Phase 4 Icecrown Citadel Tier List Predictions – WotLK Classic

Tank PvE Tier List Healer PvE Tier List DPS PvE Tier List

Disclaimers About This Tier List

Tier lists can be very controversial, as no one wants to see their favorite spec rank poorly and because no two raid teams are optimizing for exactly the same thing when it comes to their class composition. For this reason, it is simply impossible to come up with a truly universal class ranking that is applicable for all raiding environments, so this list is deliberately narrow in scope based on the following criteria:

• Class rankings will be weighted with contributions from both the early phase performance of each specialization during Heroic Icecrown Citadel progression, as well as predictions for their late phase performance in full Phase 4 BiS gear. The reason for this is two-fold:
  1. Compared to Trial of the Crusader, which was comfortably on farm for most reasonably competent guilds within the first few weeks of Phase 3, Icecrown Citadel is considerably more difficult on 25-man Heroic difficulty, and several of the encounters will offer a meaty challenge for most Classic guilds to progress through over several months. As a result, when considering class compositions for a typical raid team that will lack the flexibility to constantly swap different specs into the roster as the phase progresses, it is important to balance both early- and late-phase performance for each specialization. Since ICC is the last major raid of the entire expansion, many raid teams may stop playing entirely after finally securing that long-awaited Heroic kill of The Lich King, so DPS rankings based only on full BiS gear will not be relevant to such groups.
  2. In all prior phases of WotLK Classic, the relative performance of DPS specs has remained mostly static over the course of a single raid tier, with just a few shake-ups from gear scaling (Fire Mages in early Ulduar) or custom class changes (Feral Druids in late Ulduar). This will very much not be the case in ICC due to the insane boosts in player power across the board from Phase 4 itemization, which impacts each specialization quite differently due to how they scale. For example, some specs like Unholy Death Knight and Assassination Rogue, which dominate damage meters in current content and early ICC progression, are expected to fall off in performance quite substantially simply because they scale poorly with the stat gains from Phase 4 gear upgrades. Conversely, other specs that are currently middle of the pack in raw DPS, like Retribution Paladins and Fury Warriors, will see their numbers shoot up relative to other classes when approaching full BiS gear, due to the sheer power of their Phase 4 upgrades.

• When scoring the utility of each specialization, extra weight is given for stackable sources of raid utility when multiple members of a given class/spec are present in a raid comp. In WotLK, mostly highly impactful raid DPS buffs were made raid-wide (compared to party-wide in TBC) and were given multiple redundant sources, meaning that it is easy to bring the full suite of impactful buffs in pretty much any 25-man comp. As a result, simply bringing a mandatory raid buff no longer elevates a spec to S or A utility like it did in TBC, since several classes not only provide one or more such buffs but also provide significant value beyond the first member that is brought. For example, each Druid brought to a raid provides an additional Innervate and Rebirth, and each Rogue brings with them an additional Tricks of the Trade, whereas a second Frost Death Knight for example brings far less value to the raid than the first.

• These rankings are min-max evaluations under the assumption that players of each spec are executing their rotations perfectly and fully maxing out their character’s performance via professions and consumables. Remember to keep in mind that player always trumps class in any realistic raid environment, and in practice, your raid team will benefit more from simply recruiting and retaining the top players you can find regardless of the spec they play, rather than hyper-focusing on a single meta comp. In Icecrown Citadel, player skill is more important than ever before in Classic, both during progression and for achieving competitive clear times on farm, since a player’s real DPS contribution on a fight is disproportionately influenced by their ability to (a) keep themselves alive through the plethora of deadly raid mechanics that can one-shot DPS, (b) maximize the benefit of encounter-specific buffs like Essence of the Blood Queen, and (c) juggle debuffs like Permeating Chill efficiently in order to lose as little DPS as possible without dying.

DPS Tier List Predictions for Phase 4 WotLK Classic

For a full breakdown with detailed analysis and information, please read the article below —
DPS PvE Tier List

Tank Tier List Predictions for Phase 4 WotLK Classic

For a full breakdown with detailed analysis and information, please read the article below —
Tank PvE Tier List

Healer Tier List Predictions for Phase 4 WotLK Classic

For a full breakdown with detailed analysis and information, please read the article below —
Healer PvE Tier List