The Best and Worst Leveling Specs in WoW Dragonflight

Now that I've finished testing the leveling speed of every spec in WoW Dragonflight, I can finally put together this definitive tier list. While this is obviously my personal opinion, and your individual speed will vary depending on experience with the route and spec, the rankings in this video are supported by countless hours of testing and research. If you're trying to learn more about which specs in WoW are the best for leveling, and what their different strengths and weaknesses are, you should hopefully find this video very insightful.
If you're looking to level up your characters as quickly as possible, you can find my written Leveling Guide over at my website, harldan.com.
If you have yet to watch my full 1-60 video guide for both Horde and Alliance, you can find it here: • How To Level From 10-6...
I recently finished my 60-70 Leveling Guide, and you can watch it here: • How To Level From 60-7...
Here are links to the most notable run that I've done with every single spec:
Blood DK: kzbin.infomXB_iQeZQlc?...
Frost DK: kzbin.info36paxJSO1wA?...
Unholy DK: kzbin.info1VRF_elbNdU?...
Havoc DH: kzbin.info0xsB5OyA8bw?...
Vengeance DH: kzbin.info0xsB5OyA8bw?...
Balance Druid: kzbin.info1v4BTGyzn0Q?...
Feral Druid: kzbin.info71a9KuMGOe4?...
Guardian Druid: • The PERFECT 10-70 Worl...
Restoration Druid: kzbin.infoZVL98CNFfaE?...
Aug Evoker: kzbin.infopeDQE1iXeEw?...
Dev Evoker: kzbin.infoUQt5768ZLiw?...
Pres Evoker: No recorded run, explained in the vid.
BM Hunter: kzbin.infoxbvpzyZuKjQ?...
MM Hunter: kzbin.info71a9KuMGOe4?...
Survival Hunter: kzbin.infomp-aWbgRmik?...
Arcane Mage: kzbin.infoLn35QA422JM?...
Fire Mage: kzbin.info1VRF_elbNdU?...
Frost Mage: kzbin.infoOsL5lrURQxI?...
Brew Monk: • Dragonflight 10-70 Spe...
MW Monk: kzbin.infoZVL98CNFfaE?...
WW Monk: • Dragonflight 10-60 Lev...
Holy Pally: kzbin.infoZVL98CNFfaE?...
Prot Pally: • Leveling a Paladin in ...
Ret Pally: kzbin.info2NP4pmvb5A0?...
Disc Priest: kzbin.infoZVL98CNFfaE?...
Holy Priest: • I Tried Speedleveling ...
Shadow Priest: • I Tried Speedleveling ...
Assass Rogue: kzbin.infowkvUsyYBcUM?...
Outlaw Rogue: kzbin.infoIGyrAKkOaEw?...
Sub Rogue: kzbin.infoFPgJVe5SauE?...
Ele Shaman: kzbin.infoihvLDRDz8_Y?...
Enh Shaman: kzbin.infooRNO5pkq1O0?...
Resto Shaman: kzbin.infoZVL98CNFfaE?...
Aff Lock: kzbin.info4ZKufVWvLKo?...
Demo Lock: kzbin.info4eNAvrSGdVI?...
Destro Lock: kzbin.infoxbvpzyZuKjQ?...
Arms Warr: kzbin.infoPmKMPQl0Ui4?...
Fury Warr: kzbin.infoB93QX8Ilt_Y?...
Prot Warr: kzbin.info0ijlhvtzUq4?...
Note: Some videos/streams contain overlap between a few specs, primarily tanks or healers. For example, I switch to Blood at various points in both the Unholy and Frost DK Speedruns, and this is the case for a few other runs.
Timestamps
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:00:39 - Explaining the Rankings
00:03:29 - Evoker
00:06:03 - S Tier Specs
00:12:00 - Defining the Tiers
00:22:52 - Demon Hunter
00:30:07 - Death Knight
00:36:44 - Druid
00:47:04 - Hunter
01:00:40 - Mage
01:15:15 - Monk
01:21:14 - Paladin
01:34:20 - Priest
01:45:58 - Rogue
02:06:28 - Shaman
02:15:26 - Warlock
02:24:45 - Warrior
02:37:35 - Final Rankings & Bonus Notes
02:44:22 - More Evoker Discussion
02:50:10 - Conclusion
This is the link for the tier list template, in case you want to make your own rankings: tiermaker.com/create/world-of...
My Discord tag is "Harldan", and as always, you can feel free to contact me if you have any feedback or questions. You'll never be bothering me by sending a message, as it usually makes my day when someone reaches out.
I also have a Discord server which I use to post updates about the channel and talk about things I find interesting. If you’d like to join it, you can use this link: / discord
If you're interested in supporting my work and want to gain access to over 80 hours of exclusive video content, I'd encourage you to become a Channel Member. You can find more information here: / @harldan1
#WoW #Warcraft #Dragonflight #Worldofwarcraft #Leveling #Speedrun #Gaming

[@Harldan1]

