A class without a DPS spec. Could it work? Would you play it?

[Auberdeen]

yes but would be a pain to level it

Hmmm questing maybe, but I usually do most of my leveling via BG's(CTA) and dungeons on all my toons, and being that healers and tanks have the quickest que times, one may argue that it would be the fastest way to level

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I think a 4th role, a buffer/debuffer role, could work in the game. I don't think we can have a non-DPS class, though. It's not because they NEED to do damage for soloing, it's because the 3-spec system means 3 roles* are all but required.

*Current Roles are Tank, Healer, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS.

[Daetur]

Make it a Hero class to keep it "away" from brand new players who might struggle more without a dps spec in dungeons and questing.

Tank spec is VERY viable for questing, so it wouldn't exactly be "crippling" to level, especially for someone a bit more experienced with the game.

[odiasuda]

Completely superfluous. All control and buffs are already done by the trinity. Take away the control and buffs, or at least lessen their power, from everyone and give them to a buffer/controller. That should go over like a fart in church.

[Belize]

It has worked out before... Vanilla paladin, wotlk Priests prior to icc - and so on could hardly be classified as valid dps contributions.

The mentality was different back then though, you brought a pally along for buffs, not the pally.
Now it's "bring the player not the class". Back then you would bring the class before the player. I mean, I remember running having to wait 45+ min to start ICC because we couldn't find a ret pally or spriest for the Replenishment buff. We really didn't care about dps, as long as they survived.

[farrailgun]

The leveling process of such a class could be a nightmare. I could not imagine how it could be, or such aclass is forced to level by running LFD/RNBG as tank/heal?

[Windfury]

Well I rolled enhancement originally because I liked the buffer role. I'm still sad it's gone. Th fact that it has though says nothing like that is coming back.

If it did I'd certainly play it though. I tend to play the other specs where I can, priest is holy/disc, druid is tank/resto, pally is prot/holy etc, even to level.

[Luko]

Wow was one of the first, if not the first, MMO to not have a support role. Because of the myriad of titles copying and cloning WoW's structure over the years, its become something of a myth, it just doesn't fit into the current speed of these games, but it'd be nice to see it make a comback.

FFXI for example had excellent support classes. They were the backbone of every group. Bards giving extremely powerful buffs to people within certain areas, corsairs literally playing blackjack and giving buffs based on how close they got to rolling 21 while dealing decent support damage/effect with their pistols. Summoners evoking espers to cast massive AoE buffs on the group while healing and offering a little dps on the side. Was good times.

Like I said however, it'd be challenging to fit that sort of thing into the game now. Back then, regular EXP grinding monsters took 4-5 minutes. Most of WoW's bosses don't even take that long.

[Deleted]

Yep, I'd love it since I only play healers anyway. The prot/ret spec on my pally don't get touched once I hit lvl 15 and I can do dungeons. Same with druid/shammy/monk/priest....I only play a healer so a healing onbly class would be great.

[notorious98]

yes but would be a pain to level it

Through questing. If you want to run random dungeons, though, you should never have to worry about a queue time.

[Wyattbw09]

So one of GC said that it is possible for WoW to one day have a class that doesn't have a DPS spec. However, it would be a challenge, since people really seem to enjoy DPS.

What do you think? Do you think that a non-DPS class would be viable and fun to play? Further what types of classes could pull this off?

the tweet:

https://mobile.twitter.com/Ghostcraw...60365020078080

To what point and purpose? DPS specs making questing a lot more fun and efficient. Having 2 tank/heal specs is kinda pointless.

[notorious98]

Wow was one of the first, if not the first, MMO to not have a support role. Because of the myriad of titles copying and cloning WoW's structure over the years, its become something of a myth, it just doesn't fit into the current speed of these games, but it'd be nice to see it make a comback.

Rift has support roles. In fact, in order for a random dungeon queue to pop, somebody has to fill the support role.

[Falu]

I'd love a "support" role class, something inspired by the "WC3: The Frozen Throne" tavern hero; The Alchemist, throwing vials, spewing negative and positive aoe on the ground etc, slows / resistances w/e.
I'd definitely play one.

[foxHeart]

What point would it have? Other than having the novelty of not having a dps role? "Hay guiz, let's make a class without a dps spec and cripple it arbitrarily cause we can!"

[melodramocracy]

Sure. Leveling as tank is effortless... it might be a bit limiting at end-game, depending on what's needed I suppose.

[XDurionX]

There is a class without dps spec, called "paladin".

[Ciddy]

I'm pretty sure Blizzard could make it work if they really wanted to make it work. I'd probably eventually play it out of curiosity, though it'd probably take me a while. I still have yet to roll a monk or even a Pandaren character since MoP's release, and I didn't roll Worgen/Goblin anything until almost the end of Cataclysm. I'm not really big on alt hopping and tend to just focus on my one main character (my fury warrior) more than anything else.

[lunchbox2042]

No, it wouldn't work. The reason why Paladins are no longer buff bots and priests are no longer mana batteries is because the vocal majority of the player base said they didn't like it. They wanted hybrids to be able to dps and therefore they are now able to. There is absolutely no way that Blizzard backtracks and adds a pure support class to WoW.

[melodramocracy]

Wow was one of the first, if not the first, MMO to not have a support role. Because of the myriad of titles copying and cloning WoW's structure over the years, its become something of a myth, it just doesn't fit into the current speed of these games, but it'd be nice to see it make a comback.

I guess it depends how you define support roles. AC most certainly didn't have any.

---------- Post added 2013-06-19 at 01:30 PM ----------

There is a class without dps spec, called "paladin".

so ret is what, exactly?

[Luko]

What point would it have? Other than having the novelty of not having a dps role? "Hay guiz, let's make a class without a dps spec and cripple it arbitrarily cause we can!"

Support roles were so potent in older MMOs, that your over all group would do more DPS, healing and have more mitigation/survivability than you would if you brought anything else for that spot. Think about that. It's buffs were so powerful, that Bringing Tank/Healer/DPSx2/Support did more over all DPS than bringing 3 DPS classes. That's a support role.

Like I said, it doesn't really fit into the pace of today's WoW, but support roles are a lot more fulfilling and complex than "lulz i wunna be differnt!"