by Brohg » Mon Feb 28, 2011 7:33 pm
Tanks aren't bad dps. They're more like baseline dps. If warriors work at it, they can even be good dps, but of course generally they don't. People don't expect it so they don't try. That happens with healing classes even more. "Dps classes" are those that deal more than tanks. It's a perspective thing I suppose, based on the characters I usually use. One is dps+takes_damage_well (the warrior), one is dps+heals (the shaman), one is dps+good_tricks (the enc), one is dps+a_little_more_dps (the wizard).
Dps isn't being reduced universally to the same degree, that's in the original statement. The biggest change will come to raid mobs, with only a little change in normal group-play basepop. Using a monk with a shaman before, or a ranger with a cleric, to tank that stuff when a real tank couldn't be found was already more than possible before, only now maybe the equipment threshold won't be so high. That's a fine situation. Every class and even every archetype should be, for general "playing of the EverQuests", wanted but not needed.
In raids, lowering overall mob dps won't change how much better tanks tank overall than nontank classes. Berserkers will still take proportionately much more damage (and commensurately more healing) than warriors, they just won't get pancaked in a blink like before. The appropriate response to ranger-on-HoTT will still be "this isn't good", but the response will be, as I opine it should be, "I should heal him hard and get a tank to rescue his dumb ass sometime soon so we can get back to fighting" rather than "I should ask the rotation who's hitting defensive+taunt next, and rez that guy between the next couple spam Lights". Emergency powers were irrelevant before because any emergency situation was resolved by the one in crisis dying before the powers could be brought to bear.
What's being ignored in that eqlive discussion for the most part is historical precedent. Long ago in an expansion far, far away, guilds had 3ish warriors. Fights could last longer than 9 minutes. That didn't indicate to the highest level of recruiters that they should eschew all plate-wearing ninnies in favor of higher dps. Being able to take 3-6 hits from various dragons/giants/dieties didn't make dps classes 100% ignore agro management. The proposed changes to mob damage & defensive abilities are explicitly intended as a move in the direction of that era's gameplay.