Breakfast Topic: How would you design a true hybrid role?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.
Lately there has been a lot of talk in the World of Warcraft about the state of the holy trinity of class roles in the game. There have been talks on whether to add extra support roles such as CC classes to a list of available roles (this being difficult due to the hurry-up-and-grind mentality of much of the community). My thoughts for the day are what I see as a potential revamp in the way the game currently handles hybrids.
I have always been a fan of bizarre specs. In Wrath, I had a dual-wielding resto shaman who utilized Maelstrom weapon procs to churn out instant Chain Heals to the group while maintaining a semi-respectable DPS output. When Cataclysm came out, I was thrilled at the aspect of an priest Atonement build to churn out DPS while aiding the group with a few smart heals. Once again, the Holy Trinity reared its ugly head, and I realized that due to being a disc build, I would be forced into a healing-only role with DPS in the downtime.
If you could change any mechanic for a class to facilitate the ability to perform a true hybrid playstyle, what would it be? One example I can personally think of would be change the balance druid Eclipse mechanic to boost healing done while under an increase to nature damage. This would not apply to Moonkin form due to casting restrictions in form, but this would lead to easier balancing as well. Stick to boomkin to nuke out DPS, or stay in caster to throw out some solid, boosted heals.
What would you change up to make hybrids more hybrid-y?
