02-02-2007, 08:32 PM
Quote:What I'd like to do now is quote the rest of your post and replace every instance of "shadow priest" with "feral druid", and ask what the difference is. I find it astonishing that people would call for nerfs of other classes simply because they feel their own pet class should be better, instead of enjoying the combined power it brings to their groups.
There's no difference. As I said, I find the argument equally convincing that cat druids should do much less damage than rogues. Actually, the argument is even more convincing because cat druids don't use mana to DPS, and can combat resurrect for even more "save the day" power. Tank druids are a little bit different, because they can't shift out while tanking or they get instantly splattered.
As for calling for a nerf, that's not the case. I'd take a buff, or even, hell, going back to the point of this thread - not being nerfed.
Quote: And even accepting all your arguments (and thank you for persisting in explaining them to me), it still feels like Class A complaining that Class B is almost-but-not-quite nearly as good as them, and therefore Class B should be nerfed or Class A buffed, and that's never-ending.
Pre nerf, shadow priests were almost-but-not-quite as good, and better against multiple tanked targets, and I was fine with that. What I have a problem with is shadow priests being better against all forms of enemies, and especially in the all-important single-target category. That isn't combined power; a minmaxing raid leader will bring another shadow priest. And it will happen.
As my guild was foraging through Naxx pre-2.0, when warlock and hunter damage was poor, we'd regularly purge nearly all the locks and hunters out of the raid on DPS check bosses, replacing with rogues, DPS warriors or mages. It's what we needed to do to get the kill. I am under no illusions that this kind of thing will disappear.
Quote:Or is it that you now consider priests to be a hybrid class, and as such should be toned down so they're not as effective as single-focus classes?
Frankly, a lot of classes have hybrid elements - some specs are, and some specs aren't. Pre 2.0, the best hybrid class in the game was the Warrior, of all classes. They're still pretty good that way now. Shadow priests, feral druids, etc. certainly have the versatility to be hybrids. Holy priests? Basically not. There are single-focus classes/specs in the game (rogue; mage; heavy protection warrior; holy priest, just to name a few) - shouldn't you be the best at what you do when you forfeit everything else?
Basically, my answer is: yes, Shadow priests are hybrids and could be toned down, OR mages could be adjusted up or just NOT NERFED in order to stay slightly ahead. A reason needs to exist for someone to say, "Yes, I want a mage filling this spot in my raid" and especially in raids where Polymorph is typically worthless, that reason has to be damage. What else can I do in a fight?
On that topic, I approved of the increase in warlock and hunter damage in 2.0. Like mages, they bring little else but damage to raids, and the massive degree to which they were behind rogues and mages pre-2.0 didn't sit well with me. I still think they should be slightly behind mages because of 1) healthstones, more health, soulstones, bloodpact and 2) pet damage, more armour, more health, respectively, but the current state (where warlocks are massively ahead, and hunters are basically on par) doesn't really bother me much. When you get down to it, locks being 150 DPS ahead bothers me less than shadow priests being 50 DPS ahead, because locks can't do anything else, emergency or not - and shadow priests can.