Every week, Alex Ziebart comes to you with Hybrid Theory. A column with... theories about hybrids, I guess. I mean, that's what it says at least. I guess it could be something else, but probably not. Honestly, you should probably just read it and find out for yourself.
If you haven't read anything on this boss yet, it's the single largest gear check in WoW yet. It's Burning Crusade's Patchwerk, mostly. To beat Brutallus, you need roughly 29,000 sustained DPS across your entire raid. If you don't pull that off, you hit his enrage timer and he destroys all of you. Simple as that! If you're lucky you can burn off a final two or three percent of his health after the enrage, but that's about as far as you go. That three percent is about 300,000 health, so don't get too confident.
Hybrids at their base naturally do less damage than 'pure' damage dealing classes. Understandable. As I've said before, though, their utility can be simply mind-blowing. The lower DPS on the Hybrid classes can easily make raids nervous going into this encounter. Assuming your raid is using two tanks for Brutallus as most strategies suggest and the typical seven healers, you have sixteen damage dealers to bring down 10,500,000 HP in six minutes. If my math is right(and I'm pretty sure it is), your damage dealers will need to do a little over 1,800 DPS each, over the entire encounter.
Wow.
This may not seem like that much to the pure damage classes that see that number, because it's probably right around what you do in a raid normally. Take some things into consideration, though. A Shadow Priest, which gives the entire raid 5% added damage to spells, in addition to an extra 10% Shadow damage for the Warlocks, will be doing, at most, around 1600 DPS in a properly stacked group. Less than that if they're augmenting the healer group, probably somewhere around 1450. Assuming you only have one Shadow Priest(my raid has two), that's an extra 25 or so DPS per person to put out. If you run two Shadow Priests, one for the healers and one for the ranged DPS, that's an extra 50 per person.
That number seems fairly small. 50 per person? That can be made up. Is it worth it to use Shadow Priests? Very, very yes. Consider their utility. Vampiric Embrace, Vampiric Touch, Misery, Shadow Weaving. These are all very good things. Their contribution begins to diminish after that first Shadow Priest, Misery and Shadow Vulnerability are not a concern after the first. However, Vampiric Touch is still quite amazing. A Shadow Priest in your Healer group strengthens your healers, and lowers the chance of tank deaths. A Shadow Priest in your ranged DPS group means less need to Life Tap, Evocate, things of that sort. Even without the direct damage buff, Shadow Priests will give your damage dealers the longevity they need.
Shadow Priests can't do the suggested 1800 DPS, no. They do push Warlocks far above and beyond that requirement, however. A Warlock doing 1700 DPS without a Shadow Priest is doing just shy of 2000 DPS with one. That's just one warlock. Your raid probably has two or three. This is anywhere from a 600 to 900 DPS increase from just the Warlocks, not to mention the smaller boost to the Mages. That certainly makes up for the slightly lower Shadow Priest damage, doesn't it?
Every raid has, or should have, an Enhancement Shaman. Let's pretend you cap out at 1500 DPS in a raid-buffed, melee-stacked group, in a pure free for all fight in which threat is not an issue, like this one. If your groups are organized properly and you've cleared Black Temple, this most likely is not the case, you can do more than that. For the sake of discussion, though, that's your cap. Enhancement Shaman fall short of the 'required' sustained DPS, but again, not an issue. Totems, Heroism/Bloodlust, Unleashed Rage, all of those sorts of things turn your melee into monsters. Between you and the Arms(or Fury) Warrior, 1600 DPS rogues turn into 2200 DPS balls of destruction.
None of this includes Improved Faerie Fire, Totem of Wrath, or Improved Seal of the Crusader yet. Each of these push your pure classes higher and higher.
As we're going through this list, you really notice that the statement of "everyone must do 1800 DPS" is actually rather misleading. It frightened me when I first read it, too. How the hell am I going to do 1800 DPS!? I included that number early on to to grab your attention, but don't make yourself feel like dead weight if you can't achieve that. The goal of the encounter is not to make all of your damage classes do 1800 DPS. The goal is to utilize your hybrid classes to the best of your ability, to make the most out of their utility, and turn your pure damage classes into swirling monsters of death.
There is no hybrid that is dead weight on this encounter. From Retribution Paladin to Balance Druid to Elemental Shaman to Fury Warrior, their contribution is substantial. This encounter's focus is not personal glory. While you should always strive to better yourself as a player, the focus of the Brutallus fight is raid synergy. The need to 'stack' your raid for one thing or another is minimal. You simply need to work together to overcome the hurdle, more than you've had to in the past. Synergy is key. Who better to help that synergy come to fruition than the Hybrids?
