Don't worry, I'm not really - but there does seem to be a large number of posts these days where this exact statement is used.
It seems every man and his dog is departing WoW for pastures new these days, and certainly a cursory glance through my favourite blogs of yesteryear would concur - so many authors having left or stopped writing would clearly indicate that, for them, the game just doesn't inspire them as much anymore. For the most part with the "I quit" posts, there is a general level of commonality that extends beyond the main two groups of people; those who are content that their time has come to an end and express thanks to Blizzard for the effort, and those who blame Blizzard entirely for their loss of enjoyment and endeavour to make that fact abundantly clear.
One thing they almost all have in common, however, is their opening sentence (beyond the title, of course):
"I've been playing since vanilla...[insert post here]."
For me, this is where it all lies. I don't think it's to do with easy gameplay, I don't think it's to do with truncated levelling, I don't think it's to do with walkover dungeons, I don't think it's to do with social corrosion, I don't think it's to do with LFD, I don't think it's to do with cross-server battlegrounds, I don't think it's to do with easy loot, I don't think it's to do with prescriptive questing, I don't think it's to do with grinding/farming. Hell, I don't even think it's to do with unforgivably daft developers who "hate my class omg".
I think it's to do with the fact that everything has a shelf life. For many, that threshold has either passed or is fast approaching, and the current Blizzard outlook doesn't meet with their own. Forgive this xenophobic slur, but it wouldn't be entirely disingenuous to liken the player relationship with Blizzard to the British political situation of the noughties - people just made the best of a bad job (the Labour party) because there was no decent alternative.
Except now, in both examples, there is.
I should state here and now that I still enjoy WoW and will be playing for the indefinite future. I maintain the opinion that it's the best game of its kind, it gives me almost everything I want from an MMO and logging on is no chore. However, I also can't deny the very obvious realization that I just don't feel the way I used to about WoW. I had that feeling of magic during The Burning Crusade and most of Wrath of the Lich King, where everything I did in PvE was just good fun. I hadn't become bored with grinding, I loved doing challenging instances, I didn't know or play my class all that well and there was just so much that I didn't know.
Maybe what players "know" is the real culprit. The more you know, the less you have to discover and players with little to nothing to discover are not going to enjoy things as much as they did. Each new expansion brings more quests (I know how to do them), more levels (I know how to do them), more talent specializations (I know how to do them) more reputation grinds (I know how to do them) more instances (I know how to do them), more battlegrounds (I know how to do them), more arenas (I know how to do them) and more raids (I know how to do them). The sad truth is that Cataclysm hasn't brought anything new to players who've been with WoW for a long time. It's merely the Emperor's New Clothes and, in truth, that's all an expansion really can be until Blizzard come up with something totally new, fresh and different. The problem is that mucking with an inherently successful formula for MMO game design is fraught with needless danger.
Look at what Cataclysm has made WoW into. Dull and repetitive grinding is pretty much gone, the ludicrous search for your next quest hub has disappeared, access to dungeons is unprecedented, gearing up for harder content is much more convenient, travelling time is substantially reduced and talent selection is far more streamlined. It's also created casual PvP in the form of normal battlegrounds, with the competitive edge catered for in the arena and rated battlegrounds. Added to that there is end-game PvE content that caters for those willing to work at it, while also having a difficulty commensurate with the best players in the world. I know that many view some of the above as inherently negative, but it wouldn't be a stretch to suggest that Cataclysm is Blizzard's best designed iteration of WoW to date if you're looking from the ground up. If you're a new or intermediate player, you're likely having an absolute ball while those more advanced in "WoW years" are feeling a little jaded. The only way us older statespeople can really appreciate how good WoW is these days is to view it from the lens of the beginner; and therein lies the issue.
The only way to do that is with a time machine.
Even if we deleted all our characters and started again, we still know how to group quests up and execute a good rotation. There are now more WoW veterans than ever before purely by virtue of the game's age, many of which utterly lacking in patience for those who are new to the game or simply not that good at it. Perhaps the magic of The Burning Crusade came from the larger percentage of intermediate players at the same standard as you both in skill and gear, married with a better server community. It's almost impossible for me to properly articulate what it is, because I now know what I know and cannot comment on what I don't know, when I do know it.
This is not a call for the end of WoW, nor a sandwich-board march about its death throes. WoW has more to offer new and intermediate players now than it ever has before, and by a distance. What I AM trying to say is that the time will come when you've gotten everything you can from a game and it's only ever going to be more of the same. We shouldn't suggest that the game has suddenly become awfully bad, more try and appreciate that you've done what you can with the product as it is. If Blizzard can come up with something totally new that utterly revamps our outlook of the game, then more power to them; perhaps it'll be something they implement for Titan.
But while every man and his dog seemingly heads for the door, I just wanted to get in and say something while I still love playing the game and appreciate what's great about it:
You've done a great job, Blizzard - thank you for the time you've invested, the time I've spent and the times I'll never forget.
P.S - Why do you hate warriors? Buff them omg.
