Welcome to Skill Capped’s Tier List for Every Class and Specialization in Cataclysm PvP
From this tier list, we will be ranking every class and specialization, giving you a brief synapsis of what makes this spec fit this category. This will be focusing exclusively on Season 9, where some specializations will be at their best. We will be ranking melees, casters, and healers in their own separate category, allowing you to see what you may decide to play as throughout the beginning of the Cataclysm expansion.
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- Introduction
- Melee
- Caster
- Healer
- Final Thoughts
Introduction
This guide was made in collaboration with multiple current Rank 1 Gladiators, but is designed to represent the entire arena ladder.
To help understand how these rankings work, we assume the following:
S tierspecs are what currently defines the meta. These represent the absolute best in each category.
A tierspecs are incredibly strong, but not one of the best. These are still highly competitive, and have easier ways to climb rating when performed correctly.
B tierspecs represent the “average” spec, and have an even distribution of good and bad matchups.
C tierspecs are generally weak into the meta and are expected to have unfavorable matchups the majority of the time.
D tier specs are considered too weak to perform competitively in PvP combat, and are expect not to be played as or with competitively.
Other important notes:
This list is an ongoing project and will be updated periodically
Melee
S Tier
Feral Druid
Starting off with Feral Druid, this specialization is considered the best melee throughout Cataclysm Season 9. With their talent, Predatory Strikes, Ferals are easily capable of controlling enemy players with instant cast Cyclone or Entangling Roots. Although the Predatory Strikes buff can be purgeable, good positioning and awareness can give Feral Druids instant control consistently on their opponents.
Also, their bleed damage is nothing to joke around with. When using Tiger’s Fury, Swordguard Embroidery, and your PvP trinket to apply the strongest bleed effects possible, your opponent will easily rot down. The amount of compositions that are viable with when pairing with a Feral Druid makes this specialization extremely versatile, which includes FMP, FLS, Jungle Cleave, Kitty Cleave, and FPS.
Subtlety Rogue
Another melee specialization that deserves it’s recognition in S tier would be Subtlety Rogue. With their cunning methods of control, this specialization is the strongest when it comes to applying crowd control on its enemy targets. The amount of defensives they are given is added into their diverse toolkit, making them the most avoidable and the least susceptible to death. A major talent choice that makes Subtlety Rogue so invulnerable would be Preparation, as this resets the cooldown of your Vanish. It also resets your Smoke Bomb cooldown, guaranteeing more win conditions throughout arena matches.
With Sub Rogue control and defensiveness, they have powerful sustain and coordinated burst damage after initiating their crowd control using Shadow Dance. This solidifies Sub Rogues as a jack-of-all-trades, and its primarily the backbone of compositions like RMP, RLS, and Thug Cleave.
A Tier
Arms Warrior
Looking at A tier, Arms Warrior is a specialization that best fits this category. Arms Warrior is a specialization that is a bit weaker in terms of its toolkit from Sub Rogue and Feral Druid, but due to the amount of PvE gear available to casters, this enhances the strengths of melee compositions when performed in PvP combat.
Arms Warrior is considered at it’s peak when looking at its damage profile. This is because most viable gear for players is primarily through Conquest gear, and not as prevalent with PvE gearing until later in the expansion. Once casters receive Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest, and more PvE gear, the damage output from casters will end up surpassing Arms Warrior, making this specialization only relevant for Season 9. Cataclysm Classic also was released with patch 4.3.4, which includes Mortal Strike buffs from 10% to 25%. When combining the MS effect with their damage output, this specialization is deadly to face in Cataclysm Season 9.
Retribution Paladin
Retribution Paladin is another powerful melee specialization best suited in the A tier category. This is due to its diverse selection of defensive cooldowns, and it’s healing utility in order to sustain themselves and allies throughout arena matches. With the addition of Holy Power for Paladins, this allows for Rets to use instant cast Word of Glory to support themselves or allies. Since they use the talent, Selfless Healer, which increases the healing effectiveness and damage of their abilities when using Word of Glory on teammates, they can end up healing as much as a Healer specialization during short games.
