With Shadowlands, World of Warcraft receives its eighth expansion. Many players are already exploring the raid and the dungeons here. From their performance, a first DPS ranking can already be derived.
What does the ranking show? With the values shown here, you get a rough overview of which classes are currently at the top in the upcoming expansion Shadowlands in terms of damage.
This only concerns pure DPS. Special mechanics of bosses and classes, as well as circumstances like group composition are not taken into account.
Where do the numbers come from? The website wowmeta.com collects data from players in the beta who are completing both the first Mythic+ dungeons and the first raid, Castle Nathria in Revendreth.
Currently, there are 167 evaluated logs and we show you the average performance of the classes, not their maximum DPS.
The numbers are updated regularly. Note, however, that only players whose logs can be accessed are considered. This usually does not correspond to the full amount of testers. Current status: October 5, 2020.
The strongest classes at the start of Shadowlands – DPS ranking
These are all classes in the ranking: Don’t be alarmed by the low numbers in the table. In Shadowlands, there is a level squish from 120 to 60 as the maximum level.
As a result, the DPS values are significantly lower than in the current DPS list of WoW and are only about one-tenth as large.
The table shows that the destruction warlock and the assassination rogue are far ahead in 1st and 2nd place. The classes afterwards are relatively close together again, with no major jumps, at least until the last places. Enhancement shamans and fire mages are currently lagging noticeably behind.
This may be partly due to the fact that the first bosses and mechanics in Shadowlands favor these two classes, and partly because the balancing is not yet complete.
The numbers also relate to the currently ongoing beta of Shadowlands and do not necessarily reflect the performance that the classes can deliver at release. Class balancing is usually one of the last steps.
Which class should I play? It depends on what you want to do. If it’s purely about damage, you can easily orient yourself towards the top classes of the ranking.
However, the gameplay style of many classes is quite different and they often bring unique abilities. What is more important is: Play a class that you enjoy.
Should I avoid weak classes? Just because some specializations are currently at the back of the rankings does not mean they are inherently bad. The subtlety rogue, for example, can be a valuable tool for the group in certain combinations, as it brings many useful abilities. Furthermore, the gap to the stronger classes is not that large.
Playing the Shadowlands beta and release
How can I participate in the beta? If you want to play the beta yourself, it’s sufficient to sign up for participation. After that, you just need to wait for an invitation. In our article, we reveal everything important about the Shadowlands beta.
Is it worth leveling? Definitely. If you want to start with one of the strong classes in Shadowlands, you can easily start leveling them now. With the current experience buff, it goes quite quickly.
If you prefer to wait, Shadowlands will provide a completely new leveling experience. Leveling will even be a bit faster there. However, those who put in the groundwork now can dive directly into the new content later.
When is Shadowlands being released? Shadowlands itself has now been postponed indefinitely and will not be released as planned on October 27.
However, Patch 9.0 goes live on October 13 as planned, which already brings some changes
and prepares you for Shadowlands.After that, it will still take a few weeks for Shadowlands to be fully released. During this time, a famous event will return, preparing you for the release and it is supposed to happen in phases over a few weeks. A specific date for the pre-patch, the event, and the release is not yet known, but based on the information available so far, a start can be inferred around late October to mid-November.
