Amount of Abilities by Class/Spec

Community General Discussion
1

Amount of Active Abilities by Spec

I wanted to make a list of the amount of abilities each spec has to help anyone who is factoring that in your main/alt choices for Shadowlands. With unpruning happening and with controller support enabled in the game, I thought it might be useful information.

The first number is if you take the most passive talents possible. The last number is if you take the most active talents possible. Talents that replace abilities count as the one ability only, since the net sum of abilities does not change. Talent rows that offer only active abilities count as one ability toward the totals.

Iā€™m sorry Death Knights, PTR was not allowing me to create a Death Knight as a class trial so I couldnā€™t see any talents or the spellbook. If anyone would like to post the count, Iā€™ll add it to the list and credit you.

Warrior
Arms: 28-33
Fury: 27-31
Protection: 28-31

Priest
Holy: 34-39
Discipline: 30-37
Shadow: 28-33

Monk
Windwalker: 26-33
Mistweaver: 29-33
Brewmaster: 26-32

Mage: If you use the water elemental and bind its abilities, add those. I believe there are two.
Frost: 28-35
Fire: 28-33
Arcane: 30-35

Hunter: If you bind all the individual call pets and pet utilities, add eight to the totals. If you bind pet abilities like Spirit Healing, add those, too. Pet spec abilities from Command Pet already count as one in the totals.
Marksman: 31-36
Beastmaster: 31-38
Survival: 34-39

Druid: Not gonna lie, this one was a nightmare. Totals include Charm Woodland Creature. Add six to the totals if you hotkey the shapeshifting forms. These totals completely ignore active affinity abilities and ignore abilities that require a different form, since those have their own hotbar.
Balance: 26-31
Feral: 26-31
Guardian: 21-24
Restoration: 30-35

Rogue: Add two if you hotkey individual poisons. Subtract five or six abilities that require stealth since it has its own bar. Add in abilities you might need to double down on for both your regular hotbar and your stealth hotbar.
Outlaw: 31-35
Assassination: 30-33
Subtlety: 31-33

Warlock: Add up to four (Aff/Destro) if you hotkey your demon summons individually. For Demo, add one if you solely use Felguard or up to five if you hotkey them all.
Affliction: 30-36
Demonology: 30-37
Destruction: 31-38

Paladin: Add three if you hotkey the auras.
Retribution: 30-36
Protection: 27-30
Holy: 32-38

Shaman
Elemental: 31-37
Enhancement: 31-37
Restoration: 36-43

Demon Hunter
Havok: 18-24
Vengeance: 18-23

EDIT: Courtesy of Whatdough , 46 Pandaren Monk

Hey! Iā€™m quite late to the party, but brought data!

Death Knight: Runeforging and Death Gate are not included in the totals. Control Undead is counted as 1 in the totals (pet buttons not included). For Unholy, add 4 if you key bind the Ghoulā€™s abilities (not including Attack, Follow, Move to, Assist, Defensive, or Passive).
Blood: 26-33
Frost: 24-30
Unholy: 24-29

14 Likes
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Amazingly informative. Thanks for the work you put in on this. It will help me decide.

4 Likes
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This is cool, thank you :slight_smile:

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4

I think Demon Hunter is the obvious choice for anyone playing with a controller, and maybe Mistweaver Monk for healing. Fire Mage also works well if you want to do ranged DPS.

2 Likes
5

EDIT: Seeing that I had different needs than the OP (and not knowing what may have changed since Beta), I did my own counts:

These counts are not aimed at controller players; my base assumption is that infrequently used abilities (such as hour-long buffs) donā€™t need to be keybound.

As before, these counts do not take PvP talents, Covenant abilities, etc. into account.
As before, the first number is if you choose as many passive talents as possible, the second number is if you choose as many active talents as possible.

Disclaimer: There are several classes/specs I have little, if any, experience with (namely, pet classes/specs). Therefore I included as many details of my counting as possible (so the experienced among you can compensate when interpreting the numbers).

