In this guide, I will talk everything about raid comps in WoW Classic Season of Discovery.
Types Of Players
Before we talk comps, I want to discuss the different approaches to the game. There are really two main approaches.
The first camp is the one that wants to clear the raid as early as possible. Maybe you want Bragging Rights of being the first guild on your server to clear the new raid, or you might even want to be the next echo and be pushing for World First for all the glory. And then, once that title is secure, you want to clear the raid as fast as you can. To clear the raid quickly, you need to use SOD Gold to buy some good weapons and armor to equip your character!
The second camp has a different goal. This is the average-player camp and they want to clear the raid consistently. They really don’t want to be running back over and over again. They also want to maximize loot drops, so class stacking becomes a less viable option. Even though they’re not speedrunning, they still want raid times to be fast enough so they can fit other things in of the night, like working on more characters.
Whatever your goal is, I’ve created several comps that’ll hopefully get your brain thinking in new ways about Season of Discovery. This does have the potential to be the most broken and fun version of WoW we’ve ever seen, so let’s start thinking outside the box and make some raid comps.
No matter what you decide with a speedrun comp, you are gambling somewhat.
Speedrun Comp 1
Runes have been nerfed and changed several times, so your perfect comp may end up being far weaker than you thought.
However, we do know a few things about classic that should still be true. Hunters level really fast and they’ll obtain Pre-BIS more easily than any other class. Just look at recent videos of people soloing items like the Furbolg Medicine Pouch at level 25.
If you want to clear the raid the first week, a Hunter stack makes a lot of sense. They do get new runes like Explosive Shot and Sniper Training for increased Critical Strike as well. Plus, at least 1 Hunter is always required in your raid for Aspect of the Lion, at least if you’re Horde.
The other required DPS is always going to be a Feral Druid. That way you can get Wild Strikes for Windfury to buff up the tanks and the DPS.
You might notice that we’re missing a Mage, but Scrolls of Intellect and Sweet Nectar are both stronger, anyway. Plus, I just value the Hellstones and the Ritual of Summoning more in case anybody dies. As for your tank, they could be anything.
To me, Protection Warrior makes the most sense to spam Sunder Armor with a new Devastate rune. I’m also very sold on double Priest in Phase 1. I do plan for one of them to be Holy while the other one is Discipline, so they don’t overlap too much.
Speedrun Comp 2
For our second speedrun comp, I wanted to make a Warrior stack.
This comp would be gambling in a different direction, which is directly towards Warriors. They’re simming really well and if those projections are even close to accurate, arms will be so strong.
Personally, I’m not quite as sold on Warriors until later phases, but I do know some guilds plan to go in this direction.
Balanced Comp 1
Now that we’ve gotten speedrun comps out of the way, I want to talk about balanced comps.
The first balanced comp is very low risk and it’ll have nearly guaranteed success in the raid. This would also be probably the best comp for maximizing loot since there really isn’t much class overlap.
Just like before, we’ve got to start with a Druid, who’ll be the off tank as needed and we definitely need a Hunter for Kings as well.
Then, we just go for a rainbow in terms of glass colors. As an example, I’ve swapped the Warrior tank out for a Shaman tank, though anything could work here like a Protection Paladin.
The biggest key to this comp is the Balance Druid, who can become a third healer as needed depending on the fight. Plus, a second Druid means 2 Battle Rez, which is fantastic.
Instead of a two Priest healer comp, I have swapped to a Restoration Shaman as well. My reasoning is that this is the same company that developed Titan Rune Gamma.
If we’re not getting feared across Blackfathom Deeps during at least two boss fights, I’ll be disappointed. Though that does mean Tremor Totem is a must have.
Balanced Comp 2
Another low-risk balance comp would be to run a Caster stack. In this build, we’re relying on homunculus to provide an over negative 1,000 armor debuff as well as the Demoralizing Shout.
In group 1, that frees up the Warrior to just blast maximum DPS, or it even allows you to do something else entirely, like an Enhanced Shaman. Meanwhile, in group 2, the Elemental Shaman has the ability to bring Shamanistic Rage for Mana regenerated for the whole party, which is stacked with Casters.
In a Caster stack like this, the Arcane Mage should fit really well, too. They provide near priest level healing over a longer period of time with their high Mana Pool and their Evocation.
The Gimmick Comps
Moving away from realistic to comps, I also wanted to share a few gimmick comps.
The first would be an Affliction Warlock stack based on Master Channeler. My early math puts the base of Master Channeler at over 26 heals per second. All we need to do is add in some tank healing for our main tank Affliction Warlock and everybody else should be relatively self-sustaining.
The second gimmick comp would be a Fire Mage stack. The early math I did had fire mages really blasting. If the additional fights we didn’t see at BlizzCon are really short, this might actually be viable.
Though, no matter which comp you go with, you’re now armed with far more options.
