EU+US "Which class is best DPS at 101?" - SimulationCraft Results

Aelobin

DK Twink (80 / 85 / 101)
There's been an increasing number of threads/posts recently where people ask "which class is best" or "is this class good at 101". The problem with those questions is that there isn't enough people playing 101's yet to be able to make good comparisons between all the specs and the difference in gear ilvls can make it even harder.

So I decided to sim every DPS spec at level 101. Not just every DPS spec though - all the significant trinkets, 2 different choices of gems/enchants, 3 different tiers of ilvl/artifact rank, and in both Burst and Sustained situations.

This won't answer the questions for people who are only interested in PvP but it will at least give some idea about the strength of each spec from a DPS standpoint. I'm hoping to add tanks and healers eventually but unfortunately SimulationCraft doesn't support them in it's current build.

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Notes
- SimulationCraft version: 7.0.3 release 3
- This is not for PvP since it doesn't take into account survival/mobility.
- Don't take this data as fact - sims aren't 100% accurate and there may be errors or thing's I've missed.
- Every ranking uses 1k iterations on a Patchwerk style fight.
- These are all using Legion flasks/potions/food + WoD runes.
- Feel free to suggest improvements for your spec if you think you have a more optimal setup. I don't know everything about every class so I took the talents, artifact paths and stat weights from IcyVeins.
- The same talents were used for both Burst and Sustained rankings which might not be optimal for some specs.
- For simplicity, each spec is just using the best 2 relics available from dungeons. I might change this to be more optimal at a later date.
- Every profile uses the 113 mastery enchant on neck but I'll update this at some point since the other enchants may be a decent DPS gain for some specs.
- All HFC armor pieces are the non-tier items that can be equipped by any class.
- The name for each DPS profile is in the format: CLASS_SPEC_GEMS_trinket1_trinket2
- I did 2 sims for every profile that used Eyasu's Mulligan - one for the highest secondary stat and one for the second highest. The stat is indicated by the letter after "em" in the profile name.
- All the profiles used can be found here.
- I can do individual sims to give more details, just ask with the spec/gear you want.

Abbreviations
- archi = Archimonde class trinket
- csp = http://www.wowhead.com/item=124545/chipped-soul-prism&bonus=1798 (Kazzak trinket)
- em[C/H/M/V] = http://www.wowhead.com/item=141584/eyasus-mulligan&bonus=1497 (BoE int trinket)
- sff = http://www.wowhead.com/item=141585/six-feather-fan&bonus=1497 (BoE agi trinket)
- mgc = http://www.wowhead.com/item=141586/marfisis-giant-censer&bonus=1497 (BoE str trinket)
- sc = http://www.wowhead.com/item=124225/soul-capacitor&bonus=1799 (HFC agi melee trinket)
- motb = http://www.wowhead.com/item=124224/mirror-of-the-blademaster&bonus=1799 (HFC agi trinket)
- pof = http://www.wowhead.com/item=124230/prophecy-of-fear&bonus=1799 (HFC int trinket)

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Summary
Overall Strong Specs
  • Melee: Enhancement Shaman, Outlaw Rogue, Fury Warrior, Retribution Paladin
  • Ranged: Balance Druid, Beast Mastery Hunter, Demonology Warlock, Elemental Shaman, Fire Mage

Burst DPS Rankings (30 secs, based on Intermediate Tier)
  1. Balance Druid - 785.4k (crit, emH+archi)
  2. Enhancement Shaman - 720.9k (mastery, sff+archi)
  3. Elemental Shaman - 712.5k (haste, emC+archi)
  4. Retribution Paladin - 670.9k (vers, mgc+emV)
  5. Beast Mastery Hunter - 659.7k (mastery, sff+emM)
  6. Fire Mage - 617.5k (crit, emM+csp)
  7. Demonology Warlock - 607.1k (haste, emH+archi)
  8. Arms Warrior - 696.3k (mastery, mgc+emM)
  9. Unholy Death Knight - 589.3k (haste, mgc+emC)
  10. Outlaw Rogue - 588.7k (vers, sff+archi)
  11. Assassination Rogue - 583.5k (mastery, sff+emM)
  12. Fury Warrior - 579.8k (mastery, mgc+emM)
  13. Destruction Warlock - 574.5k (crit, emH+csp)
  14. Subtlety Rogue - 573.7k (vers, sff+archi)
  15. Survival Hunter - 526.4k (vers, sff+emV)
  16. Marksmanship Hunter - 518.4k (mastery, sff+emM)
  17. Frost Death Knight - 513.2k (mastery, mgc+emM)
  18. Arcane Mage - 491.0k (mastery, emC+csp)
  19. Feral Druid - 466.1k (crit, sff+emM)
  20. Havoc Demon Hunter - 461.8k (vers, sff+emC)
  21. Affliction Warlock - 461.1k (mastery, emH+archi)
  22. Windwalker Monk - 458.3k (vers, sff+emM)
  23. Frost Mage - 400.3k (crit, emC+sff)
  24. Shadow Priest - 354.0k (crit, emH+csp)

