Shadowlands DPS Tier List - Sanctum of Domination for Patch 9.1.5

Von Squishei Letztes Update: 02.11.2021 Änderungsprotokoll Patch: 10.2.6

Inhaltsverzeichnis
Wertung:

Disclaimers About This Tier ListPatch 9.1.5 Shadowlands DPS Tier List for Sanctum of Domination

S: You are an exceptional choice and are valuable in nearly every encounter in Sanctum of Domination, bringing strong throughput, exceptional survivability and universal utility.

A: You are a good choice and excel in most situations in Sanctum of Domination but have a few weaknesses on particular encounters.

B: You are an average choice in Sanctum of Domination. You may have a niche on some encounters but are a solid pick.

C: You are below average in Sanctum of Domination and struggle to stand out on many encounters due to your weaknesses.

D: You are viable, but the encounters in Sanctum of Domination show more of your weaknesses than your strengths.

DPS Ranking Changes from Shadowlands Patch 9.1 to Patch 9.1.5

Promoted in Rank:

Balance Druid Druid promoted from A+ to S tier.
Beast Mastery Hunter promoted from B- to B tier.
Arcane Mage promoted from A to A+ tier.
Fire Mage promoted from B to A tier.
Windwalker Monk promoted from A- to A+ tier.
Outlaw Rogue promoted from B+ to A- tier.
Subtlety Rogue promoted from A to A+ tier.
Affliction Warlock promoted from C+ to B- tier.
Arms Warrior promoted from A- to A tier.
Fury Warrior promoted from B+ to A- tier.

Demoted in Rank:

Havoc Demon Hunter demoted from A+ to A- tier.
Unholy Death Knight demoted from A- to B tier.
Marksmanship Hunter demoted from B+ to B tier.
Retribution Paladin demoted from A- to B+ tier.
Elemental Shaman demoted from A- to B+ tier.
Enhancement Shaman demoted to C tier and given a separate rating of B tier to account for effective use of Totem des Windzorns.
Destruction Warlock demoted from A to A- tier.

Sanctum of Domination Class Guides

Blood DKFrost DKUnholy DK

Havoc DHVengeance DH

Balance DruidFeral DruidGuardian DruidRestoration Druid

Beast Mastery HunterMarksmanship HunterSurvival Hunter

Arcane MageFire MageFrost Mage

Brewmaster MonkMistweaver MonkWindwalker Monk

Holy PaladinProtection PaladinRetribution Paladin

Discipline PriestHoly PriestShadow Priest

Assassination RogueOutlaw RogueSubtlety Rogue

Elemental ShamanEnhancement ShamanRestoration Shaman

Affliction WarlockDemonology WarlockDestruction Warlock

Arms WarriorFury WarriorProtection Warrior

Patch 9.1.5 Shadowlands DPS Ranking and ExplanationsS Tier SpecsOverall Rating: S

Balance Druid is one of the top specs in Sanktum der Herrschaft. Balance Druid's burst DPS is some of the highest in the game and it will continue to stay that way due to Venthyr's Unersättliche Raserei. Burst DPS is the most desirable damage profile and it can be very useful in many situations even if it is gated behind a 3 minute cooldown. Balance also has the massive advantage of being one of the only specs in the game that has very strong spread AOE. This is incredibly useful for the Sylvanas Windläufer encounter, where there are spread adds that need to be killed in a timely manner. On top of all of this, 8 out of 10 bosses have some form of multi-target damage priority with varying degrees of urgency to kill. This makes Balance's kit with Stellarverschiebung and Sternenregen even more potent, as you can reliably get away with Venthyr's Unersättliche Raserei a lot easier as you have the option to cast while on the move. Balance Druids also lose very little single target damage when going for AOE damage in the talent department, and the only major damage loss comes in the form of which abilities you are prioritizing - Sternenregen vs Sternensog. Balance is not a great spec at dealing with burst AOE damage, but assuming that waves of adds will live a few seconds, Moonkin is very competitive. During initial Sanktum der Herrschaft progression, encounters were aligned perfectly for Balance Druids, but as guilds have obtained significant DPS gains, Balance is more difficult to play in a lot of spots.

Balance Druid is also one of the tankiest DPS specs in the game with access to Baumrinde every minute and insane self healing from our Geschärfte Instinkte conduit. On top of this, Moonkin is the ultimate healer helper when we pop Herz der Wildnis with Wiederherstellungsaffinität. Anstachelndes Gebrüll is pretty solid utility as a whole, but it is situational. There are a decent number of fights in Sanktum der Herrschaft where Anstachelndes Gebrüll is incredibly valuable though. Anregen is the kind of ability that is not make or break, but it is nice to have.

Overall Balance is an S-Tier spec due to the fact that it does bring all the parameters outlined in the S-Tier ranking.

S: You are an exceptional choice and are valuable in nearly every encounter in Sanctum of Domination, bringing strong throughput, exceptional survivability and universal utility.A+ Tier SpecsOverall Rating: A+

Arcane can expect to maintain a solid placement in Sanctum of Domination, relying on both spectacular funnel damage on the later encounters where it is extremely useful, as well as excellent defensive abilities that make surviving encounter mechanics relatively easy. Bolstering this already great standing in 9.1.5 is the fact that we can now swap between Kyrian and Venthyr as the encounter demands. This means that in 9.1.5, we can shed some of our dependence on stacking adds on Strahlender Funke targets in order to increase our boss damage via Resonanz, in favor of the less positionally sensitive Spiegel der Qual damage through Arkanes Echo. This will be great for some of the earlier encounters where Arcane struggles to get reliable funnel (or even use of Arkane Kugel for parts of the Auge des Kerkermeisters encounter), however, I would maintain Arcane as an A+ overall and S-tier on the last 3 raid encounters.

This will also spill over into Mythic+ with Arkanes Echo becoming uncapped and the proverbial rip-cord being pulled, Venthyr should be considered, especially for Arcane's who may lack another Venthyr option in their party while doing a Hallen der Sühne or Die Blutigen Tiefen's keystone. This is probably going to be somewhat less likely scenario with Frost Mage being buffed in several ways as well and performing very well with Venthyr though. Overall I don't expect much to change for the remainder of 9.1.5 for Arcane, if you're looking to settle on one covenant permanently, I would still recommend Kyrian.Overall Rating: A+

Windwalker has long been a spec of extremes, either extremely good like in Antorus, der Brennende Thron and early Schloss Nathria, or extremely bad, like in most of Battle for Azeroth. However, overall in 9.1 and into 9.1.5, Windwalker is a top notch raiding choice. After a few months of Sanktum der Herrschaft, Windwalkers are an exceptional pick for most fights, and less-than-ideal for a select few. Fights like Seelenfetzer Dormazain, Schicksalsschreiber Roh-Kalo, and Kel'Thuzad show off the insane potential for Windwalker, with other fights like Leidensschmied Raznal and Sylvanas Windläufer, allowing the Windwalkers to show off their damage by bursting high value targets very quickly.