Their offensive cooldowns are also powerful when used, and can be combined to provide massive AoE or Single Target burst. With Zealotry, Avenging Wrath, and Guardian of Ancient Kings, Ret Paladins are capable of crushing their opponents, especially with Zealotry as this allows Paladins to maximize their primary spender ability, Templar’s Verdict, to deal huge Single Target damage.
Unholy Death Knight
As the last melee specialization placed in the A tier category, Unholy Death Knights is a strong contender due to its sustained AoE from their DoT effects, and sustained burst from their Summon: Gargoyle. This specialization emphasizes on maintaining pressure on their opponents, and with their multiple methods of crowd control, they can end up creating a snowball effect on their enemies. Having Unholy Death Knights in compositions makes it more difficult for teams to recover after being affected by either Strangulate, Gnaw, Death Grip, and Chains of Ice.
Most of their damage is comprised of their Pet cooldowns, with requires more pet management to optimize Unholy Death Knight’s performance. Primarily from Dark Transformation and Summon: Gargoyle, these cooldowns assist this specialization in securing kills when used during crowd control or when Death Grip is available to keep your target in line of your Gargoyle. Unholy Death Knights do well with classes that provide a Mortal Strike effect, especially with Arms Warriors as melee cleaves are the strongest in Season 9.
B Tier
Enhancement Shaman
As our only spot in B tier, Enhancement Shaman fits this category. Since this specialization is more of a hybrid, its support through healing is not as powerful as Retribution Paladin, but has considerable burst damage that comes directly from their talent, Feral Spirits. With the addition of having a 5 second Wind Shear and Grounding Totem, this specialization serves it’s role as the anti-caster melee.
Enhancement Shamans have a variety of defensive cooldowns. These revolve around a 1 minute wall, Shamanistic Rage, that is usable in Stun effects, Stoneclaw Totem paired with the Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem for an absorption shield, and instant cast heals from Maelstrom Weapon, giving them some survivability to prevent them from being vulnerable targets. This specialization does rely on classes that provide a Mortal Strike effect, especially from Arms Warriors or Marksmanship Hunters, in order to maintain pressure on your opponents.
C Tier
Frost Death Knight
Going down into our C tier category, we have a couple of specializations listed that do not fully meet the requirements to be competitive in PvP combat. One of them is Frost Death Knight, as this specialization relies on one-minute setups using the talent, Hungering Cold. This specialization does not have any stun effects after initating the one-minute setup, which makes Frost Death Knight reliant on team play to apply Stun effects on those controlled targets.
Frost Death Knight’s defensive toolkit is also weaker than Unholy’s, as this spec does not include additional Absorption effects from your Anti-Magic Shield, and Anti-Magic Zone. The only saving grace of Frost Death Knight is the amount of burst they can produce from their 1-minute goes, allowing them to always use Pillar of Frost for their setups.
Assassination Rogue
Another melee specialization placed in C tier would be Assassination Rogue. Although Assassination and Combat are massively weaker than it’s iconic counterpart, Subtlety, this specialization can output strong single target burst on their opponents using Vendetta. The main downside when considering this specialization is that it lacks the control offered with Subtlety Rogue, as it is more difficult to apply Garrote and Cheap Shot on your enemies without applying them from Stealth.
Also, Assassination Rogue can’t choose the talent, Preparation, which enables Subtlety Rogue’s kill potential on their opponents with resetting Smoke Bomb. This is their primary utility and control spell, making players unable to use spells on targets affected by the Smoke Bomb debuff. It’s important to know that there is no Find Weakness for Assassination Rogues, making them struggle into more compositions with Plate wearers. As melee cleaves are more prominent in Season 9 of Cataclysm, this specialization will struggle in opening kill windows for their team.
D Tier
These melee specializations listed below aren’t cut out for PvP, which places these in the D tier category.
Combat Rogue and Fury Warrior
Caster
S Tier
Affliction Warlock
Entering into the realm of caster specializations, Affliction Warlock proudly sits as one of the most dominant specs throughout Cataclysm. This is from their diverse toolkit which provides immense survivability, and new implemented cooldowns that make spread pressure more manageable.
