Hybrids Topping the Damage Meters

#0 - Feb. 4, 2009, 7:40 a.m.

So who here thinks that hybrids, with their versatility, should not be topping the damage meters. I find it hard to understand how shamans, druids and paladins routinely out damage pure DPS classes like mages, warlocks and rogues. I think that, yes, they should be viable as a class but, no, they should never out damage a dedicated DPS class.

Why? Because when you make a hybrid class out perform a class that is designed for one thing, damage, you end up with a class that is no longer a viable choice overall for raiding.

Some will say that it is skill, but I would have to say that for the most part its not skill, but rather class mechanics that enable this disparity.

Ghostcrawler

#97 - Feb. 4, 2009, 4:21 p.m.

There is no such thing as a typical raid or even a typical encounter, so it is tricky to make blanket statements like "X always tops the meters."

Overall, we suspect that warriors are too high (largely on double-dipping effects of Deep Wounds), DKs may be too high, and rogues and possibly cats are too low. This should not be news to anyone who follows these forums.

Again, that depends enormously on your actual group. Players are often very quick to ignore differences in gear or skill when claiming their dps is too low.

We tend to balance around individual encounters though. There might be certain fights where we think say mages, hunters or shamans are too high depending on how that encounter plays out. I would not try and read too much into my statements above.

Ghostcrawler

#158 - Feb. 4, 2009, 5:58 p.m.

Q u o t e:
That is your defination of a hybrid.
Blizzards defination refers to roles.
There are 3 roles. Tanking, healing, doing damage.
Any class that can do more than one of those roles is a hybrid.
Argue all you want but that is how Blizzard itself has defined it.

This is true. When we say "pure dps classes should generally top the meters" we mean "warlocks, hunters, mages and rogues."

However, when we say "generally top the meters" we are refering to players of flawless skill and perfect gear. For almost all raids composed of mortals, a very good player of any dps spec should be able to do the highest damage on an encounter. This was not the case in BC where we kept say Enhancement shamans or Retribution paladins much lower than the pure classes.