WoW Season of Discovery: 40-Man Raid Composition Theorycrafting

WoW Season of Discovery: 40-Man Raid Composition Theorycrafting

2/29/2024 11:43:28 AM

Nothing in this guide will set in stone what is to come in SoD. Each phase brings more runes that can largely affect raid compositions and the viability of every spec, if not bring new ones raids will want to have.

Group-specific

Tank Group

Certainly, the most flexible group, considering the variety of tanks now in SoD. You can pretty much have a mix of any tanks, but there are still basics you might want: back in classic, Alliance raid had a Paladin and sometimes a Warlock in the tank group to respectively provide Paladin auras and Blood Pact. Horde would have a Shaman instead of a Paladin to provide totems to the group. These requirements could now be covered by a Paladin/Shaman tank and a Demo Tank (unless the lock runs Master Demonologist, in which case they will NOT use an Imp, so no Blood Pact that way. I will leave that one to the class-specific theory crafters). But in the end, what will be needed on top of the tanks in that group will highly depend on what tanks the raid will be running: you might still want a Warrior for Battle and Commanding Shout, a Paladin for aura/Shaman for totems, and maybe even a Feral Druid for Windfury (either a cat or a bear). The only tank that isn’t bringing anything so far to that group is a Rogue tank. A Priest healer might be nice in this group too for Circle of Healing and/or simply Prayer of Healing spamming, reminding of TBC raid comps, assuming all the above has been fulfilled. All in all, the tank group will highly vary from one raid to another, depending on what will be the go-to tanks mostly. Tanks might not even be in this tank group at all as far as we know, being part of a DPS/Healer group, and Group 1 would simply be another DPS group.

Physical DPS Groups

The biggest change in the physical DPS groups will certainly be the Feral for Windfury. Windfury has been a staple of any physical DPS group for Horde, and Alliance will follow the same steps. Horde might have more leeway with Shamans, but the number of Feral Druids each raid will want will skyrocket compared to Classic (going from 0-1 to… at least 1).

The other spots will also have more variety: Warriors and Rogues will of course still be potential candidates, with having one Warrior for Battle and Commanding Shout certainly still being a requirement, but we also have Retribution Paladins, Enhancement Shamans, and Melee Hunters that could be potential candidates of these groups, now that their viability increased.

Speaking of Hunters, each of said groups used to have a Marksman Hunter for the Trueshot Aura. As to whether this will be worth it and how many Hunters a raid will need will certainly affect the once nearly guaranteed spot of the Marksman Hunter. It’s also why I call these “physical DPS groups” and not “melee groups”, as if Hunter can do more than Trueshot Aura, you might have more than just one ranged in that group.

Caster Groups

Might still be mostly the same. The main differences might be more on the specs rather than the classes themselves (more on the class-specific sections). A notable newcomer however could be the Boomkin. The Moonkin aura wasn’t a mandatory buff back in Classic, mostly due to the DPS loss of having a Boomkin going out of mana pretty fast in the fight. The increase in viability of the Boomkin could make it a more attractive choice, if not only for the buff it provides.

Healer Groups

Priest might still be the top dog, but other healing specs might not be left behind. Holy Paladins are still excellent single-target healers (and a good thing to have in most groups thanks to their auras), Resto Druids will now not be limited to 2 thanks to the new dungeon books, Restoration Shamans were always a strong contender (but more something that was spread among other groups, just like Paladins) and Healer Mages will be newcomers that certainly have an opportunity to prove themselves in 40 man content.

Class-specifics

Druids

Certainly the biggest winner of SoD, a class that was limited to 2-3 per raid, due to their HoTs not stacking and Feral Tanks being a flavour option at best, may have at least 3 guaranteed spots at worst in Alliance raids, thanks to Windfury, and isn’t suffering from the “hybrid-class tax” anymore, and can do more than being a healer. Boomkin also gained in viability and Resto won’t be capped to 2. The only spec that has competition will certainly be the Feral Tank, which never had any real problem holding aggro in raids.

Hunters

3 Hunters was already a comfortable minimum in Classic due to bosses requiring a Tranq shot rotation, which made said Hunters default to Marksmanship and provide Trueshot Aura for the physical DPS groups. Some raids got away with only 2 or even just one, but the more casual raids will certainly still want 3.

