The Best TBC Classes for PvE, PvP, and more

World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade, is right around the corner as Classic players prepare for their journey back into Outland. The expansion is appealing for many because of its many class balancing, Arena, World Content, and PvE features. Although, with so much content in the game, it can be hard to determine the best TBC Classes for WoW TBC Classic. Here are all the classes in TBC with an explanation of what are the best TBC Classes for PvE, PvP, Farming, and more.

If you happen to find one of your favourite classes are one of the best for the content you want to do, maybe consider using a boost. We have more reasons why you should consider using a boost on every class here.

In general, the Druid is one of the best all arounder classes in the game. Blizzard buffed lots of classes and “meme specs” in TBC to make a whole new world of variety. Consequently, the Druid saw lots of improvements in the expansion.

The Restoration Druid is by far the best spec for a Druid. In TBC, they made it so that each cast of a HOT was a unique spell from a single Druid, meaning Druids no longer overwrite each other’s healing. Their main role in a comp is to slightly top up tanks while keeping raid damage down to a minimum with consistent ticking heals. As for HCs, all healers are perfectly fine for Heroics.

For their DPS specs, they are valuable as support DPS.  It is more than likely the Feral DPS player will also be an off-tank for a raid in the raid settings. Either way, they’ll talent into Leader of the Pack, which is a 5% crit buff for physical damage dealers.  On the other hand, the Boomkin form also grants increased spell crit with the Moonkin aura. Although, there is typically only one of each in a raid size. However, It entirely depends on the raid composition, especially for more casual guilds. For HC Dungeons, the spec operates fine. Both specs can entangling roots key melee mobs in a trash pack while putting out damage to clear the content. Druid DPS will have no problem participating.

Finally, we have the Bear Tank role. They are a nice flexible tank, capable of holding aggro on packs or using their various dots and big aggro gainers to main tank. One of the Tank Druid specialities is Bear form’s huge armor gain, making them take a lot less physical damage consistently. When Blizzard decided to remove Crushing Blows in Sunwell, the Druid Tank rises above all the other tanks, meaning they get even better the later the expansion progresses. As for HC’s the Druid is a solid tank, able to swipe packs for aggro and ramp aggro with its bleeds making it a decent tank to farm HC’s and dungeon rep with haste.

Druid Arena

As for Arena, the only option of the two DPS specs are the Feral Druid. It is decent into compels like Jungle cleave, aka the Hunter, although they don’t fit into meta comps. The Druid DPS mainly shines in 5s when they have more elements to look after their weaknesses.

Despite this, their best arena spec is Resto. Resto Druids are the best PvP Healer, as they are hard to Polymorph through their forms, along with a reliance on insta cast HOTS, and their own CC. Work well with Arms Warrior and SL/SL Locks. For those looking to climb and grab the best Arena gear, which acts as some pretty good BIS gear, then the Resto Druid might be a good shout.

The Beastmaster Hunter is another popular DPS spec for Raiding. Their prebis Dungeon set is compelling and is one of the reasons they are one of the best TBC Classes for Ranged DPS. They do lots of game early on, but fall slightly in T5, but remains top 3 DPS nonetheless. By T6, they reaffirm themselves as a top dog. Furthermore, the Hunter fulfils a few support features, screenshotting mobs which target healers and misdirecting aggro back to tanks.

As for Heroic dungeons, the Hunter is a powerful class for running instances. The Hunter has many traps that make managing packs easier. They have their frost trap that stuns a target in place for a long time until broken. Furthermore, they have a slowing trap and mana draining utility with Wyvern sting. Overall, a very handy class for Heroics.

In PvP, Hunters are okay. They have some decent comps, but nothing too scary. However, their perk in TBC is their Scare Beast ability. Plenty of PvP focused players are aware of the value of Resto Druids. Hunters are an amazing counter to Druids when they switch forms and are a weakness to one of the best Arena classes in TBC. With all that said, it is clear that the Hunter is one of the best TBC Classes in the game.

