Build 15983 - rejoice, holy warriors!

[Vanderhuge]

Synapse Springs still comes out to 320 average Strength, but still has the slight benefit of lining up with all ES and LH casts. Only downside is that it still can't be used alongside on-use trinkets.

[Boogieknight]

What do you make of the last line? I think he's right, you should play the class you like, it should not all be about the numbers, yes they are important for a number of things but would you really want to play a class you hate just because it is 5k higher (for example) than the one you like? It's great the community is passionate about the numbers and I think ret is behind where it should but sims can only go so far and so can parses in showing you numbers. Give the devs the next few beta builds needed and you might just start seeing it all falling into place. There has been plenty warning and it's common knowledge that near the end of beta majority of number tweaking occurs. I personally love reading patch notes for everything but take everything with a grain of salt because the following build may make you think different.

It's a cop-out because it refers to a class; all that goes out the window on DPS since it's spec specific. If someone really enjoys Rogue, Mage, Warlock, or Hunter they always have 2 other options for specs if one gets hit with "the bat" or if one performs better for the encounter. If you play Warrior or DK you have a backup if one or the other takes a hit. Druids and Shaman have the option of being either a melee or ranged DPS depending on whichever is better for the fight, or just better overall. Priests, Paladins, and now Monks don't have a luxury of playing a different spec to improve DPS. Monks shouldn't have much to fear since they're new, Blizz will make sure they're good.

It keeps getting mentioned, but I'm gonna say it again. No one wants a repeat of 4.0. As soon as that patch went live and I tried to adjust I got booted from multiple wrath heroics that same day because I wasn't meeting what was expected DPS to someone in the party (and believe me, they weren't shy about telling me exactly what they thought about my damage before booting me.) It took a lot of dummy testing, research, and a whole new mastery before I touched another dungeon and it still sucked until the melee buff during Firelands. I also don't want to hear any crap similar to "You're balanced for 85, not 80" or "it'll get better when you have Inquisition because your balanced around it since it's a BIG portion of your damage." GC may say that encounters are fun when things work to your strengths, but some classes have no weaknesses for most encounters in much the same way that ranged DPS were trashing melee in almost every encounter. Ret shines in fights that are stationary, burst fights, and those aren't exactly common. Unless we see more spine-like fights the spec is kinda screwed. As Reith said:

I don't care if I'm not #1. I care if I'm almost 18% lower than #1.

[Deleted]

Then they should just quit the "top-end guild," honestly. When you get into a guild like that, you know what you're getting into.

Wrong, one should not be forced to quit a top end guild because the spec he enjoys becomes unviable. Blizzard should be able to balance everything to be equal, of course with each spec having it's niches, not forcing players out of what they enjoy.
And yes, people know what they are going into, that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be that way. Things can change for the better, even though chances are slim.