Even though I spent a lot of time discussing the various specs in this video, there are a handful of small details I forgot to mention, so I'll compile them in this pinned comment as I remember them. - Over the last few months I've gotten a lot of comments like "You're being unfair to X spec, it definitely doesn't deserve to be B Tier. I'm able to level perfectly fine with this spec". If you're thinking something along these lines, I want to remind you that B Tier is by no means a "bad" place for specs to fall. I put Blood DK in B Tier, and I HATE leveling as a Blood DK, but even I have to admit it gets the job done. The thing that many people don't realize is that leveling balance used to be WAYYYY worse than it is now in Dragonflight. With the exception of outliers like Outlaw Rogue, most specs have a wide variety of basic tools that they can use to level up to max relatively painlessly, and I designed the tier list to reflect that. It may seem a bit top heavy, but I felt it was important to demonstrate that while one spec may be "better" than another, most of them fall within the same category, and it will feel good to level as either one of them. If this tier list was created back in Shadowlands or any previous expansion I would have likely added both a D Tier and an F Tier, since some specs were REALLY bad for leveling back then. - Later on in the video I moved Feral Druid down to B Tier, and while I partially explained my reasoning, I forgot one key detail. At various points I describe Feral's damage as being "slightly worse than Guardian", and how it has weak survivability but this can be overcome with kiting and instant cast Regrowths. This is all true, but I neglected to mention that the vast majority of these powerful talents aren't available until the mid thirties, so Feral feels REALLY bad from levels ~10-35. If you were to play a pure Feral run the power level would eventually feel like a discount Guardian, which is still fine, but the early levels would be very painful. This is in stark contrast to something like Ret Paladin, which is notably weaker than Prot, but is still consistently strong throughout the entire leveling process. For this reason along with the others mentioned in the video I feel that B Tier is a fitting place for Feral Druids. - For Rogues, I completely forgot to mention one of their biggest weaknesses, which is their overreliance on Stealth for both damage and survivability. A ton of class/spec talents give Rogues powerful boosts when they use Vanish; unfortunately, using Vanish while solo leveling causes you to drop from combat, completely defeating the purposes of taking these synergies. Even if these problems were fixed Rogue would be considerably behind the other classes, but the nonfunctional stealth synergies just add insult to injury as it leads to a lot of dead talent options. Also, just to be absolutely clear, this is a tier list for Dragonflight, the retail version of WoW, and I'm ranking the specs as they are at this exact moment. I've gotten a few comments saying "how can x spec be ranked y when it was SO GOOD in z expansion?", and I don't think those people fully understand the context of the list. I did touch upon historical efficiency for some specs during the video, but they play absolutely 0 role in the rankings.

[@Harldan1]

@@codinginjava3955 Sorry, but that's just incorrect. Also, I'm well aware of XPOff and low level twinking dungeons, I literally addressed that during this video. However, they play absolutely 0 role in the tier list, which I stated multiple times is for solo leveling from levels 10-60. Maybe you should take a look at the video again since you clearly missed a lot of it?

[@Harldan1]

@@codinginjava3955 Don't know what to tell you man, Resto Shaman is a good dungeon healer but it's nowhere near as OP as you're making it sound. Pretty much all specs above it on the tier list should be able to outdamage Rshams if they're played properly. Also, while I have said this a few times, I am aware that Rsham is VERY strong at lower levels (10-20), but they fall off much harder as you level up. Even then, they're not the best low level dungeon healers, that position is reserved for Priests and Mistweavers.

[@Gxnners]

,😂

[@zacharyray9176]

@@codinginjava3955 for dungeons i can agree with you. Rshaman can do 50 to 75% of a overall dungeon damage. Just maybe to stationary for fast questing solo? Not sure. He is also probably right about them falling off early in their scaling.

[@KomninosA7X]

I never rush leveling, so speed doesn't really matter to me usually, but convenience does matter a lot, and as someone who has leveled a lot of rogues(mostly outlaw), I can confirm to anyone thinking you're exaggerating, yes, we have one of the worst if not THE worst survivability while leveling, and the lack of aoe slows you down tremendously, or gets you killed during unavoidable aoe situations. I'll go so far as to say it's the class I die the most with during leveling, maybe even the only class (apart from mage because I suck, it's just not for me) and we're talking about a class I've mained for a long time. Its playstyle at max level is worth it imo, but of course the topic of the video is strictly leveling.

[@lillydeforest8978]

I have several rogues and enjoy them - but they definitely died more than any of my other classes on the trip to 70....

[@cooperarbogast4018]

I feel like this is something that's popping up more and more with recent expansions. The balance of the leveling period is drastically altered - and even broken in some ways - to make concessions for end game content and scaling. I do believe it's a significant contributing factor to a lack of retention amongst new players.

[@wombatpandaa9774]

That makes me feel better, I'm leveling a draenei rogue primarily using assassination spec for roleplay (I rolled her for the man'ari skin tone and imagine her as formerly an assassin for the burning legion) and have been dying way more often than I'm used to. I wondered if it was me but I guess it's just the nature of a glass cannon melee class

[@KomninosA7X]

@@wombatpandaa9774 Gotta love some good RP. Fits with the class fantasy as well, you're not supposed to be this tanky barbarian, you're an agile thief archetype. Regardless of damage output, you're not made for taking hits.

[@nexusobserve]

play sub

[@daysliveon]

A crazy amount of work/research had to go into making this video. Props to you, my friend.

[@Khuon23]

For anyone looking for an "evergreen" food to level rogues, Graccu's Mince Meat Fruitcake scales its health and mana regen, recovering approximately 5% of both per second from level 17 all the way to 70. The best healing/rejuvenation potions to use are: 10-35: Iron Horde Rejuvenation Potion (max of 2000hp) 36-39: Draenic Rejuvenation Potion (max of 2800hp) 40-59: Abyssal Healing Potion (max of 12000hp) (shoutout to Astral Healing Potion for healing 1000hp more for only level 45 specifically) 60: Cosmic Healing Potion (24000hp) 61-69: Refreshing Healing Potion (rank 3, 160300hp) If you are using an heirloom necklace that has a healing on-use effect, it does share a cooldown with healing potions but not rejuvenation potions; if you want to just use rejuvenation potions then the best to use are: 10-35: Iron Horde Rejuvenation Potion (max of 2000hp) 36-39: Draenic Rejuvenation Potion (max of 2800hp) 40-50: Coastal Rejuvenation Potion (max of 6000hp) 51-60: Spiritual Rejuvenation Potion (max of 12000hp) 61-70: N/A

[@ABoyd1852]

As a loooooong time rogue player, everything you said about rogue leveling was pretty spot on. I love the class dearly, but I have to build up my internal fortitude to get ready to level. There are 2 aspects to leveling where the rogue has it the best: Leveling in War Mode, and any time the quest calls for stealing/gathering/finding pieces of something. Sap makes these quests a breeze. Its fun to comeplete those quests without doing 1pt of damage.

[@Alaszkaiii]

This is so chill to listen to while leveling my havoc dh (i felt instantly justified in like the first few minutes when i saw havoc tier A)

[@rafaelurquieta3882]

Thanks for always do amazing content! I saw every video about leveling and now see this, hypes a lot, you put ginormus effort, expend hours and hours, your content is gold, i really love your channel and Tucker (the dog for who doesnt know haha) < 3

[@TheIamlazy9293]

This was wonderful to listen to while working. Thank you for putting in the time and effort. Definitely just subscribed. Also watching this after the DR update in old content, completely irrelevant for leveling since they only work as normal mounts until you have reached the waking shores.