Mages are fairly consistent at dealing damage too. In T4, the most reliable mage spec is Fire, which remains so through all the tiers. There is also a good Arcane build once a mage gets the T5 Arcane Blast bonus, but Fire is the mainstay for the TBC era Mage. The only downside to the Mage is that they compete with Warlock for raid spots, and Warlocks are generally better for the min maxer. Despite this, Mages are solid in their own right, and most won’t turn down multiple Mages.

In Heroics, the Mage is extremely valuable with its plethora of CC tools. Their main Singe target CC is the Polymorph spell, making an enemy unable to attack a target until it expires or cancels. In addition, the Frost Nova spell roots multiple enemies, in place, with Cone of Cold a powerful slow spell. Also, they are a strong AOE class with Firestrike, Blizzard, and Arcane Explosion are all strong regardless of spec. If anything, the Mage is the best TBC DPS Class for farming Heroics.

It seems like the Mage moves from strength to strength. The Mage is one of the meta defining picks in TBC Arena, with its role in the 3s comp RMP and 2 comps of RM. RMP stands for Rogue, Mage, Priest, which controls the opponent into your kill windows. The Mage will polymorph one target, while the rogue chains another target. The two DPS classes will then do as much damage as possible in the kill window they set up. Throw in a Disc Priest for heals and damage, and the comp is killer. It is certainly one of the best comps to climb the ladder with.

Ret Paladins gain the new Seal of Blood spell, which greatly increases their damage output. Furthermore, they get the Crusader Strike, which refreshes the duration of their judgements on the target. The Paladin will want to keep the Seal of Blood buff up at all times. However, don’t expect the best, as their damage is still mediocre, but they bring decent enough utility with extra blessings and Lay on Hands cooldown. Furthermore, their improved Sanctity Aura talent grants a bonus 2% damage to party members, while increasing the Paladin’s own holy damage. For that reason, you can normally take one to a raid and place them in whatever group wants a 2% buff.

Holy Paladin remains the king of single-target healing for TBC. They are typically the main tank healer, with solid burst healing with crit and plenty of blessing utility. Otherwise, not much has changed with them heading into TBC.

Finally, the Protection Paladin has major bonuses for their TBC gameplay. Prot Paladins gain a passive that gives them mana whenever they are healed, gain Consecration as a baseline spell, and Avenging Shield. The ability bounces between targets at range and silence opponents briefly. Likewise, they get an AOE taunt cooldown and a baked-in Shield Wall passive. Most of the Paladin’s Classic weaknesses are gone and can be great AOE tanks, with Holy Shield a decent enough tool for main tanking if needed. They’ll need to get as much block, parry, to dodge chance to make life easier on Crushing Blows, though, which can be slightly tricky early on. However, they do lack on-demand defensive CDs and are still mana reliant.

Due to their major strengths, Prot Paladins are the best tank for dedicating themselves to the trash in raids. They can put down consecration, Avenging Shield and Retribution Aura to maintain consistent threat on uncapped targets. This makes them the best off-tank for trash, and by default, the best Heroic and Dungeon farming tank out there.

Although there is a time-sensitive downside. Many Horde players will not get their new Paladin main up in time for TBC launch. Horde players should expect a Paladin shortage for Tier 4 content.

Paladin PvP

Sadly, the Paladin suffers a lot in TBC Arenas. The Holy Paladin relies solely on hard cast heals, making them easy to lockout. Furthermore, the Ret Paladin’s Wing’s Cooldown is either purgeable or easily stolen through spell steal. Considering Priest and Mages are popular classes for Arena, the chances of Wings going through is little. However, the Ret Paladin is strong with a resto shammy for burst playstyles, while Holy works with a Warrior well. Of course, you can climb without these comps, but more experienced Arena players will know how to beat you.

The Priest gets many upgrades to the class, greatly improving Shadow, Disc and Holy. Regarding the Holy spec, earning themselves some AoE heals with Circle of Healing. However, there are a few different builds to run with a priest. The first is the Improved Divine Spirit and Prayer of Spirit, which increases spirit regen. The other is the Circle of Healing deep Holy build, which specializes in raid and party healing. Both builds are great for the raid, meaning two spots for healing priests are there. However, it does have a downside of having to respec based on raid attendance going into Heroics, etc.