Affliction Warlocks have been introduced with the talents, Soul Swap and Demon Soul, resulting in powerful snapshotted DoTs on multiple targets when optimized properly. This makes Warlock spread pressure difficult to manage, especially for enemy healers. Another reason for why their DoTs are so deadly is from Unstable Affliction acting as a dispel protection, which results in enemy healers making crucial decisions to reduce pressure. Also, their defensive toolkit with Soul Link, Demon Armor, Drain Life, and Demonic Circle: Teleport, grants them enough survivability to withstand a beating from most specs for prolonged periods of time.
After looking at what Affliction Warlock provides in PvP combat, it’s enough to place this as one of the best caster specializations in Cataclysm Season 9.
Fire Mage
Next up, we have the Fire Mage specialization, which becomes the strongest out of the three Mage specs in Cataclysm Season 9. What makes Fire Mage so scary is their Combustion cooldown, as this makes enemy targets rot down relatively quick when min-maxing your Fire DoT damage effects.
When looking at their methods of control, Fire Mage is granted the spell, Dragon’s Breath, as an easier alternative to control targets instead of Deep Freeze. After using Dragon’s Breath, Mages typically pair this ability with Ring of Frost or Polymorph to extend their Crowd Control and open up win conditions. Also, with their toolkit enabling this spec to do damage while casting with Scorch, and their ability to avoid damage effectively when using Blink, Frost Nova, and Blazing Speed, Fire Mages make it difficult for melees to maintain their uptime. Since melee cleaves are prevalent in Cataclysm Season 9, this specialization will help shut most of those cleaves down, making it one of Cataclysm’s scariest casters to go up against.
Marksmanship Hunter
For our last spot in S tier, we have Marksmanship Hunter. This specialization has become less effective after Blizzard decided to patch cooldown resetting from pet dismissing for Cataclysm Classic, but is still extremely competitive due to their burst potential and the micro Crowd Control they can apply on their enemy targets.
Their frontloaded burst from Aimed Shot and Chimera Shot is massive when done to high HP targets. This allows them to initiate with damage first, and then use their various methods of control on healers. Having such oppressive Crowd Control makes heals struggle to sustain their teammates, resulting in Hunters still being a deadly specialization regardless of some utility loss. Hunters are versatile in their compositions. Most Hunter compositions that are played at the highest rating include Thug Cleave, Jungle Cleave, and Triple DPS.
A Tier
Frost Mage
Leading into the A tier category, Frost Mage is a high A tier specialization, as this spec is relatively powerful throughout Cataclysm due to it’s control, snare and root effects, and it’s direct burst potential. Although it requires more coordination to hardcast Frostbolt on Frozen targets for optimal burst, this specialization can provide high sustain burst while moving when using Frostfire Orb, allowing Mages to spam Ice Lance with Fingers of Frost procs on enemy targets.
Cataclysm Season 9 makes it difficult for players to maximize their Haste, and with melee cleaves being the strongest in this season, it will be difficult to land powerful Shatters on your opponents. This results in Frost Mage being more comp restricted, making most Frost Mages rely on Subtlety Rogues to assist controlling enemy players in order to hardcast spells.
Shadow Priest
Shadow Priest is one the most unique specializations throughout Cataclysm, and with it’s dynamic playstyle as a hybrid class, this spec deserves its spot as a high tier caster. This spec is able to provide both AoE spread pressure and coordinated burst damage onto their opponents, making Shadow Priests more versatile when it comes to comp selection. Also, their playstyle revolves around playing as both offensive and defensive during arena matches. For a more offensive playstyle, Priests can apply cross Crowd Control on enemies with Silence and Psychic Horror, and Mass Dispel to remove defensive immunities. If they choose to play more defensive, they can provide off-healing with Flash Heal when necessary, and Leap of Faith to save an ally, especially when affected by a Stun effect.
This specialization requires players to make more tactical decisions to keep their team ahead, resulting in a more complex playstyle as opposed to other specializations.
Balance Druid
For our last specialization in A tier, we surprisingly have Balance Druid due to its absurd damage profile. A majority of their damage is from their DoT effects, especially Moonfire, which they can be routinely spammed to maintain their Lunar Shower stacks.
With Balance Druid’s DoT effects ticking on targets, there is a chance to gain a Starsurge proc, allowing the spec to provide some unpredictable burst on their target. What makes Balance Druid relatively weaker than Feral Druid is their defensive utility. Since Ferals are the only specialization for the Druid class that receives Survival Instincts and increased passive healing, Balance Druids become squishier targets, making it extremely difficult to maintain your damage when Balance Druids have to sit in Bear Form for most of the game.