Windwalker's strength continues to come in top notch mobility and nearly unparalleled AOE capabilities. Nearly every fight in Sanktum der Herrschaft has some amount of additional targets to make use of AOE abilities and things like Berührung des Todes. These fights allow Windwalkers to shine like they did in Schloss Nathria. Additionally, many fights benefit greatly from exceptional mobility that Windwalkers bring. Between Transzendenz, Fliegender Schlangentritt, and Rollen, if a fight requires movement, Windwalkers are more than prepared for it. The most important part of this is that in Sanktum der Herrschaft there are fights like Schicksalsschreiber Roh-Kalo with the rotating dials, Seelenfetzer Dormazain with Fesseln des Kriegstreibers, and Überrest von Ner'zhul with Kugel der Qual that are mechanics that Windwalkers can handle as well, if not better, than any other spec in the game. It is not a DPS focused job, but one that, when performed well, will mean the difference between a wipe and a kill.

Where Windwalker falls off, and the reason that even after seeing the performance of Windwalkers in RWF I gave it an overall A- instead of a higher rating several months ago, is the constant specter of mediocre, or lower, single target damage. While Sanktum der Herrschaft has many fights with additional adds, raiding often comes down to the ability to deal single target damage to the boss. Fights like Wächter der Ersten which has no additional adds, or Leidensschmied Raznal which has adds, but the emphasis is still on single target priority damage outside of small burst windows (which Windwalker excels at), highlight Windwalker's lackluster single target capabilities. Although Windwalkers are capable of very strong burst damage, even in single target, through Waffen der Ordnung and Knochenstaubgebräu, over the course of a fight Windwalkers will frequently find themselves in the bottom half, or the bottom third, of the meters, if all else is equal. Windwalker's utility falls into a similar category, of not being "bad", but not as strong as the classes that generally get more of the limelight when it comes to those things. This is the primary reason that we saw many RWF teams that had strong Windwalkers bench them on fights like Wächter der Ersten and Wächter der Ersten -- poor single target without valuable utility leaves Windwalker nigh-useless when there's only one target.

In 9.1.5, with the ability to change Covenants, any Windwalkers that stay Necrolord for multi-target and switch to Kyrian for single target will see a bump in single-target performance, but not enough to bring Windwalker much farther above the bottom of the charts that many Windwalkers find themselves in. This likely takes Windwalkers from an F or D- in single target up to a D+ or C- while maintaining the S rating in AOE situations. Because Sanktum der Herrschaft is so heavily tipped toward multi-target and burst windows, Windwalker's rating averages out to the A+ rating that I gave it.

Overall Windwalkers have enjoyed another strong tier of raiding, and really the first time that Windwalker has been strong in raids for two consecutive raids since, maybe, Der Thron des Donners into Schlacht um Orgrimmar.Overall Ranking: A+

Subtlety remains one of the strongest options in the new patch and can emphasize its high pure single target output, frequent burst and funnel damage. The covenant system overhaul and the resulting elimination of the covenant swaps restrictions are a nice change and allow players to freely switch between Kyrian, Venthyr and Necrolord if needed.

The Kyrian covenant can slightly edge out Venthyr in pure single target situations if combined with high item level Schneide der Nacht due to its interaction with Widerhallender Tadel and could gain a slightly higher play rate (Venthyr currently has a 90% or higher play rate in Heroic and Mythic raiding).
It is likely that Venthyr remains the primary choice for most encounters mainly due to its damage distribution, frequent burst and funnel with Geißelung and Gehorsam.
Necrolord could see limited play on encounters with multiple bosses like The Nine or Auge des Kerkermeisters but is unlikely, given that big parts of these fights are still pure single target and that switching to Assassination is a superior option.

This means 9.1.5 overall gives slightly more dynamic but is unlikely to dramatically shift the overall performance of the specialization or its position on the Warcraft Log ranking. The specialization still has deficits in two and three target cleave situations and Rogue does not provide raid utility outside of pure damage numbers. This prevents it from being S Tier.

When reading the patch notes, Night Fae got a buff to Septischer Schock and a change to its covenant legendary (Toxische Offensive). Does this mean that we will see this covenant more present in Raids? The short answer is no.

The change to the legendary makes it the best pick for the covenant and increase its overall damage by 2% but still leaves Night Fae ~3-4% behind. The legendary also comes with some unique behavior that I am not sure is intended or a bug. The Vendetta proc does not trigger the energy regeneration and Adrenalinrausch does not reduce your global cooldown during its uptime.A Tier SpecsOverall Rating: A

In 9.1 we now have covenant swapping which gives Fire an additional leg up with the ability to swing Venthyr or Night Fae depending on the fight. As many of you already know, Fire Mage was significantly nerfed in Patch 9.1. This was a nerf mostly aimed at AoE and Mythic+ that also affected Single Target. As of July 13th, 2021, Fire received additional tuning to increase its single target damage. Thanks to these buffs and covenant swaps, Fire Mage is fully back online now.

Night Fae is the best Covenant generally but Venthyr is also very strong in raid, especially if you can get Seele der Macht every two minutes. Since raid bosses have variable push timings and fight lengths depending on your group's overall damage per second and strategy, there isn't a set "best" covenant for all situations. Being able to swing Night Fae for Leidensschmied Raznal and Sylvanas Windläufer, then Venthyr for Auge des Kerkermeisters and Wächter der Ersten gives Fire the added flexibility to push it into the top tier.

Fire Mage has always been a very strong defensive pick in raids due to its many proactive defensive abilities such as Lodernde Barriere, Spiegelbild, Zeitverschiebung, and Eisblock in addition to Kauterisieren as a cheat death. Often, Fire Mage is talked about as being unkillable due to all its defensive strengths, but one slight weakness for the spec is passive damage mitigation, as some of the other ranged specs have vastly superior damage reduction and require less healing generally.

