I made this post last week as a light hearted Dig at Beld for his comments about the viability of Feral DPS in a raid. However, some good replies from Vyndree started me thinking.
Ownership of DPS.
Most classes contribute more than just their own DPS to a raid. This contribution would not exist if the player was not present, therefore it could be easily argued that as a Feral Druid, there are two parts to my DPS. The first part is purely what I personally contribute, my actual DPS. Now if you consider this aspect alone, then yes, I don't think Feral DPS is all that viable.
Feral Benefits to the Raid.
Here is where the Feral Druid really stands out. For this discussion we will assume the Feral Druid is in a Melee Group. We bring many benefits to the raid by our mere presence. (Sounds a bit like royalty right?;)). Let's start with the Basics. Leader of the Pack and Improved Leader of the Pack. Now the healing component of this talent is fairly small but really, any healing to the whole party is a great bonus to the Raid. As far as DPS contribution is concerned, LotP is huge. LotP gives every member of the party an additional 5% to their Crit Chance.
The Guesstimates.
Now I am no theory crafter, but I will give this a go. If we assume a melee class has 1000 DPS with 0% crit. We will also assume that Crit means Double Damage, since I am fairly sure there are talents for most classes that increase this somewhat. Based on this, if we assume the player has 20% crit, this would raise his DPS to 1400. If we now add LotP to this and make it 25% crit, we are looking at 1500 DPS. Now since we are also assuming a Melee Group, the presence of a Feral Druid has increased the DPS of his group by 400. I own that DPS. That DPS boost alone will put me neck to neck with even the best of the DPS Classes.
Dead = 0 DPS.
What happens when we lose a DPS class in the middle of the fight. Since it is MY Battle Rez that brings the DPS'er back in, don't I now own their DPS? If we use the 1500 DPS example from before and assume I bring them up when the boss is at 50% (and they don't manage to die again), we can say that I can claim that 1500 DPS for half the fight, which gives me an additional 750 DPS. Now my bonus DPS, on top of what I can do myself, is 1150. If we add to that 1150 DPS with the DPS I can dish out, you are now looking at the highest DPS'er in the Raid.
But Wait, There's More!
Let's start pushing this argument just a little further. Lets say the healers aren't quite up to the gear level to last out a boss fight. If we use a reasonably geared Priest for this example, my Innervate is almost a full Mana Bar. Without that Innervate, the raid will wipe due to lack of healing. Now here is the stretch, since we would not survive with out the innervate, does that mean the DPS of the whole raid belongs to me?
There are lots of Guesses and What If's in these examples, however I think it makes my point.
Razorbax
4 comments:
I like your argument!
But wait. All raid members would die without the healer, so by your argument all their dps belongs to them.
Soooo all dps actually belongs to the healers, and therefore every raid group should be made up by 1 tank and 9 healers?????
p.s. Help me get my druid to 70 and then I will believe you :P
My comparison was with a DPS class. You are shooting way out of left field there mate:P
Last night I ran BT with a new guild... it's summer and there were quite a few new people.
I Off Healed the MT on the first boss Naj, I was one of the tanks for the 2nd boss Supremus, and then I DPSed Akama and was 6th in Damage while being carefull, doing the fight for the first time, and running out of RoF when I probably was supposed to stay in and get healed through it. Of course I was in there to boot with people that outgear me also. And yeah, I BRezed a couple times as well.
Smart, well geared (well geared for all roles not 1) feral druids bring much more than shear DPS to the table.
I don't see how in the expansion they can make us DPS on par with lets say rogues as is expected by dropping some tanking talents and other DPS classes not get pissed. Now I will be keeping up in the DPS dept. and still be able to off heal and off tank just not MT.
Lot of QQing I see in the future as they let us do even more DPS.
As it stands now people are just now starting to understand how much we bring to the raid instead of just another DPS spot... if this becomes widespread knowledge we are toast.
As a moonkin I understand a lot of your arguement, however saying we "own" some of the DPS we buffed takes it a little far in my opinion.
I think many people over estimate the buffs that we, as hybrids, apply and justify poor DPS with those buffs. Plus these people tend to for get the buffs they receive that buffs our DPS.
I don't expect to be number one on DPS, and no moonkin should. However, we have to be competetive.
The real problem we have as hybrids is that our value decreases dramaticly after you have one. From a Moonkin perspctive most guild don't have 10 caster DPS in a raid, so the second aura would be applyied in a less then ideal spot. I assume the same is true for Feral. Who runs with 10 melee, and how many of those are tanks that don't stack crit?
DPS focused classes have it easier because a second warlock provides almost the same utility as a the first one does.
Battle rezes and innervates are great an all but they are really secondary, and if every thing goes according to plan shouldn't be needed.
Anyway, just some of my thoughts.
One other thing you left out of feral viablity. Fairie Fire.
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