8.3 80-89 Tier List (duels, arenas, bgs, FOTM)

Was this useful/interested you in the bracket?

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Rejuvenizer

Veteran
Posting this in order to shed some more light on the 80-89 bracket with the community BGs coming up. For those interested, but unsure of what they would like to play, maybe this can give you some input on where your class might stand.

Attached are what I believe to be the tier lists for the 80-89 bracket. The tiers (besides FOTM) were not based on what was most commonly played, instead based on experience of high level players playing each of the specs. I will give my summed up reasoning of why I picked both the S tier and F tier candidates. As well as some short notes on the rest in between, mostly those in the A bracket to give my reasoning as to why they are not in S.

Note: The vast majority of the specs below are playable and competitive if played correctly, hence why I enjoy this bracket so much, the difference between the individual tiers are small except for the F tier which I consider unenjoyable due to the obvious disadvantage you would have in your respective experience.

TANKS

First of all, don't play a tank in an arena setting unless you're either a scumbag or messing around with friends.

TANKS-Arenas

No tanks fair well in the 80-89 bracket. With the 50% damage increase and lack of damage output, they are rarely seen and not very competitive. An argument can be made for Protection Paladins when paired with spell casters due to their utility, but with the healing nerf in 8.2, they haven't been seen very much since.

Tank Arenas list.png


TANKS-Battlegrounds

Protection Warriors have the most physical damage reduction due to ignore pain as well as a high overall self healing output due to the 85 Dragon Soul weapon, Souldrinker. https://www.wowhead.com/item=78488/souldrinker.
Guardian Druids, while don't have too much damage reduction outside of cooldowns, do have an extraordinarily large health pool. Pooled together with frenzied regen, they are tough to kill before help arrives.
The other specs are all relatively the same, each with there respective strengths, but none as good as the A tier tanks.

The reason that I chose to put none as S tier is because they do not make or break the game if you have/don't have one on your team. A dps can be a valuable asset to your team, and sometimes a WW monk can do just as well as a prot warrior if you choose to play quickly. Basically, they're not mandatory for flag capture battlegrounds, but could be useful if used correctly.

BG Tank list.png


DPS

I Would like to note that these tier lists were made with the assumption that the two versatility stacking trinkets (https://www.wowhead.com/item=28727/pendant-of-the-violet-eye and https://www.wowhead.com/item=46051/meteorite-crystal) would not be in use. Instant stacking 90% versatility on a frost mage would be S+++ tier but, no need for that.

DPS-Arenas

S tier: The Warlock specs demo, has the capability to 100-0 someone in 1-2 seconds, making them nearly impossible to counterplay if they correctly set up kills. These specs can be played by your average 1550 player and can be competitive with 2200+ players. WW monks require a little more skill, but are equally as powerful in a 2v2 setting with a healer to back them up. RSK with the new buffs can crit for 1/2 of a players HP. Fury has the most consistent single target dmg in the bracket with the help of the completely in need of a nerf weapon, https://www.wowhead.com/item=77191/gurthalak-voice-of-the-deeps. So pairing them with a healer is always a positive.

Honorable mentions of the almost S tier are sub rogues, ret pallies, and Surv hunters. Only because when combined, (sub/ret 2s comp) they are arguably the strongest 2s comp in the bracket. Similarly to ret/rogue is Disc priest/Surv hunter. This comp has nearly unhealable openers while being able to CC chain for 20+ seconds. The added pressure of the disc gives the survival hunter plenty of kill potential. Able to face roll most comps. The mages and boomies are more faceroll, kill in your opening burst, but the burst is so powerful, hard not to put them in "A." The other classes, until about the D tier are all still very competitive with the higher tiers, just require a little bit more thought.