Fire Mages have exceptional mobility, but individual mobility as a niche isn't especially valuable unless there is a mechanic that demands it. Most mechanics that demand movement don't demand as much as Fire Mage can offer. In terms of utility, Fire Mage has the Arkane Intelligenz and Zeitkrümmung. This means that having one Mage is essentially a requirement. Adding additional Mages does not add to the utility, so even though one is required, two adds no real benefit.

Fire has decent single target, cleave, and consistently high AoE damage. Fire Mage has very high and consistent burst with Einäschern, but damage outside of cooldowns is very low and the spec is very cooldown reliant. Fire Mage has no spread cleave and no utility to bring if another Mage is already present in the raid, so you won't stack it unless it's the best ranged DPS for the job.
Overall Rating: A

In Patch 9.1.5 Frost Mage is receiving the following buffs:

Meisterschaft: Eiszapfen damage increased by 12%.

Frostblitz damage increased damage by 8%.

Hagel damage increased damage by 10%.

Gefrorene KugelGletscherfragmente

The following area-of-effect abilities are no longer maximum target capped and now deal reduced damage beyond 5 targets:

Gletscherfragmente (Runecarving Power)

The following area-of-effect abilities are no longer maximum target capped and instead deal reduced damage beyond 8 targets:

Gefrorene Kugel (Frost)

BlizzardKältekegelGefrorene KugelFrostnovaEiskälteArkane IntelligenzZeitkrümmungBlinzelnFlimmernZeitverschiebungStachelige BälleLeidensschmied RaznalVernichtendes StarrenAuge des KerkermeistersEisblockKälteeinbruchEisbarriereSpiegelbildZeitverschiebungEisblockHakenpfeilSanktum der HerrschaftOverall Rating: A

Assassination is a very strong choice currently in Sanktum der Herrschaft. Throughout 9.1 we've seen rogues at the top of boss damage meters, with strong showings on bosses that require a lot of single target damage, such as Wächter der Ersten and Sylvanas Windläufer. With most players swapping to Venthyr, a lot of Assassination Rogues have decided to play into the role of single target damage, powered by Geißelung and Peitschennarben, which is very strong combination. Gehorsam has shown promise on some fights, but a stronger combination has been found with Bestechender Halunke and the frost set Winterwinde. This has allowed Assassination to also become a resilient powerhouse capable of strong self-survivability. While the single target is strong, it doesn't bring exceptional burst like a Balance Druid, and it doesn't bring any AoE burst capabilities like a Windwalker Monk. Despite that, it holds its own as a consistent single target powerhouse that can keep up with similar 2 minute cooldown specs. One problem Assassination still has is that it is still beholden to talents, mainly Blutroter Sturm. This creates a weird dynamic where you have to talent into any significant AoE. Because of that, your single target damage suffers in the process. Ideally the third talent in that row, Verborgene Klingen, would fill the burst niche, but it's a very awkward talent that alters our main generator in AoE. Because of that, it finds no use and actually provides very little in terms of burst AoE damage (except for the single Dolchfächer every 40 seconds). On a different row, Blutige Klingen is far too weak to provide any benefits compared to the overpowering Inbrunst. Due to Blutige Klingen's reliance on bleed based borrowed power (say that 5 times fast), and without the strength of BFA's Verborgenes Ersticken, Blutige Klingen simply has no leg to stand on as a burst cooldown.

9.1.5 brought some minor love for Night Fae, but despite that, the covenant still is overwhelmingly mediocre, and won't push the needle in terms of balance. Being able to freely swap covenants is very nice for anyone trying to go Necrolord for those wanting to push mythic+ with outlaw, or looking for a change of pace, focusing more on cleave, instead of single target with Venthyr. The target cap removal on Blutroter Sturm and Dolchfächer, while welcome, also don't seem to bring much change on the AoE side of things. On top of that, the rumors of raid wide utility during 9.1 haven't seen any follow-up, which keeps rogues as a whole, on the mercy of tuning. Without a raid debuff, it becomes increasingly difficult to justify bringing a rogue outside of the damage. We still enjoy a host of good abilities, Mantel der Schatten has been incredibly useful this tier, the most prominent usages including soaking Auslöschen during Wächter der Ersten, and helping with puddles during phase three of Sylvanas Windläufer. Finte remains a valuable, short cooldown defensive, and for Assassination specifically, the frost set bonus Winterwinde, has provided an incredible shield.

All of that being said, Assassination is still in a good place this patch. It has its flaws, but the niche of incredibly strong single target, while being resilient enough to survive even through mistakes, has allowed the spec to flourish. Sanctum of Domination has also shown itself to be a (comparatively) melee friendly raid, especially on some of the later fights, which helps make room for Assassination. The other rogue specs have also had a strong showing on the meters, which I always like to see. Being able to play every spec without feeling like you're losing out is great, and I hope all 3 specs remain viable going into 9.2.Overall Rating: A

Arms Warriors have received next to no changes in Patch 9.1.5 beyond the game-wide change to AoE caps, though the specialization continues to enjoy strong performance in the Sanktum der Herrschaft, with steadily increasing representation in Mythic+ since Patch 9.1 went live. Although their single target damage has dropped off since the beginning of the tier, Arms Warriors remains roughly within the middle of the pack, while standing substantially higher in the majority of encounters which feature two target and burst AoE. The buffs to Fury may look to threaten its position slightly, but Arms' retains a very strong toolkit and does not have to choose whether to a specialize in single target or AoE covenant, making it easier to optimize across all encounters.

The specialization is also performing quite well in Mythic+, with representation increasing steadily since Patch 9.1 went live, to the point where it is effectively tied with Fury. The addition of the Kyrian covenant legendary, Elysische Macht, was a massive buff to Arms' damage potential, as it and Auslaufender Animabeschleuniger allow Kriegsbrecher and Speer der Bastion to sync every 45 seconds, adding Avatar and Klingensturm on top every 90 seconds for even more damage. While this shores up the major weakness that Arms had next to Fury, less frequent AoE cooldowns, Fury does still retain a small advantage in innate cleave after those cooldowns has ended. The AoE changes may exacerbate that slightly, as although Whirlwind is no longer target capped for Arms, it is much harder to use regularly due to the relatively high rage cost.

