05-25-2007, 06:43 PM
Quote:Primary tank: done best by Warrior (true if you accept the very debatable contention that Warriors are a pure class)
Primary raid dps: Warlocks and Shadow Priests (so not true)
Primary two-role classes: Priests and Warriors with the pure hybrids considerably worse (not true)
Primary healer: still Paladins (not true)
Let me fix those assertations of fact for you:
Primary tank: Protection specc'd Warrior
Primary raid dps: Warlock, Mage, Rogue, Hunter
Primary two role classes: Priests, Warriors, Druids, Paladins
Primary healer: Priests, Druids, Paladins
As a dps warrior who tanked every encounter in the game up to the Twin Emps in AQ40 I can tell you that if you want a stand out tank you want a protection specc'd warrior. The difference in damage I took in TBC between arms spec and protection was noticable. That being said I've had a druid tank with me for all of TBC and they are perfectly viable boss tanks and certainly can offtank with EASE in a raid environment. I wouldn't necessarily want a protpaladin on a boss but they can offtank in a raid environment with ease as well. The only reason I wouldn't want a protpaladin is they have even fewer oh-shoot buttons than a warrior that doesn't wipe aggro on a boss. They also have less of a health pool to draw from than a protection specc'd warrior and in Blizzard's "Design every encounter to hit harder and faster - no room for error" fashion less of a hp pool means a wipe.
Quote:So it is clearly untrue for three out of four roles and since you can't really describe WoW Warrior as a pure punchbag class with no dps option not even true for tanking
My dps, even dual-wielding with King's Defender and The Decapitator is no where near what a druid in cat form (or a bear for that matter) can put out. I probably do more dps than a holy/prot paladin but its not by much. If I'm not tanking in a raid there isn't a whole lot I can bring to a raid aside from Quark's battleshout or the tank's commanding shout.
Quote:I've taken both a Paladin and a Druid to 70 now and they are so much more fun before you hit 70 when you can do everything than at 70 when not only must you choose between being a second-rate tank who only gets to tank when there's no decent Warriors around or a healbot but also once you raid as one role you accumulate gear to enhance that role and can't effectively role-swap any more.
Last time I checked each of the druid, paladin, and warrior tier sets have a set that covers each of the spec's.