[@Harldan1]

Yea, I had already tested the DR changes on the PTR by the time I made this video, so all of that was already taken into account. Even if DR is eventually available in 30-60 leveling, it still wouldn't change this list by a ton.

[@ArikaStack]

Outlaw was one of my mains in Legion. I came back to it a week ago. At level 45, being soloed by regular mobs was a real possibility, and that's while taking gouge. Multipulls are a death sentence without CC. Quest boss pulls required everything plus cooldowns. The spec picks up at 60, but only because all of its damage is loaded into later talents. For one, it NEEDS the extra 100 energy to do much. It needs fan the hammer and between the eyes procs. At 66, I gained a 2x increase in damage and survivability. At 70, with a full build, following the guide, the class felt completely different, even without gear. Outlaw would be a good levelling spec if it wasn't so topheavy in terms of how you build it. I hit 70 today. It took me a week to go from 45 to 70. I didn't play as much as I could have, but I imagine it took 30 hours, to go from 45 to 70. EDIT: I levelled my blood DK before my outlaw rogue btw. The difference is night and day. I'd rather level blood DK another 5 times before levelling another outlaw rogue. Unfortunately, I have another outlaw rogue I want to raise to 70.

[@Harldan1]

Completely agree with everything you said. While Outlaw still isn't an amazing leveling spec even with all of its tools, the top heavy nature of the talents causes it to feel significantly worse than both Assass and Sub.

[@attinger117]

This is so bizarre because the last time I mained outlaw rogue was Legion and at that time I thought of it as a very strong leveling spec. Over time and especially in DF they have transformed the spec from having consistent damage baked into its main builder/spender to a spec that needs a million binds and ramp up time to deal good damage. It feels awful to play.

[@Elriste]

Speaking as a rogue main, I can attest that leveling is always a huge pain. Even though it's a monster at max level, the path to get there feels like you're Warwick Davis in a footrace, and all your competitors are Usain Bolt.

[@wombatpandaa9774]

Just got a rogue up to 55 while watching this and man you aren't lying. I was wondering if I was just not getting the class or if bfa is more overturned than I thought but I guess it's just a really squishy class for leveling. It'd be nice if they could figure that out, because it's a fun class with a lot of good roleplay potential.

[@valdivieztitan1699]

I love playing protection paladin. The shield bounce is so nice

[@PindusWrath]

Always wanted to level up a Rogue but they feel sooo squishy....it's unfortunate cause I really love their transmogs/tier sets....

[@Velkairiwyth]

Agree with rogues. Did my first attempt at speed levelling and so many points I hit dps slumps and struggled (Note, new server so only gear I had as rewards) - stopped at 62 because in DF its agony, can't even take the rares / quest bosses. I then started a mistweaver which seemed similar for many mechanics and omg. From pain to delight. Bottom dps in dungeons to constantly top. Rogue took 11hr to get to 60. Mistweaver hit 25 by hour and half mark.

[@Velkairiwyth]

For reference: subtlety levelling.

[@johanpiednoel7537]

When you were talking about warrior specs it got me thinking, why not level with arm until 30 or so, then play fury, and along dungoening with plat, it would be more efficient.

[@Harldan1]

That's actually exactly what I do in most of my warrior runs. I play Prot up to the point where you unlock Meat Cleaver, and then I swap to Fury. While this is definitely the best way to level for a lot of different specs (for instance, playing Feral below level ~30 would be misery), I didn't want to factor it too heavily into the rankings. As mentioned in the video, Fury can be very powerful once it gets the full kit, but the fact that it's kinda broken until Meat Cleaver means I needed to dock it a few ranks.

[@arforafro5523]

I leveled a bunch of rogue alts to farm transmogs for my main and I agree 100%, rogues are entirely built for late game, Outlaw struggles to keep their CD's up while solo compared to fighting for longer periods of time, Sin leans too heavily on DoTs and their interactions and Sub does very little outside of their CD windows. Most comfortable way I found to play, is warmode on with veil of shadows as Sub for the early levels then swapping to Outlaw later on and unironically using Vanish out of combat to benefit from the healing talent. I havent tried leveling after the talent rework, but I would like to imagine Outlaw and Sub are better off now that they get UHUH (extended duration for AR) and Shadowdust (CD reduction). Sin I would imagine is still struggling.

[@smarmysmoove7731]

Mained a Blood Elf ret pally since cata's release. Was a great race to use on hoard side due to how arcane torrent worked. Then it got changed in MoP from a straight AoE silence to what it is now. Basically nerfed it to the dirt. Though I will admit it was a very OP ability. It still is useful just not as much as it used to be.

[@Hillchaser]

Impressive video, thank you!

[@ogspazu489]

I just leveled outlaw from scratch and it was disgusting. Until level 55+ everything felt so bad. Once I saw this video title I was sure you are gonna mention it :D

[@captainozseul3050]

I leveled as outlaw when I first started playing wow in DF and absolutely loved it but that being said I haven’t tried any other classes/specs other then outlaw and warrior, outlaw being my favorite by far. It did take me awhile to level up tho lmao

[@Harldan1]

Thematically Outlaw is a really cool spec. Minus Roll the Bones (I hate RNG), I've always thought it looked interesting to play, but I could never get into it personally. It's unfortunate that it just doesn't really work in a leveling environment atm. I should note that there have been times in the past where it wasn't nearly as bad as it is now, the current design just REALLY does not mesh with leveling.

[@Raz-iw6fj]

My first rogue was a Pandaren which I leveled as an Outlaw rogue. I got to around level 30 and I was almost crying it was that painful 😂 Later when Vulpera came out, I leveled another rogue and I went with assassination. Its was sooooo much easier and actually fun. Stack up bleeds and poisons > stun > kite > repeat. The leech from your DoTs heals you as you’re kiting. Made leveling it a breeze.

[@666kty3]

Really like your channel. I learn a lot from you.

[@hlaalu4]

I need these videos so I can slowly level the quickest.😅

[@attinger117]

When leveling as fury do you use deathwish? Sorry if you mentioned it I don’t recall. I’m about to level a warrior and the ability looks really cool but I would imagine it may not be viable for large pulls

[@Harldan1]

Technically speaking Deathwish is a really strong talent, and I ran it during my Fury Warrior 60-70 run which is one of my fastest 60-70 runs. That being said, it requires A LOT of APM and micromanagement to make Death Wish work effectively, especially if you're doing large scary pulls. For chill casual leveling I wouldn't recommend it, but it is very powerful if you want to try and make it work.

