IIRC, dps warriors have never been meta. They had been decently strong in a few patches but never really considered “meta” or top tier. What other specs can you think of?
Frost dk, enhancement shaman, arcane mage?
Just to make it clear, meta should probably mean multiple appearances in MDI or TGP, or a high population in really high timed keys.
Now that I think about it, there was one arms warrior in a MDI or TGP match recently in DF, which I don’t remember when exactly. But I do remember that was the warrior’s only appearance because they lost 0-2.
Not particularly sure what hasn’t but Enh was meta in season 1 of DF. However in that season so was rogue, Ret, destro, mage, Boomie, DH, and shadow priest.
My highest keys that season were 27s with feral arms warrior tho, so idk how badly you needed meta that season despite what it was.
From nighthold until the end of legion it was in world top keys as well as multiple MDI showings, even showing up in multiples before the MDI removed spec stacking.
It’s been a while though, agreed, mostly due to blizzards disdain for the idea that dots can do meaningful damage on their own.
Also showed up in AA runs in season 1 of DF for the extreme boss damage during high target count pulls.
Bizentein (#1 dps warrior worldwide for mythic plus rating) played dps warrior in the most recent TGP for season 2.
He didn’t end up getting through the trials though because his team started bickering with eachother lol.
But anyways, dps warrior can never be part of the mythic plus meta because they severely lack utility and raw dmg isn’t enough to put a class in the meta.
I was referring specifically to the MDI for that season, where the team with aff posted the fastest AA time of all players. Not that it was particularly potent or relevant for the rest of the patch. Destro was by far the better play overall and became a significant portion of the dps meta by the end, you are correct.
Arcane kinda got a reputation early on because a lot of the top raiding mages were playing arcane in keys on stream during the RWF and, played well in large pulls, it was very strong. However this didn’t really catch on for the wider playerbase and once pushing keys started to become more popular towards the middle and later stages of the season fire was firmly ahead.
Arcane is a spec that has never really been meta, but has had times it has been exceptionally powerful but just worse than fire or frost.
They were on the edge of the rather wide DPS meta we had in season 1 of DF, definitely seeing play and requested in keys well above title range but not being played on any “Push teams” like the likes of andybrew or nerftank.