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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsArmory data: Popular and unpopular specs
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
May 3rd 2007 at 11:05AM
Finally, someone has done something worthwhile with the Armory other than make fun of people's gear and complain about invasions of privacy. Zyph of Maelstrom wrote a program that pulled random names of level 70 characters off of Allakhazam and inputted them into the Armory, and then compared their specs. He ended up with the spec information of over six thousand players.
Zyph wanted to find out three things from his study. First off, he wanted to know what percentage of a class was specialized (31 points or more) in one tree. Then he wanted to see how many people who were specialized in a tree skipped the 31- and 41-point talents of that tree, and how many took them. The results of his survey can be found beyond the cut.
Man, that's a lot of data, and you have no idea how long it took me to turn it into a table. But it's nice to have it like this, because we can compare some of the most and least popular builds and talents in WoW.
Most Popular Builds:
- Marksmanship Hunter
- Holy Paladin
- Feral Druid
Least Popular Builds:
- Survival Hunter
- Ret Pally
- Discipline Priest
Most Evenly Balanced Trees:
- Mages
- Shamans
- Warlocks
Most Popular 31-Point Talents:
- Shadowform (Shadow Priest)
- Trueshot Aura (Marks Hunter)
- Mortal Strike (Arms Warrior)
- Ice Barrier (Frost Mage)
Least Popular 31-Point Talents:
- Lightwell (Holy Priest)
- Wyvern Sting (Survival Hunter)
- Power Infusion (Discipline Priest)
- Dark Pact (Affliction Warlock)
Most Popular 41-Point Talents:
- Earth Shield (Resto Shaman)
- Mangle (Feral Druid)
- Vampiric Touch (Shadow Priest)
- Devastate (Prot Warrior)
Least Popular 41-Point Talents:
- Circle of Healing (Holy Priest)
- Pain Suppression (Discipline Priest)
- Slow (Arcane Mage)
- Readiness (Survival Hunter)
So what conclusions can we draw from this? I'm somewhat shocked that only one offspec/PVP spec is the most popular spec for its class -- feral druids. For most other classes, the most popular spec is the classic raid spec (except for mages, and their optimal raid spec really changes from dungeon to dungeon.) Particularly surprising is that there's more prot pallies than ret pallies at 70 -- from browsing the pally forums, you'd expect quite the opposite.
Talentwise, it looks like healing priests aren't just complaining on the forums about the worthlessness of their 31- and 41-point talents. Very few priests have even taken the 31- and 41- point Holy and Discipline talents. Part of that might be because 40-21 builds are more popular, and because the shadow tree in particular is very strong right now. Survival hunters are also lacking, both in overall popularity and in their high-level talents. And despite the problems shamans have been having lately, their 41-point talent is still the most popular of all who specialized in a build, and they're very evenly balanced between their three trees.
What do you think about this data?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Talents
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
Scruffy May 3rd 2007 2:11PM
"Holy Priest 53.7% make up for all priests on this server.
hmmmm.....yet only 23.3% of ALL of them only take the 31 pt, and 16.3 % take the 41 pt."
Wait... are you saying 23.3% of all priests or 23.3% of non-shadow spec priests? I can only assume the latter but thought I'd ask.
Frankly, I'm surprised that many even took CoH at all.
Lightwell? Well... it's not that bad but not exactly something to write home about being a 31 talent point spell. It's something nice for 'locks if you're not a Spriest.
andreas May 3rd 2007 2:14PM
Or you can use this:
http://www.geekboys.org/arena/index/5/all/hunter/all/all/
Pick class in the drop down.
Scruffy May 3rd 2007 2:20PM
Ooh, I had a thought: What are the most popular talents per a tree?
It'd be hard to sort out since any of the early ones would likely be choose irregardless of spec as well as dealing with talents that might only be picked as filler and not specced to full (3/5 or whatever).
Heh... Has anyone read the entire thread yet?
Mekias May 3rd 2007 2:30PM
I'd like to see this list redone for raiders only. You can maybe only use people who are honored or higher with Karazhan.
I will say that Shaman has 3 nice and balanced trees pre-raid but I'll hazard a guess that at least 70% of "raiding" Shamans are Resto.
Interesting data though. I can't see how Blizzard continues to ignore Priests when their Holy and Disc pinnacle talents are largely ignored.
