Class Guides Tier 18

April 12, 2016

[toc] (Revised May 14, 2016) Know a better option? Suggest a guide!

About

This site strives to compile the best guides and information for World of Warcraft top-level raiding. Principles for including guides:

Link only a few, “best” guides, perhaps others as honorable mentions.
Update guides based on community recommendations and feedback.

This site is maintained by me, Raphan. I progressed in Hellfire Citadel as a Holy Paladin with the 2-day mythic guild Cake Plantation (wowprogress). Armory, Logs, Twitch. Contact me with suggestions or feedback via btag (Raphael#1142) or at raphanwow@gmail.com. If this page is useful to you, let me know. If you see room for improvement, let me know that too.

Death Knight: Blood

(Reviewed April 30, 2016) http://sonofalich.com/ has guides and some forum theorcrafting for Death Knights, though the front page is no longer actively maintained. The text guides there are modified versions of the SummonStone DK guides. Blood Guide by Troxism. MMO-Champion version.

Death Knight: Frost

Death Knight: Unholy

Druid: Balance

(Reviewed April 30, 2016) http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/14731003143 - This Druid Balance guide by Cyous is the best (and only) balance guide that I am aware of. I have not found a reliable discussion forum for balance.

Druid: Feral

(Reviewed April 30, 2016) http://www.fluiddruid.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=3 - Fluid Druid forums have some good feral DPS discussion, and are a good first place to look. http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1608106-Feral-Pawkets-PvE-Guide-FAQ-6-2 - Pawket’s guide to 6.2 feral is great and available in multiple places. The MMO-Champion version is linked above; the guide is also mirrored at Fluid Druid.

Druid: Guardian

(Reviewed April 30, 2016) http://theincbear.com is the go-to spot for bear tanks, with written and video guides and forums.

Druid: Restoration

(Reviewed April 30, 2016) Lavathing’s Guide (http://healcraft.net/druid/) is the definitive 6.2 restoration druid guide.

Hunter: All

(Reviewed April 24, 2016) http://forums.elitistjerks.com/forums/forum/139-hunters/ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_NNkQQgTO9PwD9SbYv1N-vIDC7PeDYXVfrw_0-zvn7k/preview The above document is the definitive 6.2 Hunter guide. Marksmanship is the primary PvE Hunter spec in 6.2. Beast Mastery has some niche uses, but any hunter should perfect Marksmanship before looking into Beast Mastery.

Mage: All

(Reviewed April 24, 2016) Go to http://Altered-Time.com and be happy. Great guides for all three specs, great discussion on all three specs.

Monk: Brewmaster

(Reviewed April 24, 2016) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gDgO0imHnB5yH7AsklC70gOR14ySHVGH_qILC1wMHj0/ This google doc by Misume is probably your best bet. http://sunniersartofwar.com/ This website is a good alternative perspective after reading Misume’s guide. http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1606224-GUIDE-Drunken-Savagery-Brewmaster-Tanking-in-6-2 Madgod’s guide on MMO-Champion is another strong alternative.

Monk: Mistweaver

(Reviewed April 24, 2016) If you’re looking for a guide, the 6.2 guide on MMO-Champion (http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1605914-Mistweavers-of-Draenor-A-Guide-to-PvE-Healing-6-2) is a good start. Misty Teahouse (http://mistyteahouse.com) is the definitive 6.2 Mistweaver resource.

Monk: Windwalker

(Reviewed May 6, 2016) http://www.walkingthewind.com/guides/basic/ by Babylonius - This is probably the best, most concise guide out there for windwalker. http://www.wowhead.com/guides/classes/monk/windwalker by callimonk - Callimonk’s guide, with versions also available on elitistjerks and MMO-Champion, is also strong. Windwalker monks are a bit of a rarity in high-level PvE right now, as the niche windwalker fills (multi-target sustained cleave) is not prevalent in HFC.

Paladin: Holy

(Reviewed April 24, 2016) Overview: Holy Paladin does not have a great centralized theorycrafting location right now. MMO-Champion’s Holy Paladin section is probably the best available; it has some great contributors, but can be hit or miss. https://sacredshielding.wordpress.com/introduction/ - Dreamguard’s overview of 6.2 Holy Paladin. It is overall a great guide and better than anything else for 6.2. Jeath’s Selfless Healer Guide - Jeathe is one of the theorycrafters who advocates for Selfless Healer for all HFC progression fights, on MMO-Champion forums and elsewhere. Read this reddit post for a good summary. http://parselords.com/ - Baddeh’s holy paladin guide. Some excellent tips on boss fights and details on beacon swapping with the glyph. Read this after Dreamguard’s guide and with a skeptical eye. Certain parts, such as those about user interface and selfless healer vs. eternal flame, are not universally accepted.

