Potency / highest damage of warcraft classes
this lists relates to how blizz currently have the class nerfing setup (9_5_07), and relates to chars with equal quality gear and specced for most damge talent wise
1. Draenai Shamans
Much worse gear specced than an equivalent warlock they can still out-damage them by a third on multiple mobs? havent been nerfed yet ?) imagine theyre self healing mages, with mail armour ! that can critical six mobs at a time with chain lightning for 2k each well roughly, only drawback is mana regen time but not a real issue if specced the right way.
2. Rogues
(in PVP they are currently insane in potency, stun lock backstab posion stun oh your dead joy joy etc) weak a bit on the armour front but more than compensated for with insane crtiticals and stun. good against single mobs in raids not so hot on multiple.
3. Shadow Priests ?
what the hell warlocks weaker than shadow priests great ? the bone of a boon thrown to priests for their healing role, was enough to put warlocks in the shadows thanks blizz, and now they role on our gear as well, because they can now justify theyre use of it damage wise, the only bonus of a shadow priests for locks is if theyre in your party, they can increase your damage as a lock by allot (shadwoweaving etc), so dont grind your gears about them too much.
4 Druids :
Specced agilty and strength etc they can outdamage most casters in feral cat form, for one on one damage. Bear they can be tank almost equivalent to Warriors. Druids are a combi class you can quickly switch from being a prot warrior (bear form) to a fury warrior (cat form) or to an average healer caster druid form or moonkin more a dps caster etc. Lots of sets of gear cost an carrying is the only issue, good buffing abilitys.
4. Mages, Higher instant damage than locks against multiple mobs v minor mana regen issues.
5. Hunters and Warlocks can all be about equal in the damage stakes, if a hunter just specs agility, it boons/works with so many other stats they can outdamage a lock. Afflic Locks are good for long boss fights through many dot capabilities, can keep going longer than most other classes mana wise, though cheap pots enable other classes to negate the life tap / siphon life advantage, great for levelling with demonology spec not when raiding, fear is the only real weapon in pvp but its being nerfed next patch, and you are not going to rock the pvp stakes in comparison to shamans and rogues, not great against multiple mobs or instant damage in comparison to mages and shamans, weak armour wise, just like mages in comparison to the mighty shaman.
6. Warrors prot specced, can brick wall the toughest of bosses, fury spec can do allot of damage, but can fall over eventually quicker from damage than prot. some combination specs can do a better job than both straight specs.
6. Palladins : well they can out heal priests and live longer due to plate armour ? apparently theyre getting nerfed, so all you priests can breath a sigh of relief. some combinations of spec can hold as much aggro as a prot warrior and do more damage with it, good buffing abilitys.
7. Priests, healing and tanking is the backbone of all instances and raids, boss fights in which dps can operate, good buffing abilitys.
dont ask me why a caster like a “war-lock” (and evil war based battle caster) is weaker than a shaman or a rogue but if your rolling a char in wow now it is the case at 70 ?
Another note on locks and shamans :
People think locks are still powerfull but its a legacy remembrance from when the game first came out before they got nerfed, I rolled one becasue I thought it would end up being the most damaging class, then by the time I get to 60, they nerfed us so bad and released draenai shamans and made the effort of levelling a warlock pointless. This was cyncial in my my opinion not only do they release new content 60-70 in BC, but in a way theyll get many people to do 0-70 again by creating shamans(the deliberately ready twinked class) to increase the longevity of their game life from a commercial point of view, in my opinion the class balance is only this way for blizzards profit purposes, the more time you spend rolling a shaman and levelling it because its better than an pre BC class the more money they make ?
My reccomendation for rolling a new char :
My reccomendation the way blizzard has the class balance skewed so badly, just roll a draenai shaman on alliance, the advantage this class has is still very palpable (ie the incentive to go buy BC class !), unless of course they nerf them within the time you level this class, its possible i suppose(actually knowing blizz likely but it is depressing to have the quality something you orginally rolled nerfed at their whim, it defeats the point of making a class choice in the first place), though I doubt theyll ever nerf using mail armour, the consequences to great for the already created ones. By the time you reach 70 you wont regret it. This class is the all round class, a party of five shamans have no need for other classes at all, they can heal and tank just, and yeah sure they can dps like a B***H too. Draenai shaman is the as yet the un nerfed all to potent class.