Running wild through Azeroth from the perspective of a Protection warrior.
Search the Ramblings
Monday, March 28, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The 4.0 Protection review.
With 4.1 now not too far away, and with my having completed all of the normal tier 11 content, it's time for a resume of the Cataclysm Protection warrior in PvE. As always, this is merely my opinion and could well see resounding disagreement across the board; if that's the case, then Blizzard have succeeded in their plan by default and the player base is making decisions based on group composition and personal preference. That said, though, here's how I see it.
Executive Summary
The Cataclysm Protection warrior, in the main, has been a resounding success. His performance has been on par with the other tanks, the talent tree is full of compelling choices and the gameplay itself remains fun and engaging. If Blizzard want a good working model with which to design other specs, the Protection warrior would be a damn fine place to start.
Pros:
- Significant mobility advantage, both from and to a target area/enemy.
- The most wide ranging utility that can alter raid encounter plans.
- Particularly adept in any role given the right selection of talents.
- A solid and streamlined proc-based priority system, vice rotation.
- Strong personal cooldowns for both mitigation and emergency use.
- A working, normalised resource with ways to fill any gaps in it.
- Capable of providing four major simultaneous debuffs to a target.
Cons:
- Certain talents remain overly situational, or of severely limited value.
- No realistic use for a post level 80 ability (Colossus Smash).
- A significant reduction in damage when not conventionally tanking.
- The functionality of Heroic Leap (extant for all three specs).
- The class is still considered the most fragile of the tanking classes.
I have deliberately left out certain class-related ability comparisons (such as Divine Guardian) because they're not necessarily relevant, and I've not included marginal strengths or weaknesses (such as resistance to magical damage) as they have no significant impact. I've also left out any discussion relating to the devaluation of statistics such as hit/expertise rating or haste, as they are common to all four tanking classes and need no repetition.
Strengths of the Protection warrior
Nothing and nobody gets somewhere faster than a Protection warrior. Without doubt, Warbringer is up there with Lightwell and Divine Guardian as one of the best single-point investments in the game. Making intelligent use of Charge, Intercept and Intervene (which even breaks roots and snares) literally shocks people with how quickly a warrior gets around. When you add in the x-factor of Heroic Leap, we're looking at a veritable flea circus for a single talent point.
"Utility" is often considered a dirty word with warriors, but those wondering where tank utility lies need to look at the talent trees again. Piercing Howl mixed with Blood and Thunder makes you into one of the most capable kiters available, while still being able to tank effectively. Does your raid need a single-target damage reduction cooldown that is available often? Look no further than Safeguard. Perhaps your healers are literally running on empty at the end of an encounter and need all the help you can give them - say hello to Impending Victory. And while everyone swoons as Lord Fancypants absorbs failings with his raid-wall, you get to hit him with Vigilance and keep Nefarian's adds under more regimented control than the North Korean military. Add that to a selection of stuns, interrupts and Spell Reflect, and you come up with the most versatile tanking class by a distance.
The decision to make DPS classes much more proc-reliant was a good one; not only are set rotations boring, they can be overly punitive depending on spec and the complication of constructing said rotation. However, if you're one of those who plays a Fury warrior, Retribution paladin or Fire mage, then you'll potentially be less enthusiastic about your RNG world and can easily relate to the sheer frustration of simply having nothing to press. The proc-based priority system of the Protection warrior was, and still is, the benchmark of how this should be applied. That's because the basic principles are in line:
a) There are not too many procs to handle - namely, two (and Revenge isn't really a proc).
b) The normal cooldown of Shield Slam is short enough to be part of a conventional "rotation".
c) The relative priority of Shield Slam is high enough for it to be valuable, regardless of proc.
d) There are several other options when no proc is available, but ALWAYS a filler (Devastate).
If we compare Sword and Board to, say, Hot Streak, then we see why one is better than the other - the warrior is always looking for Shield Slam and the cooldown on it is short irrespective of the proc. The mage won't cast Pyroblast without his proc, and it's notoriously unreliable. In the case of the Fury warrior, having no filler can really ruin the fun of an encounter if you're unlucky and our chum the Retribution paladin sits somewhere in the middle with Crusader Strike only half of the solution.
Cooldowns are an important part of encounter design, and warriors are certainly not lacking in this regard. Shield Wall is as good a damage reduction cooldown as there is, and Last Stand is surprisingly easy to activate and surprisingly common in saving your life. Our mitigation toolkit is also pretty handy; Shield Block assists with both damage reduction and threat, while Enraged Regeneration is far more valuable in a world where being burst down in two blows isn't going to happen. Teaming it up with Last Stand or Battlemaster trinkets make it even better. Finally, don't forget your racials - though not class specific, the dwarven damage reduction, draenei self-heal and orcish stun resistance all form part of your ability to survive and shouldn't be underestimated.
