Re: A candid question re: dps warriors

**beep** · 05-01-2007, 12:43 PM

Hmmm...my 2 cents...

I think Kailes is right, that people tend to prefer the standard choices (warriors who tank, priests who heal, etc.) which means that off-spec (shadow priest, arms/fury warrior) are less familiar. Hybrids are even more confusing (druids, mixed-spec pallys, shamans).

Even so, I am constantly amazed at the success of differing 5 man groups who have to adapt to what they have for CC, DPS, healing and general tactical success. My personal sense is that the BC expansion has elevated the roles of off-spec and hybrids. F'rinstance, we have three viable tanking specs now, each with slight differences or "preferred" status for tanking certain situations. The ability to change roles (from DPS to backup healer (shadow priest or druid or shaman) can be HUGE in many cases. Crowd control skills become critical (thinking of 7 mob pulls in Shattered Halls!!).

Nevertheless, Kailes has a good point, IMO, about warriors being a class that tends to lack the ability to carry a good backup role. DPS warriors who are fully specced for those talents tend to lack some important protection talents and damage mitigation. Tanks can, well, tank...and when they switch to DPS gear, they are still not impressive as damage dealers.

Sajier is correct in that folks will always need certain roles filled in any group...tanking, healing, crowd control, DPS. They naturally look toward tendencies. F'rinstance, my lvl 64 shadow priest gets multiple tells from strangers wanting a healer. I usually stop the dialog long before it gets to my spec, but the obvious is that priest=healer for most folks. In the same way, druid healers probably get tells looking for feral tanking. Heh...I don't know WHAT shamans get asked to do.

Back to Bear's question: Bear, if you like DPS, then go all out. I think our guild is more receptive to differing party makeup, so I'd give it a try. If it's too stressful or hard to find groups in that spec, then bring that back to these forums for discussion. I realize that's what you've done here, with a lot of opinions on the table. What I've observed is that DPS warriors like Halten and Uglyduck have NOT changed their spec. Prot spec warriors like Beep and Kelilyse and Delg have NOT changed their spec. This strongly suggests to me that roles exist for both.

**Pistos** · 05-01-2007, 05:07 PM

Generally they just ask if I will come heal <insertrandominstancehere>. Every now and then I get the random "Holy? If so want to heal us in <insertrandominstancehere>". Only once have I actually got someone asking if I was shadow and would like to join their group. The above are all examples from non-guildies.

Guildies on the other hand are completely different. I'm sure there are some people that believe that warriors should only tank and priests should only heal. That's fine, but I think they're missing out on some very interesting dynamics.

As far as the guild changing from my experience I see less min/maxing now that pre-BC. Maybe its because of my spec and the fact that the people I have grouped with before can see the value of bringing a dps class that has very limited CC in most places. But overall I think most guildies have been less worried about that kind of stuff in 5mans than before. In fact one of the SL runs we did had two druids, two priests, and a rogue. Of course all kinds of plate dropped

.

**Arkamis** · 05-02-2007, 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by Halten

Oh we're viable...

In regards to Ark, I think A MS/imp slam build would be better, but meh, that's just playstyle. I'm pretty sure all of our dps warriors can pump out lots of damage, I haven't grouped with ugly since he got his sword, though =/. Offtanking at times is needed, but I only really have to do it if I pull aggro :P, and most of the times if I have to tank a mob, I'll just do it in DPS gear, since the raid will be switching to my character soon. I still can't keep up with gaviin, but I'd say a DPS warrior is still a huge impact on raiding.

We tried that.

It's the rage generation that's the big thing. Once you get spooled up with Flurry, you can keep it up indefinitely and you'll have all sorts of rage dumps like Cleave that crit frequently to keep it going.

We have a warrior right now that's outpacing some affliction locks. It's obscene.

Either way, unless you're doing arenas, stay away from 41 arms. The burst it offers does not make up for the sustainability you can gain, raid wise at least. For arena's Imp MS is pain.

**jepzilla** · 05-02-2007, 10:48 AM

There's room for most types of class, and DPS warriors are no exception. The only problem is that the DPS pool is practically overflowing, and the tanking pool is half-empty. Warriors, like priests, will always be much more in demand for their 'unique' (i.e., tanking/healing) roles than for a DPS role.

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