WoW Classic TBC What Are The Best Classes For Arena (2024)

New to The Burning Crusade, is the Arena, a new player-vs-player game mode that features 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 team battles.

During Classic, there was no "ranked" system and high-rated players were those that had the time to put in 16 hours a day to grind honor points in battlegrounds.

The benefit of a re-release of an old game, is we know what classes are expected to perform well inside of the arena.

This list will feature all classes, but will only focus on the specializations that are played in the arena.

WoW Classic TBC What Are The Best Classes For Arena

S Tier

Restoration Druid: The restoration druid benefits from some nice changes going into TBC, primarily their hots become a lot stronger, they have amazing crowd control abilities, strong defensive abilities, and are hard to lockdown.

Subtlety Rogue: Need I say more? Rogue has never been a bad pick in the arena and in TBC is no different. They have the best CC in the game, insane burst damage, and strong defensive on a short cooldown.

Warlock: SL / SL Warlock was a strong talent setup in Classic and will continue being taken into TBC. SL/SL refers to Soul Link (Demonology talent) and Siphon Life (Affliction Talent). Strong CC, high damage over time, and the utility it can bring make it a strong choice for the arena.

A Tier

Arms Warrior: Arms warrior is typically the primary spec for warrior throughout the history of World of Warcraft. Its high burst damage partnered with its mortal strike ability (50% healing reduction) makes it a strong pick for the arena. The issue warriors have in PVP is they will struggle without a healer constantly dispelling and healing them.

Discipline Priest: A strong healer slightly behind the Restoration Druid, can bring defensive cooldowns for their team and some extra damage when searching for that game-winning kill.

Frost Mage: Much like the Rogue, Mages are always a strong pick with their high burst damage with the addition of shatter and extremely strong CC abilities like polymorph and roots. The mage falls short of S tier because it may have a hard time fitting into certain arena teams, however, it is a good team up with rogue and will likely be one of the most popular compositions.

Read more: WoW Classic TBC Pre Patch PVP Gear Costs.

B Tier

The Hunter: Both specs can be viable but like the frost mage it can suffer from not fitting well into some PVP teams. While both specs have a good toolkit for the arena, damage included, MArksman suffers from the long aimed shot cast making it hard to get off, and Beast Mastery hunters will need to control their pets well as they are the main source of damage.

Fire Mage: Fire Mage will focus on the Presence of mind (POM) talent and use it with Pyroblast in an attempt to one-shot their enemies. If it does not kill their opponents, they wait and go again when off cooldown. This spec lacks the slows Frost brings so it is lower on the list.

Restoration Shaman: Resto shamans bring some utility with their totems, however lack of healing throughput, weak or no healing over time, and no friendly defensive abilities has it behind the other healers.

C Tier

Shadow Priest: Shadow is basically a weaker version of a warlock both damage-wise and CC making it not desirable for arena.

Read more: WoW TBC "Not a Bug" List Confirmed by Blizzard.

D Tier

Paladins: Both Retribution and Holy are very weak in arena, they have some utility that may help defensice wise, but Ret lacks the damage output and Holy has weak heals compared to the healers listed above.

DPS Shamans: While they may have a decent damage output, they lack utility needed to keep up in the arena.

DPS Druids: Same situation as the shaman. Feral is just a weaker rogue with much less CC and defensive cooldowns.

Remember, this tier list is for those looking to try hard in the arena, and if you are looking to play around and have some fun, play what you most enjoy.