Best Classes for early PVE in World of Warcraft Classic: Cataclysm

The pre-patch for World of Warcraft Classic: Cataclysm is just days away from dropping, on April 30, 2024. Less than a month after that, Classic Cataclysm is slated for May 20, 2024.

That gives players a little bit of time to consider raid comps, gearing up for their leveling zones, or if they’re going to level through dungeons, and determine if they might want to choose a different class to level before Classic Cataclysm drops in full. After all, doesn’t each expansion cause existential crises for players?

With Classic Cataclysm dropping with the 4.3 patch (which was “Dragon Soul” back in retail Cataclysm), things may change slightly once the later raids open up. Composition in raids is also important, and each class and spec has its moments where they might be ahead or behind the whole raid. Player skill should also be taken into account, but here are some tips to get you started.

Tanks

There are only four options and all tanks are viable; though each brings in their own unique skill sets.

Blood Death Knight tanks have the best self-healing utility, making them viable to ease the burden on healers, and fantastic in solo play. Warriors, on the other hand, have far more versatility and reliability than the others. Paladin tanks are amazing for Area of Effect (AoE). Druid tanks bring in some good mobility, utility, and healing as well.

Healers

Like with tanks, there are only four healing classes.

Priests are the most versatile healers by far, and the most powerful, too. Druids are naturally the best heal over time (HoT) healers as that is their specialty. Paladins are great with single-target healing as well as impressive burst damage. However, if played right, they can also raid heal effectively, too. Shamans are good for moderate healing, totems, mana, and decent cooldowns.

Go with Priest if you have any doubts.

DPS (Damage-Per-Second)

The common way to list out DPS classes is both by their class and specialization. These tiers are S, A, B, C, and D, with D being okay but at the bottom of the line.

S-Tier DPS

Fire Mages, Shadow Priests, Affliction Warlocks, and Survival Hunters are among the top of the pool for DPS classes. They all bring high damage, versatility, utility, and decent buffs for raid groups.

A-Tier DPS

Most of the classes will realistically fit into A tier. These include: Demonology Warlock, Balance Druid, Frost and Unholy Death Knight, Arcane Mage, Retribution Paladin, Elemental Shaman, and Assassin Rogue. Like S-tier DPS, these all have great damage, along with good cooldowns and survivability, as well as their own various buffs for raids.

B-Tier DPS

Most of the melee fall into this group, with Marksman Hunters being the only ranged. Other classes here are Combat Rogue, Enhancement Shaman, Feral Druid, and Arms Warrior. A lot of these classes are good at burst damage, single target, mobility, and some AoE.

C-Tier DPS

These are lower of the chain, but not terrible. Fury Warrior can be good, but it is heavily gear-dependent to be higher DPS, and compared to the other melee classes like Rogue and Feral druids, it has less survivability. Beast Master Hunters and Destruction Warlocks also fall into this tier, but Destruction Warlocks might struggle with maintaining mana, and Beast Master hunters, while consistent damage, might struggle with keeping up when fights need mobility.

D-Tier DPS

The last two classes that fall here are Subtlety Rogue and Frost Mages. Both of these specializations struggle with damage output, which is very low, as well as their survivability. However, Frost Mages are good for solo leveling, but they’re not great for end-game content.

With the Blizzard Roadmap showing the path of Classic Cataclysm, it’s a good time to determine if players are going to stay with their chosen mains currently, or if they’ll use the pre-patch to level a new main for Cataclysm content and raids.