Otherwise, there are very few changes relevant to Warriors in the upcoming patch. The increased covenant swapping flexibility is a nice change, though not one particularly important to Arms due to the fact that Night Fae and Kyrian are already best in nearly every PvE situation, resulting in little need to frequently change covenants in order to optimize one encounter or another. Because of the Fury buffs, we will probably see the majority of Warriors staying Night Fae or Kyrian (after farming the outstanding Necrolord transmog set, of course) and swapping specs in raid more often than before, playing Arms on predominantly single target encounters and Fury on the multitarget ones. The only major downside to continuing to play Arms is that it is statistically the least survivable specialization in Mythic Sanktum der Herrschaft, although despite better self healing, Fury is not ranked much lower.A- Tier SpecsOverall Rating: A-

Not much has changed for Havoc in Patch 9.1.5.

The most notable change is the reduced cooldown on Sündhaftes Brandzeichen to 45 seconds down from 60 seconds. This brings Venthyr closer to Night Fae in raiding scenarios. It doesn't make Venthyr our best covenant but it's now close enough that you will want to switch on a fight basis when / if the encounter timers benefit one spell over the other, one obvious example from the past is Schlickfaust with Zerstörerischer Einschlag being applied to the boss every minute.

None of the other changes will have noticeable effects on raiding Havoc Demon Hunters. The spec remains strong overall but will see a slight fall-off from our 9.1 rating of A+ down to A-. This falloff is something we've been seeing historically with Havoc Demon Hunters as tiers go from progression into farm and as more class get their best-in-slot gear. The extremely long cooldown of Metamorphose impacts Havoc a lot due to losing out on 1 and potentially 2 extra uses once encounter times go down as the tier becomes older.

Havoc's toolkit remains strong in all raiding aspects and our AoE is getting stronger with the removal of the AoE cap. Utility wise, nothing has changed. Chaosbrandmal remains Demon Hunter exclusive and a must have raid buff and Dunkelheit is always a very desirable defensive cooldown even though it won't break the game.

Havoc durability has always been strong and this doesn't change in 9.1.5. Havoc's mobility is one of, if not the best in the game. Havoc's mobility suffers a bit when using Eifer des Gefechts due to having to utilize our primary movement abilities to maximize the talent, but this won't cause issues on any encounters assuming you keep your toes on the platforms and outside of fire.

Overall, the spec will perform very similarly to 9.1 but as the encounters are now shorter due to being on "farm" on the tail end of a raid tier, our overall rating will slightly go down.Overall Rating: A-

Shadow's position in 9.1.5 hasn't really changed compared to the release of Sanktum der Herrschaft, and as such remains A-. At the start of the tier I said that Shadow would be valued on progress almost entirely for its Single Target, and that has been true. The spec has been able to carve a small niche across progress by providing boss damage on fights like Leidensschmied Raznal, Wächter der Ersten, and perhaps surprisingly Sylvanas Windläufer, but has a number of issues that prevent it from really excelling on farm.

Firstly, Shadow's single target, while certainly still good, is not really a cut above on any encounters. Rogues were already steep competition at the start of the tier, but with increased understanding of the Frost gem set bonus, as well as some surprise legendary changes, Fire Mages and Demon Hunters have both risen to comparable levels.

Secondly, Shadow has frankly no competitive AoE damage without taking dedicated AoE talents, and even then its AoE is built around sustained damage, hitting 10+ targets for an extended period of time. There is none of that in Sanctum of Domination, especially on farm. Burst AoE is the name of the game for Sylvanas' Herrschaftsketten, Kel'Thuzad's Frostgebundene Ergebene, and the whole of Seelenfetzer Dormazain, and while it might not matter that Shadow doesn't get to pad, it doesn't necessarily feel good.

Thirdly, Shadow doesn't benefit from the main source of external power in Shadowlands Raiding, Seele der Macht. This doesn't really matter for the spec's viability, but it does impact its perceived performance in logs (Where even if you discount the extreme cases, many specs frequently get at least one PI per pull).

With covenants becoming much more free in 9.1.5, Shadow's ability to function as any of the four covenants will be less valuable to those wanting to multi spec. Necrolord is currently the top choice for every fight in Sanctum of Domination, and while there may be potential for Night Fae in some very specific kill timings, it's unlikely.

Shadow's utility continues to find a lot of use this tier. is still extremely useful on Überrest von Ner'zhul, Kel'Thuzad and Sylvanas Windläufer, and while there's no place for Vampirumarmung to shine, it's still useful when the raid splits up in Sylvanas Phase 2, as well as to provide some extra throughput on other encounters. Shadow's natural self healing and decently long list of short cooldown defensives also serve it well in Sanktum der Herrschaft, though lack of immunity does hurt on Wächter der Ersten and Kel'Thuzad.

Overall Shadow's a fine Single Target ranged dps choice for progressing late on in Sanctum of Domination, with uses for its niche utility and defensive toolkit. However, other specs are capable of similar or greater Single Target, and get to have much more fun on farm with access to competitive burst AoE. Overall Rating: A-

Earlier in patch 9.1, Blizzard decided to rebalance the Shards of Domination gems and the biggest change to the entire spec's power level was the change to the Frost set. Winterwinde is incredibly strong for Outlaw rogue due to having strong ways to abuse Winterwinde mainly through incredibly high attack speed with Inbrunst and Adrenalinrausch and increased crit chance with Zwischen die Augen makes the set incredibly powerful. With the changes Outlaw rogue ends up dealing very similar single target damage to both Assassination and Subtlety, but still lacks burst cooldowns which can be awkward in some encounters such as Kel'Thuzad. Having access to Klingenwirbel is also super nice for most encounters as almost every fight has moments of cleave that needs to be done which Assassination and Subtlety struggle with. In my opinion though, I feel Outlaw is only slightly weaker than the other rogue specs, mostly due to the fact it needs a lot of boss uptime to reset cooldowns with Ruhlose Klingen which can be difficult to take advantage of on some fights.

The biggest weakness of rogue in general is the lack of raid wide utility. In this raid though, Finte is the strongest it's ever been, as almost every source of damage in this raid works on Finte which makes rogues insanely durable on top of having other amazing defensives. Similar to Finte, Mantel der Schatten also is incredible this raid, most pain points on encounters happen to be magic damage, such as Zorn der Banshee on Sylvanas Windläufer which basically nullifies your chance of death during a lot of intense moments during raid. Sprinten and Greifhaken are also very helpful, with Ruhlose Klingen Outlaw has a super cooldown on both mobility spells which puts you on a similar movement tier as Demon Hunters.