Since the dawn of the Burning Crusade, Blizzard has worked hard to make the best out of the Hybrid classes. They've done a lot towards making each of these classes and specs worthwhile, and this encounter takes that even further. Hybrids are not just viable, they are essential. I don't know about you, but that makes me feel pretty good.
If you want more information on this boss, especially if your raid is approaching this content, the Elitist Jerks forums are an amazing source of information. Remember: Check existing threads before posting your own! There's a ton of informative threads there, and your question has most likely been answered in one of those threads already. If it hasn't, your question probably doesn't need its own thread. It could go in one of the others.
Do you have a burning desire for more sweet, sweet Hybrid Theory? We've covered everything from a cross-dressing Cenarius to the itemization changes in patch 2.4. If you want to take a look at our other class columns and guides, take a look at the WoW Insider Directory.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-06-2008 @ 9:42PM
kellzea said...
i think you make case and point of the nessesity of hybrids in the game. we arnt there to top the charts, were there to make sure the others do.
unfortunatly this concept is lost on most "how big is your biggest crit" noobs
nice
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4-07-2008 @ 1:10PM
Manatank said...
Fortunately Sunwell raiders are probably not being led by "how big is your biggest crit" noobs.
4-06-2008 @ 9:50PM
Pharmacy said...
Insightful and well written. Stuff like this should be required reading for new guilds.
A+ and keep up the good work
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4-06-2008 @ 10:30PM
Dan said...
I really like hybrid theroy (no, not the album). As I'm on the verge of raids with my recent fury spec change, it's nice to read about raid utility roles that I've never read about before.
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4-06-2008 @ 11:53PM
rapand said...
I like this line of articles, but I struggle to see the whole hybrid part of classes. My guild has only been entering BT and MH since they got opened in 2.4, but our protection paladin and one of our enhancement shamans are frankly sometimes outperforming their non "hybrid" counterparts.
Hybrid in it's essense is doing two or more things isn't it? But aside from a feral druid it's hard to find a class capable of doing just that. An elemental shaman can probably heal a few 5 mans, but healing on a raid? An enhancement shaman does decent damage themselves, and they also buff melees into doing more dps aswell. But so does a hunter, and while it's not as much noone ever came close to calling hunters hybrids.
So are we simply calling the classes that have more choices for endgame purpose hybrids? It'd be fine, but it's not really what a hybrid is.
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4-06-2008 @ 11:54PM
rapand said...
Ooops I forgot to say that I thought it was a nice read. :)
4-07-2008 @ 2:07PM
Isambaard said...
Generally accepted definition says a hybrid class is one that can fundamentally change roles with a respec.
Shaman go from omglaserspewpew ele to omgstabbystabby enh to omgchainhealftw resto.
Paladins change from aoetankftw to everyjudgementupforever to folspamforever.
You already identified Druids.
4-07-2008 @ 12:24AM
kellzea said...
hybrids is a strange term, one that has grey areas.
warriors are NOT hybrids because they have one utility spec,
BUT shamans are a hybrid spec dispite only having one utility spec.
being a hybrid is more about class ethos than it is a list of atributes. some argue that the only class that is truly a hybrid is a druid, but then again, paladins share the same 3 spec choices (tank dps healing).
the thing that makes a hybrid is what they are built to be capable off.
yes shadow preists can buff the damage output of party members, but shamans are "suposed" to be a suport class. doing there own thing but then blending into the group by choosing certain buffs per raid build, the same can be said of druids and paladins.
its a hard thing to pin down as to what is a hybrid, but trust me its
shammies
droods
and paladins
dps warriors and shadow preists are off specs, im not saying they are no good, quite the contrary, but for clasification perposes they are off specs, not hybrids
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4-07-2008 @ 2:17PM
kenney said...
I think you may want to revisit your thinking on warriors. DPS warriors are certainly an off-spec, but prot warrs using fury gear can put out cat-like dps, allowing a raid leader to use them for dps on some fights and tanking on others, much like you would with a feral druid.
Of course, not all prot warriors put any effort into having a competitive dps set of gear. Many prot warriors don't realize that they have this capability.
4-07-2008 @ 12:27AM
rcwills said...
So if we look at all the hybrid dps classes, we get: Feral druid, balance druid, Elemental Shaman, Enhancement Shaman, Shadow priest, and retribution pally. Survival hunters and affliction warlocks can ostensibly categorized here too.
