Quote:When I talk about DPS, I'm talking about druid DPS, when that druid is in the best possible DPS gear for that stage and played extremely well vs a rogue or hunter or mage or whatever other DPS in close to the best gear they can get for that stage also played well. Druids are still only 90% of the DPS of those other classes at best. I'm also talking about paladin and shaman DPS (I've done all of MC, BWL, and through Twin Emps alliance side, I've done all of MC, and we are working on Nef Horde side as well as all of AQ20 and ZG both sides) with those people geared as best they can. Paladins and shaman can sometimes crack the top 10 on a damage meter. I'm not just theorycrafting. I play in guilds that are very friendly to alternate specs and where the people can and will gear for that "alternate" roll in front of their "primary" roll.
This is pretty much what I feel. And I don't see 90% as a problem
Let's have a look at the mathematical comparison between the guild I'm envisioning and a guild based on the dps I personally have experienced and beat raid content with
15 hybrids and priests on dps averaging 80% of a well-geared focussed rogue = 15 *80 = 1200%
compared with
3 well-geared focussed dpsers = 300%
6 moderately geared pvp spec dps paying attention @ 75% each = 450%
6 half-assed guys with Carrot trinket watching a movie while they play @ 40% each = 240%
Total from the dps team = 990%, which is 210% less than the hybrid dps team
And please don't tell me we can't beat MC/BWL with such a team, I've been doing it all year
Quote:But you look at what the top end guilds do
Actually I'd prefer not to
Of course Death and Taxes etc don't play like what I've been describing. Of course we can't match them. But who plays like them out of the general WoW population? Less than 1%? Less than 1% of raid guilds? Certainly no one on my server
Quote:And yeah for MC it doesn't matter. MC could be beaten with 1 tank, and 39 healers on just the DPS of the tank if you want to wait that long.
This guild would increase dps over the average raid dpser that I've been playing with. No one is planning to simply out-last encounters. The aim of the guild is to spend longer in progressing through the encounters so that everyone can gear up in 3 different roles. By taking longer our dpsers will be very well-geared for the content
Quote:But as others more experienced have mentioned, you're going to have to plan B more than you might think. And I don't expect encounter design to get any simpler in the new instances.
Maybe but bear in mind WoW is primarily designed for mediocre players. If you want to market a product to millions you can't expect 140+ IQs, high motivation. Seems to me one of the themes of TBC is simplifying raid content, reducing raid size, encouraging hybridisation so that more players can handle more roles. Just because 60 end-game raid content has consistently raised the bar does not mean all 70 raid content will be aimed at players with the skill to handle Naxx. Stuff like Mind Controlling the adds in the Razuvious fight is extraordinarily skilful, this isn't going to be the new content standard. They want more people raiding
And what poor players who aren't willing to put in anything over the bare minimum can conquer this putative Healer's Guild certainly could
Quote:Again I would like to see this idea work, I just don't think it can.
It definitely can work to some extent. Two questions though: how far can we go? and can we keep our members enthralled and motivated?
I'm fairly sure we'll be able to beat 5 mans and almost all 10 man content. I'm fairly sure we'll be able to beat some 25 man content but not all of it. I'm fairly sure that it's specific class skills that will trip us up not dps. Raid instances are stacked so that raiding equips you to go to the next level. We many need to get 50% of our dps equipped to move up a level instead of the usual 20% but that's just time. If we spend enough time farming an instance we will match the dps of guilds who run it twice then move up a level
I have no idea whether people will stay motivated, indeed whether they'l even stay, period. The deal is slower raid progress in return for freedom of role and the ability to collect a variety of gear. Some players will like the deal and some won't but in the end I suspect success if we give this a try will be about the usual issue of drama management rather than games mechanics