WoW Stratics IRC Chat

[ima_nerd]

Ok, as far as the comment of "I don't care about heroics or 5-mans". Fine, but, remember, a very small fraction of WoW players will ever see Gruul/SSC and beyond. Blizzard doesn't balance classes *solely* for the raid game. There's much more to WoW than raiding (don't take offense, Skan, I'm not putting you down at all), and that affects balance choices, too. The fact is, druid and paladin tanks *are* viable MTs in everything not 25-man, if geared well enough. As was pointed out, Kara has been MTed, Prince and all, by a druid already. I'm sure a pally with enough Kara gear could do it, if needed. Now, that's 'equally viable' in a huge chunk of content.

I have a feeling we'll laugh at this discussion in 6 months, when druids have tanked all of SSC/The Eye as MTs, as gear goes up. Pallies? Pallies right now can't quite get the hp for the really big-hitter fights. I'm not sure Blizz intends to fix that hitpoint gap, either. Sad, maybe, but, in the name of balance it will probably remain, leaving paladins out of the hardest-hitting encounters, at least till they're on farm. However, pallies are freaking awesome in other areas than 25-mans. Once again, 25-mans are not the whole game.

The problem that I see is that sure, a Druid can MT Kara. After he has some Kara loot. Gruul? No problem. Once he gets Chestpiece of Awesomeness. Off Gruul. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it seems that taking anything other than a Warrior for the first attempts on something would end badly due to the lack of early itemization. Although, I'm not totally against that...

Here's the other side of the prot warrior vs druids/pallies in 25-man raids.

A protection warrior can 1) tank 2) do mediocre DPS (depending on gear, 300-500, probably, if they have the DPS-boosting talents deep in prot)

A feral druid can 1) tank 2) go cat and DPS a ton better than the protection warrior, *even in tank gear* 3) toss an extra heal or two, or do good work in heal gear, if known before the fight starts. 4) innervate a healer. 5) combat res 2, 3, 4, and 5 are limited if tanking.

A prot pally can 1) tank 2) buff 3) heal 4) cleanse.

That's how I see it. If they make Druids and Pallies able to tank as well as a Warrior, what happens to the Warrior? If a Pally can't find a tank spot in a guild, he can spec to heal. Same for a Druid. That may not be what they rolled the character for but they have the option of doing it to get into a guild. The Warrior has no alternatives. And if Pallies and Druids are taking his MT spots, his chance of finding a guild has greatly decreased.