Now given that this fight is dependent on high, sustained dps, the only reason to justify bringing a character or class who doesn't meet the minimum requisite damage per second is if they buff the raid's dps by more than the difference between their own dps, and a pure dps class.
Of the 8 specs listed, moonkins and elemental shamen can be given a pass, but only assuming they are at or close to the minimum dps, even though they are no match for a fire mage/rogue. Enhance shamen and shadow priests are a decent amount of dps below the minimum requirement, but more than make up for it by buffing their melee and caster groups, respectively. Affliction warlocks would have to do the math and figure out how much dps is gained from malediction vs what is lost from speccing out of destruction. Survival Hunters would have to do the same with expose weakness. My gut tells me they would be better off respeccing or sitting out.
This leaves Feral druids and Retribution paladins. Sadly I feel they get the short end of the stick. While it is true that both classes convey beneficial auras, it is likely that the total gained is less than the total lost. This is especially true for alliance paladins who do less dps on average than horde do because of Seal of Blood. Now possibly a feral druid could justify his position if his healing from leader of the pack did enough healing to allow the raid to run with 1 less healer, but that just doesn't seem feasible, even if the druid was in a group that eats meteor slash damage. The sad truth is that on a fight that is a dps race, it makes more sense to bring a 2400 dps rogue than it does to bring a 1400 dps druid, despite all it's utility.
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4-07-2008 @ 2:18AM
Corazu said...
I'm almost positive a survival hunter could hit the minimum, or close enough to it. Geared up at that level, raid buffed he's going to have about a 50% crit chance, and will crit for nice numbers too. EW will bring the rest of the raid's DPS to compliment/make up for whatever damage he lacks below the min..if any.
4-07-2008 @ 4:19AM
Lazaria said...
Hybrids .. hmmmm
Well while I agree with the fact that priests are now pretty much a hybrid class and a strong one for utility, I have to go back and say what happened to the healing priest? Do we all want to be Hybrids? who are these priests that rolled simply to help warlocks DPS? Did Blizzard really stick to the original purpose of the class?
Since launch of TBC a major role change for priests happened and I am not sure all priests welcome that. I did not roll a priest to be a hybrid class on the contrary I rolled one to heal (and pre TBC that was the norm for PVE atleast). I gave up on massive damage, hard armor and a strong support tree in order to focus on my class that was clearly built initially for healing with two talent trees going deep into a healing spec.
Druids Shamans and Pallies are now prefered to priests in raids for healing and with place for 8 healers on some encounters you will be lucky if you are chosen as a healing priest (Was asked to reroll shadow). Most guilds have 2 shadow priests in their raid if that and where does that leave everyone else who rolled a priest.
Pity.
I will let the druids and the shamans ( Clear hybrids) do the healing and meanwhile you can find me on my mage or rogue. hopefully I dont wake up with WOTLK and find out my rogue is now a main healer and my age is now required to tank ( you catch my drift? )
Thanks for listening
Lazaria
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4-07-2008 @ 1:03PM
Manatank said...
I don't really want to comment on how your raid does things, but priests are incredibly sought after healers. Party healing? Nobody does it better. Do your raids really avoid any priests? If they have some, then your argument holds no water. We are talking about 25-mans too right?
I find that sometimes when people are asked to respec out of either tanking or healing it is because they aren't pulling their weight rather than a bias against the capabilities of the class. The raid leader may simply not trust your healing judgment and is hoping that in an easier role like DPS you will shine.
If none of this applies to you, then you just need a new guild.
4-08-2008 @ 5:33AM
Lazaria said...
Well to answer to your comment.
My ex-guild has no healing priests 1 if any and 2 shadow usually (one of which was myself). I was always amongst the top healers (gear and performance) and I pulled more than my weight in both attendance and raid action. The guild has downed all of Hyjal and BT so obviously their tactics are working and again Healing priests they have 1 if any mostly for the buffs.
I am aware of priest capabilities in 5 man I hardly think that qualifies as raiding which is the subject of matter here. compare pre TBC priest compositions in raids ( atleast 5 - 6 of 40) to the now much lower (1 - 2 in 25) and you will get a clear picture of where the healing priest went.
Oh and by the way, I do believe your comment is out of place regarding healing priests asked to go off spec due to their performance as shadow priests require just as much skill to play as healing ones if not more.
The fact remains my priest is retired and will not go back to raiding - consider that a statement.
Regards
Lazaria
4-08-2008 @ 1:11PM
Manatank said...