Sustained DPS Rankings (3-5 mins, based on Intermediate Tier)
  1. Enhancement Shaman - 449.2k (haste, sff+archi)
  2. Balance Druid - 442.6k (haste, emC+archi)
  3. Outlaw Rogue - 386.8k (vers, sff+archi)
  4. Beast Mastery Hunter - 382.9k (mastery, sff+archi)
  5. Demonology Warlock - 378.8k (haste, emH+archi)
  6. Shadow Priest - 368.7k (crit, emH+csp)
  7. Fury Warrior - 356.1k (mastery, mgc+archi)
  8. Feral Druid - 355.9k (mastery, sff+csp)
  9. Subtlety Rogue - 347.0k (vers, sff+archi)
  10. Fire Mage - 345.3k (crit, emM+csp)
  11. Elemental Shaman - 345.1k (haste, emC+archi)
  12. Assassination Rogue - 341.1k (mastery, sff+csp)
  13. Affliction Warlock - 328.1k (mastery, emH+archi)
  14. Marksmanship Hunter - 322.7k (mastery, sff+archi)
  15. Survival Hunter - 318.8k (vers, sff+csp)
  16. Retribution Paladin - 315.4k (vers, mgc+archi)
  17. Windwalker Monk - 307.4k (mastery, sff+archi)
  18. Unholy Death Knight - 306.3k (crit, mgc+csp)
  19. Destruction Warlock - 298.3k (haste, emH+csp)
  20. Arcane Mage - 292.6k (mastery, emC+csp)
  21. Arms Warrior - 289.5k (mastery, mgc+archi)
  22. Frost Death Knight - 279.5k (mastery, mgc+csp)
  23. Frost Mage - 263.7k (crit, emC+sff)
  24. Havoc Demon Hunter - 232.8k (crit, sff+csp)

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Burst DPS
Fight length: 30 secs (no variance)
Target level: 102 (Legion dungeon bosses)

Basic Tier
Artifact Traits: 13
Sockets: No
BoE ilvl: 835
HFC ilvl: 730 (720 + upgrade)
Kazzak trinket ilvl: 715 (705 + upgrade)
Enchants: 50 on rings (WoD), 75 on neck (WoD), 100 on back (WoD)


Intermediate Tier
Artifact Traits: 19
Sockets: Yes
BoE ilvl: 850
HFC ilvl: 745 (735 + upgrade)
Kazzak trinket ilvl: 730 (720 + upgrade)
Enchants: 75 on rings (Legion), 113 mastery on neck (Legion), 100 on back (WoD)


Elite Tier
Artifact Traits: 25
Sockets: Yes
BoE ilvl: 875
HFC ilvl: 770 (760 + upgrade)
Kazzak trinket ilvl: 755 (745 + upgrade)
Enchants: 75 on rings (Legion), 113 mastery on neck (Legion), 100 on back (WoD)


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Sustained DPS
Fight length: 3-5 mins (4 mins with 25% variance)
Target level: 104 (WoD raid bosses)

Basic Tier
Artifact Traits: 13
Sockets: No
BoE ilvl: 835
HFC ilvl: 730 (720 + upgrade)
Kazzak trinket ilvl: 715 (705 + upgrade)
Enchants: 50 on rings (WoD), 75 on neck (WoD), 100 on back (WoD)