If your raid has open spots that are not locked by having to bring buffs or more ranged DPS players, then a good Outlaw is a solid choice, it may just not be the first choice on every boss. As for any Rogue spec, damage tuning is the main deciding factor for what allows rogue to enter raid, and right now rogue is tuned super highly. The fact that Outlaw lacks burst options, and consistent cooldowns can make it a bit awkward to plan around for some encounters, which is why I feel A- is fair.
Overall Rating: A-

With no additional changes to really change the meta of Demonology in 9.1.5 (the change to Netherportal is insignificant) you should be in relatively the same form as previous patches where the single target profile of Demonology to shines in Sanktum der Herrschaft. During Mythic difficulty, you can easily find yourself playing Demonology on at minimum half the fights without issue. There are a handful of fights where you have to focus single target where the 1 minute damage profile really fits in, in particular fights like Der Tarragrue, Wächter der Ersten and The Nine.

We will still be using Wilfreds Siegel der überlegenen Beschwörung as our primary legendary while pumping as much damage into Seelengebundener Tyrann and as such still be one of the better options for Priests to use Seele der Macht, if you can manage it. The difference of having Seele der Macht given to you and not is fairly significant - essentially going from one of the strongest burst specializations to a mid-pack one if you have/don't have Seele der Macht.

There are a good handful of encounters that Demonology are the go to spec for Warlocks simply due to it being stronger than the others in single target damage such as Der Tarragrue, Seelenfetzer Dormazain, Wächter der Ersten and most recently Sylvanas Windläufer. There are also some considerations for possible upside on any of the encounters if your other raid members are able/sufficient for the required add cleave (which there is lots). Some of the fights that Demonology will have a tougher time on are Überrest von Ner'zhul, Leidensschmied Raznal, Schicksalsschreiber Roh-Kalo and Kel'Thuzad for example.

Where you will see a big downfall for Demonology is our ability to consistently (and reliably) two target cleave and is where Destruction is really going to overtake Demonology for a number of encounters, even if there is a portion of the encounter that is single target - the ability to have on demand, very strong, two target cleave is something that Demonology continues to struggle with.

Of course we are still a Warlock and bring better than average survivability and raid utility in the form of Fluch der Schwäche, Dämonisches Tor and Seelenbrunnen erschaffen. Within Demonology's toolkit for survivability we have the most passive damage reduction via Seelenverbindung in addition to other tools available to all Warlocks; Erbarmungslose Entschlossenheit, Seele entziehen and can talent into a newly buffed Dunkler Pakt.
Overall Rating: A-

Destruction Warlock is a very solid choice for a ranged dps in almost all situations. There are very few situations where we fall behind compared to other Ranged DPS and this is the reason I have chosen to give Destruction the A- ranking.

Our DPS throughput is overall good, especially on cleave and AoE, but when it comes to single target we do fall behind quite a bit. The strength of the Destruction spec has always been being able to farm up Soul Shards to then deal large amounts of damage through Chaosblitz, and then being able to duplicate this damage to yet another target through Verwüstung. Mobility is another potential weakness for the Destruction spec, however, if you play your rotation and cooldowns well, you can do a lot to help reduce the amount of lost DPS. This is by being aware of when you need to move, and then moving while casting your instant cast spells such as Feuersbrunst, but also by clever use of Dämonischer Zirkel.

That being said, Destruction is a spec that is able to fulfill various different roles by changing talents and using your cooldowns correctly. We can do very heavy 2-minute burst damage by playing Chaosregen, Finstere Seele: Instabilität with Wilfreds Siegel der überlegenen Beschwörung. But if more steady damage and 3-minute cooldowns fit better, we can play a setup like Glut der Azj'Aqir and Loderndes Feuer. Also, if a lot of adds are present, speccing into Schattenbrand can result in one of the most mobile high-damage dealing specs out there. A good example of this is a fight like Kel'Thuzad, where depending on your raid's needs, a Destruction Warlock is able to adapt and be a very valuable asset to the raid.

In general, Destruction Warlock is very tanky through Seele entziehen and our mastery, while offering a lot of utility for our group with Seelenbrunnen erschaffen, Dämonisches Tor & Seelenstein.

Something worth noting is, a lot of people have seen Demonology parse higher than Destruction and while that is the case on a lot of fights, Demonology more or less requires Seele der Macht to do this. Destruction does not scale as well with this meaning the very upper percentile of parses are going to be shifted largely in Demonology's favor.Overall Rating: A-

Fury Warriors have received a few minor buffs in Patch 9.1.5 geared towards increasing their single target viability by increasing the damage of auto attacks by a staggering 43%, and buffing Niedermetzeln to provide more conduit flexibility. Together, these two buffs come out to ~5% increased single target damage. Current boss damage statistics place Arms between 4.5% to 8% ahead of Fury, depending on the encounter, so while these buffs certainly won't move Fury to the top of the charts, they should be enough to bring it much closer in line with Arms performance.

In terms of multitarget damage, we've already seen Fury pull ahead of Arms in heavy AoE raid encounters such as Seelenfetzer Dormazain and even Sylvanas Windläufer, while Fury continues to perform very well in all but the highest levels of Mythic+ push groups. Much of this is due to the addition of the Kyrian covenant legendary, Elysische Macht, stacking alongside Tollkühnheit and Klingensturm for massive burst damage on a one minute cooldown, while Fury's innate cleave via Verbesserter Wirbelwind cleans up the rest. The AoE changes in Patch 9.1.5 may change this slightly, since although the burst AoE of Klingensturm will continue to scale with higher target counts, the innate cleave damage is still capped at 5 targets - however, Fury compensates for this with the newly buffed Gnadenloser Knochenmahler, which allows Verbesserter Wirbelwind to deal a considerable amount of damage at higher target counts, well beyond what cleaving single target abilities would normally do. Thanks to the short cooldown on Klingensturm and no rage cost on Verbesserter Wirbelwind, this is a very reliable combination, which should allow Fury to retain its spot as a top tier Mythic+ specialization, no matter how the dungeon is pulled.

