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TBC Arena Tier List: Best Arena Classes and Comps

Here are the best TBC Specs and Comps, along with a few honorary mentions

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World of Warcraft TBC Classic is out, with Arena being one of the most exciting factors of the game. For players that want to maximize their rating when Arena launches later into Phase 1, here is what we can be looking at based on min-maxed theories from private servers and the original TBC game. Furthermore, we will mention a few specs that are not optimal, but there is certainly a place for them to get over 2k rating regardless of community perception. With no further ado, here is our TBC Arena Tier List.

Ranking Breakdown

The TBC Arena Tier List consists of the usual S rank to D ranks, with a rundown on all the major players you’ll run into in TBC Arenas. While it is not often other Gaming Verdict Tier Lists do + ranks, you’ll soon see why it is necessary for this article.

S+ Tier: Resto Druid

S Tier: Arms Warrior, Affliction Warlock, Discipline Priest, Frost Mage, Subtlety Rogue.

A Tier: Beast Master Hunter, Fire Mage.

B Tier: Arcane Mage, Destro Warlock, Feral Druid, Holy Paladin, Resto Shaman, Marksman Hunter, Shadow Priest

C Tier: Assassination Rogue, Balance Druid, Combat Rogue, Demonology Warlock, Elemental Shaman, Enhancement Shaman, Ret Paladin.

D Tier: Fury Warrior, Holy Priest, Survival Hunter.

Best PvP Healers in TBC

Druid Crest WoW

Resto Druid is the number spec for the whole of TBC Arena. The Restoration Druid gets many benefits for Arena healing, such as heals over time, insta casts, and anti polymorph in their forms. Because of this, Restoration Druid doesn’t have the same pitfalls as other healers in, such as school lockouts. Because of these three factors, they tend to be very versatile for multiple comps and very effective healers at the same time. Consequently, the Resto Druid is the highest-ranking spec in the TBC Arena Tier List.

The next best healer for TBC Arena is the Discipline Priest. The Disc Priest gained so many more bonuses in TBC, such as their Pain Suppression becoming usable on party members. By default, the Disc Priest has one of the best external cooldown in the game, which is more than capable of keeping someone alive through the burst. Furthermore, Disc Priest has two school spells, using holy and shadow to heal and damage, thus have less downtime and can go aggro with their DPS.

As for the other healers tend to lack other useful utility or are heavily reliant on hard casts in the same school. The Holy Paladin and the Resto Shaman have nice utility, which makes them okay for certain comps, but overall, they cannot be placed as high on the TBC Arena Tier List because of their weaknesses.

Best DPS for Arenas in TBC

Warlock Icon

The strongest DPS spec in all of TBC is the SL/ SL Warlock build. The core of the talents take the Siphon Life spell, which getting the Soul Link talent. The build requires going largely deep into the Affliction Warlock tree, followed by a sizeable amount of the Demonology tree. The build aims to amplify the lock’s curses and sustain from the Siphon Life DoT. While the warlock gets lots of health back from the rotting, the lock gets plenty of survivability from Soul Link, which sends 20% of damage to the Warlock’s active Demon. Overall, the damage an SL/SL Lock and the amount of survivability they get makes them a very self-sufficient DPS for Arenas.

Next up on the list is the Frost Mage. The Frost Mage is considered by many the ultimate PvP spec for any caster in Arena for many expansions. The Frost Mage is all about controlling their opponents using their frost school of magic to slow, snare and shatter for big damage. Furthermore, the Mage has a Counterspell, Polymorph, and Spell Steal, so their utility is generally crazy. Together, all of this combines to make them a powerful DPS spec in the TBC Arena Tier List.

Best Melee DPS

No one should be surprised by the appearance of the Subtlety Rogue on this TBC Arena Tier List. Likewise, the Sub Rogue can do amazing controlling work, with many stuns, and other CC tools in their shed. The Sub Rogue can build up their combo points during a stun lock to nuke opponents with Eviscerate. As for builds, the Sub Rogue can go the Mutilate build or the Shadowstep build that packs even more mobility and CC power.

The other very popular and otherwise solid DPS option for Arenas is the Arms Warrior. The Arms Warrior is both very hard-hitting and very hard to kill. As a plate wearer, they perform very well with plate, getting a reduction to physical damage. Furthermore, they have things like Spell Reflect to better contend with casters. But the other amazing part about Arms Warrior is the Mace specialization talent, that grants them a chance to stun using Maces. It is even better when the Warrior has Blacksmithing and can craft Deep Thunder, which by default has a chance to stun for four seconds. Lastly, the Mortal Wounds talent is an amazing talent for Arena, with the healding reduction it leaves on players is a surefire way to win the game.

Honourable Mentions

While these four DPS specs might not be the best of the best in the TBC Arena Tier List, they’ll certainly work fine. One of the best examples of this is the Beast Master Hunter. The BM Hunter is a very powerful spec in TBC regardless, and it stretches to Arena too. The core of the BM hunter is about doing their damage through their pet and then doing damage at a distance with abilities like Steady Shot. Furthermore, the pet has on-demand stun, with Hunter gear being very good in TBC. The other added benefit of Hunters is their scare beast ability. Hunters can use this ability on Druids, giving them an exclusive CC ability to counter one of the stronger classes of TBC Arena.

Moving on, we have the Shadow Priest. The Spriest is a powerful PvP spec in terms of damage but has a few weaknesses. Shadow players will find their rotting is very effective, along with a strong burst and a ranged execute with Shadow Word: Death. However, they lack the mobility of the Mage and the defensiveness of the Warlocks. Because of this,  Shadow Priests needs a little help to pop off properly, such as a Rogue’s control over the battlefield.

