I get PTSD from dealing with the amount of Ret hate from 14 years ago. THis time around it isnt as bad but still there. People understand when you can pug some 55-57’s in MC you can probably bring a 60 ret. Ive been able to compete in single target dps against other classes / pick my own weight while having abilities like my bubbles, blessings and Divine intervention for utility.
The only problem is that im still ret.
At the moment I specced prot and made a tanking set to spam dungeons with my friend so I can loot the ret pieces I need to raid. The lack of tanks out there is insane.
The gold it takes to constantly respec is insane tho. But I have to take it as it is. Other classes dont hav the luxury of just tanking or healing to get quick groups.
Its rough. The gold sink in just respeccing is crazy.
I am 60 now tho so im trying to farm my BIS so you can understand that im competing with Rogues Hunters, warriors paladins for my gear. Ontop of that there are 0 tanks.
So I went ahead and specced Prot until I can get my gear and invite only casters LOL My friend is a healer priest who has full BIS so hes not too worried about any loot.
the heal tank dps trinity is just a biproduct/exploit of the aggro system. if mobs could decide who to attack more intelligently tanks wouldn’t even exist.
Exactly this. Hybrid taxes aren’t even a Blizzard creation. Many MMOs had the good sense to figure out that maybe just MAYBE you didn’t give equally high dps to the class that could also heal, rez and buff. It didn’t start in WoW.
What changed was the mindset of players who more and more decided they couldn’t live without being given everything.
“But I wanna be at the top of the meters /cryyyyyyyyyyyy”
Well… you have that now in retail. You can have your cake and eat it too, just like you asked for. And now the game is a hot mess and people wonder why.
That sort of gameplay would require that characters in the game have actual mass and be able to block one another from moving through them, in which case, the people blocking for the softer characters would still be tanks. Effectively all multiplayer games have forgone this though for innumerable practical reasons (and my god, the trolling that would occur).
I really enjoyed the TBC (class balance) model: certain classes will always top certain meters but every spec and every class brings something uniquely useful. The only issue was PVP balance, and especially in Arena, but Blizzard isn’t capable of balancing PVP. Plus there should be a greater focus on larger group pvp over small scale deathmatches in a box. And this isn’t a competitive game anyway, if you look at it that way it’s a trainwreck.
This is one of the few design philosophy changes I’d want to see brought to Classic.
I think a cool way to fix this is.
Final talent point for hybrid dps specs would be a valuable buff. A solo rogue/mage/warrior etc. without said buffs have the same if not slightly higher damage potential as a solo hybrid with their own buff. In this way, in a raid environment, the hybrids still do respectable dps however, they offer the “pures” enough damage boost to keep them ahead of the hybrids.
The biggest difference in hybrid vs pure should be that hybrids have inherent utility and specialized super utilities and pures should have higher sustain with buffs and dps cooldowns to give them damage windows. I feel like this would give everyone a shining moment or reason to be there.
Why can’t paladins regenerate mana for performing support abilities while tanking? Or every block restores % mana? Make them work to restore resources but why leave them starved while in such a critical role? The reason bears work is because rage is a superior mechanic!
Oomkins could get mana for healing raid members…encourage that hybrid playstile. Reward playing to the classes strengths. Yeah you’re not topping meters but you contribute to healing. Maybe Oomkin could be the designated 50% healer 50% dmg role? I just think hybrid loses its identity when all we care about is numbers.
If we can make it so more healing is required and hybrids can bring that utility? Shadow priests always have vampiric embrace up but their damage is lower. They constantly heal for smaller amounts.
I listed several ways here, I’m not saying any one of them is THE answer but I can think of so many ideas within a 10 minute time span. It would be so cool if they offered us a Classic “like” experience with improvements to hybrid contribution. I think hybrids want to be able to be on par with dps only classes but that’s not what a hybrid is. So either the vision of the game is, yes we have hybrids and they bring more than just damage but not super garbage damage -OR- they should be closer to live where all the classes are just aesthetically different versions of each other with otuliers changing from patch to patch.
It does suck a little bit. Most of the community is misinformed and follows the general parrot of ‘hybrids suck durr’, disregarding the trade-off advantages you bring by taking a hybrid.
Oh well. I’m sure as classic progresses, people will continue to learn.