WoW War Within Solo Shuffle tier list for DPS 11.0.5
Welcome to our The War Within Solo Shuffle tier list for melee and ranged DPS specs in Patch 11.0.5!
Table of Contents
We’ve created a Solo Shuffle tier list for DPS players, ranking both melee and ranged specializations from S to C tiers based on their overall effectiveness and performance in Solo Shuffle. All information is up-to-date as of patch 11.0.5, and we’ve also considered the most recent balance changes from Blizzard’s blue posts. So, without further ado, let’s dive in!
About WoW Solo Shuffle
Solo Shuffle is one of the PvP modes in WoW The War Within, added back in Shadowlands expansion. This brawl allows players to try their strength in multiple teams until victory.
How it works: players fight in 3×3 mode for six rounds until one team wins the most rounds. Each round lasts 5 minutes or until one player dies. If you or someone on your team dies, the round is lost. The healing reduction starts at minute 2 to keep matches from dragging on until it reaches 100% by the fifth minute. With each round, the arena changes, and players are shuffled between each other until the team consists of 1 heal and two DPSes.
A simple example of a battle — we have Holy Paladin, Restoration Shaman, and 4 DPS as Rogue, Warlock, Mage, and Hunter. They all enter the Arena and must fight among themselves. In each round, they will be mixed among themselves as follows:
- Pal, Rogue, Warlock vs Sham, Mage, Hunt;
- Pal, Rogue, Mage vs Sham, Warlock, Hunt;
- Pal, Warlock, Mage vs Sham, Rogue, Hunt;
- Pal, Mage, Hunt vs Sham, Rogue, Warlock;
- Pal, Warlock, Hunt vs Sham, Rogue, Mage;
- Pal, Rogue, Mage vs Sham, Warlock, Mage.
Due to these rules, the gameplay is as dynamic as possible. You must adjust to the enemy’s setup, play differently, and change talents every time before each round. It is even more fun if you have no connection with your team and have to act according to the situation.
As mentioned, this tier list is subjective, so don’t be sad about your favorite spec not being on the S tier. Overall, the balance depends on many complex and various factors that cannot be fathomed in just this format. And even if your spec is in the bottom tiers, it will probably receive some tuning in the next patch. We will keep this tier list as fresh as possible, so remember to bookmark it. As for this article’s release date, the information is relevant to patch 11.0.5. We mainly used Drustvar resource for specs statistics.
The last thing to remember is that we will divide this tier list into melee and ranged specs because these niches are too different. Now, let’s begin!
Solo Shuffle tier list criteria
We divide the classes into five tiers as follows:
- S-tier specs are the best. If we talk about other specs, we will compare them to the ones in the S-tier. Those specs are overall over-buffed, have good control options, are nice buffs for your team, and have great answers for many DMG bursts like Chaos Bolts or Frost DK using all of his cooldowns. And even if you got yourself in a tricky situation, those specs probably have an answer to escape such a thing.
- A+ tier specs are strong choices that can rank high. They are almost perfect, but they have their weaknesses that either cripple them and don’t let them rank higher or are not compensated enough by their other strong sides.
- A tier plateau describes specs that are excellent overall but can’t compete with other specs on the highest levels due to some of their limitations.
- B-tier specs are not as strong as A-tier specs, but they still have their advantages and disadvantages.
- C-tier specs are overall weaker than others. While playing it, you may expect difficulties in higher ranks. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t play them. Just try to compensate for their weaknesses where possible (like get some sustainability talents if you cooldown dependent)
Solo Shuffle tier list for DPS melee specs
Solo Shuffle tier list for melee DPS specs
- A+ – Feral Druid, Arms Warrior, Fury Warrior, Subtlety Rogue
- A – Unholy Death Knight, Retribution Paladin, Assassination Rogue, Survival Hunter
- B – Havoc Demon Hunter, Windwalker Monk, Frost Death Knight
- C – Enhancement Shaman, Outlaw Rogue
The tier list will look like this.
Solo Shuffle tier list A and A+ melee specs
Feral Druid
Feral Druid is gone from the S tier, not by Melee competitors but because of Ranged DPS domination in PVP. It has the highest win rate and Damage, thanks to the Wildstalker hero talent tree. Thriving Growth gives a bleed effect, and Resilient Flourishing, which extends DoTs, make Feral Druid a slow but insidious assassin. Sustainability gained from Bond with Nature’s hero talent increased Healing, making Feral a hard target to defeat.
