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Class shortages about to change
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Post by
Sgtpain
I have leveled a hunter to 70, a couple months ago, only to be disapointed due to the over population of hunters for end game. I was able to solo and rep grind for blues and pug a bit, but I so far I have only gotten into one heroics group, and that was only because a guild group needed dps fast since they had started already. All of the guilds were telling me that there is such a shortage of tanks and healers for end game.
I decided to go back and play around with different classes, especially hybrid classes. Since then, I have lvled a druid to lvl 49, a mage to 49, a pally to 38, and a shammy to 46. I wanted to get a feel for each, and honestly, I get bored pretty easily now.
For the last few weeks I have been pugging as a tank/healer and trying to get into groups for instances when I am rested so I can get out of the questing grind for a bit. Here were my last 3 groups with my lvl 38 pally...
G1-Ret pally x2, Prot pally, Arms warrior, Resto shammy,
G2-Holy preist x2, mage, ret pally, arms warrior
G3-Rogue, prot pally, ret pally x2, holy pally
Anyone seeing a pattern here? Suddenly, dps is becoming the real issue here. Almost every class I am bumping into now are tanks or healers and we are now struggeling to find dps. Is this just my server, or is this starting to become the norm on other servers? The more I see this, the more I wantt o stop lvling the pally and go back to the duid, simply because I can tank and dps all in the same spec and gear (well, atleast until end game). Downfall of this is, I can't tank nearly as good with my druid as I can with my pally...the pally feels so much more natural to me and I do it well, even without being bored. lol
Post by
101038
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Sgtpain
Low level grouping and Lv60-70 grouping are two entirely different things. Chances are, half the people you just played with are alts that get played casually.
THis is what I am hoping. I have every plan to get one of these tanking alts to lvl 60+. I am also hoping that these same people get bored of lvling prot specced alts, or, stay ret for end game. lol I don't want another hunter experience.
Post by
Philmckraken
G1-Ret pally x2, Prot pally, Arms warrior, Resto shammy,
G2-Holy preist x2, mage, ret pally, arms warrior
G3-Rogue, prot pally, ret pally x2, holy pally
Anyone seeing a pattern here? Suddenly, dps is becoming the real issue here.
Yeah, the pattern is "Thrown-together PuGs."
G1 contains a healer, a tank, and 3 DPS.
G2 has no tank.
G3 is similar to G1, but with more paladins.
Finding DPS will never be "an issue." DPS classes get to quest, BG and instance/raid without respecing. This is why there are so many hunters on every server. By now, you have surely realized that there are only 3 specs (not classes, mind you) that can tank. There are a couple more options for healers, but unless you're a protection paladin, a prot warrior, or a bear druid, you are not a tank.
The day that Blizzard adds a tank-ready talent tree to every class, and makes respecing cost 1g is the day that there will be more tanks than DPS.
Post by
Sgtpain
G1-Ret pally x2, Prot pally, Arms warrior, Resto shammy,
G2-Holy preist x2, mage, ret pally, arms warrior
G3-Rogue, prot pally, ret pally x2, holy pally
Anyone seeing a pattern here? Suddenly, dps is becoming the real issue here.
Yeah, the pattern is "Thrown-together PuGs."
G1 contains a healer, a tank, and 3 DPS.
G2 has no tank.
G3 is similar to G1, but with more paladins.
Finding DPS will never be "an issue." DPS classes get to quest, BG and instance/raid without respecing. This is why there are so many hunters on every server. By now, you have surely realized that there are only 3 specs (not classes, mind you) that can tank. There are a couple more options for healers, but unless you're a protection paladin, a prot warrior, or a bear druid, you are not a tank.
The day that Blizzard adds a tank-ready talent tree to every class, and makes respecing cost 1g is the day that there will be more tanks than DPS.
G2 was the one I left right off the bat. We got in, then I realized we had no tank, and tried to insist we find a tank, but apparently every person there was a tank and able to solo each elite themselves.../quit
Just seems like everyone lvl 30-40 is a pally, warrior or preist.
Post by
Adross
I dunno, if it is like this on the rest of my server but my guild has a good ammount of healers and tanks but we lack a bit in the DPS area. I thought it was kind of odd seeing as how a lot of people hate playing healers over a DPS class...
Post by
Sgtpain
I dunno, if it is like this on the rest of my server but my guild has a good ammount of healers and tanks but we lack a bit in the DPS area. I thought it was kind of odd seeing as how a lot of people hate playing healers over a DPS class...
This might also change. You know how many times I have someone insist they heal because they like healing, even if they are not specced for healing? I could not believe how hard it's been lately to settle who was healing, since everyone wanted to do it
Post by
GenXCub
On Silver Hand (an old server with high population), it's definitely a tank and healer shortage, and it's different on each day. I tend to see more needs for tanks than healers, but some day there are neither.
