Sorry to be rude but that’s a lot of bullcrap.
None cares about your utility unless you’re raiding with a keyboard turner tank that started the game last sunday and healers who are watching a football game on their second monitor. The classic game is mechanically extremely easy and doesn’t need any sort of slowing/kiting. Your tank just gathers everything up and you blast, simple and easy.
I raided in top guilds for several years, including classic and none gave a shizzle on what my utility was (except if you provide a buff to the raid and that takes only 1 player to do).
In the end it boils down to how much dps you can do and the vast majority of pugs invite people according to their dps potential and not their utility or slows.
I’ve not raided with a single frostmage in classic post-BWL and you know why that is. And you also know why none invited retri paladins or moonkins to their raids in classic either. Most competitive guilds ran with 1 druid and that was only because of motw.
If you don’t do enough damage, you hardly get any groups. None cares about how you can slow or sheep mobs.
And yet my guild in classic had multiple memers per raid, an enh shaman, an ele shaman, a boomkin, a feral, warlock tank, and we competed with the top guilds in terms of efficiency. Not clear speed, but we weren’t that far behind. You missed my entire point. Yes, utility doesn’t matter later on, but during the first few weeks of a raid it sure as hell can make a big difference before everyone gets top end gear and starts snoozing through the raid. All this metagaming and consuming is unnecessary and pointless and drains the fun out of the game, that is the point I’m trying to make. You have one of those mindsets as well, thats why you cry for your DPS. Unless your class is #1 you will never stop complaining about it. Surround yourself in a less sweaty environment and maybe you’ll enjoy the game more. Druids are in the best state they’ve ever been in in classic, yet you still find something to whine about. Its incredible to watch.
Class balance means Retribution to be trash.
EVERY.
SINGLE.
EXPANSION.
Also, retri buffs are trash. Reducing mana cost on a spell you would use like 2 more times a minute. YAAAAAY!