Blue Notes: Pallies and Shaman are not for (that much) DPS
by Eliah Hecht 
Mar 1st 2007 at 10:59PM
We have a couple items of note from Tseric as regards everyone's favorite hybrid classes that don't start with D. First off, Tseric defines a Paladin's role as:A healing/tank hybrid. Every class needs some capacity to deal damage, as that is the primary component for the solo game, but Paladins have always placed fairly low on the damage spectrum.
Rogues define the baseline measurement and, on average, all classes fall below that baseline. Now, in certain cases some classes may exceed that baseline, whether they be a Mage in a particular raid encounter or a Fury Warrior having a good run in a BG, but on average that is the way damage is arranged.
Burst damage and big crits are harder to control and design from a development perspective, due to the number of random or unpredictable elements in any formula. Therefore, crit-based abilities and burst damage tends to see more fine tuning and tweaking than sustainable damage.
As far as tanking and healing, the Paladin has been given plenty of tools for healing and threat gain/management.
I didn't actually know that Rogues were meant to be top damage, though that makes sense given that they're the most likely class to take damage in a party situation (besides the tank, of course).
And secondly, he comes through with some bad news for Shaman and their friend Windfury Weapon:
Downranking Windfury on two weapons to gain separate cooldowns is a bug with a fix incoming. This means down-ranking on different weapons will no longer stagger cooldowns. The devs want this bug resolved, as it has been a primary source of unintended Enhancement DPS, which they have seen as excessive. Enhancement DPS has been high in many situations and this is something they want to tone down. When this change goes live, it will lend itself to that end, rather than the devs having to look for direct changes to Enh. DPS. Good chance they will still be watching this aspect of Shaman after the bug fix is implemented.
Enhancement Shaman were doing too much DPS due to Windfury staggering, and this will no longer happen. Man, everyone but Warriors seems to be getting nerfed in this patch, don't they? But really, I've come to like WoW's constant flux. Keeps me on my toes, it does, and keeps me rotating my stable of alts. Giles the Draenei Warrior is rested up and ready to go as soon as 2.0.10 goes live.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Shat Mar 1st 2007 11:32PM
Know who was on top of our Kara DPS chart? Enhancment Shammy.
Bluesfear Mar 1st 2007 11:44PM
No, paladins are.
Matt Mar 2nd 2007 1:42PM
Mages are also dodging the nerf bat's almighty swing.
rcdan Mar 2nd 2007 1:36PM
this has to be the stupidest thing i've ever read. warriors SHOULD do the most dps. for gods sake that's what they do!
KarHallarn Mar 2nd 2007 12:35AM
Well, the WF bug was a nice exploit, and now it's gone. I'm not too sorry, considering I use a two-hander in PvP and really only pull out my dual wields when i use Shamanistic rage, but it still hurts. Pallies are the lowest DPS class in the game, deal with it. You guys are still great solo, PvP, or raid, but you just don't do that much damage.
Sylythn Mar 2nd 2007 12:59AM
People get far too hung up on DPS and damage charts. Every class is a DPS class - it's just a question of whether it's primary or not. I don't expect to do massive long-term damage as a Ret Pally, but I do expect to hit hard when I do hit though. Using a very slow two-hander means I don't hit often...so when I do, I want that double-crit SoComm with Vengeance proc. In between those hits is when the heals go out, the priest gets a mob taunted off him, buffs go back up, etc. It always sounds to me like too many people aim for DPS for DPSs sake...and really rogues and mages are the only classes that should be doing that, because it's their main focus. The rest of us have lots of other jobs to do.
Baluki Mar 2nd 2007 1:17AM
You like them constantly changing the classes? I don't. I don't mind tweaks and bug fixes, but having things changing as drastically as they are in this next patch is pretty annoying to me. Granted, I got a huge buff (elemental shaman here), but short of giving us new spells and abilities (like they forgot to in BC), I just want to be able to play my class and refine my technique, not adapt to the latest adjustments.
And they really need to work on their communication. Today is the first day that they've said that Windfury has a 3-sec cooldown, and THAT change has been in the game since 2.0 (I think). The least they could do is tell us what's up when it's implemented (half the shamans thought the cooldown was a bug, and were hoping it would be fixed in this patch) and put any restraining conditions on the spell's tooltip so we know what we're using.
Qik, the undead rouge Mar 2nd 2007 2:41AM
rouges takin damage ftw
Kaylek Mar 2nd 2007 8:19AM
Why did they give Paladins a damage tree in the first place?
kbanas Mar 2nd 2007 8:32AM
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. :(
I... love my enhancement Shaman.
That's it. It's rioting time!
rogueurboat Mar 2nd 2007 8:23PM
lol, rogues don't take damage/not intended to
they deal it
Kryz Mar 2nd 2007 8:54AM
As a mage, I'm actually OK with sharing the #1 and #2 spot in groups with rogues. They're in the damage zone a lot more than any other class, with less ways to stop that damage, so it's natural that they should do more damage because they're at greater risk.
It's when classes like locks or hunters get mad when mages say they're higher that I get annoyed. They have to see the whole picture of the game(Solo, raid, 5-mans, BGs) for the balance, not just the aspect they're focusing on.
