Favorite Classes and Specs In Battle for Azeroth So Far

So I had some interesting conversations in game yesterday around what my favorite classes and specs have been so far in Battle for Azeroth.  So let me start with a couple of key points.  I have two characters at this point that I consider my mains.  The "main" main (is that a thing), is Joar, my Horde Warlock.  He's been mostly played as Affliction this time, as we was in Legion, but I've bounced around a bit to Demonology and Destruction as well.  My "other" main is Joareesa, an Alliance Hunter.  I've primarily been playing her as Beast Mastery, but have flipped over to Marksmanship occasionally.  Joar has always been my "main" main since Day 2 (see early blog posts for an explanation of that), and the alliance character has just been the last couple of expansions since it seemed to make sense to play both factions.  Neither has anything to do with those necessarily being my favorite classes or specs at the time.

I am however going to leave both warlock and hunter off the list because they tend to be what I play first, and I've always enjoyed pet classes, so tend to enjoy those the most.

Second key point is that these are just from the perspective of leveling.  I've basically tried nothing other than my warlock for raiding this expansion, and frankly the warlock has been fairly mediocre.

I'm also not supremely confident about individual position within the list.  In general, top half of the list are the ones that I liked best and bottom half of the list are ones that I liked least, but the relative order within those halves aren't necessarily super precise.

Retribution Paladin - good rotation, good utility with lots of interrupts and stuns, good survivability
Balance Druid - rotation feels much smoother than it used to and also really strong utility and survivability.
Havoc Demon Hunter - really strong damage, lots of good utility and feels a lot more durable than in Legion.
Arms Warrior - I'll be honest, I haven't tried Fury yet.  But I really enjoyed leveling as Arms.  This one has also traditionally been in the bottom half of my list for a long time, so this is a pretty huge move.
Elemental Shaman - at least for me, this is an even bigger move.  The past two expansions, I would have ranked this one absolutely dead last.  But this one fees really strong to me this time.  Best interrupt in the game, good damage reduction, really strong damage and create synergy with the elementals.
Outlaw Rogue - this is also a big change for me because this would have also been close to the bottom in the past.  This feels a lot more like the Combat Rogue of old, which I always loved for leveling.
Frost DK - It was fine.  I've always enjoyed DK's, but this one felt underpowered to me this time and not quite as fun.
Windwalker Monk - like the frost DK, this one was also fine, but just felt underpowered relative to the others.
Shadow Priest - this one is also a big change for me, because for at least the last 3 expansions, this one would have been very close to the top of my list.  It just felt less inspiring this time.
Frost Mage - so let me start off by saying that this is absolutely not because I main a warlock.  I've actually always enjoyed mages as well.  In Legion, I would have probably had Fire Mage much higher on the list.  Survivability just felt terrible this time, and the glass cannon wasn't enough of a cannon to compensate.

So that's my list.  But just to be clear, I love all these classes.  That's part of the reason I'm such an altoholic and why I don't really focus on multiple characters particularly (by the end of this expansion, I will likely have 3 different toons of each class leveled to 120).

Let me also add some quick commentary on tank specs.  I've traditionally done that for at least one toon of all the relevant classes.  In BfA so far, the tank specs have just felt too underpowered to be great at leveling, particularly for higher level mobs with additional ads and quick respawns.

Cheers,

Joar