by Hald Twinpack

March 2, 2024

5 Classes in Need of Revamping in The War Within

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With Dragonflight coming to an end soon, here are 5 classes in need of revamping in The War Within and the reasons behind it.

The Dragonflight expansion has significantly reshaped the class meta, impacting the rankings of certain specializations and highlighting areas where improvements are essential. As The War Within approaches, changes to the meta are inevitable. So, now is an ideal moment to take a look at the classes that should receive some improvements in the upcoming expansion.

Shaman

Shaman is one of the WoW classes that should be revamped. Many players think it lacks defensive cooldowns. Particularly in PvP, Shamans often struggle as other classes can easily overpower them with burst damage, and Shamans can’t really do anything about it. Most Shaman specs are, at best, placed in the middle of both PvE and PvP tier lists. Restoration is considered a decent A-Tier Healer in Season 3 Mythic+. However, it doesn’t really stand out among its competitors. Due to the lack of valuable party buffs, it may be even inferior to them.

Neither Restoration nor Elemental Shamans have an analog of Enhancement’s Windfury Totem. That’s odd because it seems easy to come up with a similar totemic buff for other specs. For example, an additional Mana or HP regeneration buff. Another solution would be to move Windfury Totem to the class talent tree so that all specs have access to it. As a last resort, a temporary mass buff could be tied to Fire or Earth Elemental spells. Shamans don’t provide stable stat buffs like other classes such as Warriors or Druids. However, what makes Shamans unique is their ability to provide temporary power-ups through abilities like Windfury Totem, which grants the party a strong burst.

It would be nice to see some elemental updates for Shaman abilities in The War Within. Currently, their damage-dealing specializations only utilize fire and lightning damage types. For instance, when talking about the Restoration specialization and its healing abilities, Shamans employ the water element. It would be interesting to introduce water-type damaging abilities so that other specs of Shaman can utilize them. On the other hand, one might even consider using fire for healing spells, which could add a unique flair to the Shaman’s toolkit.

Hunter

Hunter class is often placed at the bottom of PvE rankings now. The class’ low survivability makes Healers pay too much attention to it. That’s why sometimes Hunters face problems finding a party for higher M+ key runs. Only the Beast Mastery spec makes its way to the upper tiers. In PvP, its specs perform a little better. But that’s not the reason for The War Within Hunter revamp. 

The true problem is that Hunter’s spec trees don’t give the player much choice. Both Beast Mastery and Marksmanship must take the Wailing Arrow skill for several encounters. This forces them to change the entire build and temporarily lose other valuable mechanics. 

Some players find the strength of Survival in the alternating powerful Melee and Ranged abilities. But the design of its spec tree creates obstacles for such rotations too. Besides, Dark Ranger BM/MM Hero Talents were recently showcased. Judging by them, without a spec revamp, the upcoming Survival Hero Talents may even aggravate the problem. Players will have to think through ways to put additional controversial mechanics in a row with the existing ones. 

Finally, players often complain about the overall gameplay style of their favorite Hunter specs. BM is reported to be too pet-concentrated. At the same time, the pets’ AI certainly needs a few adjustments. It’s too buggy: pets get stuck, can’t find an optimal route to the target, and more. Survival players think that with the rework of their spec, it’d be nice to add Dual Wield. This feature would help diversify the gameplay and aesthetics of the spec. There’s even an opinion that Survival Hunter should be made into Tank. Of course, such a sudden change can shatter The War Within class balance. But it makes sense to think about it for the future.

Warrior

Warrior wasn’t an underused WoW class in Dragonflight. It had good Melee DPS and Tank stats at the beginning of the expansion. Now Fury and Protection specs are capable of staying in the middle of the M+ and Raid rankings. Arms spec is in high demand only in PvP. The Execute mechanic usually helped Arms spec compete with the top DPS in boss encounters. 

However, other damage dealers are less gear-dependent, and they can still outperform Fury and Arms in both AoE and single-target damage. Besides, Warriors are reported to lack useful utilities for the party. A few stuns like Storm Bolt and Shockwave, along with a Rallying Cry, aren’t enough. An introduction of additional Cry temporarily buffing attack and cast speed like Heroism would be a good idea. 

But the main reason for the War Within Warrior revamp is the overall class style. A lot of players still find it unattractive because it seems aesthetically monotonous. Some, on the contrary, believe that this is the point: a Warrior shouldn’t have an excess of shiny magical abilities. But some were pleasantly surprised by the effects provided at the preview of Mountain Thane Hero Talents. Thunder-like effects are not new to this class. But even they seemed like a breath of fresh air.

A couple of new eye-catching mechanics would be a cool addition to Warrior’s arsenal. Perhaps the developers will add something like this to other Hero Trees. However, it’s worth remembering that the Mountain Thane Tree is heavily criticized. Thus, visual innovations should go hand in hand with thoughtful gameplay mechanics.

Monk

Monk doesn’t need a complete revamp in The War Within. Mistweaver is one of the strongest Raid and Mythic+ Healers in the game right now. Brewmaster is usually considered a solid mid-tier Tank. Monk also performs well in PvP. Windwalker has one of the top DPS outputs in various PvP activities. Although it’s said to lack survivability, the insane mobility compensates for it.

However, towards the end, Dragonflight Windwalker became one of the weakest PvE Damage-Dealers. Small 10.2 buffs didn’t improve the situation. Many players believe that Windwalker’s heavy reliance on versatility is the main reason for it. That’s the only stat that affects all skills and procs of this spec. Players have to maximize this stat to improve their favorite WoW class DPS output. 

Nowadays, classes relying on Haste or Mastery feel much better. At the same time, Windwalker’s Mastery: Combo Strikes mechanic is unique but too complicated. Not many players can fall in love with a spec whose rotation needs to be so carefully watched over. Especially among newcomers. 

Additionally, the Summon White Tiger Statue ability was heavily criticized from the very beginning of Dragonflight. It’s reported to be a poor analog of other specs’ much more effective Statue cooldowns. The Faeline Stomp skill also received a lot of criticism. In later DF patches, it gained a spectacular animation and a cooldown reduction. But even so, it doesn’t fit well into rotation. Thus, Windwalker’s key bursts must be revised too.

Death Knight

Death Knights generally didn’t rise above mid-tiers in Dragonflight’s PvE. Only at the end of the expansion, Unholy DK is sometimes rated as one of the best PvP and PvE Damage-Dealers. Its only drawback players complain about is the abundance of buttons to press. It harms their damage output in some Mythic+ encounters. They often don’t have enough time to get the most out of their rotation.

Frost is often placed in the lowest tiers of rankings both in PvP and PvE. Its only advantage is good AoE damage in some encounters. But even the AoE rotation is criticized due to the need to use the Death and Decay spell. Its cooldown is too long. Players have to stand in this mechanic to get Obliterate proc. In addition, the spell looks aesthetically contradictory to Frost’s abilities. In most solo-target encounters, Frost is inferior to its opponents. 

The upcoming Unholy/Frost Hero Talents Tree may contain mechanics beneficial for Frost DK. But without a proper revamp, Frost Death Knight would most likely suffer the same problems in The War Within. In turn, additional mechanics may harm Unholy spec rotation.

Conclusion

This was our list of WoW classes in need of revamping in The War Within. Keep in mind that such lists are always subjective. They’re based on rankings which can be easily turned upside down depending on criteria. Whatever changes these classes receive in The War Within, enjoying playing your favorite one is always more important.