Resource management is an interesting topic that sees a lot of coverage, and I confess to being terrified of what they were going to do to rage in Cataclysm. I'm happy to report, however, that my fears were in vain; they pretty much got it right. At no stage should the warrior be out of rage if he's using it intelligently and not hitting Heroic Strike/Cleave at an inopportune time. Yes, there are dry times - but the use of shouts as well as Berserker Rage limit these occurrences significantly. Personally, I find this infinitely better than the management of mana, runes or runic power. Of course, though, this is personal preference.
The debuffing of a target is a vital part of ensuring both damage dealt and damage received is as effective as possible. While other classes can apply the sundered armour effect, warriors manage it as part of their normal rotation and can maintain it easily without undue detriment to their performance otherwise. Reducing physical damage done with Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap is another cornerstone of warrior tanking and, in fact, a vital part of your mitigation set up beyond enchanting your shield. Again, other classes can apply these debuffs - but the Protection warrior is perfectly placed to both initiate and sustain them with minimal effort. Oh, and I did say four major debuffs - the amount of people who forget about Shattering Throw never ceases to amaze me. Pop Shield Block when Bloodlust lands, switch stance, and apply this awesome debuff that your physical DPS classes will love you for.
Weaknesses of the Protection warrior
Despite the success of the talent tree choices for a warrior, some of the options are frankly lacklustre. To this point, it's difficult to find a place for Gag Order and that's going to be even harder come 4.1. I do understand the need to reduce beta levels of self-healing for PvP purposes, but Blood Craze is abnormally weak for the hefty investment of three talent points. Moving up the Protection tree, Impending Victory (which I like) sees limited use because of its... Limited use. Latterly we come to the infamous Safeguard which is still awesome, but still so uncommonly of any real value.
The main problem with levels 81, 83 and 85 are that the abilities you get are of severely limited use. Colossus Smash you can forget about entirely pretty much, while Inner Rage is simply unnecessary; the rage normalisation exercise worked just fine. In fact, the changes to Inner Rage mark a return to the button spamming the developers expressly stated they wanted to move away from; clearly, the ability is redundant and Blizzard don't want to simply remove it. Lastly, Heroic Leap is a mess - the fear of it being exploited has seen it hamstrung to the point of near uselessness. What's more frustrating is the insistence on "where and when" data when the problem isn't to do with environment coding; it's to do with the ability coding. If the next set of hotfixes were to remove all three of these abilities, most Protection warriors wouldn't even notice - that's a pretty damning indictment of these abilities.
Warrior DPS plummeting when not actually tanking has been a truism since The Burning Crusade. This was most notable in Northrend when our DPS was savagely poor in comparison with the other tanking classes, but we've at least seen something of a step in the right direction since 4.0. The Vengeance contribution from Vigilance as well as the extra rage from Sentinel mean we can hit a bit harder, a bit more often. The problem is that neither go far enough; the attack power buff from Vigilance is tragically weak, and the rage contribution from Sentinel is still too small to get away from Devastate spamming.
A lot of work was done by number-crunchers and theory-crafters to establish tank durability, but warriors still seem to be the most fragile of the four in a raiding environment. Unfortunately, being a shield tank frequently causes paladin comparison and warriors are comfortably behind them in terms of survivability. The way Shield Block works makes it more of a physical, short duration cooldown - as good as it is, it leads to spikier damage because warriors are still blocking less often than the paladin. Because our routine self healing is also non existent compared to the paladin, we can't smooth out the unlucky streaks where four or five blows land in a row. Lastly, the paladin set of cooldowns is significantly better than any other tanking class, so emergencies are also less catered for. All told, warriors still appear to take spikier damage and still seem to require the most healer attention.
Recommendations
There is not a lot of work to be done on Protection warriors - there really isn't. There are only a few shortfalls where some attention would make the spec almost entirely fit for purpose and, being blatantly honest, Protection is probably one of the top three specs in the game right now from a design perspective. That said, here is what I think would address some of the shortfalls (I'm not going to cover the problems with Heroic Leap, Colossus Smash and Inner Rage - frankly, I'm not sure how to make a compelling argument for replacing any of them).
I'd give Heroic Throw a base refresh of 30 seconds and replace Gag Order entirely with a new talent that buffs Blood Craze for tanks. Two talent points for a 7%/15% buff to Blood Craze would be worthwhile. Yes, DPS warriors could pick it up if they wanted it - but they'd have to give up significantly more impressive talents to do so. Impending Victory could also see a function change where the percentage to proc is significantly lower, but is in effect for the entire duration of a fight. Give it a 5% chance to proc from Devastate and it can eloquently fill the gap where warriors are struck several times in a row. Lastly with regard to talents, I'd also look at merging Vigilance and Safeguard, but appreciate that could be too powerful for a single talent point. Perhaps an investment of two points for all the benefits of Safeguard, while Vigilance provides 50%/100% chance to refresh Taunt and 10%/20% Vengeance from the person taking damage.
