, playing a second copy is just not something that you can reasonably do. At the same time of finding it hard to play a second copy ever, fitting the first copy into a raid comp is not something easily achieved on every fight.

Unholy only does single target damage, which is a useful damage profile for raids but even then they are not the highest. They also have decent execute with their 4-set Harvest Time & Harvest Time, but it is still miles worse than other execute options. Ultimately, the inability to do reliable cleave or AOE leaves them in an awkward position where they have no defined niche.

The biggest detractor for Unholy is lacking one thing they are the best at, and with melee slots hotly contested by things such as Warrior, Rogue, or Demon Hunter it will be a challenge to field one on many fights if you are looking to be optimal.

Ret Paladin was a spec that was surprisingly strong for all of 9.1. Their ability to do solid AOE while having pretty competitive Single Target allowed them to see a decent amount of play in Sanctum of Domination. Unfortunately for Ret, this is kind of where they are going to stay. While they do gain an okay amount from a second legendary, their 4-set is pretty anemic at best leaving them in the dust. Their lackluster single target projection for this tier holds them back mightily.

If ret can leverage its utility from Blessing of Protection, having an immunity, or Blessing of Freedom they could be quite powerful under the right circumstances. They also can do a decent amount of burst AOE or Single Target with Avenging Wrath, and if you need a strong burst in a short window a Ret Paladin may be a really solid option for your guild. Unfortunately they are not the strongest burst in a short window and the ability to play a second copy of them becomes quite tedious.

Windwalker is another spec that is very strong under the right circumstances - circumstances where they can leverage their powerful AoE damage in a way that is important for the raid. There are some fights where it’s really nice to have the AoE taken care of, and for those encounters a Windwalker can really let everyone else focus on the single target damage - an example of this from Sanctum was Soulrender Dormezain. Windwalkers can also potentially be worth seeking out for rosters that don’t have a monk in either of the other roles, since if the Windwalker is adding Mystic Touch then all of a sudden they’re representing a lot of single target damage. Unfortunately, beyond that they are really lacking in the single target damage department, which makes it impossible for us to put them above this tier, as we think it’ll be very hard for guilds to play more than 2 of these on many fights, and even the first copy may struggle to keep up with other specs.

D Tier Specs for Sepulcher Raid

Affliction Lock does probably the worst DPS in the game on raid style encounters. This coupled with the fact that the other 2 Warlock specs are decent to strong this further purchase Affliction down into the D-Tier.

Affliction did see some play in Sanctum of Domination, but they gain very little from a second legendary option while having one of (maybe the worst) 4-set in the game Calamitous Crescendo & Deliberate Malice. Their 4-set gives them somewhere around a 2% damage gain, which is a laughably low amount of DPS that can be gained compared to a lot of specs. Whenever you consider that Affliction was already one of the worst ST specs, they are definitely just getting left in the dust. If you do see an Affliction Warlock it is likely being used to pad on adds of some type and is not bringing anything of value to the raid. I would say that they are in dire need of a buff on their base damage + their 4-set for them to see play.

In raid, single target damage is the most pressing issue that holds outlaw back. Their set bonuses are decent in a vacuum, but there are some points of awkwardness since the set bonuses empower Pistol Shot and Between the Eyes but not by quite enough to swap to the legendaries that interact with those abilities. Similarly, their best covenant before the second legendary is Kyrian, but the addition of the double legendary adds a lot of value to Venthyr but not quite enough to make it the best overall pick. These effects mean that a lot of damage is getting added to 2nd best choices of Outlaw, and there are a variety of exciting and equally competitive builds for the spec, but the overall ceiling hasn’t been raised by much. They may have some spots where they could be a decent sustained cleave choice, but even there they’ve lost ground to Subtlety in this patch thanks to the set bonuses, and they lose a great deal of ground against Assassination in many real world raid encounters where consistent uptime is threatened.