B Tier
Elemental Shaman
After Elemental Shamans reigning terror upon the arena brackets in Wrath of the Lich King, they become marginally weaker due to some changes in their defensive toolkit. This results in Elemental Shamans fitting more into the B tier category for the Cataclysm expansion.
When looking at elemental’s toolkit, they have lost their primary defensive, Astral Shift, which makes this spec easier to kill and train. Since melee cleaves are crowned champions in Cataclysm Season 9, it is expected for this class to struggle with surviving. What redeems this specialization in PvP is the amount of burst they can provide in short windows, primarily from Unleash Elements and Fulmination. This can result in unexpected damage and ultimately a kill if done at proper times during an arena match.
C Tier
Beast Mastery Hunter
Entering into the C tier category, we have Beast Mastery Hunter, which is considerably weaker from our S tier Marksmanship Hunter specialization. The primary reason for this that Beast Mastery Hunter lacks the control necessary to pressure teams. Also, their damage profile is a bit weaker and more sustained as opposed to the direct burst from Aimed Shot and Chimera Shot.
Additionally, without Readiness as a talent option, this makes their survivability weaker when it comes to using either Deterrence or Disengage. Beast Mastery Hunters do have the talent, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera, which will assist in their mobility against melee cleaves, but is not as powerful as Marksmanship Hunter cooldowns.
Demonology/Destruction Warlock
For Demonology and Destruction specializations, we have combined these together into the C tier category, and is mainly due to both specializations providing mediocre sustain and burst damage. Since both of these specializations have multiple methods of crowd control, which includes Fear, Howl of Terror, and Death Coil, and their defensive utility with Demon Armor, Nether Ward for Destruction, Soul Link, and Demonic Circle: Teleport, these specializations can still perform in PvP combat, but is not reliable in a competitive setting.
D Tier
These caster specializations listed below aren’t cut out for PvP, which places these in the D tier category.
Survival Hunter and Arcane Mage
Healer
S Tier
Restoration Shaman
Out of all Healer specializations in Cataclysm Season 9, Restoration Shaman is undoubtedly referred to as the most powerful Healer throughout the expansion. Due to their various methods of providing instant cast healing, the introduction of Mastery, and their instant cast totems, this specialization deserves to be placed in a seperate tier ranking.
With their diverse ways of providing instant cast healing to themselves and allies, this makes healing from Restoration Shaman relatively simple and easy to apply on their targets. Also, since Crowd Control overwhelms Healers when applied, having Mastery allows for their healing spells to be more effective on low HP targets, especially when coming out of a Crowd Control effect. This gives Restoration Shamans an advantage over every other Healer spec in the game.
Restoration Shaman totems are the most impactful, as there are so many that have an effect over an arena match. First, their most iconic ability introduced, Spirit Link Totem, which helps recover an ally’s HP while also having a damage reduction effect. Shaman compositions also make teams struggle when they apply spells, especially with Grounding Totem or Tremor Totem, and have additional damaging effects from Strength of Earth Totem or Flametongue Totem, making it easier and quicker to close arena matches. Lastly, with Wind Shear for additional utility and control, and a spammable Purge, Restoration Shaman has the most unique toolkit available out of any Healer specialization in Cataclysm, making them a perfect fit in the S tier category.
A Tier
Holy Paladin
Jumping into the A tier category, we have Holy Paladin as a Healer specialization with a bountiful amount of cooldowns that can be used on allies. These cooldowns are primarily effective on Melee specs, and as Melee compositions are the most powerful in Cataclysm Season 9, having this healer in compositions will allow Paladins to enable Melee uptime and prevent other Melees from scoring kills on their targets.
Holy Paladins have been introduced with Holy Power, which enables Paladins to use more instant cast healing with Word of Glory. When pairing Divine Favor, Avenging Wrath, and Guardian of Ancient Kings together, healing with Word of Glory will most likely top your teammates with full Holy Power. Also, their strengths of instant cast healing make Paladins less vulnerable to ranged interrupts and Crowd Control, although you’ll likely be seeing Paladins play more offensive with their team to apply Hammer of Justice on enemy Healers.
