Gear in Warlords - Have they just killed pure dps classes?

[DemoBytom]

As a shaman and a paladin, this is the first thing I've heard about the expansion that has REALLY turned me off. Gathering gear is half of the game, so why would they shorten that down? Getting gear is why i do every raid i can every week, and as soon as I've outgeared something, or gathered all gear i can, i stop doing that specific run, or start gathering my offset.

If all my speccs require one gear, I'll be bored alot faster. And besides, I'll only have 1 transmogged gear? I want my transmog to fit my specc damnit.

they introduce expanded "warforged" gear that has a chance of having additional gem slots (gems will be more powerful than they are now), additional stats like +cleave (lol) +speed, indestructible (no durability loss) etc..
Not sure if I like it so much, I'm not the biggest fan of so much randomness.. But we'll see.

[Sunnydee]

think there will be an issue with "give it to our shaman instead of hunter since shaman is healer but dpsing on some fights so upgrade for 2 reasons..

[Grum88]

No, this is a godsend for people who don't want carry 2 diff sets, more if you have spec ADD. If my Druid only needs one set to heal and tank, this is amazing.

I was actually considering changing Os to resto from tank (balance MS) depending on how differently gemming and reforging would be. BUT THIS just makes it so much better i can now play any spec with my one set of gear ^^.

[Gozzu]

It's great news really. My main alt is a druid that I also like to pvp on, so that is 4 sets of gear right there. My bank and bags are always much fuller than any other of my characters at the end of a tier/season.

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Don't worry Blizzard always very carefully calculates how long on average it takes for someone to get geared. Expect to spend the same amount of time and effort to get gear next expansion, only difference is you won't have to do it all over again for other specs.

I guess you have a point there

[Deleted]

It's not going to KILL pures.
- Right now, people recruit both pures and hybrids
- Right now, hybrids can still do all three (or two) roles if they want to
- Right now, hybrids can request off-spec gear if no one needs it so they can fill out a second set, and thru much work, can fill it out completely.

- In the future, people will recruit both pures and hybrids
- In the future, hybrids can still perform all three (or two) roles if they want to.
- In the future, hybrid gear won't have to be off-spec and might just get better utilized if the option is there
- In the future, if more hybrids can more easily have off-spec gear, they MIGHT just try and perform those roles elsewhere and reduce queue times!

You're still going to need your raid to be able to do different things during an encounter and you're still going to want decent gear distribution without throwing stuff away. If you think that suddenly raids will be full of four classes because pures aren't needed, I would say that's a bit short sighted.

At the end of the day, your raid still needs to perform well enough in all three phases to down the boss, so if you only give stuff to one side, also setting up for failure. You give it to the person that needs the upgrade, not just to the hybrid b/c they can use it in two places. At the end of the day, that raid has two spots with only person kitted so I'd say your poor gear distribution is going to KILL your raid rather than your pure class.

I wish you would be right, but as a member of loot council i can say that this puts hybrid on golden chair when giving loot.

[Elim Garak]

I wish you would be right, but as a member of loot council i can say that this puts hybrid on golden chair when giving loot.

That's some ugly version of council loot you have there. That is completely irrelevant to the feature.

[noralya]

But surely with gems/enchants you'll still want different gear sets.. otherwise you'll be rocking a tank item with +spirit or whatever.

They changed how gems and enchants work so we can't really expect them to make a big difference.

[Wow]

I don't get it? Why have a rogue in the current set-up? What do rogues with their 1 gear for 3 specs currently bring to the table that a DPS druid doesn't? Even as it is now I'd rather have a druid in my guild, because over time he could get gear to be a tank or healer but till then he is DPS and as such just as good as a rogue in any of his 3 specs. At least with a druid you get additional benefits along the way.

So how does this make it any worse for rogues?

I wouldn't say it makes rogues worse but it sure does make you want to gear your raid's hybrids before any pures. It also makes hybrids a lot more valuable to have as soon as they are fully geared they can do almost any roll.

[fierydemise]

It isn't just pure dps. Welcome our new shaman and druid dps overlords. Right now with a single set of gear no player can easily swap between melee and ranged dps, you can swap dps specs for some classes but if you want to swap from melee to ranged or vice versa you need a different gear set. This system changes all that and gives a huge amount of flexibility to druids and shamans. Obviously your raid can't be entirely druids and shamans but the more of each you have the greater variability you have to stack ranged dps or melee dps for a given fight.

There is going to be a problem for pures caused by hybrid versatility but tank and healer numbers don't shift that much fight to fight, in 20 man mythic you'll probably want 2 MS tanks +1OS and 4MS healers+2OS. Ranged vs. melee balance however changes immensely fight to fight.