Sal Mar 2nd 2007 9:04AM
I play an enhancement shaman (0/42/19) and am not too concerned. Melee damage is my secondary job; my primary job is to enhance the overall performance of my party and give us an edge. That means dual wield to keep unleashed rage up for the party attack power bonus and keep SoE and GoA (or WoA) down. I don't think most of us rely on constant windfury crits anyway since it's unpredictable dps.
You want nuts? Get two really fast daggers and use frostbrand. It doesn't scale with speed like fire, and with fast weapons it procs constantly.
dontfront Mar 2nd 2007 12:27PM
A decent lock should be higher than a mage, given comparable gear. This is especially true in multi target situations.
Only place a mage would be higher is on single target and that can be overcome by a lock using a proper raiding spec or damage gear.
Molochus Mar 2nd 2007 9:18AM
I play a level 70 enhancement shaman and a level 70 raid spec priest so i'm taking a huge hit from both of these. My priest hasn't been shadow since level 50 and I don't plan on going down that road again any time soon, I leveled him from 50-70 as a disc/holy dps build with great healing as well(big help there from 2 gear sets, one with 1k+healing and the other with around 800+damage) and my shaman was respecced to enhancement for less downtime between mobs during questing/leveling. I'm really liking the spec I have now on my shaman and I don't really find that windfury procs an obscene amount but as an enhancement shaman windfury is our life. most fights are quite a bit of fluff damage between the windfury procs and we rely on crits for our flurry and our group melee buff. Windfury is our biggest source of crits in my opinion and knocking it down is a major nerf for us. I was an elemental raiding spec before BC and it's looking like that is what i'm going to have to go back to. I'd love to be able to stay enhancement and be thrown into the rogue group on the raids to increase group dps with my totems and my unleashed rage but having our windfury knocked down means that 10% AP bonus that those rogues are loving so much won't be happening nearly as often. :(
Serenatias Mar 2nd 2007 10:25AM
This kinda hoses me, since I was leveling a resto shammy, and this might make some of those end-game enhance kiddies consider a respec, though the percentege will be low. Eh. GG on the shadow priest nerfs =)
crsh Mar 2nd 2007 10:22AM
Funny that Blizz thinks rogues are the baseline of top damage, even funnier how it shows the disconnect between designers and developers. Whether they should or shouldn't be on top of the damage meter is another discussion, the point is rogues are NOT on top of the damage meter anymore. So whatever that baseline is about, I think they should call a few meetings internally and sort out their act.
Karl Mar 2nd 2007 10:31AM
This is totally uncalled for. I have be Ret Spec my whole Pally life, and with this single example from Blizzard, it becomes more than apparent that I am going to be screwed.
How? Well, I am 70. I have done most of the Outland quests that I could find. That means, I took most of the RET spec rewards instead of keeping the tanking rewards. So, Blizzard will end up nerfing the heck out of my abilities, and I will be left with crap gear for what I was specced for.
Why did I choose Ret? Because BLIZZARD made it one of the damn trees I could choose from! I liked the damage I did. No, I don't think I did the burst damage that a fully geared Mage could, but I could in the end keep up with them because of my survivability! That was what I felt Blizzard meant with "Class Balance." Obviously, someone or several (most likely) in Blizzard feel the need to stick it to Paladins (and Shamans) enough to force our classes to do what they want and play like they want us to play. The same can be said about Druids too.
I used to get absolutely sick of hearing people gripe and complain about hybrid classes and how they should just roll a "Pure" class instead; and of course, I freakin' HATE it when people consider Druids, Shaman and Paladins as a, "Should be healing," class. They gave each of our classes a tree to fight with, and the smart people found a method of using that tree to maximize and benefit from our damage and other abilities. Anyhow, like I said, I used to hate hearing about hybrid classes being inferior. If Blizzard goes through with their changes though, they will be making us just that...inferior to "Pure Classes." Forget about the buffs you could have gotten in raids. Forget about the added healing that could come out when needed. Forget about the added damage you could have in the raid to take down a boss or trash mobs more quickly while having the things mentioned above. I will not be playing my Paladin any longer if this occurs. I will go to one of my other non-hybrid classes and just play them. Of course, I don't enjoy them as much as I do my Paladin, and will likely end up leaving WoW because I won't enjoy the game as much. I hate nerfs to any class as much as the next guy, but this is not just a nerf that they are talking about. It is a total change of how a Paladin or Shaman are meant to be played.
I know a lot of people make these statements and Blizzard pretty much ignores them, becuase who cares if one person of 7 million leaves. It’s not my intention of leaving to threaten Blizzard not to make the change. I will likely leave because the game will no longer hold much enjoyment for me any longer.
Bodarim Mar 2nd 2007 10:38AM
Giles the draenei warrior....mmmm do i smell b:tvs reference or is just me?
Sal Mar 2nd 2007 11:11AM
#11, are you saying the only think keeping you enhancement was the double windfury proc? Are you saying that you can't eek out a crit once within ten seconds? I *never* used the downgrade windfury and yet there is rarely an elite mob fight where I don't get a crit within the ten-second period before unleashed rage wears off. Blizzard is not forcing you to do anything, you are giving up prematurely.