Otherwise, there are very few changes relevant to Warriors in the upcoming patch. The increased covenant swapping flexibility is a nice change, and one that Fury can make more use of than Arms due to Venthyr being better in single target while Kyrian and Night Fae are better in multitarget, but it's unlikely that many players will be repeatedly hearthing to swap covenants between bosses, so the actual practicality is somewhat limited. The more likely scenario is the majority of Warriors staying Night Fae or Kyrian (after farming the outstanding Necrolord transmog set, of course) and using the Fury buffs to better justify swapping between Arms on predominantly single target encounters and Fury on the multitarget ones.B+ Tier SpecsOverall Rating: B+
With the release of 9.1.5, we're re-reviewing where in the rankings spec stands, with the adjustment to be able to swap covenants at will some specs gain a benefit from more flexibility. With our last update to this tier list, I moved feral up from B to B+ tier, with this update I won't be moving Feral up on the tier list. The reasons for the original rating and the updated rating still stand with none of the issues being addressed and no increase in flexibility due to covenant swapping.

The primary reasoning I had for adjusting feral up ever so slightly is the buffs to Himmlische Geister. For a long period of time Feral has been lacking in a legendary that competes with Trunk der tiefen Konzentration in general and that is usable on fights that aren't purely Single Target. While Trunk der tiefen Konzentration was a solid throughput legendary, it did have issues on fights that weren't exactly single target, leaving Feral a little inflexible. Himmlische Geister both solves that issue and also gives feral another strength in a strong 1 minute burst cooldown. A cooldown category that historically has been incredibly valuable on progression fights (I personally found it incredible on Auge des Kerkermeisters). The secondary reasoning for my minor bump up is connected to these buffs as well. Many of the overperforming covenant legendries used by some of the specs above us got slight nerfs, narrowing the gap between specs.

Sanctum of Domination has a heavy emphasis on single target (with fights like: Schicksalsschreiber Roh-Kalo, Wächter der Ersten, Seelenfetzer Dormazain, and most noticeably Sylvanas Windläufer) which plays well into our strengths! Feral is extremely good at fights, topping the boss damage charts by a country mile. If Throughput was the only requirement for raid strengths then I'd be happy to put feral solidly into the A+ tier.

Unfortunately nothing has changed in regards to Feral's real downfall, utility. The specs that compete with Feral Druid for a spot in the raid still have their raid buffs, although Unholy DK has been rather neutered when it comes to their raid CD but this just causes a shift in the meta towards running more Havoc DHs and Warriors. However, Feral does still have Anstachelndes Gebrüll.

I do think that Feral is still a very solid spec that's being slept on slightly. It continues to have a solid to exceptional throughput kit, though it continues to struggle on fights with an emphasis on burst AOE and a good defensive kit. If feral had Utility equivalent to some other melee specs, or if raid buffs didn't exist, I could easily see it being stacked on certain fights. As it is however, with Guardian and Balance sharing all of our utility (and balance bringing even more of their own), I think Feral will likely continue to be overlooked despite existing as a fairly solid spec.Overall Rating: B+

Not much is changing for Retribution with 9.1.5. Kyrian will still almost certainly be the best covenant on every encounter, so being able to swap freely doesn't actually benefit Ret at all, and the small buffs for other covenants won't end up making much of an impact. Göttlicher Sturm getting uncapped is nice, but that wasn't really a factor that held Ret back in Sanktum der Herrschaft either way. Instead, Ret will stay pretty much exactly the same as other specs gain small damage increases, putting Ret at a small relative disadvantage.

Ret still has the same strengths and weaknesses it's had since the start of this expansion - it does good burst, as long as fight timings allow for it, but doesn't do much damage between these burst windows and has issues performing well on sustained cleave. Its single target is still ok overall, but not better than what other specs can also bring. Its utility can be useful in quite a few places - Segen der Freiheit on Schicksalsschreiber Roh-Kalo to soak Schicksalsfragment, Segen des Schutzes on Leidensschmied Raznal and Sylvanas Windläufer - but Holy and Prot Pally both bring the same utility and are also very popular.

Ret doesn't have significant issues this tier, as it's pretty melee friendly all things considered, but there aren't many reasons to specifically want one in your raid either. It's just a solidly playable and middle of the pack spec.
Overall Rating: B+

As we enter 9.1.5, Elemental stock has fallen to an extent. Traditionally, the farther into farm we get the weaker Elemental gets as it doesn't gain as much dps from shorter kill times as most other dps specs do. On the DPS throughput side of things, we continue to have strong sustained single target that handles movement quite well with Gunst des Geistwandlers & Eisfuror, are able to provide strong burst AoE or priority target burst on a single target through Sturmhüter, and are able to do so with our highest single target dps talent build. Not needing to worry about sacrificing single-target to provide that AoE will serve us well on fights like Seelenfetzer Dormazain or The Nine, and our powerful/mobile sustained single-target will keep us quite strong on fights like Sylvanas Windläufer. The primary hole in our damage profile, and what drives our stock down going into 9.1.5, is that our longer dps cooldown - Feuerelementar - is rather weak which limits our single-target burst. Single-target burst, centered around major dps cooldowns, is what tends to drive dps higher on lower kill times and having that hole hurts Elemental at this point in a raid.

For utility and mobility on the whole, once again Elemental is in the same place it has been all expansion. We deal extremely well with moving while maintaining dps through Gunst des Geistwandlers & Eisfuror, a tool that will serve us well for bosses like Seelenfetzer Dormazain or Wächter der Ersten and throughout Sanktum der Herrschaft. We still struggle a bit with moving swiftly from place to place, even with the assistance of the Donnernde Pfoten conduit, though this is mitigated for some Elemental Shaman by the rising stock of Night Fae in raiding. As we made it farther into farm in Nathria, Night Fae became more popular as it has higher highs when you're able to focus singularly on single-target or AoE. This mitigates our point to point mobility weakness noticeably through Seelengestalt. For utility our primary pieces are still Kampfrausch & Totem des Windsturms, both of which are covered by a variety of other specs. That said, Totem des Windsturms does have opportunities to shine alone - such as on Leidensschmied Raznal where we're able to move back and forth through it multiple times.

Finally, for survivability we still possess many small damage reduction cooldowns with a variety of cooldowns in Astralverschiebung, Haut festigen, and if you're Necrolord Fleischformung to help mitigate the damage we take. The variety of cooldowns we have available to us in this makes us fairly tanky to damage that gets frightening for others.B Tier SpecsOverall Rating: B

When it comes to damage, Frost does okay on single target with a great improvement when there is any sort of cleave. You see the cleave niche in logs where Frost DKs to really well on fights like Seelenfetzer Dormazain and The Nine. The fact that 9.1.5 uncapped Frostsichel has no impact in raids since the talent won't be used. Overall, Frost simply doesn't bring enough priority damage to be ranked A or higher.

