WoW Forever Spell Power Scaling: Level 60 DPS, Burst, Races & PvP Theorycraft

The headline: base damage shrank, so slopes matter more

This model compares eight caster specializations from 0 to 1,000 spell power. Its strongest sustained slope is Shadow Warlock at 0.631 DPS per SP, using Shadow Mastery at 10%. At 600 SP the same model returns approximately 584 DPS. Those three values are the corrected version; an earlier 5% draft produced 0.602 and 557 DPS and must not be reused.

At 600 SP the supplied ranking is: Shadow Warlock 584, Shadow Priest 531, Fire Mage 521, Frost Mage 488, Balance Druid 452, Fire Warlock 436, Arcane Mage 426 and Elemental Shaman 366 DPS. This is a comparison of chosen rotations and assumptions, not class balance proof.

Method and units

For each spell, expected damage is linear in spell power:

D_spell = (base + coefficient × SP) × talent multipliers × (1 + crit chance × crit bonus)
DPS = sum(expected spell damage in cycle) / cycle seconds
Six-second burst = expected damage landed from t=0 through t=6

The burst window permits a pre-cast landing at t=0, then instants and casts completed by six seconds. Periodic effects are prorated. Random procs, gear haste, mana failure, misses, resistance, consumables and enemy mitigation are excluded. A 200% crit uses bonus 1.0; a normal 150% crit uses 0.5; Fire's Ignite assumption is folded into a 1.1 effective bonus in the supplied model.

Eight rotations compared

Full spell-stat input table

Values can differ by roughly 3% between level-of-learning displays and level-60 scaling. A missing override in a client comparison site does not prove the server kept the Classic coefficient.

Sustained ranking at 600 SP

The flattened operator export did not retain the numeric six-second totals for all eight curves. This article therefore preserves the burst window, rotations, racial deltas and the source's stated >5,000 / <3,000 scoring thresholds, but does not fabricate intermediate burst samples or a full eight-spec burst ranking.

Racials: average gain is not on-demand value

Defensive value cannot be reduced to DPS. WotF is now a break without the old five-second immunity in the supplied evidence; Shatter Curse dispels Curses and Banes but has a 5%/15% file conflict; Will to Survive removes stuns; Escape Artist, Stoneform, Hardiness, War Stomp, Endurance, Plainsrunning, Rapid Regeneration and Cannibalize all change matchup value beyond a six-second damage window.

PvP rubric: estimates, not ladder data

The original rubric scores Burst, Sustained, Mobility, Survival, CC, Anti-CC, Dispel, Interrupt, Utility, Mana, plus context views for battlegrounds, world PvP and duels. The abbreviated table below preserves its reported average and tier; the underlying 1–10 judgments are editorial.

The published tier thresholds were S+ ≥7.5, S ≥7.0, A ≥6.5, B ≥6.0 and C below 6.0. Because the displayed average draws on ten criteria while only five are shown here, the average is preserved from the supplied source rather than recomputed from this abbreviated display.

Official notes versus later client observations

What would change the result

The rankings move if any coefficient is server-side, if mana ends a rotation, if realistic hit/resistance is applied, if a pre-cast is impossible, or if defensive globals displace damage. Arcane is especially fragile because its modeled max-rank base does not match the publicly visible 70707 rank page. The proper next step is a controlled in-game worksheet: known SP, naked target, repeated non-crit hits, recorded rank, build and region. Until then, these lines compare assumptions—not players.