Unfortunately, a Disc Priest isn’t a common sight in TBC raids. The IDS Holy build takes a mix of Holy and Disc. Therefore there is no dedicated Disc player for Power Infusion nor Pain Suppression.  It is another downside of having to swap specs for PvE and PvP and vaguely limits priest healers in TBC.

On the other hand, the Shadow Priest is another spec that gets a big buff. They are fine for DPS in Dungeons and Raids, being the mana battery of the group. Shadow Priests go the 41 shadow spec, grabbing Vampiric Touch that restores the parties mana as the Shadow Priest deals Shadow damage. They become what we call a mana battery, granting party members mana, improving their uptime in fights.

Priest PvP

There are even more upsides to the Priest when to comes to the PvP. The Priest has one very, very strong PvP spec with Discipline. Even so, the Shadow Priest is a viable DPS spec for Arena. The Disc Priest is the next best TBC PvP Healer, with instant cast shields, damage tools, and the most powerful external defensive cooldown in the game. In addition, the spec uses holy spells to heal while using shadow and holy schools to deal damage. The talent they get also help them reduce incoming CC and damage taken while giving their allies Power Infusion for kill windows. The Disc Priest is easily one of the best TBC Classes for PVP.

As for the Shadow Priest, the spec has a few weaknesses but are supported by certain classes. Shadowplay is one 3s comp that works, with the Warlock and the Shadow Priest rotting opponents with shadow spells. The core of this comp is the Warlock applies Curse of Shadows to their targets, increasing shadow damage by 10% and reducing shadow resistance by 75. On the other hand, the Rogue supports a Shadow Priest by providing necessary stuns and peel for the otherwise immobile and defenceless Shadow Priest. Despite this, they are not the best ranged DPS for Arena, but they are the best support DPS Spec for Arena compared to Shaman, Druid, and Paladin.

The Rogue is an interesting class in TBC, starting rather weak in PvE content but get better as the expansion progresses. In Tier 4, the Class is a complete write off for competitive raiding. But in T5, the Rogue is the go-to class for Warglaives in Black Temple, so they have that cool aesthetic going for them. By T6, they can do plenty of damage and become worthwhile for competitive raiding. Despite this, casual guilds can clear the content with a Rogue in earlier tiers fine.

On the other hand, the Rogue is a class that dominates Arena regardless of the season. Subtlety Rogue is a great class for stealth mechanics, CC chain and burst damage. However, the Rogue is fairly skilled, but getting good at the class means you can climb hard and reap the rewards.

Both Elemental and Enhancement Shamans are super viable. With the balance changes to Drums of War in TBC Classic, Shamans are even more desirable. It does not matter whether an Elemental Shaman can buff a caster group with Totem of Wrath and Bloodlust or an Enhancement Shaman for Windfury and Bloodlust to a melee group. A guild needs 5 Shamans for a 25 raid size, which happily brings us to the best TBC Healers, the Resto Shammy.

One of the best healers in TBC is the Restoration Shaman. The Resto Shammy is the best AOE healer, with the focus on raid healing through chain heal. They also bring Bloodlust with them, granting them extra viable utility. Once again, five shamans are needed in TBC for any series guild, so the Resto Shaman is a luxury to any comp. Consequently, the Shaman is hands down one of the best TBC Classes.

As for Heroics and Dungeons, the class, in general, is great to bring for Dungeons. The spec brings useful utility like Tremor Totem, great for breaking out of fears like in Shadow Labs as an example. They also have a grounding totem to prevent enemy Healers from healing their AI friends and prevent massive spells from hitting your tank. Their utility is too valuable. Finally, the best part of their utility is Bloodlust, a party-wide buff that increases everyone’s attack and casting speed by 35%. Since Blizzard has nerfed Drums, Shamans are now even more viable than ever.

Although there is a time-sensitive downside. Many Alliance players will not get their new Shaman main up in time for TBC launch. Alliance players should expect a Shaman shortage for Tier 4 content.