F tier: Afflic is by far the worst spec at 85, nearly unplayable. Feral burst does about 1/2 of what balance does and once incarn is over, you hit like a wet noodle for 3 minutes.
world-of-warcraft-specializations-47175

https://tiermaker.com/create/world-of-warcraft-specializations-47175?presentationMode=true

DPS-Duels/1v1 Scenarios

S tier: Boomies, I have one word: Thorns. Makes them counter every melee class besides rogues. As well as their initial on demand burst being more than every other caster makes them very strong in a 1v1 setting. Demo locks, can afk and let their pet kill their target. Error 404-casts not found. Ret paladins have incredible burst damage and survivability with bubbles, in a duel setting with LoS, arguably the strongest dueling class. The only class which can consistently beat all the other classes are still... rogues. While they may not be as faceroll as 1-2 buttoning people, high skilled rogues still take the cake as far as dueling goes. Ill do a quick rundown of what most duels as a rogue look like. Cheap-->Kidney (enemy at 60%)-->Enemy trinket-->Blind-->Resap-->reopen-->dead. If not dead, vanish and wait for CDs and repeat.

WW monks, mages, BM hunters with spirit mend, all very strong classes in a duel setting. WW monk was tough not to put into the S tier but I figured the skill cap was so high that your average WW player would not be able to compete at a faceroll level with the other specs.

F tier: Again, afflic locks, just bad... Have to cast, even with getting 2-3 casts off. Takes way too long for someone to rot down in a duel. The duel is over within a few seconds.

Dueling Tier List.png

DPS-Battlegrounds

I'm sure this is what most of you are here for.

S tier: Destro locks have even gone through consideration to be banned from BG's due to the fact that 1 free casted, berserked chaos bolt can take someone from 100%-0%. On the other hand, shadow priests are still the king of rot, most damage output by any 85 class in a BG.

Fury warriors, spam whirlwind and get Gurth procs which can solo a team, boomies, great cleave with heavy single target burst potential. Frost mages, permanent team slow with great on demand burst. Everything else is up to the player, all competitive, not all the highest dmg dealing but, it's a battleground, play what you enjoy.

F tier: Ferals, again. No use in a team fight as a melee, better used as an FC or a ganker. But in either case you're a worse Guardian druid or rogue.
BG DPS list.png


Healers: There is no such thing as a bad healing class at 85. All healing specs are viable, just some slightly more so than others

Healer-Battlegrounds

S tier: This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. Resto druids have great utility as an offensive or defensive healer. Massive multi hotting with the ability to single target heal as well.

Most teams will have a disc priest on their team. While the healing output may not be that of other healers, the preemptive healing effect of their various bubbles help the team survive what would otherwise be unsurvivable damage. Resto shaman's chain heal is basically a 1.3 second cast lay on hands for 3 members of the party... As well as various totems being a large asset to either team survivability or damage output.

F tier: no healer is terrible, play what you like.
Healing BG list.png


Healer-Arenas

S tier: Again, probably even a lesser shock than battlegrounds. Resto druids take the cake in arenas. Great damage output with feral affinity, as well as thorns being essentially a 12 second immunity to melee attackers. Also the ability of heal over time effects to keep you alive through stuns/cc makes resto druids the hardest class to kill. Great all-around healer.

All the other healers have seen significant play in all of our arena tournaments. All have incredible offensive capability except for Hpriest. The only issue is the lack of buttons to press while stunned and getting trained. Paladins are great at this "issue" for about a minute and a half until they rotate out of cooldowns and become easy kill targets. Rsham's can purge, but die when kicked. And Hpriests just don't have enough big heals to keep people, who aren't themselves, alive.

F tier: No healers are bad, you can make it work.

Healing Arena List.png

FOTM

This is the flavor of the month chart, essentially these are the classes that I see the most of in the bracket. With S tier being seen all the time to F tier, not knowing more than 1 single person who legitimately mains these specs. If you're someone who likes to play some of the more odd specs, then this is the chart for you.

FOTM 85.png


The End
_______________________________________________________________________________

I am open to any sort of criticism or comments you all may have to these charts if you're familiar with the bracket. It was 1-3 AM in the morning when I figured I could throw something like this together so i'll happily make some changes if need be. Even as I go through this now I could make the argument that survival hunters are better than that in arenas and ferals should move up a tier for the dueling tier list but... ferals still suck so idk. For reasons, I did not include healers and tanks in the dueling category as those duels are cancerous, but if you'd like me to input a chart with those included, I will. Anyways, if you'd like to know my tier list for some other aspect of the bracket (Like best 2s comps, etc) I'd be happy to throw something like that together.
 
