#53 - Jan. 2, 2009, 8:14 p.m.
Q u o t e:
For years, the game was balanced around the scenario in the first post (cloth do more DPS, die quicker, plate do less, die slower, etc.).
We certainly factor in plate as a benefit shared by warriors, paladins and death knights. But cloth wearers often have tools or spells to make up for their lack of armor. While we think mages and warlocks deserve a slight dps edge to make up for the fact that they are incapable of ever doing anything but dps (and those two happen to wear cloth) that is more of a mage and lock issue, not a cloth issue. (We put hunters and rogues in the same bucket as mages and locks.) We don't for example try to keep Fury warrior damage lower than Shadow priest damage. I'm not sure you could even argue that plate provides that much of a benefit in PvE.
But really the bigger issue is that the content is designed so that any reasonable mix of classes can beat it, provided your group also has reasonable skill and gear. You shouldn't be taking so much damage that the healers can't heal through it. The survivability of the dps players generally shouldn't be an issue. The survivability of the tank might be an issue, and if you are all undergeared or doing the encounters wrong, then you might notice high casualty rates. But the corpses should be wearing cloth and plate. You should never find yourself in a situation where you say "Well, if we just had more plate and mail wearers, we'd be dealing with loot drama by now."
Q u o t e:
hmm this preety much goes directly against your statement about buffing a demon lock damage to be equal damage to other lock builds...so is it fair to say that the equal damage does not relate to improved surviveability only applies to warlocks or to cloth classes in general... seems i don't know kinda hypocritical.
I said it would be unfair for one spec to have superior survivability and comparable dps. Why choose any other spec if that were the case?
This is a slightly different situation though, because I can't imagine many raid leaders being that concerned about survivability to begin with, unless the group was trying content that they weren't sufficiently prepared for (say a Naj'entus attempt when only a handful of the raid had 10K health).
Ironically, and I think the point several players have been making, is that plate doesn't give you much if any of an edge on surviving. First, most bosses hit for so hard that your armor is irrelevant unless you are wearing tank gear. Second, a lot of raid damage is magical, for which armor offers no protection. Third, cloth wearers have several tools at their disposal to make up for their fragility. And again, if your casualty rates are that high, you're probably doing something wrong.
