Updated:
07 Apr 2020
10. Enhancement Shaman
- Extremely high ceiling for burst damage. There will be times when you can swing your weapon two or three times and chunk your enemy from full health to death. This is based on programmed random occurence, but the potential is always there once you've got your shaman geared to the teeth.
- Decent survivability. You're wearing mail armor, and you have healing spells. You have the option to equip a shield if you foresee a great deal of damage incoming. If you lose a fight in the open world, and you only need that one last hit to overcome your adversary, you can reincarnate (once every hour) and turn the tides of battle.
- Amazing utility. Any shaman can add so much to a group, and the enhancement shaman is no exception. You bring the Windury Totem to the melee in the group that will love that bonus damage.Everyone wants to chunk like a shaman. The Grounding Totem can prevent you from losing control of your character to a mage's Polymorph or eat a Frostbolt. If an Alliance is fleeing your murder crew, you can hit them with a Frost Shock that will slow their movement speed by 50%.
9. Destruction Warlock
- Immense burst damage with very few gear requirements. The destruction warlock is great for PvP because it's great for PvE. In WoW: Classic, some of the best in slot items for PvP are going to be from raids. It's nice to not have to spend the fifty gold needed for a respecialization to queue a battleground and still be able to melt your enemies' faces.
- Warlocks in general are kings of control. Warlocks can cast a Fear spell on player characters to disorient them for 20 seconds or until damage breaks the Fear. You have so much time to gather yourself and plan as a warlock. A warlock can always buy enough time to get out their big hitter spells.
- More control! Warlocks may be squishy, but damn, they have so many options to control an adversary and never take damage. Death Coils peel them off your heels. A succubus demon who can charm your enemies into inaction. Control is power.
8. The Holy Paladin
- No one outshines the holy paladin. Not only do you get access to plate gear, you get by far the most efficient healing spells. The more gear you get (especially gear with spell critical percentage), you can basically spam Flash Heals as long as you want.
- Opportunity to do damage. The healers in Classic WoW never do that much damage. However, the holy paladin can equip him or herself to do some massive burst with Holy Shock. You give up something in your healing power, but you gain a strategic advantage in low scale PvP. This makes more sense in later expansion, but it's fun as hell in Classic.
- Aggravation. You can poke and prod at everyone while the rest of your team is going ham. Throw out Holy Shocks and Judgements, focus healing on an ally, keep your teammates from getting slow effects put on them. When it gets too hairy, you always have a bubble and a Hearthstone to run away. You are literally unkillable, the bane of the Horde.
7. The Feral Druid
- Since we're talking about aggravation, I've got to mention the feral druid. It provides steady damage, but the greatest boon to the feral is being able to shift in and out of forms to escape damage long enough to beat any oppoent by attrition.
- The feral druid is the best flag carrier in Warsong Gulch. You're immune to so many crowd control abilities in your shapeshifted forms. You can switch in and out to shake off slows. It's a niche role, but it's going to come in handy on Warsong Gulch weekends.
- Unexpected. Very few people are playing a druid in Classic WoW. It's not an easy class to play well, you have to use a full toolkit to survive. The skill floor is higher than most classes you'll try out, but that lends to a higher ceiling.
6. The Subtlety Rogue
- Domination. You don't even have to level your rogue for it to be truly great. The 10-19 twinking bracket is going to be almost all rogues for a good reason. You're not dependent on gear. You're invisible for the encounters you want to avoid, and you have the jump on the encounters you hand pick.
- Overpowered cooldowns. Evasion gives a rogue 50% chance to dodge every couple of minutes. Blind will allow your rogue to get away from a fight or regroup during a fight. As a rogue, you're going to have so much control over yourself. So much of your success is down to your personal skill and preparation.
- Scouting. There's no class better suited for scouting in PvP than the guy who's literally invisible. You can get so much information for your team. Back cap flags when they're undefended in Arathi Basin. Take graveyards by yourself in Alterac Valley when the coast is clear.
5. The Frost Mage
- Untouchable. Melee attacks will never land. If you get touched, it's because your spell missed somewhere in your rotation. A frost mage can lock a rogue or warrior out of a fight completely.
- No need to respecialize for raids. Frost is a neccsity for the first two raids tiers because you're obviously fighting people made of lava. Throwing around a fireball won't do too much to a Firelord. Frost is a frugal mage's answer to every kind of content in the game.
- Large scale PvP. The enemy team is all trying to cross a bridge in Alterac Valley. You can make it rain shards of ice on dozens of people. If your battlegroup has enough mages making it rain, there's nothing stopping everyone else from cleaning house.
4. The Protection Warrior
- Does anyone have time to kill you? It could take all day for a rogue, hunter, or another warrior. Spellcasters may hae a bit more luck, but protection warriors aren't a target. You can sneak in shield bashes and interupts that will annoy people who won't target you unless the rest of your team has died.
- Alterac Valley boss. Someone has to tank the Alterac Valley boss. The more damage you can soak, the earlier your team can zerg the boss. That's the name of the game in 2020. A well geared protection warrior is invaluable when it comes to Alterac Valley wins.
- Gear funnel. A protection warrior can get anything they want in PvE. When you enter a battleground, you will have a definite gear advantage over all the damage classes who've been trying to scrounge up anything they can get theirs hands on.
3. Arms Warrior
- Be a wrecking ball. There's nothing more legendary than a geared arms warrior in World of Warcraft PvP. It's a heavy hitter that's more consistent than the enhancement shaman. An arms warrior can jump into the fray, soak the damage, and deal just as much as you've soaked. You're a staple.
- Stickier than gorilla glue. The enemy team is going to try to peel you off your squishy targets, and they might succeed at it. You've got a stunning Intercept that puts you exactly where you want to be, and it's going to disable your target long enough for you to smack them with the ridiculous 200 pounds of steel you're holding.
- Highlights. Do it for the highlights. If you got the gear, you're a dungeon boss on your own. If you have a pocket healer, you're a raid boss.
2. The Arcane Mage
- Just try it. With Presence of Mind, Arcane Power, and a spellpower trinket, you can literally one shot other players. It's the most infamously cheesy specialization in WoW: Classic.
- More highlights! Every time you pull off the combo, you're going to have something to remember.
- It's not that bad when you're waiting for the combo. You're still a mage. You're still going to be freezing people's feet to the floor and setting their hair on fire.
1. The Shadow Priest
- Consistency. You have some cooldowns, but you don't live or die by them. There's nothing all that flashy about the priest. Every fight a shadow priest gets into, he or she has a chance of winning. Chances are pretty damn high too.
- Versatility. You can heal, you can damage, you can heal while you damage. There's very little limiiting a shadow priest.
- You won't be invited to raids unless you change your specialization to Holy, so you'll have plenty of time for battlegrounds as a shadow priest.
