wow Castle Nathria 9.0.5 DPS Log Rankings and Analysis, Week 4: Shadow and Fire

[Starym 3,800]

 

Another week of Nathria raiding has passed for both NA and EU guilds and we can see some changes in the rankings, but the very top has become fairly stable at this point, with Arcane being the latest to join and seems to be sticking there! This week we'll also be taking a more in-depth look at two of the most consistent and top performing specs throughout Shadowlands, as our guide writer experts take a look at Shadow (the top single target DPS) and Fire.

In the 95th percentile we see Unholy moving back up in the world, coming in right behind its fellow Frost DK after the chilly spec had a major lead in recent times, after having come up from the bottom. Last week's golden boy Demonology dropped just a little, but it's still very high compared to previous weeks, and while Affliction remains in it's extremely solid top 3 spot, Destruction has also risen this week. The bottom of the charts moved around a little, but it's still the same Subtlety, Arms, Enhancement and two Hunter specs at the rear end of the rankings.

95th percentile Mythic data by Warcraft Logs.

In the all percentiles chart things are a little different, especially for Assassination, as it's risen even higher this week, passing Elemental and getting in the top 5!

All percentiles Mythic data by Warcraft Logs.

And here's an in-depth look at two of the most stable specs at the top of the meters, as we haven't talked about them in a long time, since they just do not move around the rankings much, preferring to keep to the very top.

Shadow Priest by Publik

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As more guilds start to get Castle Nathria fully on farm, it is clear to see that Shadow Priest remains one of the most consistent  top performing DPS in the raid. In fact, when looking at Boss Damage specifically, you can see that Shadow Priest is the clear favorite top DPS across all specs.

Truthfully you would see Shadow do even better in aggregate if it weren’t for the specs performance on Sire Denathrius and Stone Legion Generals.

Looking at why this is, you can see that having a durable base toolkit to work from paired with some real choices in the talent tree and legendary power section can really give Shadow Priest the edge over other DPS specs. In addition, having the strongest single target in the game clearly comes to its advantage, especially with the many different ways we can tailor this depending on the given fight. Being able to choose Void Torrent and Talbadar's Stratagem for great single target, or Mindbender and Shadowflame Prism for good cleave damage gives the spec some options for how to handle the more common aspects of encounter design. On top of this you can easily make any of the four covenants work for you as a Shadow Priest, giving even further depth into the existing toolkit for the Priest. That being said, you are now seeing a confident amount of players parsing well as Night Fae specifically, giving you even more cooldown uptime to help sync up more Mindbenders with Voidform for extra Shadowflame Prism damage. All of these things are perpetuating Shadow being one of the best DPS in the opening tier of Shadowlands.

Fire Mage by Dutchmagoz

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Fire Mages have been in a good spot since the start of the tier. There are various reasons for this, and below I'll go over some of them.

One of the biggest reasons is how well Fire's cooldowns line up with mechanics in the raid. Combustion being on a one minute cooldown (as Night Fae Covenant, with Kindling talented), makes it so that Fire can do good damage at the right time in pretty much every situation. This, combined with how strong Combustion is for a one minute cooldown, means Fire can utilize additional targets very well since you will have Combustion up any time additional targets are part of the fight.

Another major reason is gearing. Aside from having multiple items that are best in slot being very easy to achieve, a lot of the conduits, legendaries, trinkets, etc, are very good for both single target and AoE damage, meaning Fire does not have to compromise on either. One of its best trinkets comes from PvP (Badge), which is completely farmable. It is both great on single target and on AoE since it lines up perfectly with Combustion. Additionally, Fire's best in slot legendary (now Disciplinary Command, Fevered Incantation before DC buffs) boosts Combustion damage significantly, meaning it is also great for both single target and AoE.

Additionally, Fire can handle all mechanics the raid throws at it very efficiently, and thus has to barely give up any DPS to do these mechanics. There are barely any mechanics that require much more movement than just Shimmer, and if there are, Fire generates a lot of instant casts in the form of Hot Streak, making it so it can easily stutter step for most mechanics where Shimmer isn't enough. On top of that, the spec is extremely mobile during execute phases due to the Searing Touch talent, which allows it to use Scorch as a filler, which is castable while moving.

Finally, Fire is simply tuned quite well, where even if the fights did not work in its favour, it would still be able to do decent DPS. Combine this with all the reasons listed above, and it is easy to see why Fire has been a constant strong spec in Castle Nathria.

Things remained the same in Heroic this week, with Assassination being even higher than in Mythic all percentiles, indicating that regular players really prefer the spec to the top-end and are performing very well with it.

All percentiles Heroic data by Warcraft Logs.

As always, if you want even more info on a spec, you can check out our class guides here.