u/NoMedium9839

First, I want to preface this by saying this is just a bit of fun and also, I like entertaining content, and I like Supatease and Venruki.

That said...

The thing that chaps my bunghole is when these YouTubers look at data on sites like Drustvar's Spec Representation and use that as a basis for the quality of a given spec.

In a recent video, Supatease is talking about spec representation. For this example, let's observe his comments on Ret Paladins in the Top 100 in the US specifically. In it, he explicitly states "Ret Paladins are still in control of the top position." But what does that mean? Does it mean that Paladins are inherently stronger at PvP than other specs? Should we infer that, if we want to be the the best of the best melee we must roll ret?

Nope! It simply means more people play Ret Paladin.

This is why we use rate based metrics for analysis.

This is definitely NOT a perfect solution, but..... If you instead take the Top 500 players of each spec and divide them by their Top 5,000 counterpart, you get a weighted average of players, by spec, who can break out of lower brackets into higher ones.

Here's a small sample, using a few specs, with additional commentary afterwards:

Class/Spec	Top 5000 Rep	Top 500 Rep	%	Tier
Rogue/Outlaw	167	38	22.75%	S
Paladin/Ret	243	17	7%	B
Evoker/Aug	15	2	13.33%	A+

First, it shouldn't really be a surprise that Outlaw takes the cake in terms of any one spec's ability to break into the top 500: there's a decent volume of entrants in the Top 5,000 and the number of Top 500 Outlaw Rogues relative to that is the highest of all specs at 22.75%.

Secondly, regarding Rets: While yes, there are a lot of Rets flooding Shuffle, they're clearly firmly middle of the pack in terms of their ability to operate at the highest end of Shuffle, with just 7% making it through.

Lastly, we have to talk about the elephant in the room: SAMPLE SIZE. By this math/logic, you would assume that both Augmentation Evoker and Arcane Mage are A+ Tier, as their rates are 13.33% and 17.65%, respectively. The issue though is the sample size: Both of these specs have fewer than 20 entrants even cracking the top 5,000.

Again, this isn't meant to be inflammatory or a guide on some sort of perfect measurement solution. It's really just a cautionary tale for anyone out there basing a time investment decision off misinformation.

I'm also sure I'm missing something important, too. I'm not a machine and I'm definitely not a math genius. I do like numbers and data though, and thought I'd share my thoughts.

If you disagree or have an even better means of measurement, please let me know!

Hey all, my wife and I play together and neither of us are very good at PvP. She plays MM hunter and I have alt-o-holism. Question for you all is: what spec would be best for me to support her/pairs well with MM? I've been thinking maybe resto druid/boomkin, resto shaman/ele, hpal/ret or afflock? I'm intimidated by rogue, I'm not very good at the game/recognizing when certain important spells get used or whatever. Open to any feedback or questions, thanks in advance!