Augmenting Augmentation: Part 1 - The Case Against Support Specs

With the 15% buff, Aug was able to time a +19 with low item level and 2pc/2pc after being previously forgotten in the trash where most of the M+ community was happy to leave it. Now that it looks viable, well more than viable, there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth from DPS mains who fear losing a spot in groups to the stupid dragon again.

Currently, I main Devastation and am happy to do it, we’re the healthiest we’ve been since DF S2. But I am an Evoker main first, and so it is in my interest to have the entirety of my class in a healthy and playable spot. This sudden resurgence of Augmentation does not look healthy. Something needs to change, so I’ll add my ideas to the pile. Perhaps whoever is responsible for evoker tuning will find this helpful.

The Case against Support Specs
I am going to get so many people mad at me for this, but I have to say it; “support” specs, as a concept, do not make sense in World of Warcraft.

“Why would you say that, Prytia? Support classes are so fun for so many people? What about FFXIV Bard or Dancer? I want to play a Bard!”

What does the FFXIV Bard do? Offer a flat 1-2% buff to the entire raid. Are you absolutely certain that there isn’t anything else like that in WoW? Really? Mark of the Wild? Devotion Aura? You know, every other stupid class buff in the game?

“But Prytia, a support would offer utility!”

So does every other class in the game. They all offer quite a lot of utility. A well played Paladin alone can carry a group and do every job at once. Hell, without Aug’s special toys, I still offer a 30% DR against AoE, stuns, knockups, mana buff, stamp roar or spiritwalker, etc. I’m only lacking the unhealthy external called Blistering Scales, Weyrnstone (niche), and the threat reduction (which is criminal that I don’t have it).

Most of the time, utility isn’t defining the M+ meta. Numbers do, and then you work with what you have. If utility mattered, healer priest would rarely be meta, it lacks an interrupt.

But Oracle was meta. It was very meta.

Because timing a dungeon is a mix of two things: raw damage and survivability.

Oracle made the dungeons very survivable.

Aug was meta because Blistering Scales and buffing tanks and healers made dungeons very survivable.

And also offering a metric ton of extra damage doesn’t hurt, either.

And here lies the crux of my argument. What precisely is the point of buffing a group if you do not offer more damage than just bringing regular damage dealer? Buff supports are compelling to play because they make the game easier. They make everyone else do a lot of damage. That’s the fantasy.

To fulfill Augmentation’s fantasy, it is necessary for it to be meta. It is necessary for it to be overpowered.

What are you if you aren’t achieving that goal? A parasite. Merely doing (the same) damage through other people is a flawed design for a DPS class. It puts more pressure on the other two damage dealers to perform. Nothing about Aug can make up for a mage not pressing his cooldowns. Which is why their skill floor is so incredibly high. Because it isn’t just the Aug’s skill that matters.

The spec has no agency to ensure the team’s success unless it offers more than a regular dps.

No support spec would, with WoW’s current design.

And that’s without discussing the flaws in their current implementation…

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I’m not going to argue the core concept, because at this point blizzard doesn’t care what we think one way or the other, but I will say that I know a lot of people who hated what FF14 did to support classes.

Support in FF11 was amazing (if you ignore how badly they overtuned RDM and then just left it there), and people loved it, but then 14 reborn comes out and like you said, they were basically just another DPS. With all of the changes to Aug, I’ve been thinking about how it was FF14 all over again.

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Oh yeah? Well maybe the stupid dragons were upset at losing their spot to DPS players too, consider that? I think support specs work just fine in WoW and the only problem is we only have 1 of them.

Making the comparison to bard is really stupid because they slowly removed what made that and many other classes unique over time. I played that game all the way up to the most recent expansion gearing one of each type (melee ranged tank healer) and the game is a homogenized mess to the point the lead dev himself admitted it’s become a problem.

WoW being willing to take risks is why it has stayed on top and is now growing again while FFXIV is starting to fade.

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support in ff11 wasn’t really any less problematic (in 75 era when it was great) sure you could do a group without supports, but it was so horribly inefficient it was practically viewed as unviable.

I guess aug would need to be changed so it doesn’t increase survivability, but instead just makes the group vastly more efficient. Something to make it not a requirement but definitely wanted.

This really depends on the content you were doing. “Supports” often had a second role to play like puller or off healer. My favorite meme build I was able to get away with was Cor/Brd. Id run over and shoot a guy, run to the tank, roll some dice, door my horn, sit down.

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