This WotLK Melee DPS tier list covers the best melee specs for PvP in Wrath of the Lich King Classic that guarantee you get the highest rating in the arena.
WotLK Melee DPS Ranking - Best Melee DPS PvP Classes (Specs) in Wrath of the Lich King Classic
With this WotLK Classic Melee DPS Tier List, we will break down the melee meta PvP classes in Season 5, covering every spec in the game including the top 3 best melee DPS PvP classes in the early expansion.
WotLK Melee DPS PvP Class S Tier
Virtually every melee has a place in the meta but the following three specs are clearly the Top 3 Best Melee DPS for PvP:
1. Arms Warriors
Arms Warriors undeniably deserve a spot on the S tier, despite actually being their weakest in Season 5. Over the course of Wrath of the Lich King, warriors will deteriorate like fine wine, especially when armor pens become more commonly accessible. But why are the Warriors on the S tier if Season 5 is their worst year yet? However, despite the fact that their damage isn't as dangerous, their pressure is still astronomically great. While Holy Paladin Warrior is arguably the most oppressive comp in the entire expansion, Mortal Strike has a base healing reduction of 50 and Unrelenting Assault can result in up to 75 reduced healing on a single target, giving them a lot of flexibility in 3v3 as well as their title as the king of 2v2. Don't underestimate the Warriors in season 5, despite the fact that they are theoretically at their lowest.
2. Subtlety Rogues
Subtlety Rogues encounter the opposite issue on the other side of the melee. What makes Sub Rogue so good early on? Sub Rogue will really be at its finest in Season 5 of WotLK, but will gradually decrease as the season progresses. A large chunk of it is just the result of weaker stamina and resilience numbers, which in the early expansion caused Ambush damage to be disproportionately high and made roads one of the most bursty melee classes. Obviously, Rogues are weak and can easily melt in a 3v3 arena, but as matches will already be brief and intense, this vulnerability is well-managed, especially since Preparation resets the majority of important cooldowns. Rogue earns their place in the high tiers because they have a top-tier compound that is strong in both 2v2 and 3v3, making it very impossible to lose when playing them in Season 5.
3. Unholy Deathknights
Unholy DK, our third dominant melee, completes the list. They will be at their best during the first expansion, just like the Sub Rogues. This has a lot to do with the function they perform in arena, which is to om the opponent healer by applying just enough constant pressure. They don't have a Mortal Strike effect, but they make up for it in the damage department with a host of diseases that can't be cured and spam traps, effectively insuring high uptime. Since MP5 values aren't high enough in season 5 to sustain games for more than a few minutes, if that, this will be extremely taxing for any healer. Naturally, this issue will eventually be resolved with better equipment, especially if every healer in the game has the cherished Solace of the Fallen equipped. Unholy DKs may slightly lose strength after concealer Mana gains muscle after working out, but they will still be fierce competitors for the rest of the expansion, especially in 2v2, where they will be the scourge of any double DPS team.
We have our most dominant melee in Season 5, each one of these specs will have access to at least one top-tier comp in either 2v2 or 3v3, and we anticipate that these will be some of the most popular melees on the high end of the ladder.
WotLK Melee DPS PvP Class A Tier
Now we cover the rest of the high tiers with three more specs that will be highly competitive:
4. Ret Paladin
This refers to both one-handed and two-handed versions for the sake of clarity. The protective magic that Wrath Rhett Paladins can cast, probably the best utility in the game, is one of their specialties. However, Rets also has two significant team-wide defensives in the form of Divine Sacrifice and Hand of Protection, so it doesn't end there. Having a Paladin on your team is essentially a second lifeline given the popularity of extremely aggressive comps like Beast cleave in Season 5. Not to note that Ret Paladins frequently partner up with Priest in the arena, allowing for two spammable magic dispels on the same team. This can keep CC-heavy comps like RMP and check alive, which is crucial because they will be performing at their best in the early stages of the expansion. Ret Paladins' lack of an interrupt and a healing reduction effect, which makes them more dependent on other classes rather to be strong on their own, is the only reason they aren't higher on the S list.