[@kevintheadequateadult]

I spam dungeons when leveling toons and I have to say the one time I did questing was on my rogue and it was the most miserable leveling experience of my life because I couldn't pull more than 3 mobs without dying and I'd have to wait 60 - 90 seconds in between pulls to wait for the crimson potions cds. I dropped it at level 47 and haven't touched it since.

[@ungulatemanalpha]

I know sub-tiers tend to be overplayed on tier lists, but I think an A+ tier for the three or four specs at the top of A, an A- tier for destro/bm/prot, and a B- tier for resto/blood/sin would be helpful subdivisions.

[@Harldan1]

I can understand why you may think that, but I feel it defeats the purpose of why the rankings exist. If all 39 specs were completely identical in power level, they would all go into A Tier. The top two tiers are bloated, but that's a good thing, because it means very few of them are as dysfunctional as something like Outlaw when it comes to leveling. If I made separate + and - tiers I would either need to think of some arbitrary criteria to separate the classes further, or I would just be saying "this one is slightly higher", which is already demonstrated by their positioning within the tier itself.

[@bonkbonk420]

@@Harldan1 But the reason for Arcane, Havoc, and Prot being in A tier is that these 3 lack any real chance at getting a WR in a speedrun based on dungeon queue times, DH intro, and no real mobility, respectively. This is a very arbitrary criteria that the rest of the A tier does not really suffer from, while these 3 are a clear step above the rest of that tier. While it is evident if you listen to the video, i dont think thats a real reason to not make +/- tiers, other than just your own personal preference, which ironically, its also an arbitrary criteria on its own lol. If you separated them based on difficulty too, that alone may be a good enough reason as to why Arcane could be placed on A+ and Fire would be placed on A-, as an example. I say this because i found this video looking for a general "whats a good class i can solo with if i wanna get into retail" video, and while still helpful, i needed to remind myself youre talking from a pure speedrun perspective rather than a more casual approach with some of the points you laid down.

[@Harldan1]

@@bonkbonk420 I mean, you kinda already explained why additional tiers wouldn't matter anyways. If I made an A+ or A- tier, it still wouldn't mean anything to people who didn't watch the video. In either case, if people watch it and listen to my commentary about the specs, they should have a strong grasp of the pros and cons of each, so arbitrary tiers wouldn't really contribute to their understanding of whether something is good or bad for leveling. At the end of the day, all tier lists are arbitrary, and they're best used as a vehicle to teach people about the subject it's covering. Personally I find this layout to be the one that fits best with how I view speedleveling in general, so that's the one I went with, but I can understand why people may have different preferences.

[@Khuon23]

Hey Harldan, great content as always! Here's a couple of small notes that probably won't have a major impact, if at all: In 10.2, only for Discipline priests, Rhapsody was nerfed to 10% per stack. Also in 10.2, Primordial Wave was changed for all shaman specs, not just resto. Resto shaman's PW now only heals, no damage; enhancement and elemental shaman's PW now only deals damage, no healing. Death knights also always start with fast ground mount speed, allied race or not; level 20 was never a requirement.

[@Harldan1]

Good to know about the 10.2 changes, and the DK stuff sounds right, my memory on the exact details was fuzzy. You're right that it wouldn't have any real impact on the rankings, but it's still good to be aware of that stuff.

[@Tensuten]

For rogue especially outlaw (my main specc) I have to sadly agree with u and it just felt rlly fckn bad after not touching the game since the end of shadowlands until a month ago. lvling through df and that even though I had 280gear from shadowlands and doing a bit of dmg and beeing able to do some bigger pulls I hated every second of it because of the things u mentioned in the video..

[@XSaintsofDoomX]

honestly, Fistweaving through to lv 70 was very enjoyable, especially when you get the Faerie Stomp later down the road. it does a lot of healing and a few super strong defensives that could make big pulls very possible.

[@XSaintsofDoomX]

also to note: Faerie Stomp makes your BO Kick aoe as well

[@Harldan1]

I agree that MW can be fun to play, it just doesn't really offer much to help speed up leveling. If you're running dungeons you tend to be entirely at the mercy of how good your party members are.

[@keldios642]

I can see them changing the starting zone for DH to match how the DK's are now.

[@Harldan1]

It's definitely possible, but it would require atleast a moderate amount of effort on Blizz's end, so I doubt we'll see it changed unless they have a major reason to do so. The only reason DKs got changed is because they wanted to give all races access to the class as part of the Shadowlands launch, and it was likely easier to create a separate intro than integrate every single race into the original DK starting zone.

[@TheBaddog1212]

You will be able to dragon ride in Druid flight form. Maybe not in next patch, but they already said it will be a feature. @harldan

[@Harldan1]

Long term yes, but there will be a short period towards the end of Dragonflight where it will be less valuable.

[@johnblademusic]

This video is amazing!

[@Multifire]

I tried leveling holy paladin this week. 11 hours in, level 45, you have to go into a zen-like trance just to stay alive sometimes. I made a mistake. It doesn't help that I never bothered leveling my heirlooms. Without your guides I am sure the same amount of levels would have taken me like 25 hours. Edit: I did it, bros. I got to level 60. I don't feel proud of myself. I just feel relieved.

[@Multifire]

Holy Paladin ultimately took me 16 and a half hours 1-60. I tried discipline priest just to see how much difference playing a healer higher on this tier list would be at hit 60 in 11 hours. So it saved me 5 and a half hours by not playing holy paladin. Granted I had experience with the route so that helped, but still. That is quite huge, I didn't think the difference would be so severe. I am going to try a DPS next to see how much difference that makes. Speed Leveling is way more fun than I thought it would be.

[@chaseleyden]

You’re my favorite youtuber great videos

[@Alex-rz4fg]

I know this wouldn't be taken care of in one comment but for these specs how would you work out your talents?

[@Harldan1]

All of this is explained thoroughly in each of the testing runs, which I've linked in the description on this video.