On the subject of warrior DPS hitting the skids while not tanking, there are two main reasons for this - the first is the scarcity of rage and the second is that Revenge, pretty much our best DPR attack, becomes entirely unavailable. Generally, I think Sentinel is in a good place; any more would be flooding and given good streaks of RNG, many a Shield Slam can be fitted in. What I would like to see, however, is a way for Revenge to be used outside of dodges, blocks or parries - and I'm a big fan of the Taste For Blood model. The new talent I suggested to buff Blood Craze could be married to a functionality, very similar to Taste For Blood, that allows Revenge to be used on a bleeding target. Not only would this get Revenge working again, it would see better value for rage on our off-tanking attacks that would also allow Heroic Strike to see more liberal use. In all honesty, if this worked well then the AP contribution of Vigilance (small as it is) could be removed entirely.
Summary
Yep. That's it. Essentially, all of my observations can be synthesised into two paragraphs (one for survival, one for damage) that would solve pretty much every single problem Protection warriors have; that's how close to perfection the spec really is. It's very easy to grossly inflate problems while baking them into fundamental errors that are horrendously hampering your favourite spec. The change to Shield Block that is being touted is one such example; sure, warriors don't have much resistance to magical damage and this is considered a horrendous oversight - but it simply isn't that important with the content designed as it is. This is the difference between a theoretical problem and a practical one. In this review, I've simply tried to stick to practical problems that are coming up in the content as it is and are likely to remain extant in the future.
Thanks to all for reading and, please, feel free to dispute anything I've written. There is more than a big chance that I've viewed something differently to others and a lucid conversation is the only way to break those points out.
Enjoy.
Executive Summary
The Cataclysm Protection warrior, in the main, has been a resounding success. His performance has been on par with the other tanks, the talent tree is full of compelling choices and the gameplay itself remains fun and engaging. If Blizzard want a good working model with which to design other specs, the Protection warrior would be a damn fine place to start.
Pros:
- Significant mobility advantage, both from and to a target area/enemy.
- The most wide ranging utility that can alter raid encounter plans.
- Particularly adept in any role given the right selection of talents.
- A solid and streamlined proc-based priority system, vice rotation.
- Strong personal cooldowns for both mitigation and emergency use.
- A working, normalised resource with ways to fill any gaps in it.
- Capable of providing four major simultaneous debuffs to a target.
Cons:
- Certain talents remain overly situational, or of severely limited value.
- No realistic use for a post level 80 ability (Colossus Smash).
- A significant reduction in damage when not conventionally tanking.
- The functionality of Heroic Leap (extant for all three specs).
- The class is still considered the most fragile of the tanking classes.
I have deliberately left out certain class-related ability comparisons (such as Divine Guardian) because they're not necessarily relevant, and I've not included marginal strengths or weaknesses (such as resistance to magical damage) as they have no significant impact. I've also left out any discussion relating to the devaluation of statistics such as hit/expertise rating or haste, as they are common to all four tanking classes and need no repetition.
Strengths of the Protection warrior
Nothing and nobody gets somewhere faster than a Protection warrior. Without doubt, Warbringer is up there with Lightwell and Divine Guardian as one of the best single-point investments in the game. Making intelligent use of Charge, Intercept and Intervene (which even breaks roots and snares) literally shocks people with how quickly a warrior gets around. When you add in the x-factor of Heroic Leap, we're looking at a veritable flea circus for a single talent point.
"Utility" is often considered a dirty word with warriors, but those wondering where tank utility lies need to look at the talent trees again. Piercing Howl mixed with Blood and Thunder makes you into one of the most capable kiters available, while still being able to tank effectively. Does your raid need a single-target damage reduction cooldown that is available often? Look no further than Safeguard. Perhaps your healers are literally running on empty at the end of an encounter and need all the help you can give them - say hello to Impending Victory. And while everyone swoons as Lord Fancypants absorbs failings with his raid-wall, you get to hit him with Vigilance and keep Nefarian's adds under more regimented control than the North Korean military. Add that to a selection of stuns, interrupts and Spell Reflect, and you come up with the most versatile tanking class by a distance.
The decision to make DPS classes much more proc-reliant was a good one; not only are set rotations boring, they can be overly punitive depending on spec and the complication of constructing said rotation. However, if you're one of those who plays a Fury warrior, Retribution paladin or Fire mage, then you'll potentially be less enthusiastic about your RNG world and can easily relate to the sheer frustration of simply having nothing to press. The proc-based priority system of the Protection warrior was, and still is, the benchmark of how this should be applied. That's because the basic principles are in line:
a) There are not too many procs to handle - namely, two (and Revenge isn't really a proc).
b) The normal cooldown of Shield Slam is short enough to be part of a conventional "rotation".
c) The relative priority of Shield Slam is high enough for it to be valuable, regardless of proc.
d) There are several other options when no proc is available, but ALWAYS a filler (Devastate).
