Class Design & Hybrids

I was having a conversation with some guildies the other day, and their justification for elemental taking a 5% damage nerf is that, because my class Shaman is a Hybrid, I shouldn't be topping the damage meters anyway....

So lets take a look at this for a bit, we have 3 Hybrid classes.....Druids / Paladins / Shamans....Lets break down the different listings of things each Hybrid can do....

Drudis - DPS (Caster) / Tank & DPS (Feral) / Healing (Resto)

Pali's - Healing (Resto) / Tank (Prot) / DPS (Retri)

Shaman - DPS (Caster) / DPS (Enhance) / Healing (Resto)

Shamans are different from Paladins and Druids, as we can't tank....so our DPS classes should work more along the lines as a DPS class, DPS classes get CC, they get raid buffs, and do great DPS....we should probably be a little under there DPS, if we brought CC and raid buffs to the groups....but both DPS classes have party buffs not raid buffs, and have no form of CC, and a weak form of snare....SO I belive that the classes DPS has been risen to compensate...bringing us on par with mages, or rogues as enhancement....which we still have a lot of trouble keeping up with....and now after 2.3 elemental will have some more trouble...enhancement will be doing better...Tanking / Healing / CC / DPS is the order of importance I would rate raiding in, tanks are most important, healing second, long as u can heaal ur tank and raid your alive...CC is thrid, because you need to just simply take extra things out of the fight, and DPS is last, because as long as ur healing & tanking and CC is above par, DPS cna be slow but you will prevail...So that right away puts shamans at a weaker position in hybrids...we make up for it by supplying DPS, so it shouldn't be nerfed!!

So druids, druid's healing power is mental, it rivals that of a shaman's healing power by crap loads, they are formidable tanks, and can do some really decent damage, basically with different gear they can spec one tree and swap beetween damage and tanking rolls....And as a caster, the moonkin has more amour then an elemental shaman, more burst damage, and Crowd Control....by far as a hybrid choice, druids are the best you can get....I know for a fact that a moonkin druid can heal almost as well as a resto druid, and that a well geared resto druids does incredily good healing....

Paladins, ok so DPS for a paladin is fairly poor, retri needs some work, to make it viable in raids and get that side of the class fixed.....Paladins are great tanks, and they are great healers, I'd say a paladin healer is on par with a druid healer....yesterday I copp'd a 10k heal from a resto druid in kara gear....paladins also have buffs, raid buffs and damn goods ones, so do druids...

Ok Shaman, right we have no tanking class, so basically we have 2 DPS classes and one healing class....our healing side is fairly strong, I would have to say a healing paladin or druid is stronger, pre TBC we had a really damn good healing class....not so much any more, but healing brings things to the raid like Earth Sheild....umm yep thats the only thing it brigns to the raid! We can buff our party, thus placement of a resto shaman is important....but you can't compare party buffs to raid buffs, 3 paladins can buff an entire raid for 30 minutes...3 shamans can do 3 partys, so 2 groups are still missing, and we rebuff every 2 minutes....and get a great mana regeneration toll once every 5 minutes....so yeh resto shamans are a little under par as far as healing goes compared to a druid or paladin, and also we can't do raid buffs as good....Right now our DPS, now, we have 2 DPS classes, elemental and enhancement, this should technically mean that we can DPS better then a feral druid, moonkin druid or retri pali, because we cant compinsate with raid buffs, and also can't take a tanking roll...enhancement has pretty good buffs for a party, but oh yep, no raid buffs...elemental has a fairly lame excusses a a 41 point talent that can buff a party, thats right PARTY...and thats it....now DPS for elemental is being nerfed, even just a tiny bit, I just don't see how we are going to be as welcome as we were before...im sure my guild will make an exception for me, but they shouldnt have to suffer a DPS nerf from me, when I don't bring as much as I should in that raid slot...

Right now onto the hybrid classification....a Moonkin druid can DPS great, bring CC, bring raid buffs, and heal somewhere in the middle....thats pretty damn hybrid to me, a feral druid can tank, or do decent DPS, they can change forms and there mana is full for the odd heal here and there....thats pretty damn hybrid, a resto druid can just heal, but they do a damn good job, this isnt hybrid! All the do is HEAL, so they should be good at it, damn good!! And all 3 specs can RAID buff...

Ok so paladins, a paladin can tank, and do some ok DPS while doing it...they can also fully raid buff....DPS, our guild doesnt have a retri pali for DPS, and I'm sure alot of guilds dont, this is a broken section, resto, now they raid buff, and heal very well....so I belive i would classify a paladin as not a hybrid, as they arent doing more then 1 thing at a time, they are doing 2 of the 3 things very well, but not all 3 at the same time....I think we need a new name for a class like this....maybe instead of hybrid we can call them "Segregate" meaning they have the option to do all 3 specs, but can only do 1 at a time...

If a shaman has a below the other hybrids average of healing, and no tanking roll in raids, and no CC, and no raid buffs, the DPS we do should be par with the other DPS'ers, if you invite a DPS shaman to a group, be it 5 man / 25 man, your after their DPS...you get some party buffs...but your after the DPS, if you make the DPS lack, the shamans so call hybrid will be just like pre BC, a healbot, and I'm certain thats not where blizzard are trying to go....