[@landsraad9745]

I love levveling bear! Never died

[@kj01a]

I am leveling as an aug evoker right now, and I actually love it. In a speed running context, yeah it's probably terrible lol. But the gameplay loop of buff, buff, buff, BOOM mob dies, is so much fun.

[@Harldan1]

I respect your ability to enjoy that leveling process, I can't say I had a ton of fun with it myself.

[@kj01a]

@@Harldan1 tbh I envy your ability to enjoy literaly any other dps spec 🤣. Granted I'm new and I haven't tried everything yet, but so far no other dps spec has made me excited to login. And really I'm still on the search for one, and I think I think video will be helpful for that.

[@Harldan1]

It's certainly a different style of play compared to other DPS specs, so I understand why some players enjoy it. In a vacuum I would be totally fine with that, and I think Blizzard should find a way to keep the core playstyle similar while still reworking it to change some of the problematic elements. I touched upon this briefly in the video, but while Aug is just a "meh" spec for leveling, it has some seriously bad interactions with endgame content. Without going into a ton of detail, it has basically destroyed the meta for high level dungeons and raids, because the spec brings overpowered utility that nobody else has access to, making it more mandatory than any other spec has ever been in the history of World of Warcraft. Due to the nature of how it deals damage (buffing other people), it also muddies the waters when it comes to tracking personal performance. This isn't a huge deal, but for players like myself that enjoy trying to improve themselves at an individual level, it can be really hard to figure out whether I'm doing something wrong or if my numbers are being skewed by the presence of external factors like Aug Evoker, Power Infusion from Priest, etc. Lastly, there's the obvious case of Aug Evoker appealing to new players because, frankly, it has an extremely low skill floor and a fairly low skill ceiling as well. It's a bit hard to bring this up because it usually comes off as condescending, and I obviously don't want to make people who enjoy Aug feel bad about enjoying it, but there are a ton of players that are frustrated by the spec's existence purely because it outperforms the specs they enjoy even when played extremely poorly, and that's just a design issue on Blizzard's end. This is personal preference of course, but I always feel that DPS specs are most fun to play when you're required to master a really complicated rotation in order to put out the best numbers. A lot of people prefer the more support-oriented playstyle of Aug, and that would be totally fine if it didn't carve out a mandatory section for them in all high level rosters, leaving many pure DPS specs without a spot. Bit of a long rant I know, and obviously the vast majority of this doesn't really apply to leveling. A lot of the issues with Aug Evoker leveling compared to other DPS specs are just symptoms of their endgame problems, which is why I didn't feel it would be worth it to dive into all of this within the video. I do hope you try out some of the other DPS specs and find a few that you enjoy though.

[@kj01a]

@@Harldan1 No no, it's a good rant, and hey it's your channel right? Anyway, I knew pretty much as soon as I read the class descriptions my main was going to be, and probably always will be, prot warrior. Just because I always play that kind of class. I love it, however raid tanking as a new player means getting asked to switch to dps a lot 😅. And well, fury and arms are just kinda boring to me, so I'm on the quest to find a dps spec that isn't! So far aug is the cloest, but I have also liked fire mage somewhat. It has the same BOOM feeling to it that aug does lol. I enjoy leveling on my ret pally... once in awhle. Tbh I just don't think I'm cut out to be a dps player lol. I have a goal of playing every spec at least through the leveling process, just because more game knowledge is better than less. I'm sure I'll find some I enjoy!

[@Blesses.]

i personally love survival hunter and if it wasn’t melee i wouldn’t play hunter. i do not like bm or mm whatsoever. i play like 6 main toons, survival being one, also boomy, havoc, demo, unholy, elemental and windwalker. definitely a big fan of the current survival hunter

[@zacharyray9176]

Your comment on resto druid surprised me. Being basically unkillable with hots and just out dpsing every dps class up until 50.

[@Wellshem]

How do you out dps a feral druid as resto lol

[@ninjanikstudios2280]

I actually had the opposite experience leveling outlaw and windwalker (it didn’t help that when i was leveling windwalker o kept running into zandalari warscouts in pandaria that took a lot of focus because one ability hit can one shot you at 35-60)

[@Harldan1]

I mean, Windwalker can be a somewhat complicated spec, but it should NEVER feel remotely as weak as Outlaw.

[@troglodyte8791]

have not had the chance to watch the full video uyet will do later. But with solo I soloed some classes and my experience is that when a class can tank or heal it goes insane fast just spamming BC dungeons. until lvl 60

[@Harldan1]

Sorta. TBC Dungeons aren't bad, especially at lower levels, but they fall off compared to my questing route quite a lot towards the end. I explain the criteria for my rankings in this video, and while it's true that tanks and healers generally have an advantage, some are significantly better than others. For instance, while you could spam dungeons as a resto druid and coast along with everyone else does the dungeon, you won't really be actively contributing to the speed of the clear, so your leveling time is entirely dependent on how good your random group members are.

[@CassFenrir]

watching this while world-levelling as blood haha

[@JimBobe]

Not me choosing Death Knight as my first class lmao

[@kanedaio]

First time I have ever heard anyone say Frost mage is a poorer levelling spec than Arcane or Fire, or that it has poor survivability (it has the best for Mages tbh). For AoE grinding it beats the other specs too.

[@Harldan1]

You know this is about retail WoW, right? The specs have changed a lot over the years, obviously Frost was really good back in the day. "AoE grinding" isn't even a thing anymore as far as leveling goes, and it certainly doesn't beat the other two specs in the modern version of the game.

[@Raydr62]

Arcane just flat out one shots most things during leveling Frost used to be the best leveling spec when survivability was a HUGE factor in leveling but now it’s less so it doesn’t matter as much if u know what ur doing

[@johnniehouston1816]

Can you do video on seeing how long it takes to level by only quests. Most of the videos I see of people saying it only takes 4 hours or so to level are doing them by dungeons. Could you see how fast it would take to level by quests no dungeons. I'm curious to see if person could beat the dungeon record.

[@Harldan1]

I'd recommend checking out some of the speedruns on my channel. For starters, I've done MANY runs exactly like what you described, but you're also misinformed about dungeons. I currently have the speedleveling record, and it involves ~70% quests and only ~30% dungeons. Dungeons generally aren't as fast as most people make them out to be.