Last edited:
Posting this in order to shed some more light on the 80-89 bracket with the community BGs coming up. For those interested, but unsure of what they would like to play, maybe this can give you some input on where your class might stand.

Attached are what I believe to be the tier lists for the 80-89 bracket. The tiers (besides FOTM) were not based on what was most commonly played, instead based on experience of high level players playing each of the specs. I will give my summed up reasoning of why I picked both the S tier and F tier candidates. As well as some short notes on the rest in between, mostly those in the A bracket to give my reasoning as to why they are not in S.

Note: The vast majority of the specs below are playable and competitive if played correctly, hence why I enjoy this bracket so much, the difference between the individual tiers are small except for the F tier which I consider unenjoyable due to the obvious disadvantage you would have in your respective experience.

TANKS

First of all, don't play a tank in an arena setting unless you're either a scumbag or messing around with friends.

TANKS-Arenas

No tanks fair well in the 80-89 bracket. With the 50% damage increase and lack of damage output, they are rarely seen and not very competitive. An argument can be made for Protection Paladins when paired with spell casters due to their utility, but with the healing nerf in 8.2, they haven't been seen very much since.

View attachment 14888

TANKS-Battlegrounds

Protection Warriors have the most physical damage reduction due to ignore pain as well as a high overall self healing output due to the 85 Dragon Soul weapon, Souldrinker. https://www.wowhead.com/item=78488/souldrinker.
Guardian Druids, while don't have too much damage reduction outside of cooldowns, do have an extraordinarily large health pool. Pooled together with frenzied regen, they are tough to kill before help arrives.
The other specs are all relatively the same, each with there respective strengths, but none as good as the A tier tanks.

The reason that I chose to put none as S tier is because they do not make or break the game if you have/don't have one on your team. A dps can be a valuable asset to your team, and sometimes a WW monk can do just as well as a prot warrior if you choose to play quickly. Basically, they're not mandatory for flag capture battlegrounds, but could be useful if used correctly.

View attachment 14889

DPS

I Would like to note that these tier lists were made with the assumption that the two versatility stacking trinkets (https://www.wowhead.com/item=28727/pendant-of-the-violet-eye and https://www.wowhead.com/item=46051/meteorite-crystal) would not be in use. Instant stacking 90% versatility on a frost mage would be S+++ tier but, no need for that.

DPS-Arenas

S tier: 2 of the warlock specs, demo and destro, have the capability to 100-0 someone in 1-2 seconds, making them nearly impossible to counterplay if they correctly set up kills. These specs can be played by your average 1550 player and can be competitive with 2200+ players. Assas rogues and WW monks require a little more skill, but are equally as powerful in a 2v2 setting with a healer to back them up. RSK with the new buffs can crit for 1/2 of a players HP and rogues are still rogues. Great CC and utility causes them to consistently be on of the best classes to twink.

Honorable mentions of the almost S tier are sub rogues and ret pallies. Only because when combined, (sub/ret 2s comp) they are arguably the strongest 2s comp in the bracket. Able to face roll most comps. Fury has the most consistent single target dmg in the bracket with the help of the completely in need of a nerf weapon, Gurth https://www.wowhead.com/item=77191/gurthalak-voice-of-the-deeps. So pairing them with a healer is always a positive, although without one they are dodoo. The mages and boomies are more faceroll, kill in your opening burst, but the burst is so powerful, hard not to put them in "A." The other classes, until about the D tier are all still very competitive with the higher tiers, just require a little bit more thought.

F tier: Afflic is by far the worst spec at 85, nearly unplayable. Feral burst does about 1/2 of what balance does and once incarn is over, you hit like a wet noodle for 3 minutes.
View attachment 14890

DPS-Duels/1v1 Scenarios

S tier: Boomies, I have one word: Thorns. Makes them counter every melee class besides rogues. As well as their initial on demand burst being more than every other caster makes them very strong in a 1v1 setting. Demo locks, can afk and let their pet kill their target. Error 404-casts not found. Ret paladins have incredible burst damage and survivability with bubbles, in a duel setting with LoS, arguably the strongest dueling class. The only class which can consistently beat all the other classes are still... rogues. While they may not be as faceroll as 1-2 buttoning people, high skilled rogues still take the cake as far as dueling goes. Ill do a quick rundown of what most duels as a rogue look like. Cheap-->Kidney (enemy at 60%)-->Enemy trinket-->Blind-->Resap-->reopen-->dead. If not dead, vanish and wait for CDs and repeat.

