In World of Warcraft what spell does the most damage?

Answer 1

The damage of a spell is more than just the number on the tooltip, so this question cannot be answered directly.

All spells have a base damage range, and some spells are also area-of-effect (AOE). This means that it hits more target than one. On top of that, the amount of Spellpower you have adds to this damage in a certain degree, called a coefficient. The higher this number, the more of your Spellpower applies to the damage of the spell.

The spell with the highest base damage is Flame Strike of the Mage class I believe, because it not only deals damage in an area, but it also leaves a damage-over-time effect on each target for 8 seconds. The highest coefficient is had by the spell Vampiric Touch of the Priest which adds in total 200% of your Spellpower to its total damage.

Among the AoE spells, this story becomes tricky. Each target takes full damage until you hit 10 targets, after which the additional damage is simply shared among extra targets instead of added. Because of this, the highest damage an AOE spell can do is based on 10 targets.

This is very hard to calculate, because you also have to count in Spellpower, buffs and debuffs. Some of the most powerful AoE spells are Seed of Corruption, Flame Strike, Mind Sear and Blizzard.

Answer 2

If you are referring to the highest damage a player can take, this will be falling damage. Above a certain height, falling damage will do 100% of a player's health in damage regardless of how much health you have.

The highest damage a player can do depends greatly on class, gear and experience. An experienced Warlock, Retribution Paladin or Mage can deal over 13.000 damage per second on an extended fight.

An interesting side note is that players using vehicles in Ulduar, at the Flame Leviathan fight, can do even more damage because this is based on the vehicle you are in.

I should have added by class, thanks. I already knew about the mage and a level 80 mage told me that before. It is mana consuming too so.....