Mages

Mages were always an amazing raid member to have. One was a soft-minimum for raids for the sake of Arcane Intellect, but multiples were always nice thanks to tools like Polymorph and their overall good DPS. The problem was more regarding spec-variety: all Mages pretty much went Frost for MC+BWL, then Fire for AQ/Naxx, with elemental resistances in the raids being the main contributor. Meanwhile, Arcane was in the bin because of mana issues.
In SoD, two things can happen to see more diversity in Mage specs: less impactful elemental resistances in raids and Arcane’s mana issues solved. If those things happen, either raids will see more Mage specs varieties, or simply the spec with the better DPS will be dominant, but the colour might be different.

Paladins

In Classic, Alliance raids wanted 5 Paladins to have all the necessary blessings (Might, Wisdom, Kings, Salvation and Light). You could run a 6th Paladin for Sanctuary, but most of the time the buff wasn’t worth it, as the blessing wasn’t that strong in the first place and you had to go rather deep in the protection tree to get it. A Protection Paladin could technically provide it, but a Protection Paladin in the raid was an exception, not the rule. Actually, the only type of Paladins that were brought to the raid were Holy ones, as they had to suffer the “hybrid-class tax” of being forced to heal.

Back on topic. Protection, Retribution and Shockadin all have one thing in common: they are melee specs (with Shockadin being the least melee of them certainly). Which, if there’s no debuff caps in 40 man raids, begs the question: are the 3 Judgements going to be a thing? Crusader, Light and Wisdom were mostly ignored in Classic as it required a debuff slot and a Paladin at melee range (or a Holy Paladin that hated themselves enough to regularly keep a Judgement up) for bonuses that weren’t that great, with Wisdom being the best one by far. Crusader was more of a damage bonus for the Retribution Paladin itself (and now, Shockadins too) and Light was at best a minor heal for the melees.

Priest

Was the best healer back in Classic, and will certainly keep its spot in SoD. What spec healing Priest will certainly be the same across the board, unless some runes or strategies come up asking a healing Priest or two to run a different spec. Healing Priest will have more competition however, due to Restoration Druids being stackable and the new Healing Mages, but their spots could still be safe due to Paladins and Shamans freeing some healer spots due their diversification.

Rogue

Rogues were the go-to DPS of Classic alongside Warriors. If they didn’t, they certainly would be forgotten by all. Now in SoD, they… might be struggling behind. Rogues will have way more competitors that, opposed to them, bring buffs/debuffs and utility to the raid. The only thing Rogues get are interrupts, which only Warriors and Shamans have (Paladin’s and Druid’s interrupts are a bit iffy since it’s a rune and most Paladin and Druid specs will prefer to run something else in their leg slots, but it will also heavily depend on the encounter).

Shaman

Horde raids in Classic had 6 shaman total, leaving the healing group Shaman-less. Due to the “hybrid-class tax”, most of these Shamans were Restoration, with maybe an Enhancement Shaman in the raid for something like Nightfall.

Warlock

Warlocks always had 3 guaranteed spots for their curses: Recklessness, Elements and Shadow. Technically, a 4th warlock could apply a 4th curse with Weakness, but it was largely skipped because it doesn’t stack with Demo Shout/Roar (and won’t stack with Homunculi either). Warlock was also good to stack overall since it was a good DPS class. In SoD, 3 might still be the soft-minimum for those same reasons.

Warrior

Now in SoD, they actually get some competition. You know, other melee specs that deal damage and other classes that can tank. However, it doesn’t mean they do not have a spot in the 40 man raids anymore: Battle Shout, and with Phase 2, Commanding Shout, available to all Warriors no matter the runes they use, is going to be an interesting buff for both melees and tanks! I do wish good luck to all Warriors that are gonna need to keep those two 2 minutes buff up at all times… There was a reason a single Warrior couldn’t keep both up back in TBC… Anyway, this pretty much means the soft-minimum of Warriors is going to be 1 per tank and physical groups. Still hurts a lot compared to the 8 each raid used to have, but still far from completely gone.