Yet this spec has the highest learning curve. You should remember that Feral is not only about cat form; for effective PVP play, you must balance out your options, which are only sometimes in a cat form. For example, you must turn into a Bear Form for defense or a Travel Form for disengagement. With Wild Attunement gone, Feral Druids became much better. However, Oak Skin Hero Talent now is not enough to withstand Ranged DPS damage. Maybe after BM Hunter Dark Ranger nerfs, we will see Feral back in the S tier in our Solo Shuffle tier list.
This situation is not a Feral problem but a more Ranged specs prevalence problem. You will probably get more representative Melee spec meta if you nerf Ranged specs.
Arms Warrior
Both Warrior specs got PvP buffs, especially with Damage. However, they still suffer when taking Damage or getting slow, so we can’t rank them better. Warrior was historically always nuanced, even if you date back to Vanilla. The Warrior was either top-tier DPS spec or stayed on the plateau of mediocrity. It all comes down to Warrior’s dependencies on other specs like Healers.
Also, Warrior is dependent on gear, so we recommend getting the best equipment first for better performance. If Warrior gets enough help from buffs and heals, he will deal stable DPS and keep pressuring the opponents. That’s why you should consider Warrior a better addition to a ready composition, not Shuffle composition founding spec.
Let’s start with Arms Warrior; he is more consistent with Damage than Fury. Its Sharpen Blade PVP talent is the best heal reduction option in the game, with Mortal Strike also reducing Healing by 50 %. You can be assured that the target won’t heal from your Damage. This is one of the reasons why Arms is so good right now. Because of the current situation, Arms must take the Slayer Hero Talent tree to perform better damage-wise. On paper, the Colossus Hero Tree seems good. However, the Slayer Hero Tree performs better simply because of extra Healing from Imminent Demise and Death Drive Hero talents. This is mainly because of the Ranged overall prevalence in meta.
Your main areas for improvement are problems with survivability and inability to perform well without extra support from Healer specs. BM Hunter can simply disengage from your Charge and Heroic Leap and burst you down. You have good defensive cooldowns like Die by a Sword and Ignore Pain, but BM Hunter can switch targets during your cooldowns. Another bad thing is that playing vs Frost Mage is really painful for any Warrior player. However, even in this case, you have situational Relentless Pursuit Hero talent. That’s why Arms feels really good right now, and we recommend it.
Fury Warrior
Fury Warrior does even more significant Damage with ease because of his simple rotation. However, after your burst abilities, you’ve done it. The hero talent Slayer’s Dominance gives Fury a lot of Damage; however, even with it, Fury needs more consistency to become an S-tier spec. Unfortunately, the Mountain Thane Hero Talent tree is unplayable, making Fury lose on DPS and extra Healing. Practically all Fury players pick Culling Cycling and Opportunist Hero talents for a more reliable damage source. Remember that knowing that you can focus down and finish an opponent is more important than extra Utility.
Fury does more Damage; its only downside is having less Utility, such as arm heal reduction. However, Ranged specs will be ready for your full rotation, and just like Arms Fury suffers from similar downsides, they are his inability to be self-sufficient and reliably survive against bursts. That still doesn’t prevent Fury from being a consistent option to achieve the best results in the Shuffle. Let’s hope Slayer’s Dominance will get another buff so Fury can shine against unprepared Ranged specs.
Unholy Deathknight
Unholy feels better; he is sustainable and deals with DMG. With Death Charge Hero Talents, If you want some stable spec to grind in the Shuffle, we can recommend it. Even though Rider of the Apocalypse has some borderline useless talents (On a Paler Horse is probably the most useless talent right now), these are primarily choices between useless and great options. A Death Charge is a must for a DK in a meta where Ranged DPSes will 100 percent slow you down (also, you don’t want to pick On a Pale Horse). Another situational Hero Talent is Horsemen’s Aid. In most cases, it would be helpful, but it’s useless against BM Hunters, which are the main blocks on your journey to increase rankings. If meta shifts, we will probably see this talent increase in usage drastically.
Null Magic is a huge buff that increases your survivability, and with Necrotic Wounds combined, it makes Unholy fight like a proper bruiser. And with Anti-Magiz Zone you can provide your party with barrier vs most Ranged DPSes. With all this, Unholy DK makes a unique meta breaker who can strike down annoying Ranged DPSes under Anti Magic Shell. Also, engagement options such as Asphyxiation, Death Grip, and Leap are much better than others.
