Post by nintendorichard
I was bored and decided to make a list of the top DPS classes and specs, and I decided to share it with Wowhead!
State of DPS
This data is from:
www.stateofdps.comCurrent as of: February 12, 2011 (Patch 4.0.6)
Death Knight
Unholy: 24,785 DPS on average, 4th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Frost: 21,515 DPS on average, 15th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Druid
Balance: 24,952 DPS on average, 2nd best out of 22 class/spec combos
Feral Cat: 22,033 DPS on average, 12th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Hunter
Survival: 24,304 DPS on average, 5th best out of 22 different class/spec combos
Marksmanship: 22,498 DPS on average, 9th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Beast Mastery: 14,871 DPS on average, 21st best out of 22 class/spec combos
Mage
Fire: 24,785 DPS on average, 3rd best out of 22 class/spec combos
Frost: 19,131 DPS on average, 18th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Arcane: 16,134 DPS on average, 20th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Paladin
Retribution: 21,826 DPS on average, 14th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Priest
Shadow: 25,431 DPS on average, 1st best out of 22 class/spec combos
Rogue
Assassination: 23,935 DPS on average, 7th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Combat: 21,022 DPS on average, 17th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Subtlety: 13,765 DPS, 22th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Shaman
Enhancement: 22,482 DPS on average, 10th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Elemental: 21,883 DPS on average, 13th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Warlock
Destruction: 24,293 DPS on average, 6th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Affliction: 23,695 DPS on average, 8th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Demonology: 21,428 DPS on average, 16th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Warrior
Fury: 22,435 DPS on average, 11th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Arms: 17,537 DPS on average, 19th best out of 22 class/spec combos
Analysis
Death Knight
For best DPS, go Unholy. It’s a 3,270 DPS increase from Frost. Not that much though, so choose whichever you want.
Druid
For best dps, go Balance. It’s a 2,919 DPS increase from Feral Cat. Not that much though, so choose whichever you want.
Hunter
For best dps, go Survival. It’s a 1,536 DPS increase from Marksmanship. Not that much though, so choose whichever you want. Just don’t go Beast Mastery: It’s a 9,433 DPS loss versus Survival and a 7,627 DPS loss versus Marksmanship.
Mage
For best dps, go Fire. It’s a 5,654 DPS increase from Frost and a 8,651 DPS increase from Arcane. However, if you don’t like Fire, you can either go Arcane or Frost, which have mostly the same amount of mobile dps: Frost has Fingers of Frost Ice Lance and Arcane has Arcane Barrage and Ice Lance.
Paladin
No choice here…Retribution is the only way to go with DPS. Not that bad either.
Priest
No choice here either. Currently, a Shadow Priest is the best DPS class. If you hate healing, perhaps you’ll like doing over 25,000 DPS. (hotfixed today: They won't be pulling these kinds of numbers anymore.
Rogue
For best DPS, go Assassination. It’s a 2,913 DPS increase from Combat. Not that much though, so choose whichever you want. Just don’t go Subtlety: It’s a 10,170 DPS loss versus Assassination (woah!) and a 7,257 DPS loss versus Combat, and just to put the icing on the cake, it’s the worst DPS spec right now.
Shaman
For best DPS, go Enhancement. It’s a 599 DPS increase from Elemental. Definitely not that much though, so choose whichever you want.
Warlock
For best DPS, go Destruction. It’s a 598 DPS increase from Affliction, and a 2,865 DPS increase from Demonology. Not that much though, so choose whichever you want.
Warrior
For best DPS, go Fury. It’s a 4,898 DPS increase from Arms. Not much of a choice here.
I'll update this as the stats change. I hope this can help new players who don't know which spec to choose!
(BTW, if this is in the wrong forum, please tell me so I can ask for it to be moved. Thank you!)