WW monks, mages, BM hunters with spirit mend, all very strong classes in a duel setting. WW monk was tough not to put into the S tier but I figured the skill cap was so high that your average WW player would not be able to compete at a faceroll level with the other specs.

F tier: Again, afflic locks, just bad... Have to cast, even with getting 2-3 casts off. Takes way too long for someone to rot down in a duel. The duel is over within a few seconds.

View attachment 14891
DPS-Battlegrounds

I'm sure this is what most of you are here for.

S tier: Destro locks have even gone through consideration to be banned from BG's due to the fact that 1 free casted, berserked chaos bolt can take someone from 100%-0%. On the other hand, shadow priests are still the king of rot, most damage output by any 85 class in a BG.

Fury warriors, spam whirlwind and get Gurth procs which can solo a team, boomies, great cleave with heavy single target burst potential. Frost mages, permanent team slow with great on demand burst. Everything else is up to the player, all competitive, not all the highest dmg dealing but, it's a battleground, play what you enjoy.

F tier: Ferals, again. No use in a team fight as a melee, better used as an FC or a ganker. But in either case you're a worse Guardian druid or rogue.
View attachment 14892

Healers: There is no such thing as a bad healing class at 85. All healing specs are viable, just some slightly more so than others

Healer-Battlegrounds

S tier: This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. Resto druids have great utility as an offensive or defensive healer. Massive multi hotting with the ability to single target heal as well.

Most teams will have a disc priest on their team. While the healing output may not be that of other healers, the preemptive healing effect of their various bubbles help the team survive what would otherwise be unsurvivable damage. Resto shaman's chain heal is basically a 1.3 second cast lay on hands for 3 members of the party... As well as various totems being a large asset to either team survivability or damage output.

F tier: no healer is terrible, play what you like.
View attachment 14893

Healer-Arenas

S tier: Again, probably even a lesser shock than battlegrounds. Resto druids take the cake in arenas. Great damage output with feral affinity, as well as thorns being essentially a 12 second immunity to melee attackers. Also the ability of heal of time effects to keep you alive through stuns/cc makes resto druids the hardest class to kill. Great all-around healer.

All the other healers have seen significant play in all of our arena tournaments. All have incredible offensive capability except for Hpriest. The only issue is the lack of buttons to press while stunned and getting trained. Paladins are great at this "issue" for about a minute and a half until they rotate out of cooldowns and become easy kill targets. Rsham's can purge, but die when kicked. And Hpriests just don't have enough big heals to keep people, who aren't themselves, alive.

F tier: No healers are bad, you can make it work.

View attachment 14894
FOTM

This is the favor of the month chart, essentially these are the classes that I see the most of in the bracket. With S tier being seen all the time to F tier, not knowing more than 1 single person who legitimately mains these specs. If you're someone who likes to play some of the more odd specs, then this is the chart for you.

View attachment 14895

The End
_______________________________________________________________________________

I am open to any sort of criticism or comments you all may have to these charts if you're familiar with the bracket. It was 1-3 AM in the morning when I figured I could throw something like this together so i'll happily make some changes if need be. Even as I go through this now I could make the argument that survival hunters are better than that in arenas and ferals should move up a tier for the dueling tier list but... ferals still suck so idk. For reasons, I did not include healers and tanks in the dueling category as those duels are cancerous, but if you'd like me to input a chart with those included, I will. Anyways, if you'd like to know my tier list for some other aspect of the bracket (Like best 2s comps, etc) I'd be happy to throw something like that together.
I really like it! I have an old 80 rogue and an 85 hunter, with a potential 85 rogue possible. If this ends up being something that attracts interested party’s I may play on my remaining game time. 80-89 have never really been my thing but I raided progressions and did a decent amount pvp in the bracket over the years. Was a fun read and I look forward to seeing this pan out
 
I'm not playing in your "dead" bracket but please keep posting about it on this site I love to see this shit. Retail needs more non-vet twinks, super cool to see!