[Grum88]

Did you both forget that gems and enchants don't change with your spec (at least they've not been said to, and there's no reason to believe they would....

I have a JC so np

[Uvwaex]

No actual progression guild is going to allow a kitty without proper non armor pieces for his resto spec to resto. Which is the same situation as right now.

[Wow]

Did you both forget that gems and enchants don't change with your spec (at least they've not been said to, and there's no reason to believe they would....

They said most gear won't have gems anymore and there will be less enchants.

[Hekili]

This is reducing what was left of the 'hybrid tax' since Cataclysm. Rogues have been able to get one set of tier and have their bases covered for all of their specs. Other hybrids needed two or more tier sets to have comparable output in multiple roles.

You're playing a rogue because you want to be a damage dealer. You still have that. Someone may play druid because they want to be feral. If anything, it will be easier for a guild to pressure someone who plays a hybrid into one of their off-specs since the gear gap won't be so dramatic. Oh, you're feral? Well, we need a healer today, so you're going to go resto. I hope you have other weapons/rings/necklace/trinkets for that.

Rogues will never run into that problem.

[Deleted]

It's not going to KILL pures.
- Right now, people recruit both pures and hybrids
- Right now, hybrids can still do all three (or two) roles if they want to
- Right now, hybrids can request off-spec gear if no one needs it so they can fill out a second set, and thru much work, can fill it out completely.

- In the future, people will recruit both pures and hybrids
- In the future, hybrids can still perform all three (or two) roles if they want to.
- In the future, hybrid gear won't have to be off-spec and might just get better utilized if the option is there
- In the future, if more hybrids can more easily have off-spec gear, they MIGHT just try and perform those roles elsewhere and reduce queue times!

You're still going to need your raid to be able to do different things during an encounter and you're still going to want decent gear distribution without throwing stuff away. If you think that suddenly raids will be full of four classes because pures aren't needed, I would say that's a bit short sighted.

At the end of the day, your raid still needs to perform well enough in all three phases to down the boss, so if you only give stuff to one side, also setting up for failure. You give it to the person that needs the upgrade, not just to the hybrid b/c they can use it in two places. At the end of the day, that raid has two spots with only person kitted so I'd say your poor gear distribution is going to KILL your raid rather than your pure class.

I wish you would be right, but as a member of loot council i can say that this puts hybrid on golden chair when giving loot.

[fierydemise]

This is reducing what was left of the 'hybrid tax' since Cataclysm. Rogues have been able to get one set of tier and have their bases covered for all of their specs. Other hybrids needed two or more tier sets to have comparable output in multiple roles.

You're playing a rogue because you want to be a damage dealer. You still have that. Someone may play druid because they want to be feral. If anything, it will be easier for a guild to pressure someone who plays a hybrid into one of their off-specs since the gear gap won't be so dramatic. Oh, you're feral? Well, we need a healer today, so you're going to go resto. I hope you have other weapons/rings/necklace/trinkets for that.

Rogues will never run into that problem.

It seems like a massive stretch of what was meant by hybrid tax to claim that needing different gear for different roles is part of the hybrid tax. The hybrid tax was a slight to moderate dps tax on hybrids, it said absolutely nothing about gearing. Needing different gear to fill different roles doesn't strike me as an unreasonable requirement.

[Deleted]

What OP is saying is why have a Pure DPS class (3 trees of DPS) when the guild can have a Druid who can do DPS, Tank, or Heal, and have the same boss gear at all three?

The answer will really depend on what incentives and utilities Blizzard gives to rogues, hunters, etc. Otherwise I could see myself rerolling.

I play druid and I'm an amazing healer, but I suck big time at playing any other role. My raid leader is not replacing a pure dps to get me in a dps role anytime soon. I mean, I see your point, but how many people can be amazing at all the specs of their classes? I don't think they represent the majority of the players.

[Joegeneric]

Did they specify if it swaps when you swap specs, or if its locked in based on your spec?
IE, if you're holy pally, and you get your peice of plate, and it then becomes int plate, does it stay int plate forever?

[lunchbox2042]

Maybe they'll reimplement the hybrid tax.

[Carlosdanger]

love it. I play resto/ele shaman as I don't bother to gear resto/enhance, guess next xpac I can!

beyond that people will continue to play what they prefer. I won't play raids as enhance just because I more easily can.

[shadowboy]

The gear won't kill pures. The "spec-aware" primary stats were stated to be on armor only. You will STILL need to get offset rings, trinkets, cloaks, etc. That balance druid will still need to get tanking or healing rings or trinkets to switch specs.