Then don’t play the spec? I don’t mean to be glib, but there are people out there that would love to return to this mode of play. Myself among them.
My point is, because I completely trust Blizzards ability to balance things properly, a support spec will either be essential in all forms of content, or regarded as absolute dog garbage and told to reroll or respec into something useful.
If they did give Evokers a Support Spec, but it’s support abilities do not offset the lack of either dps or healing it could also be doing, then they’d be better off as the dps and healing focus spec and then we’d have a new generation of lol.
You are thinking “hybrid,” not support. By definition, a support would offset their lack of personal damage by increasing the damage of others. That’s the role. And with scaling tech, they could have a lot of fun with this in a modern MMO.
But that doesn’t change the issue. Because again, Blizzard balance.
That support role would need to be a requirement in all forms of content or will be rendered irrelevant when you could just take a hybrid who could provide damage as well as supportive abilities. This could be solved by stripping support abilities like buffs and what not from all the other classes, but then it goes right back into the “Now this class/spec/whatever is a requirement”.
Blizzard balance is always Blizzard balance. That has never stopped them from adding new things. It’s not like whatever class du jour that the playerbase has determined is “required” for this content or that has actually ever stopped groups from forming without it.
If they make the support class powerful enough to be worth taking it’ll probably be no different than needing a tank/heals. Doable without one or the other if you outgear the content significantly in some cases.
Just tack on a spot for them in every group. If it’s a good enough idea there’ll be plenty of folks to fill them.
I’m all for that. The role should have been codified along with the others in WotLK.
So increase the group size to 6 or replace a dps with a exclusive support spec? That’s possible for queueable content, though I suspect more problems with things like mythic+ and raids.
Emotional support role maybe, lordy
Paladins are basically a support role already, so are shamans in a way, and shamans used to be more of a support role than they are now.
A support class can be 100% balanced… all it would have to do is the buffs going out would have to be equal to the 3rd person dps… it wouldn’t be any different than current balancing issues we have none where a lot of dps aren’t being used because they don’t meet a meta.
The issue would be if there where more than 1 in a group how would the synergy work between them
Probably about as well as having 2 tanks or 2 healers
thats hard to say as 2 tanks and 2 healers in a 5 man are wack but 2 tanks required in raid and flex healers. thats why i said they would have to buff the group enough to fill in for dps
Yeah, but let’s be honest, the role population has never been exactly healthy in any of those games. Aside from the problem of people who don’t appreciate the buffs they’re receiving, the history of MMOs that have true support roles shows that there are FAR fewer players interested in playing that role than even the current undersupplied roles. The fact that half a dozen have showed up in this thread does not refute this.
Yes. I remember players asking for abilities like Greater Blessing of Might to be REMOVED from their own classes so they could do more personal DPS in exchange.
What percentage of paladins opted into Blessing of Seasons? 5%?
Is that because it wasn’t strong? Well, that’s hard to say, because most of its effects didn’t show up in meters (or showed up on someone else’s meter instead of your own), which made people think it was weak. A support role would have that problem ALL THE TIME, with its MAIN abilities, not just some borrowed power.
The majority of WoW players would hate that. I get that you, personally, may be an exception. Maybe even after you run into a few too many players who only see your personal DPS and judge you for it; maybe you’ll have the mental fortitude to brush them off as idiots. But there aren’t enough of you to restructure the game around.
Also, if your use of the word “enhancing” is referring to Enhancement the spec, it’s about enhancing their own weapons with the elements so they can hit dragons in the face with storm, earth, and fire. That’s why Stormstrike is their signature rotational ability and they have unique pseudo-enchants like Windfury and Flametongue. (Imagine if you could cast those on other people’s weapons – if that sounds cool to you, you are in a minority of WoW players.)
The fact that the experience of other MMOs shows that there will not be plenty of folks to fill them is only one of the reasons this is not a good idea for WoW.
Also, just to be clear, are we still talking about something that might be added in the middle of an expansion? Because I feel like a sixth party slot in all currently 5-man content is… not that.
The entire class/spec line-up of OG vanilla-BC WoW were all “support roles,” but with added buttons to heal, dps, etc.
Having said that, I went ahead and Google’d it as, admittedly, WoW was my first MMO and has been my only MMO. Straight up, I’m good. It sounds like a class/spec/role for people to play that want to raid, m+, etc. without having to have any type of actual relevant responsibility during content.
It’s like you want to raid/m+, but you want to completely bypass and avoid any/all type of “competitive comparison.” Like, you’re telling me the entire purpose of your role is to rebuff me if I die and get battle res’d? LOL. I’d rather just have another dps or healer.
Y’all keep trying to reskin a dead horse in some pathetic attempt to revitalize the game, when in all reality, Blizzard already has everything they need in order to revitalize the game, they’re simply (still) listening to the wrong crowd.
They’ve been listening to the wrong crowd for nearly 20 years and here we are.
On release wow had 6 roles,
Off-tank(rogues, hunters, shaman, dps war, warlocks), tank, dps, healer, CC and support.
The two support classes were paladin and shaman.
I think it can be pulled off if the support role ends up contributing the same dps as a typical dps.
thinking they do 50% the damage of a dps, but buff their 4 party members by an equivalent of 10% dps (Total 90%).
and the leftover percent damage contribtuion(10%) would be spread out as a raid damage contribution buff they do+ a non stacking raid buff similar to windfury totem, monk buff ect.
It could be done… would end up being 1 was required for raid, and they would be equivalent as dps for dungeons.
Next you’re going to tell us that blink is form of healing. >.>
Shields are not healing. They don’t return health, they prevent it from being taken. They weren’t even counted as healing early on in many meters (it was a big gripe of mine when I mained disc priest). Actually even now logs still separate out healing from absorptions in the breakdown. Unless things have changed since I’ve started maining holy priest, disc’s large aoe shield still doesn’t count in the healing meters, nor does a resto shaman’s spirit link totem.
Shields are more of a support mechanism than a heal. And yes, healing is a supportive role, just because it doesn’t fit YOUR personal definition of a support role doesn’t make you the authority on the matter. Healers support their teammates by providing healing, dispels, buffs, debuffs, absorptions, and occasional damage. They don’t just give missing health back.
Yes, we still call them healers, but healing, by nature, is a supportive role. Support, in this context, means to give assistance.
And every class has some form of damage, yet we still have dedicated damage dealers. Many classes have damage reduction talents as well, yet tanks exist.
For clarity, I was referring to 5 man groups. Bump the numbers up for raids and the same problem exists.
No way! GD swears there’ll be a ton!
(But seriously, it doesn’t seem like an idea that wouldn’t blow up waits for forming groups in this community)
Which is precisely my point.
Healers primarily heal. Damage dealers primarily deal damage. Tanks primarily mitigate damage and control threat. Support primarily supports. We have no class that primarily supports.
If you choose to broaden the term “support” to the degree you’re using it, it ceases to have any meaning in the RPG context. Healers support, sure, same as everyone else.
Idk, sounds like a new healer spec to me. Guess we’ll see in few weeks.