Paladin: Protection

(Reviewed April 30, 2016) The icy-veins Protection guide by Treckie looks strong. The MMO-Champion Protection guide by Solaïre also looks strong. HFC Fight-by-Fight Protection guide by Veilyn is a great resource.

Paladin: Retribution

(Reviewed April 30, 2016) Solsacra’s Retribution guide on the now-defunct Summon Stone is the best guide of which I am aware. Solsacra also created a retribution theorycrafting discussion thread on MMO-Champion.

Priest: Discipline

(Reviewed April 24, 2016) Overview: http://howtopriest.com is a great one-stop shop resource for priests. http://howtopriest.com/viewforum.php?f=20 - The howtopriest healing forum. This has general theory discussion as well as the following guide, written by Jak, a top holy priest. That’s not a typo disc priests, he prefers holy! http://howtopriest.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=7649 - Introduction to discipline priest. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLghmA2Ek-crmT5xKBVT6sypOM-2ymw17- - Malicrin’s Youtube playlist has boss-by-boss videos with in-depth commentary about disc on mythic HFC fights.

Priest: Holy

(Reviewed April 24, 2016) Overview: http://howtopriest.com is a great one-stop shop resource for priests. http://howtopriest.com/viewforum.php?f=20 - The howtopriest healing forum. This has general theory discussion as well as the following guides, written by Jak, a top holy priest. http://howtopriest.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=7648 - Introduction to holy priest. http://howtopriest.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=7849 - Advanced holy priest - how to maximize performance in Hellfire Citadel by using all the spells in your toolkit.

Priest: Shadow

(Reviewed April 24, 2016) Overview: http://howtopriest.com is a great one-stop shop resource for priests. However, the MMO-Champion forum is a strong resource for shadow priests. This Guide by Kilee25 outlines how to play Shadow Priest with the CoP talent.

Rogue: All

(Reviewed April 30, 2016) Rogues are in a pretty good spot right now as far as community and guides. A nifty thread on MMO-Champion links several important rogue resources. http://ravenholdt.net/ - This rogue-only site has guides for all three specs and discussion forums. http://shadowcraft.mmo-mumble.com/ - This is a rogue-only tool that helps with gearing decisions - think “rogue-only simcraft.” http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1867423-Rogue-PvE-Combat-Guide-for-6-2 - This combat guide by Rylix links to his subtlety and assasination guides. These are alternative perspectives similar in quality to the raveholdt guides.

Shaman: Elemental

(Reviewed April 30, 2016) The best guide I am aware of for elemental is Binkenstein’s guide, hosted on wowhead: http://www.wowhead.com/guide=346/elementals-in-draenor-an-in-depth-guide-to-elemental-shaman. See also his blog at (http://binkenstein.wordpress.com), which has links to a 6.2 gear sheet and other resources.

Shaman: Enhancement

(Reviewed April 30, 2016) The best guide I am aware of for enhancement is Wordup’s guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n4VXB__aIdjBnobKE_tBtASiOafOHiFG48-2HSx0IF4/. He also has a boss tips guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nx4Wgz9DkZGS4FJvLsX2kk_A-MFtynNOXeLk2vn5rbo/.

Shaman: Restoration

(Reviewed April 24, 2016) Chain Heal (http://chainheal.com/) doesn’t really have “one guide,” prefering smaller articles on different aspects of Shaman healing. However, it is the best source for consolidated tips on Restoration Shaman play. If you really want a guide, check out one of these from 6.0.3: (http://lifeingroup5.com/?page_id=3050) or (http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1686494-PVE-Guide-Restoration-Shaman-6-0-3).

Warlock: All

(Reviewed April 24, 2016) The MMO-Champion guides for warlocks are the best guides of which I am aware. Demonology by Woz. Destruction by Furty. Affliction by zvvl. The Summonstone guides are also strong. Note: The introduction of Valor dictates some changes in Warlock play. It makes the T17 bonuses less attractive and the BRF trinkets less attractive.

Warrior: All

(Revised May 14, 2016) The best warrior guides of which I am aware are those on icy-veins: Arms, Fury, Gladiator, Protection. This google doc is a great HFC boss guide for DPS warriors.

Changelog, Thanks

(Revised April 30, 2016) Thank you to all the guide writers for creating and maintaining excellent guides for your specs. Thank you also to everyone who has made suggestions about which guides to include. April 30, 2016 - Revised & updated by checking old links. January 13, 2016 - Several improvements made from the folks at this /r/competitivewow thread. January 11, 2016 - First Public Draft, after on and off work for a few months. Thanks to all the guild members in that let me pick their brain about their class/spec.

Class Guides