Class Guides

Blood DKFrost DKUnholy DK

Havoc DHVengeance DH

Balance DruidFeral DruidGuardian DruidRestoration Druid

Augmentation 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 ShamanEnhancement ShamanRestoration Shaman

Affliction WarlockDemonology WarlockDestruction Warlock

Arms WarriorFury WarriorProtection Warrior

Comment by TwoTastyTicTacsGood to see enhancement doin' well again! Been since Antorus and I'm excited!Comment by PadadinJonesNo S class? Dont think I have ever seen something like that.....Comment by HangettsuOh wow, so all specs of hunter are at the bottom yet again.Comment by NudelzOh wow, so all specs of hunter are at the bottom yet again.Comment by sotabaHunter rip since 9.0.5 mega nerf / fix to wild spirits xD thank god i deleted my hunter and now play something usefullComment by JohnTraboltaToo many people sleeping on Frost DK. It's definitely going to be mid to high B tier at least once they get their 4 piece.Comment by JohnTraboltaOh wow, so all specs of hunter are at the bottom yet again.Comment by trinketeeri cant remember the last time i saw a BM hunter open their talent book & click something different

keep an eye on the output from your Stomp talent when prog'n frustrating bosses with high priority, regularly timed, add swarms, like that architect one . bring a tome with you :)

and remember MM has absurd max range for its entire kit - there may be opportunities to deal boss damage when nobody else is able.Comment by ShirofunePlease, hire people that know what the !@#$ they're talking about.

Havoc excels at one thing this tier, Single Target sustained damage. For the rest, they're bad.Comment by JuniperDPSI have to say, I think Surv is gonna be great for keys (though probably not high end, due to survivability, no pun intended). As for it's ST damage, it may not be insanely high, but I actually think it'll do more than people realized and will be a solid choice. The biggest downside, it doesn't really bring any real utility (binding shot for keys, and a soak immunity with turtle, that's about it).Comment by Daggern100GIGACHAD WarriorsComment by BlubbyMarksmanship is a spec that was at the top of C-Tier for us, and a lot of it comes down to their very lackluster single target damage. Their 4-set Focused Trickery also does them very few favors in this department being a largely AOE focused 4-set.Comment by WowvocateWilling to bet that they are sleeping on destruction warlock, there's a new build being simmed that utilizes soul conduit/rain of chaos (even in 1/2 target) along with the 4P and madness legendary to get obscene uptime on the blasphemy procs and gain huge value from the madness buffed chaos bolts. Is it enough to make it A tier? Maybe, maybe not but I would expect it to at least be a solid B.Comment by WildmuffinI feel these two guys just gathered infos from other videos and mixed them with different words to say " Variety". Don't watch this video, half of the predictions are garbage. Hire someone better Wowhead. Also, Havoc demon hunter has insane ST damage and you gonna see at least two of em during race due to that. Please, find some one that does know what the hell they are talking about, not these two clownsComment by Xoveroathxpopcorn.gifComment by ElSubdoloReally?

Warriors have 2 dps specs, both Tier A.
Mages have 3 dps specs, all Tier A.
Rogues have 3 dps spec, 1 Tier D and 2 Tier A.

What this mean? If I play warrior, I can play which spec I want. Same if I play mage. If I play Rogue I just don't have to play Outlaw.

Hunters have 3 dps specs, ALL TIER C.
Death Knights have 2 dps specs, ALL TIER C.

Blizzard wtf is your problem?Comment by MoonstakerSomething something me spec low so me can't clear aotc >:(Comment by ramajukoPlease, hire people that know what the !@#$ they're talking about.

Havoc excels at one thing this tier, Single Target sustained damage. For the rest, they're bad.Comment by Valkian81Mages have 0 specs in A tier. Neither do Rogues...

I'm sorry but did you even read the tier list?

Also, this is an opinion based piece. We still don't have a definite answer on exactly how every spec will perform. Chill.Comment by GeeThePallyDoes anyone actually take what these guys say seriously, watching the video to this Tettles giggling like a little girl explaining Ret is rubbish and the tier set is rubbish and saying they don't have a decent lego and a 3 to 4 % dps increase when in fact its 13 to 14 % is just plain wrong and the sims prove this, not forgetting Dratnos tier list last season was wrong as well, may as well put clown masks on these 2