You’ll be doing yourself a disservice by limiting your overall throughput whenever you play these classes. This unholy trinity of classes should be avoided at all costs if you’re looking to play PvE content at a competitive level. Other classes in this tier that experienced recent sweeping changes include Fire Mage and Arms Warrior. Experienced Affliction players can still pump out some serious numbers with the spec. Affliction Warlock, for example, was a former “flavor of the month” spec a short while ago, but after several nerfs and general balance changes to the spec throughout the lifespan of Patch 9.0, the spec is in a weaker but still workable state. The classes in this tier are definitely less competitive than the specs you’ll find in the previous two tiers, but these options still have their merits for players who are expertly skilled and know their way around their class. With raw damage increases to core abilities like Gloomblade and Backstab, Subtlety became a competitive choice for raiding and Mythic+ practically overnight.
Subtlety Rogue stands out as a newcomer to the higher tier thanks to the immense amount of buffs the class received prior to Patch 9.1.
The high tier of DPS specs is made up of reliable ranged options such as Elemental Shaman, Demonology Warlock, as well as several high-powered melee specs like Havoc Demon Hunter and Retribution Paladin.