If we compare Sword and Board to, say, Hot Streak, then we see why one is better than the other - the warrior is always looking for Shield Slam and the cooldown on it is short irrespective of the proc. The mage won't cast Pyroblast without his proc, and it's notoriously unreliable. In the case of the Fury warrior, having no filler can really ruin the fun of an encounter if you're unlucky and our chum the Retribution paladin sits somewhere in the middle with Crusader Strike only half of the solution.
Cooldowns are an important part of encounter design, and warriors are certainly not lacking in this regard. Shield Wall is as good a damage reduction cooldown as there is, and Last Stand is surprisingly easy to activate and surprisingly common in saving your life. Our mitigation toolkit is also pretty handy; Shield Block assists with both damage reduction and threat, while Enraged Regeneration is far more valuable in a world where being burst down in two blows isn't going to happen. Teaming it up with Last Stand or Battlemaster trinkets make it even better. Finally, don't forget your racials - though not class specific, the dwarven damage reduction, draenei self-heal and orcish stun resistance all form part of your ability to survive and shouldn't be underestimated.
Resource management is an interesting topic that sees a lot of coverage, and I confess to being terrified of what they were going to do to rage in Cataclysm. I'm happy to report, however, that my fears were in vain; they pretty much got it right. At no stage should the warrior be out of rage if he's using it intelligently and not hitting Heroic Strike/Cleave at an inopportune time. Yes, there are dry times - but the use of shouts as well as Berserker Rage limit these occurrences significantly. Personally, I find this infinitely better than the management of mana, runes or runic power. Of course, though, this is personal preference.
The debuffing of a target is a vital part of ensuring both damage dealt and damage received is as effective as possible. While other classes can apply the sundered armour effect, warriors manage it as part of their normal rotation and can maintain it easily without undue detriment to their performance otherwise. Reducing physical damage done with Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap is another cornerstone of warrior tanking and, in fact, a vital part of your mitigation set up beyond enchanting your shield. Again, other classes can apply these debuffs - but the Protection warrior is perfectly placed to both initiate and sustain them with minimal effort. Oh, and I did say four major debuffs - the amount of people who forget about Shattering Throw never ceases to amaze me. Pop Shield Block when Bloodlust lands, switch stance, and apply this awesome debuff that your physical DPS classes will love you for.
Weaknesses of the Protection warrior
Despite the success of the talent tree choices for a warrior, some of the options are frankly lacklustre. To this point, it's difficult to find a place for Gag Order and that's going to be even harder come 4.1. I do understand the need to reduce beta levels of self-healing for PvP purposes, but Blood Craze is abnormally weak for the hefty investment of three talent points. Moving up the Protection tree, Impending Victory (which I like) sees limited use because of its... Limited use. Latterly we come to the infamous Safeguard which is still awesome, but still so uncommonly of any real value.
The main problem with levels 81, 83 and 85 are that the abilities you get are of severely limited use. Colossus Smash you can forget about entirely pretty much, while Inner Rage is simply unnecessary; the rage normalisation exercise worked just fine. In fact, the changes to Inner Rage mark a return to the button spamming the developers expressly stated they wanted to move away from; clearly, the ability is redundant and Blizzard don't want to simply remove it. Lastly, Heroic Leap is a mess - the fear of it being exploited has seen it hamstrung to the point of near uselessness. What's more frustrating is the insistence on "where and when" data when the problem isn't to do with environment coding; it's to do with the ability coding. If the next set of hotfixes were to remove all three of these abilities, most Protection warriors wouldn't even notice - that's a pretty damning indictment of these abilities.
Warrior DPS plummeting when not actually tanking has been a truism since The Burning Crusade. This was most notable in Northrend when our DPS was savagely poor in comparison with the other tanking classes, but we've at least seen something of a step in the right direction since 4.0. The Vengeance contribution from Vigilance as well as the extra rage from Sentinel mean we can hit a bit harder, a bit more often. The problem is that neither go far enough; the attack power buff from Vigilance is tragically weak, and the rage contribution from Sentinel is still too small to get away from Devastate spamming.
A lot of work was done by number-crunchers and theory-crafters to establish tank durability, but warriors still seem to be the most fragile of the four in a raiding environment. Unfortunately, being a shield tank frequently causes paladin comparison and warriors are comfortably behind them in terms of survivability. The way Shield Block works makes it more of a physical, short duration cooldown - as good as it is, it leads to spikier damage because warriors are still blocking less often than the paladin. Because our routine self healing is also non existent compared to the paladin, we can't smooth out the unlucky streaks where four or five blows land in a row. Lastly, the paladin set of cooldowns is significantly better than any other tanking class, so emergencies are also less catered for. All told, warriors still appear to take spikier damage and still seem to require the most healer attention.
Recommendations
There is not a lot of work to be done on Protection warriors - there really isn't. There are only a few shortfalls where some attention would make the spec almost entirely fit for purpose and, being blatantly honest, Protection is probably one of the top three specs in the game right now from a design perspective. That said, here is what I think would address some of the shortfalls (I'm not going to cover the problems with Heroic Leap, Colossus Smash and Inner Rage - frankly, I'm not sure how to make a compelling argument for replacing any of them).
