I love all hybrid classes. And Classic is beautiful because you’re playing a class, not a spec. What do you mean by “what’s the point”?
1.) Paladin: let’s say you’re deep ret build. Even with that your buffs are amazing. Healer is oom? Help him out by throwing in some flash heals or even save the day with Lay on Hands.
Tank is getting overwhelmed with mobs? Turn on Righteous Fury and relieve the pressure off him.
Healer got aggro? Blessing of Protection.
Healer died? Rez him.
2.) Druid: tank + healer flexibility. And…
battle rez.
3.) Shaman: totems and bloodlust.
And all of this utility comes regardless of the spec.
The funny thing about this is, that these kind of comments never come from people who want to play Tank or Heal, but people who really want to just dps. And that’s not what hybrid classes are ment to be. They bring so much support and utlitiy.
I don’t understand why someone would pick one of these super versatile classes and then pigeon-hole themselves into just playing dps.
The amount of times I joined groups with 3 Hybrid classes which were looking for Tank + Heal is mind boggling.
Well the point was they were made for fun, not for end game raiding. Blizzard had to change a lot of them to make them more viable than they used to be. However some of them are perfectly fine and the point of them is as I mentioned, to have fun. Start a guild or join one less min/max focused
As many people already mentioned, there is nothing wrong in playing a hybrid in a raid. Unless the guild/raid is all about beating records and trying to be world 1st in a game that has been out for 13 years , there is nothing wrong in playing those classes in raids.
My advice is to find guilds that play the game for fun and not for min maxing things. It is stupid either way to be try hard in a 13 year old game!
In the end a hybrid may lack in raw damage that this is compensated by the buffs/totems/utility they offer to the guild so there is nothing wrong with playing hybrid. Just find a guild of even a server that is less competitive and ENJOY the game as you like
That was still a thing in tbc/wotlk. Rets were garbage and boomkins not much better. Spriests were taken into raids for VT only. Guess you are cata/wod/legion kid
This is not true. Spriests were top tier dps until late into the expansion where there was no real point to bring any ranged dps but warlocks, except for utility things like VT.
Even if this were true… you’re missing a big point here - Not everyone raids. Not everyone is rushing to 60 to min/max out their spec. Some people enjoy playing a class or spec because it’s fun, not because it’s apparently the best on the DPS meters.
I mean, I get this sentiment but there are literally tanks that outdps ret paladins in raid. Ret palas and moonkins are straight up crap. Yes, it’s a shame but if I wanted to raid, I wouldn’t take a ret pala or a moonkin if there were any other half decent specs wanting to go.
Mmmh, I’d argue that a moonkin has its uses in a raid. Not as a pure DPS class, but as a support one. You get a 3% spellcrit aura from the moonkin form, which will help raid DPS. You get an additional innervate, if needed. And if worst comes to worst a moonkin will easily be able to off-heal for a bit. Pure DPS is a bad way to measure a classes usefulness.
Not saying that moonkins are the best thing since sliced bread, but they are by no means as useless as some people seem to think.
/edit: Primarily talking about moonkins here because I’m not overly familiar with ret paladins in classic, due to not having played on Alliance side all that much.
Lol moonkins need innervate for themselves and if they heal they dont buff 3% crit anymore.
As long as enough people do enough dps you can bring some empty slots or meme specs and be just fine. Guilds usually have to many dps and to few healers though.
While stygma exists, personally i’m getting more and more requests to join their party as a retribution paladin. Because they know i can do anything. Tank needs a bio or has a phonecall, the ret will tank, healer? the ret will heal. Healer needs to go, lets search for a dps or heal same goes for tanking. Hybrid is appreciated in dungeons alot, once you get a playerbase that knows that you can play your character well.
It even came to a point that i was invited to heal at Onyxia when i was still lvl 57 because they wanted an extra paladin for the blessings, and a healer.
Am i less efficient as a full healer? Yes!
Am i less efficient as a full dps? Yes!
Ami i less efficient as a tank? Yes!
But in raids you don’t need the same amount of tanks, or healers for different bosses, or some of the trash. It is flexible. And a good hybrid, knows when and where the different roles of him / her are expected. Once you do that, your team members, and your raid, will adore you.
This is classic, not retail… you leveled a healer, not a hybrid… nobody called them hybrids in vanilla, they were just healers. And everyone who leveled a paladin / shaman just accepted they were rolling a healer. The amount of times I /w someone to heal an instance from /who lists back in the day I don’t think I ever once got a “I’m not a healer, I’m a dps” type response… even dps spec’d of the healer classes just donned their healing gear and set about it.
I couldn’t count the amount of times I healed UBRS as a feral Druid and nobody gave a rats about your spec provided you had a healing set in your bag. And no one cared if you needed anything for your off sets, all that drama and “I’m a hybrid not a healer” started way after classic
