Im not talking by other players, nor mobs. Im talking about by developers.

Wow is a great game as the 8 million subscribers worldwide know. What made it great however is the original developers who are no longer developers. Now the people influencing the changes in this game are ex-elitist EQ players, with an intense disdain for hybrid classes. They have made this disdain known patch after patch since release.

Nearly every patch since release has nerfed hybrids, and when they are buffed up to matching a non hybrid class, they are shortly thereafter nerfed to knock them back down. Just as Furor QQ'd in EQ any time a hybrid approched the effectiveness of a non hybrid class. Organizing server crashes in protests like a 5 y/o baby would throw a fit if jhonny got the same silver star sticker on his spelling quiz as he did.

Recent developements are the most obvious display of this. Retribution paladins are buffed with great damage for pvp, shaman could attain top damage done spots in raids, and druids can tank. Paladin damage has already been nerfed, and in the coming patch druid tanking ability will be significantly nerfed...and max enhancement shaman max dps nerfed by a considerable amount. A class that already has to perform REALLY well to prove they can fill a dps spot in raids. This will be increasingly more difficult after the patch for all previously mentioned hybrids.

They continuously put emphasis on "hybrid roles" and simultaneously pigeon-hole the majority of the hybrid playerbase into healbotting roles... does healbot=hybrid? As most people with knowledge of how elitist guilds work, thats the elitist attitude. Which goes hand in hand with tigole and furor's gaming history, behavior in those games, and the way they ran the guild. Explaining why Pre TBC end game content was extremely difficult, forcing guilds to get 40 very good players together, farm mats for hours a day, then raid for several more, daily to progress slowly through new content. Something that is creeping upon TBC even now with decreased raid sizes.

I can think of 20 people right now off the top of my head that i got to know but weren't fortunate enough to get in one of the few already overpopulated end game raiding guilds on the two servers i have played on.

Apparently for them thats exactly what hybrid means...healbot, showing little consistent attention to 2/3 trees in each hybrid class. Guess which "hybrid spec" of each hybrid is strongest? Healing...especially after the next patch.

If you want to see other information via links on this subject there are the following links regarding their history, their behavior, and furthermore demonstrate how slowly like lava flowing down a mountain to the beautiful city of WoW, they're chipping away at the game we love thanks to it's original principles.

About druid tanking nerf involving Tigole.
original wow forum post: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=79221587&pageNo=1&sid=1#0

concentrated point of link
http://tangedyn.9tribes.net/

About their behavior in previous games, elaborating on why hybrids hurt so bad compared to certain other classes. Extensive and informative page.

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=206834

Information about Paladins, initial and longstanding views of hybrids by tigole and furor, more about their behavior and overall opinion of hybrid classes. In fact, in case you dont read the following page, no blizzard cm had ever even played a paladin to 60 until over a year after release.

http://www.zealguild.org/wiki/index.php/Paladin_FAQ#Miscellany


To top this all off, the shaman "review" was even admitted by blues that no information (as requested specifically via eyonix for shaman input on what needed to be done) was reported to the devs in time for the review as some of you may recall Eyonix threw a hissy fit about someone making a bus shock ytmnd and thereby didnt post on our forums according to his usual 3 months between posts routine. More proof they didnt care at all what players thought.

In addition to this promised more changes in a soon coming patch. Thats where eyonix's next post came in a few months later letting us know that there would be no shaman changes soon. Until 2.0 shaman were granted DW, amongst other questionable new abilities. The non healbot enhancement hybrid became viable, could contend for top dps and will be nerfed in the coming patch, along with druid tanking as previously noted.


I'll be gathering more information about this, but as this evidence, and obvious evidence thrown at us over the previous years showing a STRONG emphasis by developers on ENSURING THE MAJORITY OF HYBRIDS MUST BE HEALBOT SPEC TO BE VIABLE IN THE 'END GAME'.


I didnt make this post in expectations that anything will change...when elitist cry babies are in charge you can only expect them to ensure their own happiness with the game, rather than the customers'. But hope some of you at least find it educational on why hybrids get owned. At least before its stealth deleted, or moved to the twisting nether. Or the infamous 'lock' so it falls to the cob-web infested last pages of the general forum.

Because support abilities are generally under valued by players and over valued by developers.

Problem with hybrids is they're full of support abilities that the people playing those classes generally don't care for. There isn't much talk about the over powered ability for a paladin to buff others or a druid to heal. Yet the developers see those as very strong abilities and of the total budget of stuff the class is allowed they take up a significant portion.

Perhaps what they should do is not consider support abilities at all in the balance of classes. Just ignore the fact they have those abilities and balance around the rest. At least the hybrids would be happy.