[@o0Donuts0o]

The dungeon myth comes from the fact that people are standing in one spot in a city waiting for a queue proc while never pressing WASD once.

[@nathanieljohnson5908]

Resto shaman deserves a little more love. You didn't really mention that it has a great kit (ghost wolf, AOE stun, totems etc) but also flame shock and lava burst does insane damage. I would put it above holy priest honestly. Also, Disc Priest gets a 20% damage increase from Sins of the many as it does its healing by doing damage, so in addition to healing, it does a lot of damage as well. In many cases, I would prefer Disc over shadow simply for the survivability without sacrificing a lot of damage. I completely agree on holy pally though, I found that to be the hardest to level

[@Harldan1]

Resto Shaman is nowhere near Holy or Disc Priest if all specs are played properly. Also, while it has decent ST, its AoE falls off pretty hard at higher levels. For leveling, AoE is always going to be more valuable.

[@nathanieljohnson5908]

@@Harldan1 it definitely has more than decent ST, and it gets stormkeeper chain lightning for AOE. It's far more mobile than holy and has a bigger kit.

[@jeCktHeReal]

holy crap this video is great but it needs timestamps really bad.

[@Harldan1]

Working on it, takes time. Edit: Should be working now.

[@attinger117]

As a rogue player this hurt lol. Maybe they just need to shuffle up the talent tree because rogues actually have a lot of potential survival but it’s all tucked away in the bottom of the tree towards level 50-60

[@Harldan1]

While I do agree that the tree needs a bit of adjustment, the later talents don't really help with survivability. Even with full access to their kit, rogues never really feel completely safe in difficult pulls. One thing I forgot to mention is that a lot of the later survivability options for rogues are built around stealth, such as "vanish restores health", etc. Unfortunately, using Vanish or Stealth related abilities is basically impossible while leveling since it drops you from combat, so unless you're in Shadow Dance, a lot of those talents are dead interactions.

[@attinger117]

@@Harldan1 that’s true. I was mainly thinking of soothing shadows for sub, the leech from poisons, and the heal from slice and dice.

[@moos3h212]

Honestly man, it’s good to just slap you on and play wow

[@chrisjones8829]

This.

[@sow34]

you should do the same thing with the races :)!

[@Harldan1]

I'll probably make that eventually, though I want to wait until I have access to The War Within Beta so I can test Earthen and include them on the list.

[@sow34]

makes sense! ty for the great tierlist, really makes we want to level again on retail :)

[@alias5152]

I like leveling, my favorite leveling and somehow it feels fastest.. is Enh Shaman and Demon Hunter Havoc... they just deleting all in front of them.. I really enjoy playing with this 2 specs..

[@Harldan1]

Those are definitely top tier leveling specs.

[@alias5152]

@@Harldan1 Also i had a challenge for myself.. level up Blood DK from 1 to 70 .. that was pain... 😆

[@icaanul]

When it comes to solo WW leveling, it requires that cheesy aoe spec and man it gets boring. It was my first 70 at the start of DF. Early in DF, I found Havoc to be god mode compared to WW due to the soul fragments(which were more common than the monk orbs) + the consistent damage. WW early into DF just couldn't sustain in healing as well so it clashed with big aoe pulls. I haven't tried it again but since they buffed up WW's survivability, I agree that it's probably good now.

[@Cederlof_Ink]

I juat got rogue to 70, love the crap out of rogue, but holy hell was that painful ... lol

[@coyoteink]

In another video you pointed out because of how you kinda get weaker as the game goes on. I made a windwalker, i was a monster dps at all lvls. I could pull threat away from demon hunter tanks. Which in my experience seems to be the favourite tank atm. I had no enhancements or enchants just basic heirlooms and whatever drops i got.

[@Harldan1]

Windwalker is definitely still good throughout all levels of the game, but what I said about "getting weaker as you level" is just mathematically true. It doesn't matter how good you are, a level 10 will do twice your damage pressing a single button compared to a level 60 executing a perfect rotation. That's just how things are scaled.

[@onur6020]

Finally! :D

[@jerryberry6513]

Outlaw Rogue is Def. a Freakin S Tier leveling Spec, u can Make easiely quests cuz of stealthing. but next to that, u can do a lot of single and aoe dmg :)

[@Harldan1]

I'd encourage you to try other specs.

[@Wellshem]

Try ret or mage, right now. You'll see by yourself.

[@ncupton]

I see why rogues switched to Havoc and Wind Walker now. I knew it had nothing to do with mythic +.

[@alakas706]

supriessed that restos absurd st dosent scale dumb into lower levels. my first guess why is that resto dosent do good aoe, just really good ST. so guess its the whole aoe being king in leveling during leveling. but I dont level so, cant really tell. intressting to know tho

[@Harldan1]

Sorta. You're def right that Resto Druid is severely behind in AoE, which is a major weakness for it. However, it also has pretty poor ST at low levels relative to the other specs, and it's not really able to effectively do damage while healing, so it has no advantage over any other healing spec.

[@zylle1993]

i really dont understand why people find mage hard to level, ur damage is insane, as frost u can AOE pull giant packs, freeze them and burst aoe everything with comet storm , its extremely strong and easy. I didnt get to u talking about frost before now, frost is way way better than fire for levelling, ur tankier, ur AOE is way better and more consistent, its really a skill issue of not playing frost correct. it is by far better than fire for levelling. Fire only does good dmg in combust windows, even when levelling where as frost FB, flurry IL IL always does good damage on ST and aoe u got 3 major aoe CD's on 1min cd only. I really have to hard disagree on this stand, you need to play mage more often and learn the spec better

[@Harldan1]

Frost is not better than Fire in modern WoW expansions. In the past I would agree with you though.

[@aviomix1560]

I saw a lot of Harldans speedruns and this whole video. Problem is that he is leveling with heirlooms and consumables. He is doing 2-3x more dps than im doing without these and because of it specs are not working the same at all and it would end up with whole different results and whole different rankinks in this tierlist. At least this is my experience with leveling and i leveled like 20 alts using Harldans leveling route completely solo.

