Damage Charts

I did write this the day after my last post! But forgot to sort of put it up. So Here is my view on where a hunter should be on damage meters. I know that Blizzards current policy is something about utility no longer being purchased at a cost to DPS, but I feel there should be limits especially if you include PvP. This game has two major sides PvE and PvP and the majority of players will do both, and so to give all the DPS classes/specs the same damage in a raid situation is in my opinion a bad thing because when you swap to PvP that gives the classes with added utility an unfair advantage. Just have a look at how over powered retribution paladins and death knights are at the moment in battlegrounds and arenas.

So below is a list of how I feel the DPS chart for at least ¾ of raid bosses should look if every one is equivalently geared and the players equally skilled. Then I’ll run through the different classes, but please be aware these are my opinions from observation and experience.

Damage Meters for Boss – Generic

1. Hunters, Rogues, Mages, Warlocks
2. Priests (Shadow), Druids (Feral/Balance), Warriors (Arms/Fury), Shaman (Elemental/Enhancement), Paladin (Retribution), Death Knight

Hunters – I know I’m a hunter but I do think we should be one of the classes topping DPS Charts in a raid situation. And this should be regardless of talent tree. The reason for this is a hunter is a damage dealing class, translated into PvP we are still a damage dealing class our only shared form of Crowd Control is freezing trap which has 100% chance of break on any form of damage. Then based on spec there is Intimidation which requires our pet to be alive and to hit and is a very short duration or scatter shot which breaks on damage and is also a short duration. Apart from that we have a few tricks for staying at range which can help against some classes but against others who have multiple stun, slow, cc options we are stuffed if our anti cc trinket is on cool down, or we are not a BM hunter with Bestial Wrath off cool down.

Rogues – Should be pretty much sharing our top spot. A rogue has weaker armour than a hunter and has to fight in melee range, which is an argument for them having more DPS. But they also have better damage mitigation in stupidly high dodge ratings and better CC options than a hunter. Vanish is also a much better get out of combat option than Feign Death. Taken all together these all roughly balance out.

Mages – When it comes to AoE and group mobs, like all 5,10 and 25 man trash fights seem to be so far in Wrath. Mages should be up there at the top along with the destruction type warlocks. For raid bosses, mages have much weaker armour than hunters and also stand at range. This may, like with rogues, be an argument for slightly higher DPS but again their utility in party and personal buffs as well as better CC options, ways of getting out of combat in PvP and off course their AoE abilities should balance that out.

Warlocks – Warlocks are currently completely underpowered in PvP, gone are the days of the joke “I beat a warlock and then the game credits rolled”. This was followed by or had replaced shaman, can’t remember which way around it was. Warlocks should really be sharing the spot with mages on the DPS charts, with those spec’d into direct damage being higher than those spec’d into DoTs. Warlocks have the same armour as mages and also fight at range. Warlocks like mages have good CC options but there other utility is in the fact they can have pets and put DoTs on lots of enemies at once. Apart from CC and run they are lacking good ways to get out of combat.

The Rest – One thing that the remaining classes have that the first four don’t is entirely different role options in the different talent trees. Priests can spec to heal or DPS. Shamans can spec to heal or DPS. Druids and Paladins can spec to heal, DPS or tank. Warriors can spec to DPS or Tank. Death Knights currently appear to Tank & DPS in all three talent trees. Because of these options the DPS specs of these classes should be behind Hunters, Rogues, Mages & Warlocks who are damage dealing classes in all talent trees.

How far behind is  probably a contentious issue, and my personal opinion is that it should be around 2%. Its not a huge amount, but to me it sounds reasonable.

Wisp