Death Grip is an ultimate gap closer, while Leap is useful for focusing on one particular target. The only natural way to counter Death Grip is either some hard disengage or Dracthyr’s/Priest’s save ability. Also, there is a little trick to Leap; although it is much riskier, you can even use Leap on another player to deal Damage to one target while Healer deals with a ghoul and your DoTs.
We should expect him to rise even further, but he is a solid A-tier in our Solo Shuffle tier list right now.
Assassination Rogue
Assassination Rogue is a more accessible version of Feral Druid and Subtlety, yet it feels fine. Also, being much more accessible than Feral and Subtlety, yet not losing in versatility, makes Assassination Rogue an excellent melee spec. Subtlety Rogue is more technical, and to perform in the same as Assassination Rogue, you need to consider many factors like your cooldowns, enemies’ cooldowns, your DMG potential, etc. However, if you can calculate all this, Subtlety Rogue can outmatch Assassination Rogue and quickly get enemy HP from 100% to 0%.
However, let’s talk about Assassination Rogue first. Your most reliable option is Deathstalker Hero Talent Tree. Deathstalker’s Mark is a must-have for even more Damage. Your main goal is evading bursts and dealing with Healers. The good thing is Crippling Poison and Numbing Poison. Will help you with that. Like Subtlety Rogue, you must play around enemies’ weaknesses and cooldowns. However, having more DPS makes Assassination a much more self-sufficient spec than Subtlety.
Subtlety Rogue
Subtlety Rogue barely stays in the A+ tier. Subtlety is a high-performance spec that performs best under a player’s execution ability. Your best weapon is game knowledge and team coordination, even Assassination Rogue and Feral don’t require that much game knowledge.
You need to play around with enemies’ control breaks and defensive cooldowns while managing combo points. Because of that, it’s almost impossible to describe a singular rotation for a target. However, if you have an enemy in Control and you get a follow-up from your teammate, you are almost guaranteed to destroy your enemy.
It’s hard to recommend a particular Hero Talent tree or PvP talent (except Smoke Bomb, which is crucial for PvP); right now, players favor the Deathstalker Hero Talent tree. But it’s flexible. For example, if the meta has more melee specs, we will probably see more of the Trickster Hero Talent tree paired with the Dismantle PvP talent. If you are new to this mode, we recommend checking the most picked Hero Talent trees by top players on stats resources.
Retribution Paladin
Retribution Paladin is the same as Frost DK, a cooldown-dependant, sustainable DMG. However, defensive cooldowns for Retribution Paladin are much better, making its sustainability much higher. That’s why Retribution Paladin marks the A+ in out Solo Shuffle tier list and will stay on par with Unholy DK. The only thing that Retribution needs to include right now is more Engagement.
The main strengths of Retribution Paladin are Blessings and Flash of Light for your teammates, Burst damage paired with Avenging Wrath: Might. Also, Paladin is straightforward. Just cast Blessings on your teammates, use Flash of Light for off-heal, and press the Divine Shield button to ignore everything.
The Templar Hero talent tree is suitable for an overall upgrade to Paladin. You’ve got everything in this: extra mobility with Unrelenting Charger, extra DPS with Sanctification, and even extra Healing with Sacrosanct Crusade.
More on Blessings. Retribution Palladin can offer a great variety of utility like Blessing of Freedom for root breaks. Blessing of Protection makes you fully immune to physical damage, making Warriors useless against you. Blessing of Sanctuary allows you to remove any Silence, Stun, or Fear effects on a selected target.
Survival Hunter
Survival Hunter is a fun spec and currently rises in tier positions. Strong engages, DMG, and control options like Intimidate. Most players pick the Sentinel Hero Talent tree for Sentinel stacks, implosion damage, and buffs in your rotation. Your engaging with Harpoon is one of the best gap-closers after DK Death Grip and Intimidation talent is just too strong for PvP.
The only thing that you need to be aware of is that jumping on Discipline Priest may be an overall painful experience. Pick Survival Tactics as a PvP talent, and you will be ready. Only a few players are main Survival Hunters in the high ranks; however, we expect the number to change in the future.
Solo Shuffle tier list B and lower tier melee specs
Windwalker Monk
Windwalker Monk with PvP changes plays more bulkier than you expect. The new Clash talent perfectly summarizes their playstyle, acting as their Roll and DK Death Grip. Conduit Of The Celestials Hero Talent Tree. Celestial Conduit is just too suitable for players’ Utility. Unfortunately, Windwalker is currently too flail and does not do enough Damage. However, it makes a great support build for your team.
