Events
Break the Meta The War Within Season 2
To determine the eligible specs for The War Within Season 2 Break the Meta, we looked at the popularity of all specs sorted by role. We looked at various keystone level thresholds, including the highest keys being currently completed, but focused mostly on keystones +12 and up to determine spec eligibility.
Due to class tuning and other mid-season changes, we have decided to narrow the scope of data used to determine the eligible spec list to the last 6 weeks. We wanted to make sure BTM represents the “meta” as it is currently being experienced. When looking at how certain specs have changed in usage over the entire season, we strongly believe the last 6 weeks is the best representation of the current “meta”.
Our goal is to determine what is the “meta” for the majority of players, which is always a complicated task. This graph below shows which keystone levels are being run most often over the last 6 weeks. As you can see, +10 is the most popular overall, with +12 not far behind. Due to this data, and the way the meta seems to shift as the levels get higher, we believe focusing on +12 and higher made the most sense for this season of Break the Meta.
After sorting the participation data to show +12 and up dungeons for the last 6 weeks, we take the bottom 50% of specs for each role. This provides us with our baseline list of eligible Specs. From this point, we make adjustments as needed to accommodate various considerations, but we believe this methodology provides the best representation of the classes and specs that are considered “off-meta” or lesser-used by the Community at-large. Please see note below for further details.
In order for a keystone to be considered BTM-Eligible, it must be completed in time and made up of ONLY the following eligible specs:
| DPS | Tanks | Healers |
|---|---|---|
 Affliction Warlock |  Blood Death Knight |  Holy Paladin |
 Augmentation Evoker |  Brewmaster Monk |  Holy Priest |
 Destruction Warlock |  Guardian Druid |  Mistweaver Monk |
 Feral Druid |  Preservation Evoker | |
 Fire Mage |  Restoration Druid | |
 Frost Death Knight | ||
 Frost Mage | ||
 Fury Warrior | ||
 Outlaw Rogue | ||
 Shadow Priest | ||
 Subtlety Rogue | ||
 Survival Hunter | ||
 Windwalker Monk |
IMPORTANT NOTES ON SPEC CHOICES
TANKS
We are aware that at each keystone level above +12, we see shifts in tank popularity, but we do not believe that any of them are significant or consistent enough to make any changes in eligible specs from what the +12 and up data shows. In essence, at the highest levels,
Vengeance Demon Hunter is so dominant, that the differences between the other tank specs are nominal. As our goal is typically to take only half of the specs for each role (with some exceptions), we believe the +12 and up cutoff is an accurate representation of what the majority of players are experiencing. HEALERS
The Healer role is one where we’ve made an exception of the 50/50 rule, and have opted to include more specs than usual. Since there are 7 healer specs, we can never have an even 50/50 split, so we usually try to include 4 specs. However, the 4th and 5th specs,
Restoration Druid and Mistweaver Monk are so close to each other, that including one and not the other felt like an unfair choice. Additionally, as we get to the higher keystone levels, where the dominance of 
Discipline Priest and 
Restoration Shaman increases exponentially, we cannot in good conscience determine that both Resto Druid and Mistweaver are “meta” specs. We recognize that Resto Druid and Mistweaver are used more often than the other eligible healer specs, but their popularity is still quite low across the board starting at +12 and up keystones. For these reasons, we feel the appropriate direction is to include them both as eligible specs.
DPS
The DPS section is actually quite clear-cut based on the available data. There are a couple of specs that cross the 50/50 threshold (either up or down) when you get to the absolute highest levels, but as mentioned above, we believe the +12 and up data is the best representation for the purposes of this event. One spec we wanted to call out is the inclusion of
Destruction Warlock as eligible. We recognize that at the highest keystone levels, such as +18 and up, Destruction becomes more popular than its ineligible counterpart 
Demonology, but it still only accounts for 1.3% of specs used at that level. Therefore, despite it moving up into the top 50% of specs at those highest levels, we still feel that it is not a “meta” spec. As for Demonology, it only moves down into the bottom 50% of specs when looking at only +17 and up, so we are keeping it on the ineligible list.