WoW Classic: Season of Discovery has mixed up the class meta and breathed new life into the MMO with its new Rune Engraving system, allowing classes to take on previously unavailable or unheard-of roles.
With these new abilities and class roles, players have more freedom in how they can enjoy WoW Classic and potentially discover a new way to play their favorite class. If you are jumping into Season of Discovery, you might be wondering what classes can do and what roles they fill so you can pick the right one for your playstyle. To help you get to grips with these new changes, we’ve put together this guide with details on the current role setup in WoW Classic: Season of Discovery.
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What are Roles in WoW Classic Season of Discovery?
Roles are the jobs that your class can fulfill in WoW Classic: Season of Discovery and determine what you will do when playing content, such as dungeons and raids.
There are three main roles your class could potentially fill, with some classes able to fill multiple roles. These are as follows:
- Tanks – Sporting high health and defense, this role focuses on drawing enemy attention and keeping it to protect the party. They will often have several abilities to block and reduce damage taken and have a selection of damaging abilities that can hinder enemies and make them easier for the party to kill.
- DPS – The primary damage dealers, those in this role are tasked with doing as much damage as they can to enemies and, on occasion, dealing with some extra mechanics or quirks that come with dungeons, raids, and bosses. There are two types of DPS, melee and ranged, with some classes able to do both.
- Healer – The support role in a party, healers are tasked with keeping the party alive and providing buffs and support to help tanks stay alive, and DPS do the most damage possible. This role is often seen as the most vital yet challenging to play, as it plays a significant role in your party’s success in content.
In every dungeon, you will usually have a tank, healer, and 3 DPS, making up a party of five, whereas, for raids, it’s possible to have 40 players in some raids, though in the current Phase of Season of Discovery, there is only a 10 player raid for Blackfathom Deeps.
All Class Roles in WoW Classic: Season of Discovery
Thanks to the new Rune Engraving system, new abilities have been added to the game that allows certain classes to take on roles they never could before, opening up more ways to play Classic and its classes.
Below we have listed all the roles that classes can play in Season of Discovery, labeling those that are new. We will update this guide with each new phase of Season of Discovery if any new roles become available to classes.
| Class | Tank | Healer | DPS (Melee) | DPS (Ranged) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Druid | O | O | O | O |
| Hunter | O | O | ||
| Mage | O (New) | O | ||
| Paladin | O | O | O | |
| Priest | O | O | ||
| Rogue | O (New) | O | ||
| Shaman | O (New) | O | O | O |
| Warlock | O (New) | O | ||
| Warrior | O | O |
New Roles in WoW Classic: Season of Discovery
As we mentioned, several classes can now perform new roles in Season of Discovery, which allows for more flexibility in their class and gives new ways to play. To give you a bit more detail on what these entail, we have listed some details and noteworthy mentions on the new class roles below so you can have an idea of what to expect if you want to try a completely new style of class and gameplay.
Mage Healer
Mages are now able to act as party healers thanks to Runes spells such as Regeneration, Mass Regeneration, and Rewind Time. Their primary method of healing comes from the Temporal Beacon buff status, which applies to anyone they heal and converts 80% of all arcane damage the Mage does (except for Arcane Explosion) into healing for those with the status.
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This allows the Mage to deal some damage while also supporting the party, and with Rewind Time, they can spot-heal when needed and keep up the healing effects through a fight.
Shaman Tank
Plenty of Classic players will say a Shaman could tank before, but now, thanks to Season of Discovery, it’s become a full-fledged reality! This is thanks to the Way of Earth Rune effect, which gives you multiple effects and bonuses when the Rockbiter weapon is active on your main weapon. These include increasing your threat by 50%, giving a 6% reduction of critical hits from melee attacks, 10% reduced damage, 30% more health, and Earth Shock becoming the class’s taunt.
On top of that, you have Shield Mastery, which causes each block to regenerate 8% of your mana and give you armor equal to 30% of your shield armor value. This can then stack five times, and you get an increased block chance and an increased value with each stack. In essence, you’ll be stocked on mana and defensive capabilities, making you quite the powerhouse.
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They also have some of the best AoE tanking currently thanks to the Molten Blast Rune ability, which hits 4 enemies in front of you, generates a lot of threat, and has a chance to reset its cooldown thanks to Flame Shock.
Rogue Tank
Thanks to two new Runes, Just a Flesh Wound, and Blade Dance, the ever-sneaky Rogue has found its way into the tanking role. Just a Flesh Wound gives Rogues a 20% reduction on damage taken while Blade Dance is active, and their threat generated gets a massive increase; on top of that, they get a 6% reduction of critical hits from melee attacks, and Feint becomes their taunt called Tease.
As for Blade Dance, this finishing move gives the Rogue an increase to their Parry chance, with the effect lasting longer and having a higher percentage based on combo points spent. Couple this with Evasion and other moves to avoid attacks, and you’ll easily slip through enemy attacks.
Warlock Tank
Lastly, we have the Warlock, who thanks to the Metamorphosis Rune, can become a demonic tank. This Rune transforms the Warlock into a demon, with 500% more armor, a 6% reduction to they will be critically hit, an increase to threat by 50%, and Life Tap mana gains increase by 100%. On top of that, several spells are altered, with Searing Pain becoming an instant cast, Shadow Bolt becoming Shadow Cleave, a melee AoE ability, and Fear becoming Menace, the Warlocks Taunt.
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Aside from this, you have some freedom in what Runes you want to couple with your new tanking capabilities. Personally, for leg Runes I recommend either Demonic Grace, which increases you and your pet’s chance to critical strike and your dodge by 30% for 6 seconds, or Incinerate, which burns an enemy and increases the damage they take from Fire by 25% for 15 seconds.
As for your Chest Rune, Master Channeler, which chances Drain Life into a 15-second DoT that heals 50% more health, or Lake of Fire, which leaves an Area burning after using Rain of Fire, are good options depending on whether you want some extra offensive of defensive capabilities.