Evelyn May 3rd 2007 2:44PM
*sighs*
I've always been different and I guess my DIS spec down to pain supp only proves it.
But hey, I find it very enjoyable.
And yes these stats should be taken w/ a grain of salt as Allah is not used by everyone.
ridestowe May 3rd 2007 3:07PM
rofl, 50% of ele shamans dont take the 41 point talent! cmon blziz the data doesnt lie, fix it!
Zequel May 3rd 2007 3:13PM
I've played my mage a long time. I've tried out a lot of different builds. I was fire when frost was the tree of choice.
What most mages don't know though, is that slow is one of the best spells in the game for 5mans. I can sheep one target and kite another with it. It's actually superior to IB in PVE. With IB, you obviously can't do anything, sitting their helplessly while the mob on you goes to take a swing at your healer.
With slow, if I overaggro, I can just kite the mob and kill it. And its also superior to frost snares as well due to its instant cast nature and its duration (15seconds). I've also used it on pulls to prevent mobs from attacking clothies (esp priests who have their shackles resisted).
Granted if you're raiding, you're better off going deep fire if you have the +spell damage but in 5mans, slow is king. I'm betting most mages haven't even tried it or tried it once and gave up. A lot of players are like that, like priests who don't try Prayer of Mending. It's kinda sad.
Erich May 3rd 2007 4:27PM
I'm very surprised the feral druid 31 pt talent (leader of the pack) is not in the top 4. If we are talking about level 70 builds with a higher percentage of raiders than at other levels, this is especially surprising since LotP is what I would consider a must for a raiding, feral druid.
Smutcakes May 3rd 2007 4:48PM
the implications are obvious: buff Dark Pact :>
Stormfire May 3rd 2007 8:09PM
Two things - One, the Dark Pact thing must be screwed up, no why would you ever not take Dark Pact if you are moving to Unstable Affliction, unless you didn't get the memo that they buffed it when the new talent trees came out in Nov/Dec last year. It used to completely suck until they allowed it to benefit from your plus damage, then it became the cornerstone for the "infinite mana" spec.
Second, I think I can explain the Fury Warriors being low. If you PvP seriously, Mortal Strike is a great build. The burst damage coupled with the healing debuff that MS applies is too valuable. Plus you are immune to disarm, can get your crit % jacked up, etc.
Additionally, you can easily OT raids as an MS/Prot Hybrid and still do BGs/Arenas. I don't think Fury/Prot works as well in PvP. I would imagine you'd find many more Fury Warriors below level 70.
Renchard May 3rd 2007 6:08PM
I wouldn't be surprised if the 10% of aff locks skipping dark pact are using some sort of build with demonic sacrifice.
Nyx May 3rd 2007 8:40PM
This is a really neat post, whether or not the data's accurate - I would think the idea behind the data would be very useful to Blizzard. If nothing else, it does read like a neon sign of what needs to be tweaked a little more...
Unregistered May 3rd 2007 10:33PM
the info would be a whole lot more accurate if they didnt sample, but instead focussed on a specific niche of players. for example, the recent arena championship.
as that is pvp spec, it will be a very specific talent build that can be clearly analysed.