I'd give Heroic Throw a base refresh of 30 seconds and replace Gag Order entirely with a new talent that buffs Blood Craze for tanks. Two talent points for a 7%/15% buff to Blood Craze would be worthwhile. Yes, DPS warriors could pick it up if they wanted it - but they'd have to give up significantly more impressive talents to do so. Impending Victory could also see a function change where the percentage to proc is significantly lower, but is in effect for the entire duration of a fight. Give it a 5% chance to proc from Devastate and it can eloquently fill the gap where warriors are struck several times in a row. Lastly with regard to talents, I'd also look at merging Vigilance and Safeguard, but appreciate that could be too powerful for a single talent point. Perhaps an investment of two points for all the benefits of Safeguard, while Vigilance provides 50%/100% chance to refresh Taunt and 10%/20% Vengeance from the person taking damage.
On the subject of warrior DPS hitting the skids while not tanking, there are two main reasons for this - the first is the scarcity of rage and the second is that Revenge, pretty much our best DPR attack, becomes entirely unavailable. Generally, I think Sentinel is in a good place; any more would be flooding and given good streaks of RNG, many a Shield Slam can be fitted in. What I would like to see, however, is a way for Revenge to be used outside of dodges, blocks or parries - and I'm a big fan of the Taste For Blood model. The new talent I suggested to buff Blood Craze could be married to a functionality, very similar to Taste For Blood, that allows Revenge to be used on a bleeding target. Not only would this get Revenge working again, it would see better value for rage on our off-tanking attacks that would also allow Heroic Strike to see more liberal use. In all honesty, if this worked well then the AP contribution of Vigilance (small as it is) could be removed entirely.
Summary
Yep. That's it. Essentially, all of my observations can be synthesised into two paragraphs (one for survival, one for damage) that would solve pretty much every single problem Protection warriors have; that's how close to perfection the spec really is. It's very easy to grossly inflate problems while baking them into fundamental errors that are horrendously hampering your favourite spec. The change to Shield Block that is being touted is one such example; sure, warriors don't have much resistance to magical damage and this is considered a horrendous oversight - but it simply isn't that important with the content designed as it is. This is the difference between a theoretical problem and a practical one. In this review, I've simply tried to stick to practical problems that are coming up in the content as it is and are likely to remain extant in the future.
Thanks to all for reading and, please, feel free to dispute anything I've written. There is more than a big chance that I've viewed something differently to others and a lucid conversation is the only way to break those points out.
Enjoy.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
A potentially touchy subject.
Before I get onto today's topic, I thought I'd give a bit of an update on how it's going in my new guild... And it's going well! I'm fitting into the raid group nicely, enjoying the social interaction - though slightly less than I'm used to - and generally having a blast while online. My trial is essentially complete and the GM/RL is very happy with how I've been performing, so that's really positive (though, I reckon I could be doing better). He's also pleased with how I've generally fitted into the guild and we both hope for more to come.
Now, onto the actual topic - and I start with a warning.
What I'm going to write about is relatively sensitive and some people will perhaps not appreciate my bringing it up. That's why it's sat on my hard drive for the better part of five months, as it's a difficult thing to introduce meaningfully while giving the subject its due deference. Not bringing it up, though, would be doing a disservice to those who confided in me during my time as GM of the Eye of Nerzhul and I really feel it's something I'd hope to have a worthwhile discussion about. So, without further ado:
I'm going to write about psychological disorders, specifically those on the autism spectrum.
Don't worry, I heard the resounding "WTF?!"
Allow me to explain why I'm talking about this subject. Essentially, disorders on the autism spectrum are characterized by symptoms that effect the ability of sufferers to interact socially or communicate effectively; the other most obvious symptoms are the adherence to repetitive behaviour and poor linguistic or cognitive development. Now, please accept my sincerest apologies for any misunderstanding or misrepresentation because I'm not a qualified expert on this subject at all. But the key point for me, in the World of Warcraft context, is the aspects of communication and social interaction, and why this could make online games a welcome respite from awkward situations in the real world.
And while that last point is purely speculative, the number of guild members who informed me that they were indeed sufferers would possibly mete it out.
As responsible players, community leaders and people, it's worth understanding what may be going on with your guild mates when they try to honestly relate a problem to you.
When seeking an escape from social difficulty, it's no help at all to be faced with online ostracism for something you can't do anything about. Of course, you should never single anyone out due to a condition they may or may not have, but trying to understand necessary limitations on a player (limitations they possibly cannot overcome) will assist you in making a better environment for your guild mates, your realm mates and for the game itself.
Now, I have to start by asking everyone who's got this far to do the first thing I had to do when approaching the subject; forget the movie Rain Man starring Dustin Hoffman as the autistic Raymond. While this form of autism obviously exists, it is extremely rare and you're unlikely to come across a person of this type while playing. What you will undoubtedly come across, however, are those who have very mild forms of autism with the accompanying symptoms mentioned earlier, as well as specific disorders on the scale such as Asperger syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Tourette syndrome. All of these have psychological implications that will potentially pull people to online gaming to escape social stigma, but also make them perform in certain ways while playing. And, yes - I have a clear example.
