11-22-2006, 02:45 AM
Quote:So if this healers' guild has the potential to clear MC, ZG, AQ20, Ony and BWL then we also have the potential to match all but our faction's three top guilds for achievement
Quote:You mentioned Horde, Lissa, please bear in mind that in TBC the only distinction between factions is racials which are pretty trivial.
And herein lies the contradiction. You speak of TBC, but your targets are already old trivial instances whose encounters and items will be long trivialized with mere blues that people will get in TBC from quests. What you and your theoretical guild will want to try to tackle is the newly level 70 raid instances. We don't know exactly what those encounters will be like, but we can look at the most recent raid instances available to get an idea of what raid designers are thinking. Looking especially at Naxxramas, you're looking at bosses who almost all have some sort of timer associated with them such that if you don't deliver enough damage in time then the boss enrages and kills people in one shot -- sometimes killing them in a massive chain lightning shot all at once. Or you run into encounters where things are normal simple encounters until the boss gets down to, say, 20%, and then you have to bust every cooldown to kill the boss before the boss wipes your raid (fights where dps warriors shine). Or you run into encounters where things constantly spawn and if you can't kill the spawns fast enough, they slowly gradually overwhelm your raid. This dps dependency, a concious raid design choice, is used in almost every encounter from Huhuran on through Naxxramas (a few of the trivial Naxxramas encounters excepting). It seems likely that this trend will continue. The old 1 tank and 39 healers raid won't cut it anymore. You have to have the dps.
Quote:A lot has been made about lack of dps. Healer classes generally do poor dps because of itemisation. Not only does feral gear simply not feature in MC but also healers are usually encouraged not to spend dkp on it. Comparing the dps of a feral druid with MC gear relative to T1 Rogues to the dps feral druids will be able to do with the low end level 70 raid gear is not valid. TBC brings in off-spec dps gear and this guild would support people in collecting it.
Nope. I support alternative builds very much. Heck, people know me as the guy who played a naked no-points spent sorceress in Diablo II. But you'll never see me saying that a naked no-points spent sorceress is just as powerful as a geared sorceress who actually casts spells. The same is true of shadow priests, cat druids, melee paladins, and enhancement shaman. I support anyone who plays an alternative build and chooses to try to play it to the highest skill level possible, but I'll never make the mistake of thinking that they'll match the dps of an equally geared and skilled mage, rogue, dps warrior, or hunter.
Plus, you'll be doubly harmed by not having all of the cross-class buffs -- battle shout, arcane intellect (25 casters and no AI!), imp -- and debuffs -- sunder armor, curse of recklessness, and curse of shadows. Not having these buffs will reduce your dps even further.
Quote:Regarding Fear a blue posted regarding the new Priest racials to state that Fear would be much less significant in TBC end game (can't find the link, it was stated after player complaints about Draenai getting Fear Ward)
Never believe what Blizzard has to say about class balance. They still think that the two factions are about equal now. Meanwhile, they ban the only US Horde guild to have ever beaten KT. Go figure. Anyway, the blue post was that basically Fear Ward wouldn't be as big of a deal in the future. (This is progress. They used to say that Fear Ward wasn't a big deal currently). That doesn't mean they can't keep having encounters where tanking warriors are expected to stance dance around fears.