I skimmed a bit, but I'd say this gist is this:

Hybrids that can fill rolls such as tanking/dps/healing should not be able to do so at the level of pure classes that spec for it. Tanking is so crucial in raids that anything shy of the best possible tank is inadequate, and dps is easy to come by. However, of 4 healers in the game, 3 are hybrids. This means that hybrids form the most ready supplier of healers and therefore end up having to fill this roll. Sucks, but there it is.

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Q u o t e:
I skimmed a bit, but I'd say this gist is this:

Hybrids that can fill rolls such as tanking/dps/healing should not be able to do so at the level of pure classes that spec for it. Tanking is so crucial in raids that anything shy of the best possible tank is inadequate, and dps is easy to come by. However, of 4 healers in the game, 3 are hybrids. This means that hybrids form the most ready supplier of healers and therefore end up having to fill this roll. Sucks, but there it is.

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Pretty much, and its because the devs want hybrids to be rational...rational and spam that healing keybind 600 times a raid, and likewise spec so that keybind heals good. Sequentially nerfing other trees so we're not irrational and accidently think another tree might be more beneficial.

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Q u o t e:


Pretty much, and its because the devs want hybrids to be rational...rational and spam that healing keybind 600 times a raid, and likewise spec so that keybind heals good. Sequentially nerfing other trees so we're not irrational and accidently think another tree might be more beneficial.

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Well, we'll always have PvP... Unless you're enhancement. Then you don't even have PvP.

imo DW with Windfury / Rockbiter has awesome dps ;x

good post.


in reality theres no such thing as a hybrid in the devs eyes, theres just healers who need specs to grind with.

Hybrids die faster because they are either, out of electricty and so they turn to gas but because it is suppose to lower emitions it has absolutly no space for a gas tank and so they die, or they are confused and pressured to choose a spec and so they chose to be hybrid and so while fighting they won't have any spec attacks that can do real damage and they die from /suicide spell.

I read all of it, but I'll only respond to one part

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Q u o t e:

Nearly every patch since release has nerfed hybrids, and when they are buffed up to matching a non hybrid class, they are shortly thereafter nerfed to knock them back down.

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Why is this a bad thing? Hybrids should never, ever be as effective as a standard class in their main role. If hybrids are as effective, then there is no longer any reason to be a member of the standard class from a purely pve standpoint

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Q u o t e:
good post.


in reality theres no such thing as a hybrid in the devs eyes, theres just healers who need specs to grind with.

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I think that this is very close to the truth. Blizzard expects the hybrids to be in healing roles in groups, primarily, which is why all hybrids can heal. It's a crap design, but there it is.

Hybrid = healer by blizzard term . If you are a hybrid class you will be nerfed to hell just like feral druid are getting nerfed until your healing build is the only viable one.

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Q u o t e:
I read all of it, but I'll only respond to one part



Why is this a bad thing? Hybrids should never, ever be as effective as a standard class in their main role. If hybrids are as effective, then there is no longer any reason to be a member of the standard class from a purely pve standpoint

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Warlock are a hybrid class and are able to outdamage mage ? I beleive a 30% dmg nerf is needed for warlock as well.

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Q u o t e:



Warlock are a hybrid class and are able to outdamage mage ? I beleive a 30% dmg nerf is needed for warlock as well.

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What else can we do except damage? And we've had 30% damage nerfs before, we'll live

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Q u o t e:
in reality theres no such thing as a hybrid in the devs eyes, theres just healers who need specs to grind with.

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Got it in one.

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Q u o t e:
imo DW with Windfury / Rockbiter has awesome dps ;x

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its true its not bad, but will it be good enough to compete for that slot when "pure dps" classes gear up? And yeah the standard you have heals and buffs you shouldnt be able to dps as well as "pure dps" will be said. the same can be said for druids and paladins.

You know its not like warriors have any buffs, have the choice to contend for top dps, or to tank. And its not like shaman dont have any cc like hunters and rogues to avoid damage/prevent damage from occuring on our allies. It would make sense if hybrids could do any two of the following damage/tank/heal simultaneously for their damage to not equal "pure dps". unfortunately the fact that they can only chose to do one at any given time and "pure dps" classes cc/buffs/and dps all run hand in hand with each other.

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Q u o t e:
I read all of it, but I'll only respond to one part



Why is this a bad thing? Hybrids should never, ever be as effective as a standard class in their main role. If hybrids are as effective, then there is no longer any reason to be a member of the standard class from a purely pve standpoint

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on the flip side of this why would anyone role a hybrid if you can never be as good as a standard class?

they need to meet somewhere because even with the best spec and the best gear a hybrid will still be worse at what they're trying to do, and absolutly terrible at what they're not speced to do.

wheres the advantage?

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Q u o t e:


What else can we do except damage? And we've had 30% damage nerfs before, we'll live

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Debuff