Before you read any ranking
The WoW Forever beta started on September 17, 2026 with a level 20 cap, and since October 1, 2026 you can reach level 30. Nobody has played at level 60 yet. Every "level 60" tier list is a forecast based on simulations and ability tooltips.
Blizzard changes the balance every week. The beta development notes have entries from September 24 and from October 1, 8 and 15, 2026.
Lists for level 30 and level 60 look different. Conquest Capped explains it like this: at 30, pets and damage over time (DoTs) carry a character, while at 60 weapon damage, critical strikes and talents at the bottom of the tree take over. Wowhead adds that at level 30 there is very little difference between specs, so a spec's spot mostly reflects the whole class.
Launch is on November 4, 2026, and the beta ends on October 21, 2026. Rankings after launch may look different. Check the date and level of every list.
Where these tier lists come from
| List | Author | Date | Level | Based on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wowhead DPS | Riyani | October 8, 2026 | 30 | damage, buffs and other useful abilities |
| Wowhead tanks and healers | Riyani | October 6, 2026 | 30 | separate lists for both roles |
| Mobalytics DPS | Crix | October 12, 2026 | 30 | dungeons (single target, cleave, AoE): logs, simulations, player feedback |
| Mobalytics tanks | PhaseShifter | October 13, 2026 | 30 | dungeon tanking |
| Mobalytics leveling | Mobalytics | checked October 18, 2026 | 1–20 | speed, comfort and class strength |
| Mobalytics dueling | Crix | October 13, 2026 | 30 | 1v1 fights |
| Conquest Capped | Kir | October 13, 2026, with the October 15 changes | level 60 forecast | simulations, talent analysis, testing up to level 30 |
| Supatease duels | duelist Supatease (published by Conquest Capped) | October 6, 2026 | 30 | "snapshot of the early beta" |
Icy Veins only has empty tier list tabs marked "Coming soon" for Forever. IGN has no class ranking, and Zockify only offers a maker where you build the list yourself.
Class tier list compared: DPS specs
S is the top grade and D the lowest. A "–" means the spec is not on that list. The "Duels" column is Supatease's list; "weak" is his lowest group.
| Spec | Wowhead (30) | Mobalytics (30) | Conquest Capped (60) | Duels (30) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beast Mastery Hunter | S | A | B | A |
| Marksmanship Hunter | S | S | A | S |
| Survival Hunter (melee) | S | A | S | A |
| Affliction Warlock | S | B | A | – |
| Demonology Warlock | S | A | S | A |
| Destruction Warlock | S | C | B | B |
| Enhancement Shaman | S | A | A | S |
| Elemental Shaman | B | C | D | weak |
| Arcane Mage | A | B | A | weak |
| Fire Mage | A | B | A | weak |
| Frost Mage | A | B | B | A |
| Retribution Paladin | A | B | A | C |
| Arms Warrior | A | C* | A | weak |
| Fury Warrior | A | A | S | weak |
| Assassination Rogue | A | C* | B | weak |
| Combat Rogue | A | A | A | weak |
| Subtlety Rogue | A | C | C | C |
| Feral (Cat) Druid | B | B | B | A |
| Balance Druid | C | C | C | C |
| Shadow Priest | C | C | C | B |
\* Mobalytics shows its list as icons only. We read Arms and Assassination in the C group from the talent tree icons, so these two spots are uncertain.
What the comparison shows
None of these sources declares one best class in WoW Forever. What you can see is which specs stay high on several lists at once:
- S or A on all three PvE lists: Marksmanship Hunter, Survival Hunter, Demonology Warlock, Enhancement Shaman, Fury Warrior and Combat Rogue.
- Hunters at level 30 are high everywhere. Mobalytics says Marksmanship is "absolutely DOMINATING Level 30 PvE". At 60, however, Conquest Capped drops Beast Mastery to B because the pet falls behind.