When it comes to utility in the raid, the Frost Death Knight brings both a grip (which is really useful) as well as a great set of defensives. We can cheese multiple mechanics with Unaufhaltsamer Tod including knockbacks and heavy slows (just look at the knockback of Überrest von Ner'zhul). Antimagische Hülle can be used to both immune and soak multiple mechanics (immune Verzweiflung on Schicksalsschreiber Roh-Kalo and soak arrow damage on Sylvanas Windläufer) and we obviously still have Antimagisches Feld which is useful on almost every single fight! Todesgriff is great for Seelenfetzer Dormazain Mythic and finds uses elsewhere in the raid. Finally, Veteran des Dritten Krieges for the 10% stamina, Permafrost for the passive shield and Todesstoß for healing all come together to make Frost a very tanky DPS spec!

Frost hasn't received any real damage buffs, but not any damage nerfs either. Our raid utility continues to be strong and we now have more competitive options for different fight styles. I don't think Frost is the best melee but definitely not the worst either. I would place Frost on the same level as Unholy which is why I've allocated a B!
Overall Rating: B

When it comes to damage, Unholy unfortunately falls just short compared to other melee specs. Even if the damage is very versatile when it comes to downtime, the throughput isn't quite there. Conduit scaling is the main culprit as our conduits generally scale extremely badly with higher ilvl. We even use a tank conduit because our DPS conduits are so bad...

Unholy doesn't do that well in overall throughput but still brings very useful damage. Especially in execute burn phases. Seelenfetzer Dormazain, Leidensschmied Raznal, Kel'Thuzad and Sylvanas Windläufer all have late Kampfrausch that work really well with Armee der Toten!

Unholy will always have a great toolkit when it comes to avoiding boss mechanics and providing grip utility. Antimagische Hülle can be used to pre-immune abilities and completely negate ground effects (as well as making us tanky), Unaufhaltsamer Tod has big value (especially on Überrest von Ner'zhul) with negating knockbacks or preventing heavy slows. We're also really tanky with a 10% stamina increase Veteran des Dritten Krieges and Todesstoß to heal us. Todesgriff and Monströse Gliedmaße are very useful in the raid as well (The Nine and Seelenfetzer Dormazain both present good opportunities for grip control)! Finally, Antimagisches Feld brings a defensive raid cooldown that is useful on multiple fights.

Other classes have received buffs and scale really well with potency conduits. However, I still believe Unholy brings okay single target priority damage with great burst. We unfortunately can't make use of our execute on the end boss but still can cheese lots of mechanics and do good damage. Overall, the damage simply isn't high enough which makes me give Unholy a B tier rating.Overall Rating: B

Beast Mastery Hunters are performing about average in Sanktum der Herrschaft right now. Hunters received some minor buffs to Necrolord and Venthyr covenants in patch 9.1.5. The Necrolord buff simply brings our worst covenant more in line with others. Venthyr however, was already tied for our best single target covenant. The buff pushes it over the edge and makes it our strongest single target covenant. Beast Mastery Hunters will want to swap between Night Fae and Venthyr depending on the fight going forward. Beast Mastery single target damage is above average with a strength of being able to perform mechanics without much sacrifice. Similar to Marksmanship, Night Fae gives us the niche of having strong burst cleave damage via Fragmente des Ältestengeweihs. Unlike our Marksmanship counterparts, Beast Mastery lacks any burst AoE when more than 4 targets exist. Thus, we typically will fall behind on fights such as Seelenfetzer Dormazain and Leidensschmied Raznal. That being said, Beast Mastery has solid, consistent, and meaningful boss damage. We typically excel at fights such as Wächter der Ersten, Schicksalsschreiber Roh-Kalo, and Sylvanas Windläufer.

Outside of our burst damage, Hunters aren't really desired due to our lack of survivability and raid utility. Our lack of survivability is noticeable on fights such as Leidensschmied Raznal where ranged DPS take an insane amount of damage. The only real raid utility Hunters have is Bindender Schuss, which is useful on a few fights such as Kel'Thuzad and Sylvanas Windläufer. As we've seen in the past, unless Hunters are doing above average damage, there isn't much use for them in raid, especially considering our lack of survival and utility. In our current state, outside of our immunity Aspekt der Schildkröte, Bindender Schuss, and burst cleave damage, there really isn't a reason to bring Beast Mastery Hunters to Sanktum der Herrschaft. Let's hope we see some Hunter love in the near future.
Overall Rating: B

Heading into patch 9.1.5, Marksmanship Hunters are a bit below average in raid. Hunters received some minor buffs to Necrolord and Venthyr covenants, but both have been underperforming. These buffs simply bring them more in line with Kyrian and Night Fae. In terms of single target performance, we're below average. Marksmanship's saving grace this tier has been our exceptional burst AoE damage, specifically due to Night Fae's Fragmente des Ältestengeweihs. Marksmanship AoE damage makes fights such as Seelenfetzer Dormazain and Mythic Sylvanas Windläufer much easier.

Outside of our burst AoE niche, Marksmanship Hunters aren't really desired due to our lack of survivability and raid utility. Our lack of survivability is noticeable on fights such as Leidensschmied Raznal where ranged DPS take an insane amount of damage. The only real raid utility Hunters have is Bindender Schuss, which is useful on a few fights such as Kel'Thuzad and Sylvanas Windläufer. As we've seen in the past, unless Hunters are doing above average damage, there isn't much use for them in raid, especially considering our lack of survival and utility. In our current state, outside of our immunity Aspekt der Schildkröte, Bindender Schuss, and burst AoE, there really isn't a reason to bring Marksmanship Hunters to Sanktum der Herrschaft. Let's hope we see some Hunter love in the near future.
B- Tier SpecsOverall Rating: B-

Unfortunately, not much has changed for Survival’s overall viability in Patch 9.1.5. While the new Covenant flexibility and a small buff to Schinderschuss has opened up a new build for Raid, we still need to compete against many more DPS specs for a spot on the roster. Whether it’s Beast Mastery or Marksmanship (two Range DPS specs on our class) or more viable Melee specs, it can be hard to find a spot without mandatory utility or truly nutty DPS numbers.