As Paladins may choose to play more offensive in arena matches, their diverse toolkit grants mobility effects, assisting themselves or allies to avoid danger more effectively. With their root and snare removal, Hand of Freedom, and Divine Protection applying a Sprint effect with Speed of Light, don’t expect Paladins to be an easily trainable target. Overall, this specialization is considered one of the strongest Healers due to the current season meta, and will eventually die down in ranking as the expansion progresses.
Discipline Priest
Another Healer placed in the A tier category is Discipline Priest. This specialization is referred to as an offensive support role due to their versatile toolkit, which includes the most damage potential out of any Healer specialization, a stronger dispel effect, and their Crowd Control with Psychic Scream. If you plan on playing a setup composition and want to play as the aggressors in most matchups, make sure to play with this Healer in Cataclysm Season 9.
In Cataclysm, Healers have received a rework on Dispel, which involves all specializations to have magic dispel effects. What empowers Discipline Priest in reference to dispel is that their Dispel Magic removes two Magic debuffs off a target, which is double the amount of every other healer has to offer. This gives this specialization an advantage, allowing for Magic debuff removals to be more efficient and quick. Also, their utility with Mass Dispel and Dispel Magic when purging enemies, allows Priests to remove immunities and major offensive cooldowns from players, making it easier to recover and to land kills.
Since Discipline Priest tends to make more aggressive plays with its toolkit, this may involve targets attacking them more often. With Priests having instant cast absorptions with Power Word: Shield, Pain Suppression that is usable in stun effects, and Focused Will to reduce oncoming damage, this helps them survive as a Cloth wearer specialization. The downside of when priests are attacked is their lack of mobility, making them susceptible for targets to maintain uptime and score kills.
B Tier
Restoration Druid
Dropping down into the depths of B tier, we have one Healer specialization, Restoration Druid, fitting well into this category. This is due to Restoration Druids having a lackluster toolkit to assist with the survivability of their allies. Restoration Druids have to prioritize control more often when helping their team recover, which involves casting their most powerful Crowd Control Cyclone. Since Restoration Druids have to make crucial decisions on when to cast Crowd Control and healing spells, this can result in their playstyle being massively punished.
Restoration Druid requires HoT maintenance on their targets, and due to micro Crowd Control being potent in Cataclysm Season 9, having a weaker healing output becomes more punishable. With the amount of interrupts and prolonged amount of CC from most specializations, this will make recovering out of CC as a Restoration Druid very difficult. Teams playing with a Restoration Druid will have to be more mindful of their weaknesses, resulting in a more defensive mindset in order to stay alive.
Without much survivability besides Barkskin and Bear Form, this specialization tends to be the squishiest out of all Healer specializations, resulting in this spec becoming more trained than most Healers. This will result in teams having to peel more often in order to stay in the game, maintaining more of a defensive playstyle. Overall, Restoration Druid lacks the toolkit necessary to sustain their team effectively, but can be redeemable by playing with more hybrid based specializations to recover easier.
C Tier
Holy Priest
Lastly, for our last specialization ranked in Cataclysm Season 9, we have Holy Priest coming into the C tier category. This specialization provides few strong healing modifiers with Chakra and Guardian Spirit, but overall their sustain healing is a bit lackluster and does not provide any damage mitigation effects that Discipline Priest offers.
Although they lack maintaining their teammates outside of these modifiers, they still maintain some benefits that Discipline Priest has, which is their Crowd Control from Psychic Scream and Dispel Magic removing two magic debuffs instead of one. Another Crowd Control Holy Priest offers in their toolkit is Holy Word: Chastise, providing a three second disorient to a target.
Even with their additional Crowd Control effect, this specialization lacks instant cast absorption effects, and loses out on additional cooldown effects from Power Infusion to help allies burst through targets more effectively. Overall, this specialization is not considered as a valuable option in PvP combat, and is extremely weaker than its contender, Discipline Priest.
Final Thoughts
Same as with all the other tier lists we’ve done, you have to realize that being lower on the list doesn’t make your class bad. There are a lot of things that go into making classes better than others. The classes higher on the list will be easier to work with due to their versatility and carry potential, and will be a safe choice going into Cataclysm Season 9.
