What is the Best Class in The War Within

World of Warcraft's 10th expansion 'The War Within' is right around the corner and one of the most difficult challenges almost every player faces has finally arrived. That's right, it's time to decide on what class to main with the brand new expansion.

World of Warcraft's 10th expansion 'The War Within' is entering early access now and has its global launch just a few days away. That means the time has come to pick what class/spec you're going to want to main in The War Within. With 13 classes and 3 specs on each with the exception of Druid (4) and Demon Hunter (2), there are a lot of choices. On top of talent tree changes, the introduction of hero talents, and more, having to narrow down all the potential ways you could play The War Within can be difficult.

That's why we're breaking down what the 8 best classes to play in Season 1 of The War Within are, as well giving some info on each spec within that class to showcase why these are being ranked so highly.

Related Article: The War Within Release Date and Time

The best classes to play in The War Within:

1. Death Knight
2. Warrior
3. Demon Hunter
4. Evoker
5. Monk
6. Shaman
7. Priest
8. Druid

What Class Should You Main in World of Warcraft: The War Within?

1. Death Knight

World of Warcraft Death Knight's standing ready for battle.

Death Knights are in a very strong position in The War Within with all three specs not only being viable, but just genuinely pretty good. Blood saw a nerf to heart strike that prevents it from healing from the same instance of damage multiple times. This does make the spec a bit more difficult to play around and a bit less intuitive, but it does still have the playstyle of being immortal if played correctly and not one shot from 100% to 0%. Blood death knight is looking like one of the best tank specs to play.

Both death knight DPS specs are in strong spots as well. Frost is a little bit better than Unholy but both are performing well and are in fun spots to play. Death Knight has some strong and fun hero talent options introduced in The War Within and no death knight player should struggle to find groups for any form of content, regardless of what spec is being played.

2. Warrior

World of Warcraft Warrior stands in a battle.

Warriors are in a strong spot heading into The War Within. They have effective and nice hero talent options for each spec. Protection warrior is more than likely going to be the best tank spec for season 1 of The War Within.

DPS wise, Fury warrior is in a good spot. While it won't be meta if a god comp is found or if the caster meta dominates again, it does good damage and shouldn't struggle to find groups at all until maybe extremely high keys that 99.99% of the player base will never run.

Arms warrior isn't in an incredible place, but is still serviceable and mostly hold its own. Overall, warrior is an excellent choice heading into The War Within due to boasting probably the best tank spec and two solid dps options.

3. Demon Hunter

World of Warcraft Demon Hunter class.

In season 3 and 4 of Dragonflight, Vengeance Demon Hunter completely broke the mythic plus meta, arguably to the point of it being unfun. The days of vengeance being that busted are gone with the removal of double sigils, but vengenace is still in a decent spot and should be playable in all forms of content.

Havoc is still a good dps option that will probably not be meta, but still should be very strong and not struggle to find groups. Darkness is a very powerful cooldown that will never be a bad thing to have in melee compositions.

4. Evoker

World of Warcraft Dracthyr Evoker hovering in the air.

Evoker was one of the most played classes in Dragonflight. Part of that had to do with it being new and part of that had to do with the insane power of Augmentation. Aug has been nerfed in The War Within but is still very powerful and a great option for caster groups and a few of the tank specs (most notably brewmaster) will never complain about getting Blistering Scales.

On top of augmentation evoker being what it is, preservation evoker is also shaping up to be the best healer in season 1 of The War Within. Having such an influential and powerful support spec and having the meta healer, makes evoker a phenomenal pick for anyone who is open to the supportive play style or to healing.

Unfortunately, devastation evoker is in a questionable place and is unlikely to see much play. Augmentation and preservation evokers should have no issues getting into groups.

Related Article: Is World of Warcraft Coming to Xbox?

5. Monk

World of Warcraft Pandaren Monk holding a bird on his hand.

Monk makes the list primarily due to the places brewmaster and mistweaver are in and how fun monk specs are generally to play. Just like with most classes, monks hero talents aren't extremely interesting or groundbreaking and are mostly passive effects, but these passive effects are decently effective and can be relatively fun to play around.

Brewmaster monk is certainly not breaking the meta at all and probably suffered more than any other tank to both the tank nerfs and the augmentation evoker nerfs, but it is still in a strong enough spot to survive content and deal insane damage. It's the highest skill ceiling tank that remains the most difficult spec in the game. It's also had some of its button bloat solved.

Mistweaver monk used to be one of the harder healing specs to fully grasp and get used to. With the introduction of the fistweaving playstyle over the last few years, mistweaver has become a much more intuitive and proactive playing healer. It's not that hard to get used to and is very friendly to people who predominately play in pugs (pick-up groups).

Windwalker is not in an incredibly position, but that's mostly par for the course at this point since Blizzard doesn't really seem all too keen on fixing it. Overall, brewmaster and mistweaver monks shouldn't have many issues finding groups for content and performing well in said content.

6. Shaman

World of Warcraft shaman Thrall using magic.

It isn't every day that shaman's can claim to be one of the best classes in all of World of Warcraft, but today is definitely one of those days. Players spent most of The War Within's testing phase worried that shaman's were in a terrible spot and not going to get any attention.

They did, however, finally get the attention they needed. Currently, all three shaman specs are performing very well on The War Within's beta and any of them could maybe make a run for being meta.

They've got decent hero talents and no shaman player should struggle to get invited into groups.

7. Priest

World of Wacraft dwarf priest.

Priest makes the list not necessarily for tuning reasons, but more so for accessibility and Power Word: Fortitude. While discipline priest is certainly one of the harder specs in the game, holy and shadow are far from difficult.

Holy is the easiest and most straightforward healer with the most healer aesthetic and theming which will always make it a fantastic starting point for anyone looking to start healing. Shadow priest is not an overwhelmingly difficult dps option.

Priests also have access to some fantastic group utility like Psychic Scream, Mind Soothe, Dispel Magic, and of course Power Word: Fortitude. Raid buffs remain incredibly powerful in The War Within and very few players will ever complain about having access to PW: Fortitude.

8. Druid

World of Warcraft druids.

Just like priest, druid makes the list not because of tuning but because of accessibility and value. It's the only class in the game with all 4 spec types available to it: tank, healer, ranged magical dps, melee physical dps. This means no matter what type of player you are, druid has a spec for you.

Also just like with priest, druid has access to some amazing utility in the form of Typhoon, Ursol's Vortex, Stampeding Roar, an AoE fear, and a raid buff in Mark of the Wild.

Restoration druid isn't going to be meta, but is more than strong enough to clear content. Guardian druid is shaping up to be a solid tank choice due to it's ease of play and because it's incredible survivability in an expansion where a lot of tanks may struggle to stay alive initially as they get used to the tank sustain nerfs.

Balance druid is also definitely not going to be meta, but is still in a strong enough spot to be successful in most forms of content. Feral druid unfortunately just kind of sucks right now.


Published
Ben Fitzsimmons

BEN FITZSIMMONS