Survival is fun, does good damage, but currently not meta.
Overall Rating: B-

Affliction throughout Sanctum of Domination farm has become a slightly better than expected class to play for fun in the raid. While still not competitive on pure single target, the ability to change legendaries to Verrottendes Seelensäckchen and spec into Aussaat, you can become a pseudo Windwalker Monk for burst AoE damage on fights where it is relevant, such as Seelenfetzer Dormazain, Leidensschmied Raznal, and Kel'Thuzad. Affliction still has some of the best baseline scaling among dps classes, so it has potential into later raid patches in the expansion, but unfortunately it remains relatively uncompetitive in priority damage at this point.

Even though the overall damage possibilities are lower, the utility remains an important part of any warlock's toolkit in a raid group. You're still the only class that brings Gesundheitsstein, and the only class that can easily supplement roster swaps with a Summon stone. Our curses - Fluch der Schwäche and Fluch der Sprachen remain useful for progression and there are very few alternatives that are raid viable. Finally, Dämonisches Tor remains the most powerful tool in any raid's toolkit to move all 20 players from one position to another.

Our mobility remains strong with the Night Fae covenant - Seelengestalt continues to be the solution to mobility problems warlocks have notoriously suffered from in past expansions. Dämonischer Zirkel: Teleportieren remains a strong option now that it's no longer a talent choice, giving warlocks another option to pre set up movement for specific mechanics. Although not a huge difference from most classes, affliction does have the added benefit of being able to cast most of its DoTs on the move - while you do ideally want to refresh your DoTs within their pandemic range for max efficiency, its perfectly fine to recast DoTs while moving when you have nothing better to cast. Even better yet, you can plan your DoT refreshes ahead of time and move specifically when you are refreshing them.

Finally, Warlock's survivabilty has remained relatively strong to all but pure physical damage. You still have one of the best passive damage reductions in the game through Seele entziehen, which can be amplified even further with Dämonenhaut. Erbarmungslose Entschlossenheit's relatively long cooldown can be reduced pretty significantly with the new conduit, Entschlossene Barriere. And in a very scary scenario with multiple targets available to you, Seelenfäule + Blutsauger in combination be a life saver.

Unfortunately, in a hardcore progression scenario, Affliction's damage is extremely under par for the course. The only reason I haven't personally rated Affliction C- or lower is because it has the ability to swap to either Demonology or Destruction, both of which are easily A Tier or higher in Sanktum der Herrschaft. Unless you're extremely deadset on playing Affliction, my current recommendation is to swap to either of those specs.C Tier SpecsOverall Rating: C (B*)

Note on B grade: Enhancement is somewhat unique in that its performance hinges on the strength of the OTHER players in your group (specifically melee) that you're playing with due to Totem des Windzorns. Big winners are Rogues and Arms Warriors, and the amount of extra damage can bump you up to be worthwhile. However, it is something that you only want one Enhancement player for, is exclusive to single target situations, and any second Enhancement player will bring nothing desirable on top of that. Therefore, it sits at an B grade rank if you can make use of this effect, but is relegated to a C rank if it has to stand on its own. Nothing that 9.1.5 brings interferes with this for us.

The poor system scaling gains from Covenants and Conduits in particular explain why over the course of Sanctum we have dropped, but only one rank from A (with Totem des Windzorns) / B without, to the B / C listed here.

While Enhancement has a very large amount of different builds and options within the kit, as 9.1 continued and the full package of systems were unlocked we fell starkly behind. Unfortunately, this means that things such as Schicksalswinde that propped us up in AoE have fell firmly behind, and we simply are unable to interact with that fight style. Our best strength leading into the tier was flexibility of builds and damage profiles, but due to a number of talent issues and stats having no direct scaling with certain builds, we are relegated to being a purely single target boss turret - and only sustained single target at that. This is coupled with 9.1.5 bringing no changes to improve this, and a number of the specs that benefit from Totem des Windzorns see no real changes either, ergo we firmly fall in the rankings.

As it stands in a retrospective of Sanktum der Herrschaft, the handful of fights we are acceptable on output wise, we never excel, and pair that with some where we are dead last and unable to adjust to improve that, it makes it a hard sell. Our damage profile now stands as a low burst sustained DPS with heavy reliance on RNG (thanks to the combination of Heiße Hand, Elementargeister and Wolfsknochen des Hexendoktors) which makes it hard to guess what your output will be pull to pull. This extends to whether you can even deal with a mechanic compared to alternative specs that can hold cooldowns for it and do it reliably, which is not appealing.

Our mobility isn't incredible, but it's extremely reliable thanks to Geisterwolf and Geisterpfoten (and even Wildes Anspringen) and you'll rarely find yourself unable to navigate a boss arena in Sanctum unless it explicitly requires displacement tools. Defense on the other hand comes with a lot of very strong tools on paper (Astralverschiebung and Vitalzuwachs especially), but they're attached to such long cooldowns that we can run into issues if a fights damage pattern is more frequent than we have tools to deal with. We also have the added benefit of being able to counteract the rot damage present on certain fights by aggressively using Heilende Woge.

Utility for Enhancement is somewhat lacking in a "this breaks a fight" kind of way, but the most obvious benefit is Totem des Windzorns referenced at the top which is quite literally free damage on top of your own output for your melee group - the thing is you need to be doing enough combined with that to justify the spot in your melee comp. Outside of that there's a lot of low priority utility like Totem der Energiespeicherung and a lower cooldown interrupt in Windstoß, and we can also cover the raidwide mobility cooldown requirements some fights have with Totem des Windsturms. Given that at least half of the encounters within Sanktum der Herrschaft have huge boss arenas, this is significantly more valuable than it ever has been to avoid telegraphed lethal mechanics, and is a factor if you can't get it elsewhere in your raid.

Kommentare

Kommentar von Dhrall

I actually kind of like arms in raid, but it feels out of place in M+. I miss the Legion days of arms pump :-)

Kommentar von ChuckyG

I've been trying playing SoD with both Witch Doctor's Wolf Bones, and Doom Winds, and couldnt even get close to DMG i do with doom winds by playing with wolf bones. Maybe im doing something wrong, but Wolf bones in theory should be better on raid.

Kommentar von Skaar

In relation to Affliction
Unfortunately, in a hardcore progression scenario, affliction's damage is extremely under par for the course.
I'm guessing Xyronic has never played golf...under par is a good thing

Shadowlands DPS Tier List - Sanctum of Domination for Patch 9.1.5

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