Frost Deathknight
Unlike other specs, Frost DK still suffers from a high reliance on timed cooldowns and doesn’t provide upsides for this. That doesn’t mean that Frost DK is unplayable; it just means you will encounter many more problems in the long run than other specs. The good side of Frost DK’s limits is that you will gain more ratings faster because low-ranging players cannot counter Frost DK timings.
Demon Hunter
Demon Hunters have outstanding PvP talents that allow them to become deadly in the Arena, and their mobility is one of the best. The sheer amount of Damage that Demon Hunter can cause on the battlefield can surprise everyone. Yet, Demon Hunter is dependent on the form of metamorphosis. Any dependencies make you less viable overall, and sadly, Demon Hunter suffers from it less than Frost DK.
Enhancement Shaman
Enhancement Shaman has seen lots of buffs and is currently rapidly rising tiers. The overall effect of PvP buffs is unknown; however, we see positive tendencies. Players are experimenting with the best Hero Talent Tree, and Stormbringer and Totemic can be good. Right now Enhancement is going into C-tier of our Solo Shuffle tier list, but this may change.
Outlaw Rogue
Outlaw Rogue is just there. While lacking in both DPS and control options, has Crimson Vial? While not entirely unplayable, Outlaw has seen better days. While Roll the Bones ability is fun and robust, it’s random and unreliable. Also, Outlaw doesn’t offer variability in its talent choice. Most players pick the Fatebound Hero Talent Tree, and even then, Hand of Fate is a random talent on a fundamental level. That is why Outlaw goes to the bottom of our Solo Shuffle tier list.
Solo Shuffle tier list for ranged DPS specs
Solo Shuffle tier list for ranged DPS specs
- S+ – Beastmaster Hunter
- S – Elemental Shaman, Shadow Priest, Affliction Warloc
- A+ – Frost Mage, Destruction Warlock, Demonology Warlock, Devastation Evoker
- A – Marksmanship Hunter
- B – Balance Druid, Fire Mage, Arcane Mage
- C – Augmentation Evoker
Today, meta is highly favorable for Ranged DPS. Melee cannot out-damage Ranged specs. Even if you take Feral, he will still suffer from ranged DPSes. They currently have too much consistency, too much DMG, and too many answers for burst DMG. This doesn’t mean that melee specs are useless.
Remember that you can’t cast your regular rotation when you are under constant pressing from Melee DPSes like Unholy DK or Fury Warrior. Melee specs don’t need to care about casting time, which makes the gameplay more straightforward and dynamic.
Solo Shuffle tier list S ranged specs
Beastmaster Hunter
Beastmaster Hunter is still a powerhouse with its DPS and surprisingly good survivability with Feign Death. Unless BM Hunter gets a nerf in his DPS or his survivability, BM Hunter will stay on top of the tier. Even after damaging Nerf to its Hero Talents like Bleak Powder and Withering Fire in his Darkk Ranger Hero Talent branch, there are twice as many Beastmaster Hunters than Feral Druids.
The most vital point of BM Hunter is that most of his damage options in rotation are uninterruptible. Also, the Damage focus is spread to BM Hunter and his Pet, which can prevent you from engaging with BM Hunter. BM Hunter is overpowered and in the best state even after nerfs. That’s why BM Hunter goes into the S+ tier, marking the Imbalance in PVP in our Solo Shuffle tier list.
Shadow Priest
While Beatmaster Hunter has good survivability paired with DMG, Shadow Priest has Extreme DMG. Shadow priests right now dominate ranged meta, thanks to the latest buffs. Shadow Priest also has surprisingly good options to withstand Control. Firstly, you should not worry about potential interruption threats with Hero Talents like Dark Energy.
With Dark Energy, Shadow Priest can cause large DPS Burst while also not being worried about possible threats. Did you get engaged? You can use Disperse Energy or Psychic Scream to disengage with your opponent quickly. And Void Leech will always provide you with extra health. Even after Void Leech, Nerf Shadow Priest is still a powerhouse that will stay in the S tier in our Solo Shuffle tier list.
Affliction Warlock
Affliction Warlock is a new star in the S tier of our Solo Shuffle tier list, claiming its stop from the A+ tier. Affliction Warlock is a welcomed S-tier edition bringing its DoTs over the Shuffle mode. While playing Affliction Warlock, you should watch for Soul Harvester Hero Talents.