Finally, there are the burst casters. The Fire Mage is the better version of Mage for PvE but it can move to PvP with the PoM Pyro cheese. Presence of Mind is the talent that makes Pyroblast instant cast, and the mage uses that to insta burst a target down. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Moving over, the Destro luck does incredible damage with Shadowbolt damage, but if it gets locked from shadow school, it is very susceptible to death.

Best TBC Arena Comps

What are the best TBC Arena comps to get rating with so many different classes in the game? Well, there are quite a few interesting compositions to look for several specializations.

Rogue Mage Priest

Rogue Icon

Rogue Mage Priest or RMP is one of the most effective PvP Compositions in the game and remains so in the modern game too. The Sub Rogue and the Frost Mage are the two DPS components of the composition, using their CC to disrupt the enemy team, creating pressure points and kill windows. On the other hand, the Discipline Priest has their own peel tools and can aid with damage through shadow spells.

In 2s queues, the composition can work with Disc Priest and Frost Mage, Disc Priest and Sub Rogue, or Frost Mage and Sub Rogue for double damage one shot comps. Any of the three variants work fine, but the double damage is one of the cheesier comps relying on one-shots and killing enemies through openers as they could falter the longer the Arena match goes on.

Shadowplay

Shadowplay is a composition consisting of the Shadow Priest and the Affliction Warlock. The idea behind the comp is to use the Warlock’s Unstable Affliction on top of the other dots and Shadow Priest debuffs to prevent the enemy team from dispelling them. Furthermore, there are other spell damage enhancing talents, such as the Misery talent and party-wide passive healing and mana generation. As for the Warlock, they want to use the Curse of Shadow spell to reduce shadow resistance and improve shadow damage on the target. Overall, both specs flatter each other, making the compositions work incredibly well.

But who is the ideal healer? The composition is very flexible, with Resto Shamans granting bonus mana regeneration through mana totem and passive healing. Furthermore, their utility like grounding totem offering a fairly decent peel against caster comps. Alternatively, you can always take the Resto Druid to their strengths in general, and a Holy Paladin as BoP is decent against melee comps, along with a free stun with HoJ.

Rogue Damage comps

As already alluded to, Rogue is one of the DPS specs that can work with other DPS very well. They can do 2s comps with a Shadowpriest, setting up the Spriest to rot an enemy down while also covering one of their weaknesses with their stuns.

Furthermore, they can roll with a Warrior for a very strong melee comp, with solid burst, survivability, and mobility across both players. For another melee comp, playing with a Feral Druid or another Rogue allows the composition to play double stealth and double burst. The added benefit of the Druid is off healing, while the Rogue offers more burst.

Resto Druid Comps

The Best Resto Druid Comps, coincidentally the best TBC Arena rating comps are the Resto Druid and Warrior and Warlock comps.

The Resto Druid is a very good pairing with the Arms Warrior, as the Resto Druid can hug a pillar and insta cast hots on the Warrior. If the warrior needs any extra help on staying on a target, the Druid can use Feral Charge to go in or use entangling roots to help them out. Alternatively, the Druid can Cyclone the non-kill target to set the Warrior up. Overall, the comp is very sufficient.

On the other hand, the Warlock Drid combination is by far the best composition for 2s. Due to the natural damage reduction and sustain in the Warlock SL/SL build, the resto druids HoTS are a nice addition. Many players will find that the composition never dies, with the composition eventually outlasting everything else.

WLRP / WLMP

During the OTK WoW Classic TBC Arena Beta tournament, two comps rose above the rest, the Warlock Disc Priest 3s composition, with either a Rogue or Mage depending on preference for controlling elements. At the same time, the Lock rots the enemies down. Both are perfectly viable and take a whole new spin on the RMP composition. The Mage Lock combo is nice, with the Lock applying Curse of Elements to allow the mage to pump even more damage. Either way, expect both to dominate the metagame during Season 1. The finals of the CAT also has a Warlock Warrior Druid Comp, so anything Warlock paired with another S tier DPS works well.

 

Honourary Mentions

Ret Paladins might not be the best melee DPS in TBC, but there are a few amazing pairings to consider. One of the best friends of a Ret Paladin is a shaman, preferably a Resto Shaman for Windfury Totem. Ret Paladins are very good at bursting down their opponents with Seal of the Crusader, Crusader Strike and natural crit through their talents. Once an enemy is low enough, they can get Hammer of Wrath for the execution. For the 3s version, the combination of the Arms Warrior makes the Ret Paladin even better, comping it with another execute melee equipped with stuns and other lockdowns.

Finally, Jungle Cleave is a comp that works well until around 2200 rating. The combination of the hard stun from Bash and the Freezing Trap creates some good kill windows. One great example of this is a Freezing trap onto the Healer followed by a stun on the kill target can potentially get a kill. As for the healer, anything can work with it, as Paladin’s HoJ is another good stun, with Resto Druids having cyclone and Priests having Psychic Scream.

Conclusion

Hopefully, the TBC Arena Tier List will have helped inform what the idea compositions are for those looking to climb the rankings in Arena. Even so, the specs that are not even S tier can find themselves in comps that work very well. Players can find different comps to get the 1850 rating to acquire season weapons or the 2100 ratings for Shoulders. Those who want to go further are probably looking for a composition involving the S Tier Specs. Please note that we have only given a few recommendations for decent Arena comps and the most known best comps. If you are playing something that isn’t as dominant as the well-known comps, chances are there is something for you out there.

Staff Writer AT WEPC

Craig Robinson

Craig has spent several years in esports. He began his journey as a volunteer, writing about games he loved whilst studying at University. Upon graduating, he worked as a freelance writer, talking about esports and gaming for several years before landing in WePC's gaming section.