[@Harldan1]

@@aviomix1560 I mean, not really. The consumables help, but most specs tend to benefit an equal amount from the consumables. If anything, specs like Frost would be even worse if they didn't have heirlooms/consumes. One of the strengths of a spec like Guardian/WW/Prot Pally etc is that their base kits are insanely strong, so you don't need anything else to carry it. Played correctly, a Prot Pally can still do all of the speedrun pulls in full grays, it would just take them much longer to kill everything. TLDR, without heirlooms the top of the tier list would remain mostly unchanged, but a lot of the poorly ranked specs would fall down even farther.

[@icritonyou]

some may even say when you shit talk boomkins then become feral kekw 37:00

[@tehstrongbad]

I haven't played the game since Mists so I'm surpised to hear that rogues have shit self-healing because in MOP the ability Recuperate felt like some pretty good self-healing to me, but I guess they removed that...

[@Harldan1]

Funny you should mention that, because you're spot on. Back in Mists/WoD Rogues actually had amazing self healing thanks to Recuperate and Leeching Poison, but that has all been removed/gutted over the years. It's quite a shame, and the endgame issue I discussed in the game is largely to blame. For max level content rogues are already notorious for being unkillable, so adding additional survivability options JUST to help with leveling isn't really a thing they can do.

[@iSqueam]

I wonder if not using heirlooms would change the tiers

[@Harldan1]

It would not. I've done many runs without Heirlooms. All they do is magnify the results. For example, Rogue without heirlooms would be significantly worse, while Guardian Druid without heirlooms would be significantly better relative to other specs.

[@mohamedryan6035]

What about the best classes on pvp

[@Harldan1]

I have no interest in PvP, sorry.

[@josephbright3946]

Even as a mm hunter I forget my pet at times. Leveling is fine. Maybe not speed runs. There's a lot more survivability than I think your giving credit.

[@Harldan1]

It can be hard to really understand the strengths and weaknesses of your class until you've tried out some of the others. MM's survivability is fine, and leveling as it is ok. That's why it's in B Tier, which isn't bad by any means. If you try leveling with optimal setups for pretty much any spec above MM you'll quickly realize why I placed it in that spot.

[@jonathanevans5568]

@josephbright3946 I couldn’t agree more with you, I feel like people always slight MM cause of BM and it’s bullshit “I hAvE mY pEtS dO aLl My DaMaGe” and Surv’s a joke to me… I’ve played MM for 12 years, if you truly know how to play it there’s plenty of survivability

[@patricksutfin9374]

You are very wrong about demo it has great burst and a tank pet and surviveability

[@Harldan1]

All warlock specs have great survivability while leveling, Demo isn't special in that regard. I directly stated that in the video. While Demo has solid burst, I would struggle to call it "great". It's fine, but it's substantially worse than most of the other specs I put above it, and a lot of that is tied to medium-length cooldowns. It also suffers from pet AI being janky, as mentioned. Having a tank pet doesn't really matter at all, and you should be using a DPS pet like a Felguard when playing Demo regardless.

[@mannyo5752]

What’s so special about going to Ironforge?

[@Harldan1]

Pretty sure I explain it in the video.

[@user-lm8rr1ni8s]

I dont really understand your decision to put fire, Ret, disc, holy priest, prot warrior on A tier, i feel like they all lack dmg and are to squishy compared to the other ones in that tier (except prot war ofc and ig healers if u spam heals) only one of those i can see why is ret but it also feels super squishy, like i never feel like i would die on prot but on ret i feel like if i go anything above 3-4 mobs and i dont use my cds there is a decent ish chance of me dying. Sadly i dont have time to watch a 3 hour long video... so u might have explained exactly why but i just dont have time sadly

[@Harldan1]

For Ret specifically, it is a tad squishier than Prot Warr, but it deals significantly more damage which balances things out. Either way they're both fantastic specs. Disc/Hpriest are hard to understand until you've played it yourself. Historically they've been decent, but not amazing. With the Dragonflight talent trees both specs are monsters at dealing damage while leveling, and their self healing makes them unkillable. The Dragonflight changes made Priest one of my favorite classes to level as, when previously I couldn't stand playing it.

[@user-lm8rr1ni8s]

@@Harldan1 I played a lot of priest in general wont lie and say i level a lot as it but the few times i have done so, the only benefit was that i could outheal a lot of dmg but i feel like i had the same dmg as a BDK, though i could 100% understand the ret one as it is squishy but has pretty solid aoe and ST and a good set of defensives u can nearly rotate between every pull

[@Harldan1]

@@user-lm8rr1ni8s Check out the priest speedruns I've linked in the video description. You need to run a specific setup for Holy/Disc, but with that build you'll be doing more than DPS or tanks.

[@HermiHg]

It’s hard to take seriously when you don’t consider dungeon leveling, which is the fastest way to get to lvl20 at least. Solo leveling is a huge handicap, which should be reflected in worse performance for classes that can’t tank or heal.

[@Harldan1]

Dungeon leveling up to 30 absolutely played a factor in my list, and I mentioned it multiple times when deciding rankings. And no, solo leveling is not "a huge handicap" if you're using my route, unless you know of someone who leveled faster than me while in a group.

[@Potapes]

and you do not need portal hoping anymore. No learning to ride?

[@Harldan1]

Not sure what you mean, but if you're asking about riding training, it's not automatically learned and doesn't need to be purchased in major cities.

[@Potapes]

@@Harldan1 Patch 10.1.5 - Mount riding updates. Automatic and free riding. Nor?

[@Harldan1]

Yes, that change happened in 10.1.5.

[@asdfghjklqzwx]

mage ❤

[@Hypnotically_Caucasian]

1:17:22 Pissweaver

[@matrixxstar1325]

Where is mm hunter leveling video

[@Harldan1]

Check the video description.

[@Cartifan39]

Bro, Guardian Druid is soo easy, just learn to spam 2 moves and ur done. 😭

[@Cartifan39]

Sorry 5, or so. (IF U NEED TO HEAL)

[@IvanAslanov-jz8js]

Fire mage leveling sucks an is way sub par, how can you rank it up there.

[@Harldan1]

Maybe rewatch that section and listen to the reasons I give while ranking it up there? Alternatively go watch the fire mage run linked in the description.

[@Wellshem]

It's kill mob extremely fast till like lvl 40. Crit, crit, crit, dead. Crit, crit, crit, dead. Crit, crit, crit, dead.