One of my core raiders back in the Eye of Nerzhul was a Retribution paladin who suffers from Asperger syndrome. Asperger has the same general symptoms as other autism spectrum disorders, but doesn't have the stunting to cognitive or lingual development. What it does cause, however, is very intense and restrictive concentration on specific tasks. With the launch of Cataclysm, this player deigned that his main class and spec was going to focus on melee DPS; the prime candidate for the interrupting that tier 11 seems to love so much. During our fights with Halfus and the Omnotron Defence Council, I was naturally asking him to get stuck in and interrupt the nasty things that were going to hit the raid.
He was awful.
Not only was he missing his interrupt a large percentage of the time, his DPS was very poor in these encounters. This issue cascaded into the obligatory criticism which made him feel even worse, as his confidence got shot to bits after originally being so happy at getting his chance to do some progression raiding. As you can imagine, I shortly had a very unhappy raider on my hands. But what was actually going on?
Males are notoriously incapable of multi-tasking at the best of times, let's face it; far be it from me to argue with sex-specific genetic disposition. In this case, however, I also had a player who can only really concentrate intensely on one thing and it's extremely difficult to snap his attention away. By requesting him to focus on two things instead of one, I was severely hampering his ability to do either. As he wasn't capable of doing what was required of him, I had to remove him from the raid group and get someone who could do the job.
Right?
I took the pressure off him but kept him in the raid group. I passed the interrupting responsibility to a shaman, hit-capped myself to help out with it, and just let him get on with his DPS and staying out of fire. The net loss to the raid group was negligible - the shaman in question was one of the best players in the guild anyway, and the impact to him was zero. The raid as a whole benefited greatly as the interrupting was being done, taking away the choice to slow DPS and consider self-healing more. But what of the melee DPS in question? Why was I choosing to carry a player who could do no more than lousy damage?
Because that wasn't all he could do.
As soon as his focus was set, his DPS shot up. In a tier that strongly favoured ranged DPS, he was suddenly competing and his damage was going up with every single raid. Not only did this manifest in basic numbers, he fine-tuned his rotation to the point where it was done subconsciously and allowed him to focus on other things. Healing intensive phases saw him using Word of Glory quite liberally to help out the healers. Adds all over the place saw him hitting Divine Protection to pick up anything loose while the tank got sorted. His liberal use of Lay on Hands saved several wipes and he rarely made a bad decision with it.
In short, the person in question who was being "carried" became a damn fine raider once we recognised the problem and addressed it. He enjoyed his place in the group, it made him feel much better about himself and the impact it had on his presence in the guild was also overwhelmingly positive. A point of failure became an unequivocal point of strength.
I appreciate I've gone off topic slightly and have crossed into the realms of assessing basic strengths and weaknesses. But identifying effects is always inferior to identifying the cause. And in an online world free of basic social difficulties, you may find that more players than you ever realise suffer from autism spectrum disorders that will impact on their ability to do things for you. Once you've attributed the cause, handling the effects becomes far easier and you can remove the added anxiety you've unwittingly placed on your guild mates.
I know I'm fabled for walls of text, so I suppose I should make the point clear.
When it comes to performance, psychological conditions may be the cause of negative effects - recognising them will help you to work around them.
This can only be good for your raid group, your guild and the community at large. People are not always open about personal issues, nor should they be; they perhaps play online games to escape ignorant social stigma. But trying to notice certain types of behaviour might illuminate what's going on with your players. I already mentioned Asperser syndrome and that could manifest itself with a sufferer only engaging in very streamlined and rigid in-game pursuits. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) causes repetitive action and thoughts, so that could easily see a player doing the same thing repeatedly and becoming anxious or angry when things change. I've no shame in admitting to a little of this myself - to the point when I used to count my footsteps as a young nipper to ensure I took the same number of left and right foot paces. Tourette's syndrome, though not on the autism spectrum, is something that can cause involuntary verbal "tics" that are normally expletive. Got a member who doesn't like being on ventrilo? No doubt it could be considered embarrassing for a sufferer of Tourette's to have to suffer it.
I'm going to wrap this up. At the end of the day, everyone should be aware of any number of issues, problems or concerns that the player base could have. The reason I'm bringing this up specifically is because I've had numerous discussions with guild members who suffer from these issues and the impact that it can have on them. These things obviously effect both performance in game and has an impact in real life. If we as a community can recognise these things and increase our general awareness, we can perhaps foster a better community for everyone.
Now, onto the actual topic - and I start with a warning.
What I'm going to write about is relatively sensitive and some people will perhaps not appreciate my bringing it up. That's why it's sat on my hard drive for the better part of five months, as it's a difficult thing to introduce meaningfully while giving the subject its due deference. Not bringing it up, though, would be doing a disservice to those who confided in me during my time as GM of the Eye of Nerzhul and I really feel it's something I'd hope to have a worthwhile discussion about. So, without further ado:
I'm going to write about psychological disorders, specifically those on the autism spectrum.
