The Two Real Choices for US
and by US, I mean "us wow players", not the United States. heh.
I've been very excited about the opportunities of end game PvE for with 10 man raiding in the expansion. I've started going into pre-planning mode trying to ensure the success of our future raids. The real dilemma becomes what is the 10 man raiding content going to require?
What two tanks? What two healers? With Karazhan and Zul'Aman, we saw the rise of the Protection paladin and it's amazing nature to mutli-mob tank. Obviously with the changes to warriors, the options for tanks opens up...as well as with the new Death Knight class. I just don't want us to end up in a position we were in with Zul'Aman, having to find a protection paladin and resto shammy at the eleventh hour.
Druid/Pally tank worked out really well for us. The versatility of the pally tank with being able to heal in interims we found extremely valuable as a raid. The druid over warrior was based on ability absorb extremely large spikes of damage. When you have only two healers in your raid, you're banking on not having to gamble with healing. Druid tanks offer solid reliability with their high percentage of dodge and dmg soaking.
As for 10 man healing, the shaman is a solid choice for very effective and extremely fast HPS raid wide.
So those are the known variables. I'm obviously making huge assumptions here. I'm assuming tank/offtank standards and that two-healer tandem will work for the upcoming 10 man raids.
So is druid necessarily the better main tank or should I make another assumption that Death Knights will make a strong debut in raids that are built to showcase them in WoTLK? Also, will rage starvation trump mana dependancy in the warrior vs pally tank debate? Will multi-mob tanking needs outweigh pure damage soakers?
At this point, it seems like we're going to make a gamble and hope it pans out when we hit 80.
And what about the second healer? Sure Shaman seems like a solid choice for our group. The power behind Chain Heal is unprecedented with raid wide healing followed closely by Priest's Circle of Healing. But what about the power of the priest spirit regeneration as well or the sheer healing strength of Greater Heals and Prayer of Mending? Then of course you can't ignore the sheer speed, strength, and longevity of Paladin Flash Heals??? And what if the raid fights call for sustained healing over time for unique fight cc's and crazy silences that only a Druid could offer best??
AGH! I just don't know. I wish we could just level up all our healers and tanks so we'll have the full arsenal ready to go for whatever WoTLK throws at us. I mean, I know we'll make whatever we have work. It can always work but I don't want it just to work. I'm huge on efficiency and don't just want it to be doable but rather optimal.
Oh well, a girl can dream.
2 comments:
In the last few years, I've moved from a point of view of being efficient to being with friends and playing with what we've brought.
While I don't doubt the fun in winning World of Warcraft, I have made too many concessions to get there. Dealing with terrible personality because that person was the best class for a particular encounter.
It all became a headache and put unwarrented stress on real relationships.
I would be telling a lie if I said that I didn't look at strategies but for me, I need to balance my need for simple perfection with having just plain old fun.
Hiding behind being an elitist jerk can't deny the strain it puts on what real friendships I have.
I guess I get my fix off of the organization and planning of a lot of things in the game. I'm one of those types who loves to line all the dominoes perfectly so that when it's time to push them over, it goes extremely smooth.
Sometimes, I do have a my streak where I say screw it and just have fun building domino houses but I'm only like that around a select few. :)
I envy those who have the community to simply just sit back and enjoy each others company.
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