WoW Classic Tier List
Choosing the right class in WoW Classic is key to excelling in PvE raids, dungeons, and PvP battles. This tier list ranks the best DPS, tanks, and healers, analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, and ideal specializations. Whether you want to top damage charts, tank endgame bosses, or heal your raid, this guide breaks down the meta-defining classes to help you make the best choice.
📂 WoW Classic
Best DPS Classes in WoW Classic
This is the DPS Tier List for WoW Classic.
- S
- A
- B
- C
- D
The DPS list shows the meta of WoW Classic. It is not strictly showing the DPS ranking, but how easy it is to get a raid spot with the respective spec. In PuGs the community perception of a spec is a big factor. If you are not a spec of the upper half of the Tier List it will be more time-consuming to find a weekly raid spot. In guild raids, lower-tier specs can get a raid spot, but this depends on the goals of the guild raid.
- For PvE, you have the very dominant
Warriors that do more damage than any other class and scale better with more gear than any other class. This makes Warriors S-Tier throughout every phase in WoW Classic. 
Rogues start lower and scale not as good as Warriors, but are the next best DPS in terms of damage potential. 
Mages become stronger in later raid tiers, when raid gear with better stats becomes available and they spec into Fire. The 
Warlock class is traditionally underplayed and most raids want at least 2-3 Warlocks. Since there aren’t many Warlocks and their damage becomes very good in later phases, Warlocks often have an easy time finding a raid spot.- Raid slots for
Hunters are very limited. Optimized raids will only take 1-3 Hunters in their roster. Since Hunters do not scale well with gear in higher phases it will become harder to get a raid spot. Feral 
Druid is a relatively strong and flexible class, but the meta often has room for a maximum of one Feral Druid. Druids tend to fall off in later phases since other DPS classes out-scale them. Elemental 
Shamans are in a more complex spot. Since every raid will have a lot of Resto Shamans for healing and totems already, Elemental Shamans don’t bring much value a Resto wouldn’t bring already. But in optimized raids with fast boss kill times, Ele Shaman can reach competitive boss damage. - Shadow
Priests and Enhancement Shamans will not have raid spots in highly optimized groups. In ambitious, but not min-maxed raid groups, they tend to find 1 raid spot. - The Balance Druid and the Retribution
Paladin have a very low damage output. A Balance Druid brings an aura that buffs casters. But their individual damage output is so low that even with their aura it tends to be a DPS loss for the whole raid. A Ret Paladin brings nothing to the raid that a Holy Paladin wouldn’t already bring which makes this spec very undesirable for most raid groups.
There are raid groups and guilds that don’t strive to reach an optimized raid composition. It is possible to defeat raids with less optimized raid compositions. But if you are not in an organized group and have to look for PuG raids (Pick-up raids that form through the in-game chat) every week, it will be very time-consuming to find DPS slots if you are on the lower side of the tier list. PuG raids tend to value meta compositions more, than your average guild group.
Has the Meta Changed in WoW Classic Fresh?
The meta in WoW Classic Fresh has not changed compared to Era. Warriors are still so far ahead in DPS, that most of the other roles in speedrun raids will still be planned around supporting them.
With the removal of the buff and debuff limit on the Anniversary Realms, DoT classes like Warlocks and Priests can now use more of their damage-over-time effects. But overall this does not change their standing in the DPS rankings.
Druids can now cast healing over time (HoT) on other players without the risk to remove a world buff from their target. This allows a healing Druid to use more of their toolkit, but raids still don’t want to stack Druids if they have other healers available.
Best Healer Classes in WoW Classic
This is the Healer Tier List for WoW Classic.
- S
- A
- B
To find the best healer class, we have to analyze the raid composition. In optimized raids there are an optimal number of slots per class:
- Every
Alliance raid wants at least 3-4 Paladins for their blessings and strong tank healing capabilities. - Every
Horde raid wants 5+ Shamans for their totems and strong raid healing. - Optimized raids only want one Druid. Druids don’t stack very well in Classic and are generally on the weaker side in terms of healing. This is especially true for Horde raids.
Chain Heal from Shamans is so effective, that the healing-over-time effects from Druids can’t reach their full potential. - The Priest is the best healing class in WoW Classic in terms of healing output. Depending on the number of healers a raid wants, Priests will be stacked after the minimum of the other healers has been reached. Priests on Horde side will often tend to heal the tank, while Alliance Priests will often tend to heal the raid.
If you are playing with random groups, healers are often very sought after. The ideal and highly optimized raid group is often not the goal, since you can beat the game easily with less optimized compositions. Druids stay in a tough spot, but the other healers will generally not have any issues getting a raid spot.
Best Tank Classes in WoW Classic
This is the Tank Tier List for WoW Classic.
- S
- A
- B Paladin
- C Shaman
With the way raiding and gearing in WoW Classic works, the tanking role is very one-sided:
- Warrior is the class that will be tanking raids nearly 100% of the time.
- The next best tank is the Druid. A Druid can generate enough threat though and it is possible to tank raids successfully, especially the lower tiers of raids. But the lack of tanking gear for Druids makes Warriors the more popular choice in the long run.
- Paladins are very good dungeon tanks. In raids, they are rarely seen as tanks as they lack the tools and gear option the Warrior has. Shamans have technically the option to generate high threat and can tank dungeons, but to a lesser extent than Paladins. Both classes have successfully tanked e.g. Molten Core in the past, but it will be nearly impossible to get a spot in a PuG raid and very hard to find a guild that would bring these classes as their raid tanks. The discrepancy to a Warrior is just too high.
WoW Classic Builds Directory
You will find the optimal best-in-slot lists and talent choices for each class in each phase of WoW Classic Era and Anniversary in our build guides.
- Druid
PvE Healer: Resto Druid BiS & Talents
PvE Melee: Feral Druid BiS & Talents
PvE Tank: Feral Tank Druid BiS & Talents
PvE Caster: Balance Druid BiS & Talents - Hunter
PvE DPS: Hunter DPS BiS & Talents - Mage
PvE DPS: Mage DPS BiS & Talents - Paladin
PvE Healer: Holy Paladin BiS & Talents
PvE Melee: Retribution Paladin BiS & Talents - Priest
PvE Healer: Disc/Holy Priest BiS & Talents
PvE Caster: Shadow Priest BiS & Talents - Rogue
PvE DPS: Rogue DPS BiS & Talents - Shaman
PvE Healer: Resto Shaman BiS & Talents
PvE Melee: Enhancement Shaman BiS & Talents
PvE Caster: Elemental Shaman BiS & Talents - Warlock
PvE DPS: Warlock DPS BiS & Talents - Warrior
PvE DPS: Fury Warrior BiS & Talents
PvE Tank: Fury/Prot Warrior BiS & Talents