Support wasn’t an official role but as the above post describes both Pally’s and Shaman were considered Support in Vanilla and TBC.
Shaman were the Offensive Hybrid support class through their Totems.
Pally’s were the Defensive Hybrid support through their Auras and Blessings.
I was sad when they moved those specs away from Support and made them more generic DPS specs. I still remember Ghostcrawler saying they did that because playing Support wasn’t fun (which was news to me) but that shows the devs felt there was a Support role.
Nor was “damage dealer,” “healer,” or “tank.” Roles were only baked into the game in WotLK when the group finder came along,
Yep. Support role does not appeal to numbers-centric, individualistic players. And those types of players defined the second generation of WoW developers, such as Ghostcrawler. I think it speaks volumes to how successful they were in turning WoW into a game that caters to their specific sensibilities that many players cannot conceive of a framework that isn’t just a competition to see who can make the biggest number.
Personally, I would love to lead raids as a support. A good support needs to know the flow of flight to be able to react, and a raid leader is doing that anyway.
It would also be a good fit for players that aren’t as caught up in chasing numbers as others, whether it be for skill reasons or just a simple disinterest. Those players could simply boost the numbers of people who care to even greater heights.
In short, it is not a role that would appeal to people with big egos. It pursues collective success rather than personal success. And I think that’s why you don’t see much support for it in places where people who are heavily invested in the game hang out, like the forums here.
Futurama said it best:
That mode of thinking doesn’t appeal when your self-worth is defined by your damage meter of choice.
Don’t forget that we’ve done Y before, but we’re choosing to deny that history and imply that Y is a completely foreign concept to attempt to semantically strengthen the argument!
To be clear, the thing we’re disagree about is something that you’re saying the developers stated people disliked enough that it was removed from the game?
But it was so fun, despite all the evidence, that we should go back to a failed experiment from almost two decades ago?
It wasn’t fun for the number crunchers who were hired to develop the game post-launch.
And like I’ve said before, in isolation, it would be insane for anyone to suggest that they would revisit the role. It was codified out of the game, and the game has only become more numbers-centric and individualistic as time marched on. Personal preferences aside, it would make no sense to revisit the concept.
Yet… take a look at the datamining. It remains insane, but the only reasonable conclusion is that they’re adding in a new specialization that happens to be support-focused.
Evokers only. Upon login you are toasted with NEW SPECIALIZATION REMEMBERED toast. This quest appears in your mailbox sent by Emberthal asking you to go to the Forbidden Reach. The mystery that was uncovered in 10.0.7 (not required for this quest) is about to unfold and she needs your help to talk Ebyssian down from a course of action she sees as folly.
As the energies release, Adamanthia is coming to and is driven mad by torture of ages. Help buy Ebyssian time to subdue her magically. Boss fight. Boost/heal Ebyssian and Emberthal (most efficient method) or throw damage on Adamanthia. High flavor fight, lots of banter.
You three shall be the examples all Dracthyr will follow.
Sarkareth, my devastator, you shall rend your foes with the powers of the Red and Blue Dragonflight.
Viridia, my preserver, you shall heal our allies with the graces of Green and Bronze Dragonflights. And Emberthal, you will wield the essence of the Black Dragonflight to augment all those around you with my power.
By my command, kneel and obey.
The Adamant Vigil
This weyrn shall be the eyes and ears of the black dragonflight and the legions of dracthyr.
Where our enemies tread, you will find them. Where our armies fly, it will be your guidance that directs their talons. Learn the weaknesses of our foes and amplify the strength of our allies.
Only the most bold, most cunning, and most gifted commanders shall join the ranks of the Adamant Vigil. This weyrn shall be granted unprecedented authority to act on its own initiatives, and shall answer to only Scalecommander Emberthal and the Earth-Warder.
Emphasis mine.
What alternative reasonable conclusions are there to make?
I don’t know with any certainty what it means, but I see why people are talking about it.
My guess is that this is actually for a scenario where you get an extra action button or two to use. The odds of adding a new spec and role mid-expansion seems, even with these posts, to be extremely unlikely. Notably, it’s not on the PTR, and the next patch is in a month. This is obviously something that would require a lot of testing–like an alpha and beta cycle, not a mid-expansion PTR.
Because I was ret back during TBC. And I remember for my supportive abilities, I was told simple terms, my options were either reroll prot or holy and actually contribute to things, or learn to enjoy solo play as ret.
I suppose you if you have such happy memories as the token enh shaman. But it was absolutely miserable as one of the lolrets out there, and I suspect many others felt the same way.
I wouldn’t contest that. There were, like, five specs that were actually decent. Most survived their transition into modernity with their identities intact. Shaman did not. We were robbed of our mechanical niche and, while our theme always remained strong, we haven’t had an identity ever since. That’s why I hopped over to Evoker after 20 years (and a brief stint as a DK tank) - the only thing more appealing to me than the support role was being able to play as a dragon.
Even so, I would have still preferred that the support role survived modernization. Honestly, I’m willing to bet that it would have if damage meter addons were as sophisticated as they are today and were able to actually attribute damage numbers coming from support abilities to the support class itself.
It’s more than just a numbers game though. The game would need to a fundamental design shift, one where all encounters and dungeons would have to be adjusted and accounted for.
It’s completely possible Blizzard just won’t care about that and do whatever they want anyway, but that opens the door to them screwing up immensely.
Completely depends on implementation. We’re not going to be getting EQ Shaman or DAoC Skald. As much as I loved both, they don’t fit into modern WoW. If it’s just a FFXIV Dancer or Bard equivalent (which, in all likelihood, it will be), which is simply chopping off tip of your damage meter bar to add to someone else’s, nothing needs to change.
Honestly, I hope it’s somewhere in the middle. They should be viewed as essential in a raid. Mythic should be balanced around having one.
It would just check so many boxes for me to be playing as a draconic support class. Not everything in that concept aligned with what we eventually got, but what they came up with does scratch a lot of those itches.
Whatever form it takes, I am looking forward to it.
