With the pre-patch for WoW: Burning Crusade Classic we get access to the extended talent trees, but we are still only allowed to invest 51 talent points. We present some PvE skills that you should definitely try out.
Oh, the pre-patch phase before the launch of WoW: Burning Crusade Classic will be extremely exciting. Finally, we get access to the class design as well as the talent trees from patch 2.4.3, into which we are allowed to distribute 51 talent points. In addition, we are now allowed to leave more debuffs on our targets.
With all of this combined, the pre-patch allows for completely new skill sets for the next visits to raid instances like Naxxramas. In the following, we would like to introduce you to some of the most exciting PvE skills that you should definitely try out in the pre-patch.
Hunter in the Pre-Patch: With Beast Domination to the Top
Hunters are getting a lot of love with Burning Crusade Classic, for example in the form of reasonably scaling companions. They also get access to new, very powerful talents and abilities like Reliable Shot (unfortunately only available at level 62). The significantly improved potential of the Hunter should already be noticeable in the pre-patch, especially if you use a Beast Ruler skill and boost your pet even further.
Exciting talents in the Beastmaster tree include Wildlife Discipline, Train Animals, Wild Inspiration, Dexterity of the Serpent, and Wild Heart. This is what a strong talent lineup might look like for the pre-patch.
For the last four points, you have several options to choose from. If you are the hunter who casts Hunter’s Mark on a target, you should put the points into Improved Hunter’s Mark. Other solid options are Monster Kill, Humanoid Kill, or Hawk Eye in the Survival Tree.
Rogue in Pre-Patch: Is Maiming Worth It?
Most rogues may have flirted with an Assassinate skill in the WoW Classic era, relying on the Seal Fate talent. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a single phase where such a playstyle could keep up with the combat variants in terms of damage.
With the pre-patch, however, two new assassination talents are now coming on board: Detect Weaknesses and, of course, Mutilate. A corresponding skill could look like this with the pre-patch.
Even with this new skill, you won’t be able to keep up with combat rogues that take surprise attacks and combat power. According to the simulations, they are almost 100 DpS (fighting with BiS daggers) and almost 200 DpS (fighting with BiS swords) ahead of the Mutilate skill. However, if you are the rogue in the raid who keeps Improved Armor Weakening active for the other melee fighters, then the talent distribution shown above might be an exciting option for you. With Mutilate and Seal Fate, you just build up combo points very quickly. Here are a few details to keep in mind:
- With the pre-patch, skin Deadly Poison on your secondary hand and Instant Poison on your primary hand (if no Shaman in the group).
- Open with Strangle if possible.
- If you can ever fit in a third finisher, Bleed is now the better choice instead of Eviscerate.
- Use daggers as slow as possible in both hands so that Mutilate does as much damage as possible.
- If you don’t have enough hit chance with equipment, you can put the three points from Improved Chopping into Precision. According to the simulations, both variants are almost on par in terms of DpS.
Shaman in the pre-patch: Elemental and mana? It works!
Over very short phases, elemental shamans in WoW (buy now ) Classic can achieve very high damage numbers. However, the non-existent mana efficiency killed and still kills any gameplay fun in longer PvE battles. Fortunately, with the pre-patch, there’s a savior in the form of the talent Relentless Storm, which scales tremendously well with world buffs and class buffs.
Other exciting new additions include Elemental Precision, Lightning Overload, and of course, the Totem of Ingrim (which your offensive spellcasters will fight over).
You can distribute the last two talent points to your own liking.
Warrior in the pre-patch: killing machine with options
The warrior is the most popular class in WoW Classic and this will also be the case in the pre-patch. And because many raid groups will continue to take plenty of warriors and rogues with them to Naxxramas, a raid warrior should definitely go for the weapon specialization. The reason: Bloodlust. A possible skill could look like the following, although you will of course have to adjust the weapon specialization depending on your weapons.
All other offensive warriors should think about a heavily Furor-focused talent distribution to bring bear-strong new additions like Rampage, Improved Berserk Stance, Weapon Mastery, or Precision.
You’ll have to do without Pierce, but you’ll also save a lot of fill talents that have little to no effect on your damage.
Priests in the pre-patch: Mana battery incoming!
Shadow priests still don’t have it easy in WoW Classic. The debuff slots on enemies are not enough up front and behind, the mana efficiency of the playstyle is poor and the bottom line is that the support for others is not strong enough to compensate for the meager damage. However, the picture will change with the pre-patch.
Focused Thoughts will make for cheaper spells, Shadow Casting, Misery, and Vampire Touch will give you several reasons why other spellcasters want you in the raid, and you won’t have to worry about the debuff slots.
Druid in the pre-patch: What can the owl do?
Apart from speedrun guilds that only allow optimal raid setups, you actually stumble across cats and bears quite regularly in WoW Classic, and druids cut a pretty good figure as healers anyway. The biggest problems so far have clearly been balance. The specialization is not allowed to cast spells like Moonfire, the mana efficiency is meow, the same goes for the damage, which is also hardly boosted by other classes. Fortunately, the situation for moonkins will improve noticeably with the pre-patch.
For example, mana efficiency will be noticeably improved by Dream State. In addition, there will be the improved Mondkingestalt, Improved Fairy Fire, Wrath of Cenarius, Force of Nature, and Balance of Forces.
There are three points left over, which you can distribute freely. You could also gain a fourth point via Force of Nature, the three treants only provide a minimal DpS boost.
Paladins in the Pre-Patch: Protection instead of Holy
Since launch, most Paladins have probably taken on the role of healer in their raid groups. Exceptions like Esfand prove the rule. However, this should change with the pre-patch. Retaliation and Protection get noticeable improvements that bring them out of the meme drawer. Since we find the tank specialization particularly exciting due to its farming potential, we’ll focus on the new Paladin tank below.
A big problem with “prot paladins” in Classic is their meager mana efficiency. However, this is noticeably improved in TBC with the passive improvement Harmony of the Spirit. The better rank 2 version is unfortunately only available at level 66, but rank 1 should be enough to get rid of this problem. Then there are new additions to the talent tree like Sacred Duty, Improved Sacred Shield, Tireless Defender, Combat Expert, and of course Avenger’s Shield. This is what a good talent distribution might look like in the pre-patch.
What is WoW Classic?
World of Warcraft Classic is a true recreation of the original WoW as you know it from 2006. All parts of the game – from combat mechanics and talent trees to character models and zones – have been recreated, contributing to the authentic experience.
Getting Started
All players with an active World of Warcraft subscription or game time on their accounts have access to WoW Classic at no additional cost.
- Open the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App and select World of Warcraft from the menu.
- Select World of Warcraft Classic from the Version menu. If you have more than one World of Warcraft account, you’ll see a second Account drop-down list. In this column, select the active account you want to play with.
- Click the Install button. The progress bar will tell you when your game is ready to play.
- Click the Play button when the installation is complete.
You will need to select the realm you want to play on from several different realm types. Make sure you choose the same realm as your friends – in World of Warcraft Classic, you can only group with characters that are on the same realm as you!
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