WoW Dragonflight’s Vault of the Incarnates DPS rankings were consistently dominated by one spec

WoW Dragonflight season one is nearing the end of its rope, and when the game rolls over into season two on May 9, WoW will usher in a new raid for its players to progress through: Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible.

With the conclusion of the season upon us, now is the perfect time to look at the way the DPS meta from the Vault of the Incarnates raid shaped up. And with a full raid tier in the book, the most consistent DPS specialization also proved to be the strongest option available to players progressing through the Vault of the Incarnates, even at the end of the raid tier.

To finish Dragonflight season one, Arms Warrior parsed the highest among all 25 DPS specs in the game, according to WoW stats tracker Warcraft Logs. Each week during the raid tier, Arms Warrior hovered at or near the top of the DPS rankings, especially during its later stages.

The final DPS rankings of Dragonflight season one saw Arms Warrior as the number one DPS spec in the game for parses conducted in Mythic Vault of the Incarnates, according to Warcraft Logs. Across Patches 10.0,10.0.7, and the one week where Patch 10.1 intersected with Dragonflight season one, Arms Warrior was among the most effective raiding specs in the game, out-parsing nearly all other DPS options across the entire raid tier. Only in Patch 10.0.7 did the spec not finish on top of the entire field. 

Related: All bosses, rewards, and release date for WoW Dragonflight Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible raid

On average, Arms Warriors parsed in the 80th percentile of Mythic raiders during the final week of season one, while hovering at or above that number throughout the majority of the WoW tier, according to Warcraft Logs.  

If there was any one spec to compete with Arms Warrior throughout the first season, it was Unholy Death Knight, which, after a sluggish start to the tier, surged to the top of the leaderboard in Patch 10.0.7, and steadily remained in the top five afterward. Unholy finished just behind Arms in the rankings, according to Warcraft Logs, and was a heavy contender at the top of the Mythic+ meta all season, especially at the highest levels.

To make Unholy’s case for the top spot even more intriguing, the spec finished as the best-parsing option on multiple boss fights. Three different boss encounters in the Vault of the Incarnates—Terros, Sennarth, and Eranog—saw Unholy Death Knight as their most-frequent top performer, according to Warcraft Logs.

Other top performers during the Vault of the Incarnate’s lifespan were Subtlety Rogue, Shadow Priest, and towards the back-end of the raid tier, Retribution Paladin (which was extensively reworked in March with the launch of Patch 10.0.7). 

While the raiding meta is certainly about to change with the release of Aberrus on May 9, Arms Warriors are heading into Dragonflight’s second season as a top choice. Some players should expect their classes to be altered significantly when Dragonflight season two launches on Tuesday, with the loot tables for each spec being shifted entirely. Gear that was once good in season one is almost guaranteed to be replaceable by even better items in season two.