5. Feral Druid
Feral Druid can deliver a ton of physical damage with Incredible CC, but he isn't a specialist in any one area because he lacks the size necessary to excel as a melee DPS. Although something like a Kitty cleave could appear nice on paper, Ferals would just be tunneled in a comp like that because of their squishiness, which limits their options for comps. Rather, focus more on engaging in combat with Hunters or Mage players that are either already trained or who provide the Feral with breathing room through the use of traps and peels. The inner bate will play a major role in Season 5. Again, early expansion stress will be a major problem for healer Mana, so having an instant ability to recover some resources is really beneficial. In any event, Feral should have a limited presence in the arena, especially in 2v2, where their damage will be a significant execution challenge for any healer.
6. Assassination Rogue
Although they are a little out of date for the current meta, Assassination Rogues are still very competitive in Season 5. They were extremely popular in the original Wrath of the Lich King. The advantages of playing an Assassination Rogues include a 20% increase in healing received thanks to the Quick Recovery passive and some poison dispel protection partially due to Deadly Brew. Unlike Subtlety, Assassination Rogues are designed to deal more consistent damage while also setting up kills around kidney shots. Unfortunately, these are outweighed by the fact that Shadowstep is absent and Assassination Rogue is lacking a gap closer, leaving us tottering across the arena. And while this disadvantage is particularly harsh in an expansion where mobility has been restricted, their damage has the potential to be sufficient to outnumber many healers.
7. Enhancement Shaman
The Feral Spirits cooldown will remain powerful throughout the entire expansion, which is why Enhancement Shaman will be at its height during Season 5. However, keep in mind that pets don't actually scale well with gear as bonus haste crit or armor pen doesn't improve their damage. Instead, the early expansion, when baseline pet damage is at its peak, will be most advantageous to all pet classes, including Enhancement Shaman. When you add that to the fact that players have lower health and resiliency, a devastating FoE in Season 5 is enhanced by over-budgeted cooldowns like Feral Spirit.
With that we're at the end of the high tiers for melee DPS, one key point of separation between some of these classes in the s-tier melee is that they either lack an MS effect and interrupt or just have poor mobility, this doesn't make them bad but simply means they're more reliant on other specs to provide these effects, especially in 3v3.
WotLK Melee DPS PvP Class B Tier
With our high tiers sorted, let's wrap this guide up with our mid and low tiers, some of these will tiptoe on the edge of viability in Arena but our B tier includes specs that are good but have very limited comp options:
8. Frost Death Knights
They are nonetheless highly useful in Arena despite being substantially less common than their Unholy Death Knight counterparts. With hunger and frost, one of the most distinctive CC abilities in the game, combined with impenetrable armor, Frost DKs have one of the most effective damage setups. They obviously miss some functionality, most notably the ability to manage their pet, which gives them one less micro CC than Unholy. Frost will reach its pinnacle in the first expansion but will decline later, especially when Shadowmourne is made available because Frost only uses one-handed weapons. It will make a respectable off-meta selection for WotLK Arena till then.
9. Protection Warrior
Shield Slam scaling off of block value, which of course will be at its lowest in Season 5, is the main reason why Protection Warriors scale substantially better with more powerful armor in the later Seasons than Arms Warriors do. Protection Warriors will therefore become more effective if better shields are made available and armor penetration becomes more commonly available on gear; however, until then, they will be at their most vulnerable during early expansion.
You might be asking why Fury is ranked so low now that we have our complete mid and low tiers. Ironically, it does have a passive MS effect from Furious Attacks, but this is insufficient to make up for the fact that it is already extremely flimsy. And unlike Arms Warriors, which has the meta-defining Unrelenting Assault Talent, it is unable to deal much damage while training, which restricts its usefulness.
Overall, however, every melee class has at least one high-tier spec. All melee specs contribute significantly to shaping the meta during Wrath of the Lich King because of effects that reduce healing or because of their special usefulness. The low tier is a bit of a wild card, and we normally don't encourage them for any serious Arena. Any spec within the top tiers is absolutely capable of rank 1, while anyone in the mid-tier is definitely suitable for Gladiator in Season 5.
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