11-22-2006, 04:32 PM
Quote: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. ...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.
That's what I anticipate in future encounters in TBC. Less cheesy "bring hunters with tranq shot" and more general requirements Blizzard seems to be departing from the equal-numbers-of-each-class format and focusing instead of general roles. But they're also giving hybrid classes more flexibility to compensate. A leading Karazhan group said using feral druids was bringing 'real DPS' and reports from the PTR indicate pallies keeping up with GM Warriors damage-wise.
Key to evaluating Brista's plan is that the healerguild has no aspirations to world-firsts or server-firsts. Instead, the healerguild's goal would be reasonably successful raid progression. They might have to work a little harder to achieve it, but that sounds like fun to me.
I'm honestly surprised at the vehemence with which people have argued against this idea. All too often the attitude I encounter among people who have never rolled a [class-that-can-heal] is, "You obviously rolled a [class with heals] because you enjoy healing Me. Now quit screwing around and do what you enjoy, already!"
Brista's healerguild avoids that attitude and the concurrent social/drama issues. The response to anyone who whines inappropriately about "the healing" is simple: If you don't like it, you can do it yourself. And everyone will have equal (or near-equal) access to gear for non-raiding PvE. Those things alone make me think it's worth the effort to try. Heck, the 5/10-man guild my friends and I are organizing looks to be mostly shadow priests and feral druids. Brista and I should compare notes a few months into TBC.:)
Quote: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.
What does that have to do with anything? Overrated cheated, they got banned for it, end of story. No faction imbalance or amount of legitimate success justifies cheating. The designers and community managers aren't even the people who decide ban cases.