I have both a tank and a healer. I tend to be on the healer most of the time, although I don't like healing all that much, I just happen to have decent gear and can go through Kara/ZA content with her.
Post by
147493
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
xaratherus
Unless you're on a low population server, I don't know that any one player's experiences would indicate a major shift in how people play.
My guild happens to have an abundance of healers and tanks with only a few DPS classes; however, one of the guilds we allied with had no tanks, one healer, and the rest DPS, while another ally has a near-perfect balance of tanks, heals, and DPS but due to scheduling can't tend to get raids off the ground on their own.
When you look at the Talent trees for each class, the number of possible DPS specs far outnumbers the possible heal/tank specs. Heck, for that matter the classes that can heal/tank are hybrids that always have a viable DPS spec, and no class is purely dedicated to healing/tanking in all its trees - so despite what you've seen, it makes more sense to me that DPS will always be the most numerous on any given server.
Post by
Philmckraken
When you look at the Talent trees for each class, the number of possible DPS specs far outnumbers the possible heal/tank specs. Heck, for that matter the classes that can heal/tank are hybrids that always have a viable DPS spec, and no class is purely dedicated to healing/tanking in all its trees.
Basically, the mechanics of the game are the reason for this.
-The required ratio of tank to DPS is about 1:3
-Because of the requirements of tanking, tanks cannot put out high DPS, or they would be overpowered, leading to an all-tank world
-Because they do not put out that much damage, tanks aren't as much "fun" as DPS, so more players will choose DPS. This helps keep the ratio where it should be, except...
-There are classes that can do everything WoW has to offer without respecing. Mostly they are the DPS classes. Hunters and Rogues can do BGs, solo questing, and dungeons raids without having 3 sets of gear and re-talenting all the time.
-Because it's so easy to solo to 70 and never go into a dungeon, more players pick these classes (Druids are the exception here, since they are designed for it.)
Solution: Replace one talent tree in the rogue and hunter classes with a dedicated tanking spec. The tank population will increase exponentially overnight.
Post by
Sgtpain
When you look at the Talent trees for each class, the number of possible DPS specs far outnumbers the possible heal/tank specs. Heck, for that matter the classes that can heal/tank are hybrids that always have a viable DPS spec, and no class is purely dedicated to healing/tanking in all its trees.
Solution: Replace one talent tree in the rogue and hunter classes with a dedicated tanking spec. The tank population will increase exponentially overnight.
You're kidding right? A ranged class, with a tanking like pet, with a tanking spec? Pet's can off tank given the right spec, gear and pet, why would making a tanking spec in a hunter tree make any sense at all?
I hope this was a joke, because I sure laughed.
Post by
Philmckraken
Solution: Replace one talent tree in the rogue and hunter classes with a dedicated tanking spec. The tank population will increase exponentially overnight.
You're kidding right? A ranged class, with a tanking like pet, with a tanking spec? Pet's can off tank given the right spec, gear and pet, why would making a tanking spec in a hunter tree make any sense at all?
I hope this was a joke, because I sure laughed.
Upon further reflection, the idea actually makes more sense than I thought. Simply tweak the specs on some pet types (turtles, bears, apes, whatever) and you'd have a pet that could tank most instances. Right now, it's entirely possible to use a pet or two to tank, to a point. Give the hunter class an armor bonus, and there you go.
The "solution" was basically a quick-fix to alleviate the tank shortage; there are already too many hunters, so they might as well be put to good use.
Post by
104412
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
101038
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
omglaserzpewpew
DPS specs will always be the most common because they are able to quickly solo virtually everything outside of an instance. As a Protection Paladin I was able to solo group quests that required 3 people to kill an elite mob - but all the other quests took forever to finish. As a Retribution Paladin, I am now able to blast through dailies in no time at all. Finishing quests faster = more gold for me. Playing a DPS spec isn't just about seeing those big numbers, it's also a better way to farm gold for my epic flyer. As far as I can tell, there is no way to make tanks/healers easier to solo with without making them imbalanced, and so people will prefer playing DPS in order to minimize the time spent farming gold.
Of course, like Phil said, an easy fix would be to decrease the cost of resetting one's talents. 1g might be a bit too low to be an effective enough gold sink for many people, but perhaps 5g would be more appropriate. For me - the current cost of respeccing makes it so that I am unwilling to change my talents very often.
Post by
89503
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Post by
146485
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Post by
116877
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Post by
Arideni
There's no shortage of true end-game tanks, while end-game healers are very much in need on most servers.
As far as low level class spreads things may be somewhat imbalanced at the moment, but honestly do you expect everyone you group with to actually hit level 70?
Most alts are just that, alts. The goal may be level 70 end-game, but many characters do not get that far, especially on the casual side of things.
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