[@IvanAslanov-jz8js]

@@Wellshem arcane is way better, one blast. Dead

[@Gabriel-it5jy]

Demo lock s tier for leveling…

[@Harldan1]

Can you explain your reasoning?

[@Rocketsredbear]

Survival is the best hunter spec in the game. Warcraft's most iconic "hunter" is a Survival hunter.

[@HOTCHIXBRO]

"hey fowlkes"

[@ZolidarPwns]

No, Harldan this is a bad list and ur dumb. Just kidding. This took a really long time and lot of research even from the mouth of a guy who is more dedicated to this Speed-running community than most people I've ever seen. The sad reality is leveling isn't the game anymore, and I wonder if they even care about a tier list or this part of the game anymore. I wish it were more a journey and I wish they'd extend Chromie time even into the current expansions (because I seriously hate the Dragon Isles outdoor content just like I really didn't care for Shadowlands and I'd rather do what I want even during 60-70 or the upcoming 70-80; maybe after like a month and everyone is already bored of the "new" continent. IE: XX.1 patch). Maybe they could add a feature for people who LIKE leveling where you can set the rates to something like 0.25x and then when you are max level you get a Raid cache or something so you didn't/don't waste your time not running M+, Looking for Retards, or Normal. Not sure why we have Augmentation, Preservation, and Devastation but not a Tank spec that is cool. They even can name it something cool like Determination, or Domination. Also unlock Dracthyr for more classes ffs. I want to love (not just like) wow again, and some of the stuff they announced for The War Within is a step in the right direction but it's JUST SLIGHTLY not there yet. The biggest W was that the acknowledged the game is 20 years old, and they need to start respecting our time. I thought they were never going to do it, and had an eye roll moment the first time they said it, but they kept saying it and felt like they are hammering home they want and need this game to last another 20 years, just like we do. Announcing something for the leveling community would be nice.

[@Harldan1]

You almost got me with that first sentence, ngl. I agree with most of what you said, though leveling as a whole is just a tricky form of content to really get right. It's pretty much the only content in every single MMO that ALL players will need to heavily engage with, whether they like it or not. This makes it extremely difficult to balance, because you NEED to design it to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and you can't tailor it to people who genuinely enjoy the content. For instance, I can not stand PvP in retail WoW, but that doesn't matter. The content isn't designed for me, so as long as Blizzard doesn't force me to engage with PvP, all that matters is that the dedicated PvPers are having fun (and I've been told they are, so that's great). When it comes to leveling, there are tons of different groups of players that have different ideas on what leveling SHOULD be, and since they're all forced to engage with it, there's no way to balance it. I could sit here and dive into detail on all of the different suggestions I've heard/thought of for leveling and why all of them are great and terrible at the same time, but maybe that's a topic for a separate video. I will atleast touch upon the specific suggestion you gave. Lets say Blizzard decides to do what you suggested, and now if you level from, say, 1-70 with .25x speed you get a raid cache. Well, based on my average casual speedrun times, this would take ROUGHLY 20 hours. It's not exact, but you get the idea. Obviously that's a lot of time that you're spending leveling up, so I GUESS a raid cache would be fair. But then it raises the question, what ilvl does this cache reward? LFR? Normal? Heroic? Mythic? And then you have to ask how many times a week you're allowed to earn this reward. Can you farm it as many times as you want? Is it tied to a weekly quest? Also, are these rewards account-wide so your mains can benefit from it, or can they only be used on the character you leveled as a mini-catchup mechanism. If the latter case, would it even be worth it to get this raid box instead of just leveling to max faster and then starting to grind M+? I could go on, and you would start to get into issues of the reward either being too weak to justify going for it, or too lucrative that a large section of the playerbase now feels obligated to farm it. Neither option is great. I've said this before, but in short I feel the only reasonable solution to leveling is to attach cosmetic rewards to optional challenges. Giving player power rewards to optional content is how you end up with situations like Torghast, and NOBODY wants that. Even then, I think you would need to design these challenges in such a way that they are just that, CHALLENGING, not tedious and time consuming. I think suggestions like "leveling, but it's .25x speed" would just be unfun. A lot of people try to cite Classic as a counterpoint, but as someone who is currently binge leveling characters in SoD, I think those people completely misunderstand the reason why Classic leveling felt enjoyable. It's not about the tedium or the time it takes, it's about the little challenges that you overcome along the way that make each leveling experience feel unique and memorable. Anyways I'll stop myself here, I could rant about this forever. You raise some good points though.

[@ZolidarPwns]

Cater to me Blizzard, I don't like anybody else. >:) @@Harldan1

[@zacharyray9176]

Your comment on resto druid surprised me. Being basically unkillable with hots and just out dpsing every dps class up until 50.

[@Harldan1]

Many classes are "unkillable" when played correctly, but your comment about them beating DPS is simply untrue. If you like leveling as Rdruid, I'd encourage you to try literally any other druid spec, as I think you'll quickly realize they're simply better in every way.

[@zacharyray9176]

@@Harldan1 Guardian 400 dps 2 targets Rdruid 550 single target feral 350 single target balance 450 2target cleave. (level 25) I only originally made a comment cause, to me, I was surprised by your performance vs what I've been experiencing. Also liking and comment helps the most I hear

[@Harldan1]

@@zacharyray9176 Numbers like that don't really mean anything without proper context. At very low levels (10-30), Resto may end up outperforming Feral/Balance simply due to healer scaling, but it will never outperform Guardian in any realistic scenario (assuming you're playing correctly). There's a reason why Guardian is the fastest leveling spec in the game. Resto also falls off VERY hard at later levels when healer scaling stops being a thing.

[@zacharyray9176]

@@Harldan1 at 50 as i said resto falls behind balance for aoe pulls. You can double dot and everything dies till 50. Im not saying Rdruid is ahead of guardian in the context of your video. I was just surprised on the D tier you placed it in. Dude, you the goat on this subject. Im simply interested in how I got it so wrong.

[@Harldan1]

@@zacharyray9176 While DoTs can sometimes do strong damage on paper, that's generally the worst method of actually dealing damage while leveling. It's much better to play a class with burst damage, as most mobs will die wayyy before your dots get a chance to deal their full damage. This is why you can't really hit a target dummy to gauge performance of specs at a low level, since things work a lot differently in practice.