Who said anything about 5-mans? It sounds like your guild asked you to respec not because healing priests aren't sought after, but because your guild needed a shadow priest more. Being able to get by without healing priests doesn't mean that it wouldn't be easier with them. That said, there ideally shouldn't be more than 2 healing priests in a raid. And why should there be? All the healing classes are fantastic at something, so it makes sense to bring a variety of healers to fill out a raid. Sorry if you think in the ideal world priest healers should be better than all other types. To put it bluntly that is just a stupid point of view. That would be a pretty boring game.
4-09-2008 @ 4:23AM
Lazaria said...
"Being able to get by without healing priests doesn't mean that it wouldn't be easier with them."
That should be equal to saying
Being able to get by without a warrior for tanking (which is obsurd). Thats exactly my point their existence in raid should be essential and irreplaceable specifically when they have two clear talent trees dedicated in their majority to healing.
In anycase I am trying my best to not reiterate what I am saying so I guess we will have to agree to disagree.
And hopefully one day Blizzard can satisfy all tastes when it comes to priests. One day .. in a parallel universe where the oceans are made of mammal sauce and the cake is not a lie.
Lazaria
4-07-2008 @ 7:29AM
Neg said...
I'd say you're exaggerating quite a lot, and leaving several factors out of your comparison.
A enh shaman boosts the melee dps yes, but a resto shaman can already do the WF/SoE totem, so an enh adds improved WF, unleashed rage.
The use of elemental shaman is quite debatable, depends more on how many resto shamans you bring then how good the elemental is, as it's not such a big improvement over a resto shaman in buffs.
Oomkin buffs with his aura, but I doubt if that is enough hidden damage to make up for his lowered dps, someone would need to do some theocrafting on that.
Ret pally is good if you don't bring 3 holly pallies, if you do, I wouldn't bring him as 4th paladin.
So the amount of buffs the hybrids add depend a lot on how many of their man specs you bring, if you bring a lot of droods/priests to heal, the offspec shaman/pally will be worth it, if you mainly use pallies/shamans to heal, the offspecs aren't that hot.
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4-07-2008 @ 1:08PM
Manatank said...
You mention unleashed rage like it is no big deal. 10% damage increase to up to 4 other melee in your party is kind of a huge deal. Not to say it justifies the bringing an enhancement shaman, but it is way more of a buff than a resto shaman could provide to the same group.
4-07-2008 @ 3:19PM
Gessilea said...
There has, in fact, been a great deal of theory crafting done in regards to the raiding viability of balance druids. Did you actually make any effort to find this research? As your comment seems to assume that the only buff a moonkin brings is their aura, I would assume that you did not, in fact, attempt to find any of this research before posting.
4-07-2008 @ 9:38AM
Angus said...
Lots of insightful comments.
Lots of misguided ones too.
Resto shaman in the tank or dps group is a horrible waste.
Sorry, that shaman would be 4 times as effective in a Caster or Healer group. WF and Strength of earth totem for melee vs Wrath of air for casters and healers along with mana spring. Sorry, but the 61.5 MP/5 and 102 SD wins out. Especially since he's using it too.
At the same time, that Resto shaman is not as good as an elemental shaman in the caster group. Of he has Totem of Wrath it will greatly improve his group.
Feral Druids have a lower DPS output than Rogues. Not bringing a 2400 DPS rogue for a single 1400DPS druid is a major mistake. That Druid is a godsend if they are good, and they likely are at that level.
Can the 2400 DPS rez the other 2400 DPS rogue if something goes wrong and he drops? Can that rogue shift and tank a mob for a short duration in an effort to keep the mob of a healer and survive long enough to keep a bad situation from getting worse? Can that rogue pop suddenly drop an innervate on a priest or tree, throw a couple of quick heals on a them some people and then drop back into attack mode which heals the group and increases that rogue from 2200 to 2400DPS?
Put a feral druid in with that Enhance Shaman and everybody gets better. Unleashed Rage, Flurry, and RED all benefit from that aura as more crits make them work more often. The healing helps out the melee healers as it adds up over the longer fights to a significant amount. Faerie fire is helping the raid out as well.
Heck, 2-3 Paladin healers means a Ret Paladin is huge. The healers judge wisdom and light on the boss and the paladin drops improved crusader. The ret paladin then keeps the boss judged. Druid healing aura, plus light in that melee group and suddenly you can drop a healer as long as your healers are extremely good. The melee healer will not need a back up.
Looking at their DPS is always a bad idea. You don't just get DPS. That's the point of the article. When you bring someone that is a hybrid, you bring someone filling in gaps and making the strengths of the raid incredible.
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