- Warlocks get S on Wowhead in all three specs, but on Mobalytics Destruction falls to C.
- At 60, Conquest Capped puts Fury Warrior at the front. The author himself calls Survival Hunter in S the "most debated placement".
- Low everywhere: Balance Druid and Shadow Priest (C on all three lists) and Elemental Shaman (B, C and D). Conquest Capped notes that the October 15 changes moved Lava Burst to row 5 and brought back Elemental Mastery as the capstone talent.
The gaps are smaller than the letters suggest. According to Conquest Capped, most A and B tier specs sit within about 20% of each other.
All 9 classes: roles, specs and who they suit
Forever has no faction-specific classes: each faction has all 9 classes. On the Horde side the Paladin is only available as Undead, and on the Alliance side the Shaman is only available as Dwarf. All combinations: races and Skyborne.
| Class | Role | Specs | Who it suits | For a first character |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warrior | tank, melee DPS | Arms, Fury, Protection | you want to tank or fight in melee and have a group; poor at recovering lost health | harder |
| Paladin | tank, healer, DPS | Holy, Protection, Retribution | you want all three roles; Blizzard calls it the strongest single-target healer; no interrupt and no slow | easy |
| Hunter | ranged DPS (Survival in melee) | Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, Survival | you play solo; the pet tanks and you have the longest range in the game; no stun and no interrupt | easy |
| Rogue | melee DPS | Assassination, Combat, Subtlety | you like Stealth and big single-target damage | harder |
| Priest | healer, DPS | Discipline, Holy, Shadow | you want to heal; the only healer with damage absorption shields | medium |
| Shaman | healer, DPS (also a dungeon tank without a tank tree) | Elemental Combat, Enhancement, Restoration | you want totems and a sturdy character (mail and a shield); lacks good crowd control | medium |
| Mage | ranged DPS | Arcane, Fire, Frost | you like ranged area damage; you make food and water for the group; very fragile in melee | medium |
| Warlock | ranged DPS | Affliction, Demonology, Destruction | you like demons and DoTs; you get Healthstone, Soulstone and Ritual of Summoning | easy |
| Druid | tank, healer, DPS | Balance, Feral Combat, Restoration | you want every role and switching forms (Bear, Cat); no snare, no silence, no interrupt | harder |
The "For a first character" column is our summary of opinions, not an official scale. Conquest Capped and the French site game-guide.fr both name the Hunter as the most forgiving class. game-guide.fr advises against a Rogue as your first character and recommends the Paladin for its survivability. According to Conquest Capped, the Warrior levels the slowest and the Priest is slow too. Armor: Warriors and Paladins wear plate, Hunters and Shamans mail, Rogues and Druids leather, and Mages, Priests and Warlocks cloth.
Leveling tier list: best class for leveling
Mobalytics has a leveling tier list for levels 1–20 in the beta. As checked on October 18, 2026:
| Tier | Classes |
|---|---|
| S | Hunter, Warlock |
| A | Mage, Shaman, Paladin |
| B | Rogue, Druid |
| C | Priest, Warrior |
Mobalytics has rearranged this list without changing the date on the page. An earlier version had Paladin and Hunter in S and Warlock in A. Treat it as a snapshot from the day we checked it.
Conquest Capped rates them similarly: the Hunter is the fastest, the Warlock second, the Mage third and the Warrior the slowest. It calls Beast Mastery the "best leveling spec", even though it drops to B at 60.
Specs Mobalytics recommends for leveling: Feral Druid, Beast Mastery Hunter, Frost Mage, Retribution Paladin, Shadow Priest, Combat Rogue, Enhancement Shaman, Affliction Warlock and Arms Warrior. Wowhead notes that at these levels casters spend most of a dungeon wanding, and Balance Druids have no wand. How to spend your points: talents.
