Flux

One of the more popular debates that surfaces on WoW forums like an unkillable multi-headed troll is, are hybrids better?

What’s a hybrid?  Blizzard designed the game with specialists and hybrids. The specialty classes are supposed to be the best at something, like ranged damage, while the hybrids do more than one thing like healing and melee damage, but not as well. In the first stage of the game this works very much as advertised. However in the last stage of the game, raiding or arena, it’s murkier because changing between roles requires a talent respec which is hardly something you can do quickly while off killing trolls.

During the first stage of the game there isn’t much debate which is better.  This is because it doesn’t matter.  You spend most of your time soloing.  And leveling up is not difficult, only time consuming.  But the debate burns with feverish passion in the end game when players start discussing nerfs, class balance, and raiding.

There are four basic roles; tanking, healing, melee dps, and ranged dps.  Six classes can do more than one of these.  Four can only do one thing, dps.  The debate is generally if a hybrid is outperforming a specialist on damage, or if one hybrid is better than another.

Damage is a easy number to compare in raids, you just get a damage meter like Violation.  With equal gear a hunter, mage, or rogue will consistently put out the most damage easily securing their spot as specialists and ‘better’ than a hybrid.  Warlocks do well but not as high and can be beaten out by a hybrid, they do however melt face in pvp and certain pve encounters despite recent nerfs.  Specialists are ‘better’ at raw damage.

Interestingly none of the specialists classes can tank or heal.  This is likely because to solo you need to be able to do damage.  And comparing between hybrids is difficult because each class tanks and heals differently.  For example; a druid is best for efficient healing, a paladin for fast healing, a priest for heavy healing or spike damage, and a shaman for aoe healing.  So the best one depends on the situation or having a mix.

However, some hybrids have it better than others.  While Druids, Priests, and Shamans all have strong abilities in all roles.  Paladins and Warriors have difficulty in the dps role in raids.

Until recently a retribution paladin’s damage was a joke.  This has improved recently with better gear itemization but it’s still an uphill battle. And while warriors dps is not terrible, they have very little utility otherwise. They can’t crowd control, offheal, or even significantly buff the party.  This can be overcome with skill and gear, but it’s not easy.  However, they both are the ‘least squishy’ of the dps classes.

So what’s it all mean?  For tanking and healing, no class is better.  It depends on the type of encounter more than anything else.  For raw damage, specialists are better than hybrids however hybrids bring useful abilities to the party.  Keep in mind if you want to do the most damage possible it will be an uphill battle as a hybrid to beat a specialists, especially if you are a paladin or warrior.

Tags: deathknight, debate, druid, hunter, mage, paladin, priest, rogue, shaman, warlock, warrior
Author: aos

This entry was posted by aos on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 11:31 am and is filed under Games, WoW. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.