Death Knight
Not Counted: Runeforging; Death Gate.
Control Undead was counted as 1 (pet buttons were not counted).
For Unholy, add 4 if you key bind all of the Ghoulā€™s abilities (not including Attack, Follow, Move to, Assist, Defensive, or Passive).

Blood: 26-33
Frost: 24-30
Unholy: 24-29

Mage
Not Counted: Arcane Intellect; Teleports; Portals; Conjure Refreshments (nor [Eat Conjured Mana Food]).
For Arcane, Mana Gem (Use) was counted as 1; Conjure Mana Gem was not counted.
For Frost, Summon Water Elemental was counted as 1; Freeze (pet ability) was counted as 1.

Arcane: 25-29
Fire: 23-28
Frost: 23-32

Demon Hunter
Not Counted: Glide

Vengeance: 17-22
Havoc: 16-23

Warrior
Not Counted: Battle Shout.
For Arms & Fury, neither Shield Slam nor Shield Block were counted.
For Arms, Fervor of Battle talent was counted as -1 (I unbind Slam with this talentā€¦ idk if Iā€™m alone in that choice though).
For Fury, Slam was not counted (Iā€™ve heard it can be worth using in Torghast thoughā€¦).
For Prot, Whirlwind was not counted.

Prot: 26-29
Arms: 24-31
Fury: 23-27

Monk
Not Counted: Zen Pilgrimage; Zen Flight.
For Brewmaster & Windwalker, Resuscitate was counted as 1.
For Mistweaver, Reawaken was counted as 1 (Resuscitate was not counted).

Brewmaster: 24-30
Windwalker: 24-31
Mistweaver: 26-31

Shaman
Not Counted: Astral Recall; Flametongue Weapon.
Farsight was counted as 1.
For Restoration, Water Shield was counted as 1; Lightning Shield was counted as 1.
For Enhancement, neither Lightning Shield nor Windfury Weapon were counted.
For Elemental, neither Lightning Shield nor Primal Strike were counted.
For Elemental & Enhancement, Earth Shield talent was counted as 2 (because Lightning Shield would then need a keybind).
For Elemental, Primal Elemantalist talent was counted as 1 (ā€˜cause Iā€™m lazy; if you plan to take that talent, do the math yourself).
For Elemental & Enhancement, Ancestral Spirit was counted as 1.
For Restoration, Ancestral Vision was counted as 1 (Ancestral Spirit was not counted).

Enhancement: 27-35
Elemental: 27-35
Restoration: 33-40

Paladin
Not Counted: Sense Undead.
Turn Evil was counted as 1.
For Retribution, Shield of the Righteous was not counted.
For Retribution & Protection, Redemption was counted as 1.
For Holy, Absolution was counted as 1 (Redemption was not counted).

Protection: 27-30
Retribution: 29-35
Holy: 30-36

Priest
Not Counted: Power Word: Fortitude.
Mind Vision was counted as 1.
Shackle Undead was counted as 1.
Mind Control was counted as 1 (pet buttons were not counted).
For Shadow, Shadowform was not counted.
For Shadow, Misery talent was NOT counted as -1 (my understanding is that youā€™d still want SW: Pain keybound).
For Shadow, Resurrection was counted as 1.
For Holy & Discipline, Mass Resurrection was counted as 1 (Resurrection was not counted).

Shadow: 28-33
Discipline: 28-35
Holy: 32-36

Hunter
Not Counted: default pet bar buttons: Attack; Follow; Move to; Assist; Defensive; Passive.
Also Not Counted: Call Pet(s).
Command Pet was counted as 2.
Mend Pet was counted as 1 (other Pet Utilities were not counted).
Eyes of the Beast was counted as 1.
Eagle Eye was counted as 1.
For Survival, neither Arcane Shot nor Steady Shot were counted.
For Beast Mastery, Arcane Shot was not counted.
For Marksman, subtract 4 if you choose the Lone Wolf talent.