All of them are good; however, what sparks for us is Demonic Soul Talent, adding even more Damage for Hand of Gul’dan Spell. PvP talent Jinx is also helpful, especially after you learn how to manage Soul Fragments. However, what took Affliction from the A+ tier to the S tier was Soul Rip PVP Talent, which limited Melee DMG output.
Solo Shuffle tier list A and A+ ranged specs
Destruction Warlock
Currently, Destruction and Demonology Warlock feel the best they ever had in a long time
- Chaos Bolt damage increased by 10%.
- Immolate damage increased by 25%.
- Incinerate Damage increased by 20%.
All these buffs put Destruction into the A+ tier. However, it would be best if you always remembered to Infernal only to disrupt Melle’s spec’s attempts to engage you. Unending Resolve is a great way to reduce Damage. However, it’s only sometimes practical, especially with the prevalence of Damage in PVP.
Your second option for when you are close to 0 HP is Hearthstone; the good thing is that you can use even more Healthstones with Pact of Gluttony. And remember that Healthstones also works for your teammates, making you a solid A+ tier in our Solo Shuffle tier list.
Demonology Warlock
Demonology is less on the Damage side. However, your most significant strength is multiple cast schools, strengthening your ability to resist interruption. Your crowd controls are also better. Mortal Coil, Fear, and especially Axe Toss make you an excellent support for your team. If you prepare hard, you can be immortal on the Shuffle Arena. Pact of Gluttony paired with Soulburn, Daemonic Pact, Unending Resolve, and Demonic Circle are great tools to escape almost any dire situation.
Frost Mage
Frost Mage right now feels more significant than ever. The spec that was remembered for its control options got even more tools. Imbued Warding is an absurd Hero Talent to a spec that has multiple save options like Ice Block and Shimmer for 100 percent successful escape options, Mirror Images and Ice Barrier for Damage Reduction, and new PVP talent Ice Wall that utilizes significant control disruption.
Devastation Evoker
Besides dealing Damage, the primary role of a Devastation Evoker is to keep your team in check offensively and help with heals when your Healer is CCed. And the best part of it is using Rescue to help your DPS or Healer. And with Obsidian Mettle and Obsidian Scales, your Dracthyr can be safe from Subtlety Rogues and Feral Druids bursts. The new Hero Talents are good overall and focus on improving the strong sides, such as gaining additional damage reduction when using Obsidian Scales with Hardened Scales.
Marksmanship Hunter
Marksmanship Hunter is strong but can drop in rankings if Blizzard nerfs Dark Ranger Hero talent tree. The thing is that because of the overall state of BM Hunter, most players ignore Marksmanship. While DPS output from Aimed Shot is good, it is nowhere better than BM Hunter’s rotation. We recommend looking at Marksmanship Hunter only if BM Hunter gets a drastic nerf to its DPS.
Solo Shuffle tier list B and lower tier specs
Balance Druid
While talking about Ranged DPSes, we should know that their main task is dealing with Damage. When you lack DPS, it comes to Utility. While Moonkin form can burst and deal extreme Damage, in most cases you are outclassed. Your Utility can be beneficial, but Feral Druid has the same kit. That’s why we rank Balance Druid in the B tier of our Solo Shuffle tier list.
Fire Mage
Like Balance, the lack of DPS makes both Arcane and Fire worse options. While instant casts are good, and the ability to cast three schools of magic from Ring of Frost Talent is beneficial, it’s not crucial, given the abundance of much better DPS and BM Hunter.
Arcane Mage
Similar to Fire Mage, Arcane is outclassed by other Ranged DPS. Also, Arcane doesn’t have many options when he gets kicked from using his Arcane magic school, which only has elemental spells like Frostbolt and Fire Blast. The good thing for Arcane and Fire Mage is their escape and disengage options, but Frost Mage has them too, so that’s why both Arcane and Fire Mage specs get into B-tier in our Solo Shuffle tier list.
Augmentation Evoker
Augmentation Evoker is a meme spec. While buffing your Fury Warrior teammate on paper sounds good, it’s useless in real situations. Players need a reliable source of Damage, and every DPS can provide it better than Augmentation. If we see a particular team comp dominating the meta, Augmentation will rise, but currently, it’s in the C tier in our Solo Shuffle tier list (probably even the D tier).
Conclusion
This is it for our Solo Shuffle tier list. Remember that this tier list is subjective, and if you have some exciting take on this matter, share your thoughts in the comment section.
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