group-composition
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What they really meant by "bring the player, not the class"
We here at WoW Insider and others around the WoW community have talked so much about the term "bring the player, not the class" that I'm a little surprised we haven't started shortening it to "BTPNTC." But apparently I, at least, have not really understood what Blizzard meant by it when they said it was part of their new philosophy of balancing for raids. Ghostcrawler basically QFTs another forum poster who said the following: "Blizzard has repeatedly stated they didn't mean any class will be identical to all other classes in effectiveness for your last raid slot. Blizzard has provided a bunch of options you can choose from to get Replenishment, but expects you to choose one of those options. If any choice were a valid choice, there would be no incentive to think about the choice you make. Blizzard wants you to think about your group composition." As you may have gathered, this is in the contest of "A plea to remove Replenishment." What Blizzard, then, apparently means by BTPNTC is that it's now easier to get your (semi-)required buff and debuff coverage, not that you can do it with any old group. Sort of like threat for tanks, the mini-game of group composition has been made easier, but not made a non-issue. Honestly, I do think Replenishment should be removed – I don't see how requiring my 10-man raid to bring one of five specific DPS specs, or face the consequences, makes the game more fun. But it's good to have some insight into the developers' mindset.
Forum post of the day: A Rogue without a cause
Maximogu of Firetree posed the question "Why bring a Rogue to an 80 heroic?" in the general forums. He claimed that at this point there CC is unnecessary for most tanks that rely on AOE. Most of the trash pulls are handled by AOE classes now, making the Rogue's single target focus obsolete. He argued that Rogues are best suited with Druid tanks that do not handle multiple mobs as well as other tanking classes do.Here are some of the reasons given for bringing a rogue along:Anushka of Kel'Thuzad: There's a lot of nasty things that can be interrupted in most heroics. Though I wouldn't take more than one rogue.Khadros of Frostwolf: To listen to the sound of theirs daggers going schlick schlick schlick.Morgrimm of Korgath: Because one of my friends is a rogue.Owari of Frostwolf: To DPS, of course.Mypetgoat of Bladefist: It's one expendible DPS that won't roll on my gear.Madia of Maelstrom: They need loot and stuff too.
Breakfast Topic: The revival of the non-standard group
The other night I told my guildies about a Hunter who used his Gorilladin to tank a Heroic instance. So they were determined to try it themselves in Heroic Mechanar. The group was three hunters and me as feral cat. Monkeyboy tank lasted two shots. Downgrading to Normal Mech we had a little more success when we added a healing Paladin. Not quite the Heroic run we were hoping for, but still good fun and I didn't have to go bear.With all the new specs and players experimenting with new builds, have you found any non-traditional roles or group compositions since Patch 3.0.2?
Tank Talk: I love tank
Tank Talk is WoW Insider's raid-tanking column, promising you an exciting and educational look at the world of getting the stuffing thrashed out of you in a 10- or 25-man raid. The column will be rotated amongst Matthew Rossi (Warrior/Paladin), Adam Holisky (Warrior), Michael Gray (Paladin), and Allison Robert (Druid). Our aim is to use this column to debate and discuss class differences, strategies, tips, tricks, and news concerning all things meatshieldish. That's what we said we were doing -- and by golly, I'm sticking to it.Welcome back to Tank Talk. I'm your Paladin tank. I like shields, consecration, and beer. This is our third week of Tank Talk, and we're in a "things that apply to all of us" phase -- your Tank-centric writers are getting loosened up, having a little dialogue about what we're all up to, what we all think about things. Things that tanks think about -- repairs, threat, and more repairs. Allison started us off with some discussion about questions to which you should have answers before you pick up your shield and paw. She also helped us out last week with some chat about the angels on our shoulders - the optimist guy, and the pessimist guy. But I don't want us to get off to a too-dim start. It seems a little gloomy. I want to talk this week about the fundamental point of our column, our Raison d'être -- why we tank.
