What are the best classes to play in WoW Classic SoD Phase 2? Season of Discovery is World of Warcraft Classic’s “wildcard mode”. It looks and feels like the original Warcraft, but new encounters, abilities and mechanics keep things fresh. That can make choosing a class challenging. In Season of Discovery Phase 2, characters can reach a level cap of 40, which adds in a pile of new abilities and questlines. There are also new runes, which allow you to etch additional abilities onto your gear, for every class. These change the game in interesting ways–healing mages, tanking warlocks, melee hunters–and add to the complexity when you’re choosing what to play.
We’ve weighed all the new runes in the MMORPG, the way classes have been playing so far in the season, and the comments from players about which classes are just plain fun. These are our recommendations for the four classes you should consider in World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery Phase 2.
The best WoW Classic SoD Phase 2 classes
Here are the best classes to play as in World of Warcraft Classic’s Season of Discovery Phase 2:
Mage – play a weapon of mass destruction
There is no better class in the game for nuking everything on screen than Mages. They’re particularly strong in Season of Discovery because of the level cap – their spells have strong base damage, and they scale very well with the limited gear available before max level.
Mages aren’t the best pick in every in-game situation. Their single-target damage is lower than some other classes, and running out of mana can be an issue. But there’s no class that can touch them in practical AoE, which means Mages are still soloing dungeons.
In the original SoD phase, Mages got Runes that added healing abilities to the class – basically, you could use small heals to leave a buff on players, then use a big AoE heal that would target the players with that buff. Those mechanics are still in effect for Phase 2, but all the new Runes for mages except one target damage abilities, adding Frostfire and Spellfrost damage.
These new dual-school spells are fun, and help with fighting enemies that might have a single high resistance of one type or another. (They resist at the lowest of the two schools of magic.)
Hunter – an unkillable solo juggernaut
Hunter makes our list because it’s the best solo class in the game. With pets becoming even more powerful, and a lovely mana regen Rune that triggers from pet damage, the Hunter moves from a strong leveling spec to the king of solo combat. Being able to throw traps only adds to that fun.
If you’re tired of shooting at things, Phase 2 also brings a bunch of new Runes aimed at boosting Hunters’ survival spec, buffing Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite. Survival Hunter is a strong spec for dungeons and the new Gnomeregan raid in Phase 2.
It is a legitimate contender versus Beast Mastery for the most enjoyable Hunter spec–and one of the most powerful, if not most powerful, melee spec in the game. It’s a very simple rotation, with just a button or two, but then that’s the ethos of Classic.
Hunters do well at lower levels because, like Mages, they are stronger at base power. They don’t have significant mana issues compared to some other classes, particularly with the new pet damage mana regeneration.
They tend to scale more poorly, at least as ranged specs, because pets don’t scale as well as their masters–and in Season of Discovery, pets are a much higher percentage of the Hunter’s overall damage. Hunter Runes are also, by and large, not difficult to get compared to some other classes.
Druid – a challenging, but versatile melee contender
Druids have been more difficult to play in Classic as anything other than a buff-bot and mid-tier healer. Season of Discovery has changed that, making cat dps and bear tanking worth serious consideration. In Phase 2, cats and bears get Berserk, a 15-second cooldown that adds significant damage (and therefore threat, for bears) and fear immunity.
Cats get another strong cooldown in Tiger’s Fury, and bears get Survival Instincts, which massively increases their health for a short period while tanking. Basically, Phase 2 adds in some of the core abilities from modern WoW while retaining the flavor of Classic, a theme across classes in this fun experiment.
Between the new additions and the ability to weave in power shifting for spell damage and other utility, Druids have earned themselves spots in groups for their high single-target damage and group buffs and utility. In Alliance groups with melee players, ferals are now virtually required, since they bring the Alliance equivalent of Windfury Totem, a powerful extra damage buff for players that like to hit things.
Other than Berserk windows, feral Druids do pretty terrible AoE damage, so you’re not likely to fill a group with them. But they’re still a hoot to play, and you’re likely to want at least one orange bar in any group you put together.
Priest – a healing powerhouse that somehow also does terrific DPS
If you’re going to pick a healing class in Phase 2, you can’t go wrong with the Priest. All three specializations are strong, and Discipline in particular is eye-openingly fun with the ability to do both strong DPS and powerful heals. If you like to play PvP, Priest is also a no-brainer choice, whether in battlegrounds, world PvP or duels.
Priest is best at healing – while the shadow specialization is surprisingly strong (for Classic) at the moment, it’s not as solid as the other DPS choices we’ve listed here. But if you’re someone who likes to be able to level or farm without a huge struggle while still playing a healing character, Priest is a strong choice.
Phase 2 Runes for Priests look like a best-of for modern WoW abilities: Mind Spike for AoE, Pain Suppression as a powerful damage reduction spell for allies, Dispersion for your own self-preservation, and the interesting Spirit of the Redeemer cooldown, which turns you into an unkillable angel on the battlefield (but takes away Spirit of Redemption, your unkillable angel when you yourself are killed).
All classes in Warcraft’s Season of Discovery Phase 2 received interesting abilities and buffs. But these four stand out as the best classes to play, and any one of them will serve you well. If you’re looking for more general World of Warcraft content, check out our list of the best WoW addons. We’ve also got the WoW Dragonflight tier list, if you’re eager for more of our expert insights.