Intermediate Tier
Artifact Traits: 19
Sockets: Yes
BoE ilvl: 850
HFC ilvl: 745 (735 + upgrade)
Kazzak trinket ilvl: 730 (720 + upgrade)
Enchants: 75 on rings (Legion), 113 mastery on neck (Legion), 100 on back (WoD)


Elite Tier
Artifact Traits: 25
Sockets: Yes
BoE ilvl: 875
HFC ilvl: 770 (760 + upgrade)
Kazzak trinket ilvl: 755 (745 + upgrade)
Enchants: 75 on rings (Legion), 113 mastery on neck (Legion), 100 on back (WoD)

 
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Reasons for certain decisions:
- Burst fight length of 30 seconds is roughly how long Legion dungeon bosses last when you're the only twink in the group.
- Sustained fight length is roughly how long most my solo's took (there were some exceptions though).
- Artifact traits: 13 is before it ramps up in cost, 25 is a realistic long-term goal from @Shunkley's AP thread, 19 is halfway between and some people could reach that soon (and it was a good breakpoint for many specs).
- Sockets: None for Basic as they're only ~10% chance and can bump prices up by a lot, full for Intermediate/Elite. Considering removing sockets from WoD gear for the Intermediate tier as the weekly lockout makes them a lot harder to get than just buying a BoE with a socket.
- BoE ilvl: 835 is the lowest, 850 was the previous cap, and there was a handful of 875s when I last scanned all the AH's.
- HFC ilvl: 720 is the min ilvl, 735 is the highest I've personally seen so far, 760 is 5 ilvls less than the highest @DeLindsay has seen (to account for having a socket and I didn't pick the highest BoE ilvl either).
- Kazzak trinket ilvl: the same ilvl upgrades as HFC gear but with a lower base of 705.
 
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Kazzak's trinket is garbage for fire mages. Sandmans pounch gives 3100crit and mastery when it procs(mages gain mastery equal to crit rating) I simmed my 786 mage, and it shows that my ignite dot deals only 117k dmg per second, but my real ingame ignite dmg is 470k per second (i have 11000 mastery with procs), So my burst dmg is around 700k first 30 seconds, and 1.7-2.5m on 3+ targets. Something wrong with the new version of simcraft.
 
isnt kazzak gear at least 720 since prepatch? newly obtained ones at least
Got this a couple weeks ago (after Legion release)
bNAIfVy.png


Edit: Oh wait, I think that was the one I had a GM restore, so I guess that's why :p

Kazzak's trinket is garbage for fire mages. Sandmans pounch gives 3100crit and mastery when it procs(mages gain mastery equal to crit rating) I simmed my 786 mage, and it shows that my ignite dot deals only 117k dmg per second, but my real ingame ignite dmg is 470k per second (i have 11000 mastery with procs), So my burst dmg is around 700k first 30 seconds, and 1.7-2.5m on 3+ targets. Something wrong with the new version of simcraft.
You may very well be right, I don't know anything about Fire Mages :) The action list could be wrong - I just used the default one from when you import a Fire Mage.

I did a quick sim to test the Sandman's Pouch:
Burst
g1MOinF.png

EfYN6Vg.png


Sustained
SGTrlvs.png

09nuMRY.png
Max Ignite tick in those sims was 569k, average tick was 330k (burst) and 174k (sustained). DPS contribution from Ignite: 319k (burst) and 173k (sustained).

thanks for breaking my havoc DHs heart
But imagine if/when they get buffed! SimCraft could just be bugged though, there's many factors to consider :) Prove us wrong anyway with some big dps!
 
Every hardcore twink must have the ring. Guess what im talking about? Yes,try to sim it again using nithramus:D

ps Updated my simcraft to the latest version and now it shows the correct numbers of my ignite damage, archi trinket was the best one (827k dps , 25 seconds fight)
 
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Every hardcore twink must have the ring. Guess what im talking about? Yes,try to sim it again using nithramus:D
No DH has access to that Ring, and many Players were so board with the bullshit Ring grind in WoD that they gave up after reaching the 715 variant.
 
Why are you simming shadowpriest sustained without Mindbender?

- Feel free to suggest improvements for your spec if you think you have a more optimal setup. I don't know everything about every class so I took the talents, artifact paths and stat weights from IcyVeins.
- The same talents were used for both Burst and Sustained rankings which might not be optimal for some specs.
 

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