Cataclysm: Comparing Multi-Class Melee With DK + 4 rets

[Boylston]

A couple thoughts... Pulling rets out is more than just adding other classes' buffs, and a lot of people overlook that. The multi Art of War procs, multi auras, DS/DS rotations, perfect synchronization of ability usage/damage timing, etc-- all these have an impact.

I think the perfect mixed class comp (something like DK, Ret, Enh, Arms) works best when paired with a dedicated healer in arena... You get the best of all the buff/debuff synergy AND you no longer have to worry about providing your own heals.

Again, for all these discussions, it is "too soon to tell". Cataclysm PvP dynamics may dictate that we NEED more DPS/debuffs in order to get people down fast, or DPS may not be an issue and we'll choose to roll with more defensive makeup. WotLK was a huge change when everyone seemed to get AoE abilities AND they were all reasonably potent. Same thing could happen again in reverse--- changes that made AoE less of a real problem and more of an annoyance might diminish the need to have strong group heals.

DK's healing negating power might stack and we'll all swap over to that I-Win combo. You never know...

[Shodokan]

A couple thoughts... Pulling rets out is more than just adding other classes' buffs, and a lot of people overlook that. The multi Art of War procs, multi auras, DS/DS rotations, perfect synchronization of ability usage/damage timing, etc-- all these have an impact.

I think the perfect mixed class comp (something like DK, Ret, Enh, Arms) works best when paired with a dedicated healer in arena... You get the best of all the buff/debuff synergy AND you no longer have to worry about providing your own heals.

Again, for all these discussions, it is "too soon to tell". Cataclysm PvP dynamics may dictate that we NEED more DPS/debuffs in order to get people down fast, or DPS may not be an issue and we'll choose to roll with more defensive makeup. WotLK was a huge change when everyone seemed to get AoE abilities AND they were all reasonably potent. Same thing could happen again in reverse--- changes that made AoE less of a real problem and more of an annoyance might diminish the need to have strong group heals.

DK's healing negating power might stack and we'll all swap over to that I-Win combo. You never know...

That "i win" combo is a single gimmick. Overall a team with a SINGLE gimmick won't do very well. But i assume it could be fun to hit someone and be like "you die 2 second later." I don't think there is much synergy between 4 dks.

[Boylston]

That "i win" combo is a single gimmick. Overall a team with a SINGLE gimmick won't do very well. But i assume it could be fun to hit someone and be like "you die 2 second later." I don't think there is much synergy between 4 dks.

Depends on the magnitude of the gimmick. Obviously, the devs have stated the DK talent trees will be completely overhauled and tanking separated out to the blood tree. It's the hardest class to theorycraft at this point, in my opinion.

I will guess that the DK's nifty anti-heal ability will do a fairly large amount of "damage" if you consider the sum of real+anti-heal as "damage". If it did stack, one could imagine it being a very potent combo. In today's values, imagine if you could use an ability across multiple characters to negate 20-30,000 points of heals. Would that "gimmick" be significant reason to run an all DK comp.... Might be! (Probably would make Healer+4xDK pretty uber in arenas...)



Fundamentally, I agree with you. Any time there's new abilities or gameplay mechanics that go in, I think there's a chance that it turns our best comps list upside down.

No one ever thought melee boxing was possible, and 4-5xHunters was a pretty popular comp that myself, Ellay, Vyndreamy, and others explored at the end of BC...