Best tank and best healer for groups
| Spec | Role | Wowhead (30) | Mobalytics (30) | Conquest Capped (60) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protection Paladin | tank | S | A | S |
| Protection Warrior | tank | A | S | S |
| Feral (Bear) Druid | tank | A | B | close behind S (no letter) |
| Shaman without a tank tree | tank | – | C | "fun spec", not ranked |
| Discipline Priest | healer | S | no list | A |
| Holy Priest | healer | S | no list | S |
| Restoration Shaman | healer | A | no list | S |
| Restoration Druid | healer | A | no list | A |
| Holy Paladin | healer | B | no list | A |
Tanks: Protection Warrior and Protection Paladin are in S or A on every list. Wowhead gives the Paladin S because it already has the second rank of Consecration at level 30. In the comments under that list, players disagree: one with calculations argues the Warrior should be S, another says the bear feels much stronger since the latest update.
Healers: Holy Priest gets S on both Wowhead and Conquest Capped. Restoration Shaman sits in A or S, and Holy Paladin ranges from B (Wowhead) to A (Conquest Capped). Players point out that the Wowhead list does not account for the Penance and wand nerfs. Mobalytics has no healer list yet.
Buffs matter in a group too. The October 15 changes made Battle Shout, Trueshot Aura, Leader of the Pack, Moonkin Form and four Shaman totems raid-wide. Icy Veins calls the Shaman "likely the most wanted class in WoW".
PvP tier list: best class for duels
For now there are two dueling lists at level 30 and one PvP forecast for level 60. At launch, PvP in Forever has no arenas and no resilience.
| Class | Mobalytics, dueling (30) | Forever Open: win rate | Conquest Capped PvP (60): highest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warlock | S | 60% | Demonology (Soul Link): S |
| Hunter | S | 47% | Marksmanship, Survival: S |
| Shaman | A | no data | Elemental: A |
| Priest | A | no data | Shadow: S; Discipline, Holy: A |
| Mage | A | 49% | Frost: A |
| Druid | B | 45% | Restoration: A |
| Rogue | B | no data | Subtlety: A |
| Paladin | C | 63% | Holy: A |
| Warrior | C | 39% | Arms: A |
Forever Open is a community tournament (Tips Out, EsfandTV, Xaryu), not a Blizzard event. It was played in the beta at level 30, Horde only, for a $100,000 prize pool. Qualifiers were on October 17 and the final on October 18, 2026 (36 players, the top four of each class).
An analysis of all 4,673 qualifier matches (Raider.IO data, posted on r/classicwow):
- Paladins won 63% of their fights and Warlocks 60%. The best specs were Retribution (65%) and Demonology (63%).
- Warriors came last with 39% and were the only class without a single unbeaten player.
- Hunters dropped to 47%, after 63% in open-world duels.
- The most one-sided matchups: Paladin against Warrior (83%) and Warlock against Mage (73%).
Mobalytics puts the Paladin in C, yet it came first in the tournament. Players explain this with the format: in the qualifiers each match was a single fight, and long cooldowns reset between duels. The final was best of three, so the result may differ. We did not know the result of the final at the time of writing.
At 60, Conquest Capped sees Soul Link Warlocks and Subtlety Rogues as the dueling favorites. Warriors and Retribution Paladins are expected to struggle without a healer, but according to this list an Arms Warrior with a healer can "rise to S". At level 30 there is no PvP trinket yet, and Undead with Will of the Forsaken is popular against Priest fears.
What class to play: quick picks
This is a summary of the sources, not a verdict. If you want a pick that will not drop low after the next balance change, look at specs that are high on several lists at once:
- Solo and your first character: Hunter or Warlock. Both are in S on the leveling list and high on the level 30 lists.
- Tank: Warrior (Protection) or Paladin (Protection).
- Healer: Priest (Holy, Discipline) or Shaman (Restoration).
- Duels: Warlock is high both on the Mobalytics list and in the Forever Open tournament.
Before you create your character, check races and their abilities and talents. First steps in the game: beginner's guide.