Survival: 29-34
Beast Mastery: 27-34
Marksman: 28-33

Druid
(I may have simplified these counts a bit too far; read carefully.)
Not Counted: Dreamwalk
None of the abilities that requireā€“before activatingā€“a Specializationā€™s non-primary form were counted.
For Balance, Feral, & Guardian, the Specializationā€™s primary ā€œFormā€ button was counted as 1 (no other Form buttons were counted).
For Balance, Feral, & Guardian, Revive was counted as 1.
For Restoration, Revitalize was counted as 1 (Revive was not counted).
How I counted the 3rd talent row: Feral Affinity = 0; Guardian Affinity = 1; Balance Affinity = 1; Restoration Affinity = 4.

Guardian: 27-34
Feral: 28-35
Balance: 23-31
Restoration: 26-32

Rogue
Not Counted: Poisons; Pick Pocket; Pick Lock; abilities that require Stealth.
For Assassination, Blindside talent was counted as 1.
For Assassination, Subterfuge talent was counted as 2.

Outlaw: 24-28
Assassination: 23-29
Subtlety: 28-30

Warlock
(Again, I donā€™t know pet classes; oversimplifications incoming.)
Not Counted: Unending Breath; Ritual of Doom; Ritual of Summoning; Create Soulwell.
Healthstone (Use) was counted as 1; Create Healthstone was not counted.
Summon Demon(s) was counted as 1.
Eye of Kilrogg was counted as 1.
Subjugate Demon was counted as 1.
Command Demon was counted as 1.
Soulstone was counted as 1.
For Destruction & Demonology, Corruption was not counted.
For Destruction & Affliction, Grimoire of Sacrifice talent was only counted as 1.

Destruction: 25-32
Affliction: 25-31
Demonology: 24-31

1 Like
6

It seems like a lot but remember about 7 of these have long cooldowns and you can reduce 3 by macroing them in with others! Help/harm macros

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Updated it, thank you!! <3

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Hello, again!

Iā€¦ kinda-sorta did all new counts from scratchā€¦ yeah.

See my post above for the data.

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Everyone says dh is too simple not enough abilities yet they remain one of the most popular classes. And itā€™s easy to see why. Theyā€™re fun to play and their toolkit however minimal gets the job done. Complexity for the sake of it isnā€™t fun which is why I hate playing druids.

2 Likes
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Unpopular opinion but I think they should prune more. Gimme the buttons I need to get the job done and cut out all the fluff. Having 40 buttons just for the sake of having 40 buttons isnā€™t good game design. And if your game requires all 40 buttons then the encounters need to be re evaluated.

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I donā€™t know if itā€™s really that unpopular. What people say on the forums rarely reflects the ninety percent of players who never even come here. Like I said, illidankxx isnā€™t the only reason why dhā€™a are popular. Im sick a short maintenance buffs for example seraphim or slice akd dice. Those need to go away forever.

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Slice n dice can die in a firey pit. In fact all maintenance abilities can. I donā€™t mind mage or warrior ones since they last an hour at least.

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Exactly. Either ditch snd and seraphim or make them last an hour like battle shout. Seraphim is slice and dice for paladins. 15 seconds of stats every forty five seconds. I refuse to use such ak absurd talent.

14

Bookmarked.

Some interesting results. And strange considering my Monk feels like he has 5+ more buttons than my Warrior.

15

this is why we have burst macros and defensive macros and fyi most people use gnome sequencer to put their attacks in to one button.

16

Demon hunters are a class on training wheels.

They sit in their kiddy chair and just hit 5 giant big buttons.

17

Where does the Evoker fall into this? This is a super helpful list. Can you add the Evoker/any other updates that may have transpired since the last post?

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The player who started this thread appears to no longer have an armory. Unless thereā€™s a bug, that suggests they havenā€™t played in more than a year.