doc May 4th 2007 12:40AM
I think this finally gives people some insight to why people play shamans, and a good reason to STFU about them. My main is a shammy on cenarian circle (divinious) and he was my first char, whom I stick to loyally to this day. Yes we all pick different trees and the person who said its because they all suck is only half right. Shamans arent made to be the best at anything (its why we suck in duels :) but were made to be GOOD at everything. Now dont get me wrong theres always a few jerk shammys out there who think they can out dps the world or out pewpew mages or DONT DROP TOTEMS! ...i hate that so much.. have 4 up at all times..but i digress. The reason i continue to play my shammy shammy is because occasionally i can heal then if im bored ill respec to enh and go questing or if i wanna watch sparkly chain lightning..well you know the rest. A true good shammy is about utility. I have fond memories of times when the main tank died in a run of BRD and I had to step in and tank the boss. Before you flame on that i'm certainly not saying i can tank with enh spec. but in a pinch and a boss with low enough life i can step in and finish the job. OR theres been OSSOMANY times when the priest goes OOM! and then i take a step back and become the main healer. Not as if i could main heal the whole thing but i can help when im needed. EX How many people have seen a clothie get fried like a Col Sanders recipie by the dragon in ramparts? Know what happens then SHAMAN FTW i stop swinging my axe and make with the heals. We as a shammy comminity are here to make you better. Rogues love windfury hunters love GOA tanks love the strength mages love wrath ..hmm so do druids...everyone has a favorite totem and we make it happen. Other than that were here to augment the team. period. Its comes with the territory of being a jack of all trades. No one has a meter that says wow the windfury on those rogues made their DPS this high ect, but its the same with prot tanks. Nothing out there counts how much aggro they hold but they do it and it sucks for them oh well. In that same way we do are jobs and need to stop whining about it. I dont need to top a DPS chart but when our top rogue goes man windfury is freakin crazy! Thats all i need. :)
Oh and for the guy who said he never gets groups as elemental. DUH DPS is a dime a dozen theres only two things groups ALWAYS need on LFG and thats a PROT warrior and some sort of true healer. Yes if you wanna make yourself the object of LFG desire go resto, everyone needs a healer. Me personally I dont tend to stray from a ENH/REST build cause i like being able to be flexable and help wherever im needed.
Laurens Holst May 4th 2007 1:28AM
"So the subset of people who list there characters on Alla-, this is their preferred builds. The people who list their toon on Alla- could be a different kind of player, players that are deeper into the "reading about what specs work" (since they are utilizing a website to list their characters/get tips)."
What you’re forgetting is that there’s a ton of servers. In other words, if you have one popular name (say, ‘sarah’), it would exist on pretty much all servers, and thus all those people are included.
~Grauw
chimera May 4th 2007 2:45AM
"I'm absolutely shocked to see Dark Pact on the most unpopular 31 pt talent. That is absolutetly crucial for an affliction lock."
Locks are popular bc they are overpowered. Thus lots of noobs play them :) Looking at the original data on the wow forums, dark pact is pretty rarely skipped compared to lightwell :)
"I also think it's interesting to see how the mage specs are all about the same. I thought that arcane mages were extremely rare, guess I was wrong."
The answer is both yes and no. There are really only a handful true arcane mages who use arcane spells as their primary damage, bc arcane sucks, it's a support tree. But it's a pretty solid support tree! Some talents are so good that even good fire or frost builds start out with 32-40 points in arcane, the rest in fire/frost. My mage is 34/27, an arcane mage you would say, but not, this is a firemage :)
Oli May 4th 2007 6:38AM
Hahaha at the poster was surprised at the lack of fury warriors and the majority of Prot warriors.
In a raid any kind of warrior other than prot is a liability, they draw massive amounts of agro (Usually taunting on purpose) and yet have no where near the same amount of damage absorption abilities.
While fury and arms have some incredibly viable PVP talents when it comes to instances i see these classes gain too much agro again and again (And why oh why do tehy use taunt spells!!!), the healer of course expends a huge amount of mana trying to keep him up and the group tends to wipe.
Forunately you dont see them come up in more than the occasional PuG, for a guild run I shy away from anything but a prot.
*---------------*
DPS Warrior "Look at how much damage im doing!"
Party Leader "We have wiped 3 times"
DPS Warrior "Yeah the healer sucked, he couldn't keep me alive when i got agro"
Tank & Healer "£%$@%&"
*----------------*
Oli May 4th 2007 6:38AM
"Holy Priest 53.7% make up for all priests on this server.
hmmmm.....yet only 23.3% of ALL of them only take the 31 pt, and 16.3 % take the 41 pt."
Im surprised by the fact that more people took the 13 point than the 41 point. admittedly theres more chance of someone speccing 31 points into a tree, but whereas CoH is a viable spell to use (5 people all losing health being spammed with about 1k hp every 1.5 seconds imo is useful) Lightwell is laughable, I have only seen it used effectively once.
And locks overpowered? sure they are good at pvp but every class has its strengths and weaknesses. A hunter, rogue or warrior should have no trouble beating a similarly geared lock.
the six winger May 4th 2007 8:19AM
Holy Priest FTL!
I have to go cry now.
Eleshakai May 4th 2007 9:39AM
I'd like to note simply that survival is underused to the gross laziness of hunters. Survival is a 5-man spec with decent raid viability... its just overweight and very attention-intensive.