On that note this is a bracket that I've always been interested in but was intimidated by what level to actually play at (I don't think any other bracket has as many levels to twink at as 80-89, shit's crazy.) Maybe I'll make a druid, been meaning to get the legendary mace and staff before Shadowlands drops.
[doublepost=1583764928,1583764776][/doublepost]Scratch that I'ma make a priest because that's the only thing I'm decent at in this game anymore...
 
appreciate the feedback, and the few messages I’ve gotten in regards to newfound interest :)

@mods

not sure what the requirements are to get something pinned to a forum thread but pinning this to 80-89 may be a good idea for any possible newcomers
 
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@mods

not sure what the requirements are to get something pinned to a forum thread but pinning this to 80-89 may be a good idea for any possible newcomers
I agree 100%, this information is going to help this newcomer personally, I'll stick it to the top.
 
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Great stuff @Rejuvenizer

This bracket is really fun for many reasons. As you've stated, a good player can be competitive with nearly every spec. I just wanted to add that gearing up and stat optimization is extremely fun in this bracket, too. Gear ranges over several expansions - from vanilla raids (e.g. Untamed blade) to MoP (e.g. eng helm if you're 87 and MoP eng gems). You can stack mastery (for rogue, 4/4 agil/mastery gems), haste, vers, crit, main stat (+7 gems from cata); whatever you want basically. Legendaries are obtainable and useable unironically (shadowmourne, valanyr, tarecgosa, and fangs). The combinations are endless and very enjoyable.
 
Hey there, I have an 89 Resto Druid that's my favorite character to date - but I stopped playing her a few years ago when Blizz killed twinking (the first time around). I would love to play my 89 again, but don't know how to get bg's or arena's to pop. How are you guys active? It's such a great bracket! Thank you!
 
Hey there, I have an 89 Resto Druid that's my favorite character to date - but I stopped playing her a few years ago when Blizz killed twinking (the first time around). I would love to play my 89 again, but don't know how to get bg's or arena's to pop. How are you guys active? It's such a great bracket! Thank you!

If you look farther down the forum thread we're actually hosting some bgs this upcoming Sunday at 9pm EST. To call us "active" is a lie but we've got enough members to organize activities when we want to. Which, is more than can be said for just about every other non-vet twink bracket on retail right now
 
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I would love to play my 89 again, but don't know how to get bg's or arena's to pop
if you mean freezing your xp and trying to get into a bg using random queue, thats never gonna happen .. what the guys doing here are organized bg, you form teams to play against each other
 
Yeah all events that I advertise/host and have advertised/hosted are all US events. I’d love to be able to get the EU guys in on these things because there are a good few who have shown interest but can’t play due to region affiliation.
 
if you mean freezing your xp and trying to get into a bg using random queue, thats never gonna happen .. what the guys doing here are organized bg, you form teams to play against each other

Thanks for clarifying. So the idea is basically: people log onto their 89's at a specific time and queue as XPlocked? Or is there some other way the groups are being put together? Sorry for the noob question - like I said I'm just getting back into it after 7 years or so.
 
Thanks for clarifying. So the idea is basically: people log onto their 89's at a specific time and queue as XPlocked? Or is there some other way the groups are being put together? Sorry for the noob question - like I said I'm just getting back into it after 7 years or so.
they have to form groups, specify the time, and both teams log on at the same time to play against each other, it is places like this, xpoff, where more players with xpoff can find each other to do this .. there is no other way to play with your xp frozen except for lvl20, i am not sure about 110, i think 110 can do that too, apart from these 2 specific levels, it is impossible (not near impossible) to get into any randomly queue bg, you have to ask the lvl20 and lvl110 how they do it, its like they get to that lvl and stop paying subscription
 
I am dying to play with you guys. I really miss competitive arenas and bgs..

I was dying to the point where I had to make these events happen or else I'd be bored outa my mind haha. Maybe open up a US account ;P

Also PS: Alterations coming soon to the tier list etc. There has been an influx of players as well as a little bit more class knowledge, there will be changes made to account for these factors
 

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