I think that if every class had the same level of healing and/or damage reduction to be able to tank hits like shaman do, shaman would not feel so incredibly strong by comparison. As a hybrid class that gets spell power and healing while also having relatively high base healing values on their spells, they perform a lot better than others.
Trying to cast a heal as a paladin outside of bubble is a death sentence. It’s absurdly weak. So it often feels like for many classes the other shot they have is to rush down the opponent and kill them as quick as possible, and when shaman can tank multiple people while keeping up consistent damage pressure on them, it’s pretty clear that there is something unfair in that scenario. Healing for other hybrids is just non-existent and so death is almost always inevitable. While things like Shockadin have only just gotten their gear support this literal phase, and shadow just doesn’t have the damage output like other classes.
I remember when shadow was one tapping people in phase 2. It’s the rune system.
I hope that if there is a Classic + that the design philosophies that made Classic such a lasting success are really studied byt the devs. There are tradeoffs to everything. The rune system was a very interesting attempt at bringing all of the underplayed and ignored classes up to “par” with dps warriors. In reality all a lot of the meme classes needed was some mana regen and a little bit more in the way of utility, and to reign in warrior scaling with gear. Classic is a much better framework for the devs than SoD, and TBH I find it very silly how crazy people on these forums have been and continue to be about PvP.
Yea that was an issue with SW:Death being pushed too hard in Phase 1. I called that out. I said it was a bad idea to overbuff that rune to try and buff shadow, because it would just lead to nerfs later on and forcing SW:Death as a part of rotation is bad because no one wants to risk killing themselves or making healers hate them. And lo and behold I was right.
And yea, the rune system is part of the problem for sure. But so is the redesign to gearing that people never mention. Original ret paladin gear itemized rets for spell damage AND healing, but all new tier sets and gear replaced it for holy spell damage, removing all of paladin’s access to spell damage and healing hybrid. This creates an issue where shaman get tankiness and healing and damage from runes, but also gear scaling that benefits that too. While paladins do not get hybrid benefits for their gearing outside shockadin.
I mean, OP is just a shortcut for not wanting to talk about the issues with individual classes. Ret Paladin damage is too front loaded on several damage multipliers spread across several set bonuses. Warriors in glad stance have Mist Monk levels of crowd control. Boomkins and hunters have too much easy burst damage at massive range with little to no counterplay. Shaman has insanely good fight sustain while having the same level of damage output on mobile casting as others. Just about every class and spec has something going for it mostly, but whether or not there’s a balance issue with it is another thing entirely.
Rogues do way too much damage in 1v1 to be healthy right now, but struggle in group PVP since they only excel at solo killing in stunlocks.
Rets do too much burst damage in melee, but they struggle to get into and stay in melee by themselves, and when their burst isn’t enough they just die without doing anything because they provide zero beyond damage.
Hunters offer nothing but damage, but the damage they deal is too high to be considered reasonable or fair.
