World of Warcraft: The War Within — The winners and losers of patch 11.1

Every new World of Warcraft (WoW) patch brings a boatload of changes to each class. This is even more true with WoW patch 11.1 for The War Within (TWW). With some class specializations getting completely overhauled alongside immense reworks, buffs, and nerfs, the new patch and Season 2 are huge. With that said, some classes and specializations are definite winners, while others drew the short straw in the balancing department.

Read on for the list of the biggest winners and losers of WoW TWW patch 11.1 – with plenty of insights from Bellular's amazing overview in the video below.

Disclaimer: There are many more classes not mentioned here with some huge changes as well. These are just the ones that stood out. If your class isn't mentioned, it is best to play and find out for yourself.

Although Hunters are generally always in a somewhat decent spot with at least one of their specializations, this patch takes them to a whole new level. With some big changes across all three of the damage dealer’s specializations, the class now has a proper place in all content.

For the Marksmanship (MM) Hunter players, there have been numerous changes to the Dark Ranger and Sentinel trees, while some skills such as Streamline have been… well, streamlined. In their developer notes, Blizzard added that they were trying to reimagine the sharpshooter fantasy, which MM Hunters play around. To do this, pets are no longer a thing for the specialization (unless talented).

Instead, MM will have a barely visible eagle, which carries out the same duties as a pet – minus the damage penalty. With a trove of new talents, MM will be able to keep up in Mythic+ keys on area of effect (AoE) damage and still compete on single-target fights, too.

For Beast Mastery (BM), there are a lot of changes, too. With the Pack Leader tree revamped, the class can go forth in their own “beastlord” fantasy playstyle. The class will be able to summon a plethora of pets to go forth and wreak havoc, including a bear, wyvern, and boar – akin to Rexxar, one of the most famous Warcraft Hunters.

Paladins are a class that has just about everything in their kit – from defensive abilities to aid the group to massive damage, the class has always been remarkable. When it comes to patch 11.1, Paladin continues to shine, with Holy now also being in the spotlight (we hope).

It has been years since Holy Paladins felt as though they were pulling their weight in any content. Finally, the developers have listened and given the specialization a ton of love. While it’s one thing for Holy to finally have Unbound Freedom for mobility, the extensive changes make the class look a bit more impressive, on paper at least. Here is hoping that Holy finally returns to a great pick for a lot of content.

There is not a whole lot to say about Retribution. The specialization speaks for itself, especially after getting some nice new abilities at the cost of some self-healing. There is never really a time where Retribution can go wrong and with their heaps of utility, they are a must in a lot of content.

Much like the previous two Paladin specializations, Protection looks to be in a fantastic spot right now. While receiving a few nerfs in the patch, it probably will not do enough to deter it from being one of the better tanks, especially at the more casual level of play. But that does not mean that we will not see Protection Paladin showing up in higher keys or raiding environments.

Throughout TWW thus far, Restoration Shaman has been one of the best healers, especially for M+ content. For almost every tier of keys, the specialization has excelled, albeit with the right composition in front of it. For the two damage dealer specializations, they remained around the middle of the pack, depending on the content, with Elemental being the better choice for most. However, this is likely to change.

The patch notes for Shaman are extensive, to say the least, with what seems like pages upon pages of changes to read through. Simply scrolling through the changes feels like reading over a university thesis. What it boils down to is that Shaman should take a huge step up in the rankings – especially Enhancement. It is fairly difficult to sum it up more than that, but as can be seen below, Enhancement has some fantastic changes to, not only their skills but the user interface (UI), too.

With an AoE talent added for Riptide, additional healing across the board, and a few new talents thrown in for good measure, Restoration looks as though it will remain a solid choice. However, it is possible that the likes of Holy Paladin will maybe begin to challenge in higher M+ keys – but that remains to be seen.

There is not a lot that we can say about Warrior, especially the two damage-dealing specializations, Arms and Fury. Even with countless buffs in the patch and a few minor positive tweaks, the talent trees for the two just do not feel great. With Fury being the preferred specialization, nothing seems to go right for the players.

From personal experience, most Fury Warriors have switched to Retribution Paladin, although some stick it out in the hope that the developers will figure everything out. On the plus side, maybe there is hope, after numerous failed attempts to get it right, but that could just be the “copium” talking.

Ever since their release during Dragonflight, Evoker, specifically Augmentation, has ruled in M+. It is hard to find a season where the specialization was not heralded for its utility and the amount of damage it adds to everyone. Finally, this will be nerfed, with Augmentation no longer as strong.

While their damage will still be quite great, they now are just a damage dealer buff. The nerf, in layman’s terms, simply removes the buff from tanks and healers. This may not seem that big on paper, but when it comes to precious seconds during M+, it can be huge.

This one hits a bit too hard, as someone who used to main Assassination Rogue for quite some time. It almost feels as though Blizzard simply forgot about the class in general when working on patch 11.1. That said, Rogue players are used to not getting a whole lot of attention and just mindlessly doing their rotations.

However, the absolute lack of any care given to the Rogue changes across all three specializations feels like a Kick to the shins – or a Gouge to the eyeballs, whichever pun fits.

Overall, we will have to wait for Season 2 of WoW: TWW to release on March 4 to see some definitive numbers for where each class and specialization stands. Right now, as far as balancing goes, there are certainly a lot more winners than losers.

But people should not be turned away simply by “meta” graphics because the game is there to be enjoyed.

For more World of Warcraft information and further content on patch 11.1, stay tuned to esports.gg.