Shaman PvP

Shamans are not the best for PvP. The Elemental and Enhancement Shaman both have a few issues with climbing the ladder. The first is how transparent the Elemental Shaman is with its Lightning Bolt and Elemental Mastery Chain Lightning burst. Furthermore, the Enhancement Shaman has to choose between using their defensive cooldown to gain mana back or survive. However, these issues tend to go away in 5s, where they can get away with their weaknesses as Rogues, Mages and more can support them better.

The best spec for a Shammy to PvP in 2s and 3s is Resto. The spec suffers from a few issues, like getting silenced or kicked from its Nature school heals. Furthermore, like the Paladin, they rely on hard casts, and their Earthern Shield is purgeable.

Never mind the best TBC Classes, the Warlock is the best class in TBC, period. The Warlock has three great Raiding DPS specs for T4 progression. The Demo Warlock is fine early as it does decent damage through its pets. It does more damage than Destro in theory, but the pet can die, so it requires some micromanaging to pull off properly.

The Affliction Warlock is always a nice addition to the Tank group, with the Imp Buffing the party’s Stamina. Curse of Elements can also provide a damage reduction from the boss to make the tank’s life easier. Also, the biggest reason to bring an Affy lock is for the debuff slots. TBC gets more debuff slots on every mob so that they can put out dots more often.

Destruction Warlock is the best version of the PvE Warlock raiders. By T5, the Warlock pumps damage, doing some insane crit values and becomes unstoppable on the DPS meter. Not much else to say, but it does incredible damage and tops every meter.

Those who want to do damage early on can take advantage of tailoring to make their Spellstrike and Shadoweave BoPs until amazing gear drops in T5. Overall, the class is set up for success throughout PvE TBC content.

On another note, the Warlock is the best Ranged DPS for Arena. The Arena build for the lock is the SL/SL Lock, which means Siphon Life Soul Link build. It means they do lots of damage and can drain lots of health at the same time. The build means they are very tanky, and when paired with a Resto Druid, it becomes difficult to beat.

The Warrior enters TBC in a weird spot. They go from being the best class in Classic to average in TBC. However, there are a few redeeming factors. The Arms Warrior provides a 4% damage buff to the melee group, which is nice for tanks, enhancement shaman, Rogues and more. Furthermore, they do okay damage too, early on. Eventually, Fury takes over as the gear starts rolling, but it takes a considerable amount of time. Like Rogues, Warriors don’t offer too much utility for a Raid and rely on massive numbers to be viable.

As for Protection Warrior, they remain the best main tank for a progression guild. They are one of the most versatile tanks for tanking the boss, with their various tanking CD’s and, most importantly, Blizzard designed Shield Block to mitigate Crushing Blows. Furthermore, they are less gear dependent as the Shield Block timing can even mitigate bad gear on stronger bosses. Although, they are not the best tank for Heroics and Dungeon farming because their AoE threat generation is rather poor compared to Paladins and Druids. Prot Warriors are still fine, but dungeons take a little longer to farm out.

In PvP, Arms Warriors are rather good for Arena. The Mortal Wounds ability in Arm’s talent tree makes it harder to heal an opponent, generating some good pressure. Furthermore, the mace spec grants extra chances to stun targets. Furthermore, the Arms Warrior is adaptable to various healers, like Holy Paladin, Resto Druid and Disc Priest.

There are three main players for those wondering what the best classes are for farming Gold in TBC.

The best Gold Maker in TBC is the Paladin. Once a Paladin is geared in TBC, they can generate lots of raw gold farming old content like Scarlet Monastery and trash runs from BRD. They can even offer a boosting service with their uncapped AOE through Ret Aura and Consecration.

The Druid is another fantastic choice for TBC because of its free flight form. The flight form makes it easy to gather Gas Clouds with Engineering or take both gathering professions as they fly through farming routes.

As for the other option, the Mage’s Frost spec AOE farming still works in TBC. They can still do the Classic farms of Zul Farak, Maraudon, and Zul Gurub if they want, albeit at a slower mob rate. They can still generate raw gold and boost players for gold if needed.

This concludes the best TBC classes guide. We hope this has helped you get a better picture and understanding of what makes each class strong and why. We have given each class a rundown of the pros and cons of playing them to work out what is best for you.