Originally Posted by
Turturin the Warlock
That link contains comparisons of the highest single parse for each spec. To me, that is very different from: "what is the best spec".
- top parses are often gained using behavior you wouldn't use on progression (i.e. needless padding, tricks of trade, guild strategies to funnel damage opportunities toward a single player, etc...)
- top parses are ALWAYS post-progression parses, meaning it's not an accurate depiction of fight time or raid gear level compared to someone looking to progress on a given fight.
- The Best Spec, imho, is the one that benefits your raid/strategy the most. Whether that's the best for killing troublesome adds, the spec which has the best survivability, or the spec that does the most boss damage, depends partly on the strenghts of a spec in a given encounter, but also on what YOUR raid group needs to get the job done.
In general these spec and dps discussions are too focused on absolute max throughput rather than the nuances of the situation. For example: Sure, if you can get the rest of your raid to leave the reflection adds alone on Sha of Pride you can do crazy AoE and put up big numbers....that still is nowhere near as IMPORTANT as killing corrupted fragments and manifestations of pride quickly. That doesn't mean destro isn't the best spec for Sha of Pride, but it does mean that whether its the best or not has very little to do with how well it can AoE reflections.
I try to give people credit for being intelligent here, a lot of high-end raiders frequent and post on these forums. I don't know many of them that would say that rankings are their focus during progression. Most will appropriately have the mindset that whatever it takes to kill the boss is what they'll do, personal numbers notwithstanding. Just because ranking (or attempting to) is something to do after the fact on farm (for some players), doesn't in any way imply that we should be answering questions for less progressed players without appropriate context.