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What is raid viability?

March 18, 2010 :: Posted by - Ozimandias :: Category - Raiding

The following is a post by none-other than the master of the chatroom, Mullets!

Special thanks to everyjoe.com

I was listening to Blue Plz earlier, and Total Biscuit was giving his two cents on a blog post from WoW.com mage blogger Christian Belt, regarding raiding as a frost mage, and TB brought up numerous times times that  he does not think that frost mages are raid viable.

While listening to TB talking about this, a post by Brigwyn over at the Hunting Lodge came to the forefront of my mind. Brigwyn here argued that Blizzard believed Beast Mastery hunters were raid viable and listed counter arguments to Frostheim, who had posted otherwise.

So I wanted to address raid viability, and hopefully get some opinions flowing and some discussions going regarding this topic.

So what is raid viability? In my experience there are some different opinions regarding this issue.

  1. Opinion number one is the “Elitist” or “Hardcore” approach. This approach seems to be based around “viability” meaning “optimal.” If a spec isn’t optimal to them, then it isn’t viable. By optimal I am talking about most DPS, most HPS and most TPS or optimal survivability. If a spec is 1% better than another the other is non-viable.
  2. Opinion number two, is the light version of number 1. Here a spec is allowed to be “worse” to a certain extent. An example of this could be the Marksmanship vs. Survival hunter where Marksmanship is the optimal spec and Survival is the less optimal but still raid viable.  In other words there is allowed to be a difference in output to a certain point.
  3. Opinion number three, is the opinion that I sometimes wish was the one that the majority had. A person who leans towards this opinion will say that every spec is raid viable, and it’s all about the skill of the player not the spec. Every spec brings some utility to the raid. This one fits very well with the arguments posted by Christian Belt, who uses arguments about Frost mages, kiting abilities and AOE damage, to “prove” that frost mages are viable.

So what of what opinion are you? Do you feel like I am missing some opinions? If so please do post it in the comments .  What viewpoint regarding this topic do you believe is the dominant one?

I myself believe in opinion number two, I like to think that a spec is raid viable as long as it is worse with a relatively small margin (I’d say about 5 – 8%). The reason I said that I wished the majority of raiders agreed with opinion three, is that I believe the game would be much more enjoyable for a larger group of players if they could play whatever spec they found fun.

Comments (3) :: Add Comment
  • Sarama Tichondrius

    I think “Raid Viability” is defined by the raid itself. If you’re raiding for world firsts, then option 1 is probably what raid viability is. If you’re pretty serious about raiding, but not going for world/server firsts, then it’s probably option 2. If you’re in a fairly casual raiding guild that doesn’t care a whole lot, then it’s probably #3.

  • Dreadmoon

    Option 1 is the chosen one among hardcore raiding guilds. And option 1 also includes different ways of min/maxing your toon. It is not just focused on your spec, it also includes gear, glyphs, professions, consumables, etc.

    Option 2 is the one that allows for a second (not so good spec) but not necessarily on the grounds of raw DPS but rather in the grounds of raid support. In your example a survival hunter will be invited to the raid not for his DPS but for his replenishment. Same school of thought that will grant a demonology warlock a slot in the raid, not because it does good DPS but because it buffs the rest of the raid, making it’s overall contribution bigger.

    Option 3 as defined is the one used for casual or mid-level raiding guilds. It can be summarized as “all welcome and we’ll figure it out how to work with what we have”

    So it is not a matter or one option or another, it is a matter of what your goal is and what is the goal of the raiding team.

  • Evlyxx

    I raid 10 man ICC with a dual spec arcane/frost mage and on trash I go frost for the raw output of AoE DPS and its efficiency. If I stick with arcane I sit out 2 pulls drinking, which just slows the raid team down.
    But on bosses the damage output of frost is 20-30% lower than the arcane spec and therefore I am not pulling my weight in the fights.

    Option 3 is where we should all be at for sure, but in reality option 2 is where most guilds sit and until the damage output of all DPS specs for a class are balanced to be here things are not going to change.
    My solution for this would be to have all 3 specs be roughly equal on output and have each spec provide utility.

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