Most WoW Forever tier lists this month share one flaw they skip past: the beta never went above level 30, talents start at 10, so nobody has ever spent a 31-point talent. Wild Growth, Lava Burst, Sniper Shot, 
of it has been tested, and the first raid does not open until December 9. A list that ranks level 60 raid DPS is not measuring anything.
What we can rank is what testers played: levels 1 to 30, solo questing, five-man dungeons, open-world fights. The tier list, and how confident you should be
Confidence is information, not hedging. High means the mechanic is visible below 30 and the reports agree; low means the class is defined by tools the beta never reached. S tier: the two classes that make the first 30 levels easy
Hunter is the strongest thing in the beta, and the reason is structural rather than a number. Your pet inherits stats from your gear, so it scales with you instead of falling behind at 20. Traps work in combat, Aimed Shot is baseline at 20, Rapid Fire lands at 26, Feign Death at 30. A very strong early bow made Hunters look better than they are, so expect a small correction.
Warlock is the safer pick if you dislike pet positioning. The Voidwalker tanks, Fear buys you an exit, Life Tap turns health into mana so downtime nearly disappears, and the real change is that damage over time effects can now crit, with Pandemic pushing that bonus to 100 percent. A tier: strong, with one honest gap each
Paladin is the best dungeon tank in the beta and it is not close. Seal of Fury gives Judgement a taunt, Consecration is baseline at 20, and Judgement no longer eats your Seal. Holy Strike at 6 fixes the worst old problem: the first ten levels used to feel like hitting things with a wet newspaper. Blizzard still lists no interrupt and no real slow, so your group carries that.
Mage is the fastest active leveler and the best dungeon damage, with the caveat that mana is tight before 20. Ice Lance against frozen targets was cut from 300 to 200 percent in the October 15 build and Combustion is down to three charges, so the class is being pulled back from "obviously best" territory.
Shaman only becomes a real class at 25, when Stormstrike unlocks, and Windfury Weapon at 30 finishes the job. One-cast totems, 60-minute imbues, five-minute totem duration. Before that, you are drinking a lot.
Priest is quietly the best healer and a slow solo class. Penance plus shields handled pulls that should have killed a cloth wearer; killing things yourself is the trade-off. If you plan to dungeon, it is the least replaceable class in the game.
Rogue gets smoother Energy and the best single-target melee ceiling in Blizzard's own description, but zero self-heals, so solo questing feels slower than the damage suggests. B and C tier: read the label, not the letter
Druid sits low because the beta never let anyone play the version of the class that matters. Cat Form at 20 fixes the damage, Furor keeps your energy through shapeshifts, Leader of the Pack is now raid-wide, and Wild Growth and Berserk arrive after the cap. This is the single most likely class to move up at launch.
Warrior is the worst leveler and the best long-term bet. Rage generation was bugged for most of the beta, crits now generate 100 percent more rage, and Victory Rush at 20 adds healing between pulls. In the original vanilla beta, players would have ranked Warrior dead last too. It went on to define raiding for years. What of this tells you
Thirty-one point talents, dual spec at 40, raid fights and gear at 60 are unmeasured. No level 60 parses exist, so any exact DPS number you see is a simulation. Treat this table's outlook column as a projection. Picking in one line
Solo and new: Hunter. Wanted in groups: Priest or Protection Paladin. Long game: Warrior or Rogue. Active and fast: Mage.
One practical note before launch. Training costs and your first mount are where a fresh character stalls, and some players skip the grind with SSEGold to buy cheap wow forever gold rather than farming ogres for a week. Blizzard has been enforcing against gold trading all beta, so weigh that.
This list gets rewritten on November 4, and again on December 9 when raids open.
of it has been tested, and the first raid does not open until December 9. A list that ranks level 60 raid DPS is not measuring anything.What we can rank is what testers played: levels 1 to 30, solo questing, five-man dungeons, open-world fights. The tier list, and how confident you should be
| Class | Leveling | Dungeon | Open world PvP | Level 60 outlook | Confidence |
| Hunter | S | B | A | B | High |
| Warlock | S | A | S | A | High |
| Paladin | A | S (Prot) | B | A | High |
| Shaman | A | A | A | A | Medium |
| Mage | A | S | S | B | Medium |
| Priest | B | S (healer) | A | S (healer) | High |
| Rogue | B | B | S | S | Medium |
| Druid | B | A (bear) | B | A | Low |
| Warrior | C | A | B | S | Low |
Hunter is the strongest thing in the beta, and the reason is structural rather than a number. Your pet inherits stats from your gear, so it scales with you instead of falling behind at 20. Traps work in combat, Aimed Shot is baseline at 20, Rapid Fire lands at 26, Feign Death at 30. A very strong early bow made Hunters look better than they are, so expect a small correction.
Warlock is the safer pick if you dislike pet positioning. The Voidwalker tanks, Fear buys you an exit, Life Tap turns health into mana so downtime nearly disappears, and the real change is that damage over time effects can now crit, with Pandemic pushing that bonus to 100 percent. A tier: strong, with one honest gap each
Paladin is the best dungeon tank in the beta and it is not close. Seal of Fury gives Judgement a taunt, Consecration is baseline at 20, and Judgement no longer eats your Seal. Holy Strike at 6 fixes the worst old problem: the first ten levels used to feel like hitting things with a wet newspaper. Blizzard still lists no interrupt and no real slow, so your group carries that.
Mage is the fastest active leveler and the best dungeon damage, with the caveat that mana is tight before 20. Ice Lance against frozen targets was cut from 300 to 200 percent in the October 15 build and Combustion is down to three charges, so the class is being pulled back from "obviously best" territory.
Shaman only becomes a real class at 25, when Stormstrike unlocks, and Windfury Weapon at 30 finishes the job. One-cast totems, 60-minute imbues, five-minute totem duration. Before that, you are drinking a lot.
Priest is quietly the best healer and a slow solo class. Penance plus shields handled pulls that should have killed a cloth wearer; killing things yourself is the trade-off. If you plan to dungeon, it is the least replaceable class in the game.
Rogue gets smoother Energy and the best single-target melee ceiling in Blizzard's own description, but zero self-heals, so solo questing feels slower than the damage suggests. B and C tier: read the label, not the letter
Druid sits low because the beta never let anyone play the version of the class that matters. Cat Form at 20 fixes the damage, Furor keeps your energy through shapeshifts, Leader of the Pack is now raid-wide, and Wild Growth and Berserk arrive after the cap. This is the single most likely class to move up at launch.
Warrior is the worst leveler and the best long-term bet. Rage generation was bugged for most of the beta, crits now generate 100 percent more rage, and Victory Rush at 20 adds healing between pulls. In the original vanilla beta, players would have ranked Warrior dead last too. It went on to define raiding for years. What
of this tells youThirty-one point talents, dual spec at 40, raid fights and gear at 60 are unmeasured. No level 60 parses exist, so any exact DPS number you see is a simulation. Treat this table's outlook column as a projection. Picking in one line
Solo and new: Hunter. Wanted in groups: Priest or Protection Paladin. Long game: Warrior or Rogue. Active and fast: Mage.
One practical note before launch. Training costs and your first mount are where a fresh character stalls, and some players skip the grind with SSEGold to buy cheap wow forever gold rather than farming ogres for a week. Blizzard has been enforcing against gold trading all beta, so weigh that.
This list gets rewritten on November 4, and again on December 9 when raids open.