Don't worry, I heard the resounding "WTF?!"
Allow me to explain why I'm talking about this subject. Essentially, disorders on the autism spectrum are characterized by symptoms that effect the ability of sufferers to interact socially or communicate effectively; the other most obvious symptoms are the adherence to repetitive behaviour and poor linguistic or cognitive development. Now, please accept my sincerest apologies for any misunderstanding or misrepresentation because I'm not a qualified expert on this subject at all. But the key point for me, in the World of Warcraft context, is the aspects of communication and social interaction, and why this could make online games a welcome respite from awkward situations in the real world.
And while that last point is purely speculative, the number of guild members who informed me that they were indeed sufferers would possibly mete it out.
As responsible players, community leaders and people, it's worth understanding what may be going on with your guild mates when they try to honestly relate a problem to you.
When seeking an escape from social difficulty, it's no help at all to be faced with online ostracism for something you can't do anything about. Of course, you should never single anyone out due to a condition they may or may not have, but trying to understand necessary limitations on a player (limitations they possibly cannot overcome) will assist you in making a better environment for your guild mates, your realm mates and for the game itself.
Now, I have to start by asking everyone who's got this far to do the first thing I had to do when approaching the subject; forget the movie Rain Man starring Dustin Hoffman as the autistic Raymond. While this form of autism obviously exists, it is extremely rare and you're unlikely to come across a person of this type while playing. What you will undoubtedly come across, however, are those who have very mild forms of autism with the accompanying symptoms mentioned earlier, as well as specific disorders on the scale such as Asperger syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Tourette syndrome. All of these have psychological implications that will potentially pull people to online gaming to escape social stigma, but also make them perform in certain ways while playing. And, yes - I have a clear example.
One of my core raiders back in the Eye of Nerzhul was a Retribution paladin who suffers from Asperger syndrome. Asperger has the same general symptoms as other autism spectrum disorders, but doesn't have the stunting to cognitive or lingual development. What it does cause, however, is very intense and restrictive concentration on specific tasks. With the launch of Cataclysm, this player deigned that his main class and spec was going to focus on melee DPS; the prime candidate for the interrupting that tier 11 seems to love so much. During our fights with Halfus and the Omnotron Defence Council, I was naturally asking him to get stuck in and interrupt the nasty things that were going to hit the raid.
He was awful.
Not only was he missing his interrupt a large percentage of the time, his DPS was very poor in these encounters. This issue cascaded into the obligatory criticism which made him feel even worse, as his confidence got shot to bits after originally being so happy at getting his chance to do some progression raiding. As you can imagine, I shortly had a very unhappy raider on my hands. But what was actually going on?
Males are notoriously incapable of multi-tasking at the best of times, let's face it; far be it from me to argue with sex-specific genetic disposition. In this case, however, I also had a player who can only really concentrate intensely on one thing and it's extremely difficult to snap his attention away. By requesting him to focus on two things instead of one, I was severely hampering his ability to do either. As he wasn't capable of doing what was required of him, I had to remove him from the raid group and get someone who could do the job.
Right?
I took the pressure off him but kept him in the raid group. I passed the interrupting responsibility to a shaman, hit-capped myself to help out with it, and just let him get on with his DPS and staying out of fire. The net loss to the raid group was negligible - the shaman in question was one of the best players in the guild anyway, and the impact to him was zero. The raid as a whole benefited greatly as the interrupting was being done, taking away the choice to slow DPS and consider self-healing more. But what of the melee DPS in question? Why was I choosing to carry a player who could do no more than lousy damage?
Because that wasn't all he could do.
As soon as his focus was set, his DPS shot up. In a tier that strongly favoured ranged DPS, he was suddenly competing and his damage was going up with every single raid. Not only did this manifest in basic numbers, he fine-tuned his rotation to the point where it was done subconsciously and allowed him to focus on other things. Healing intensive phases saw him using Word of Glory quite liberally to help out the healers. Adds all over the place saw him hitting Divine Protection to pick up anything loose while the tank got sorted. His liberal use of Lay on Hands saved several wipes and he rarely made a bad decision with it.
In short, the person in question who was being "carried" became a damn fine raider once we recognised the problem and addressed it. He enjoyed his place in the group, it made him feel much better about himself and the impact it had on his presence in the guild was also overwhelmingly positive. A point of failure became an unequivocal point of strength.
I appreciate I've gone off topic slightly and have crossed into the realms of assessing basic strengths and weaknesses. But identifying effects is always inferior to identifying the cause. And in an online world free of basic social difficulties, you may find that more players than you ever realise suffer from autism spectrum disorders that will impact on their ability to do things for you. Once you've attributed the cause, handling the effects becomes far easier and you can remove the added anxiety you've unwittingly placed on your guild mates.
I know I'm fabled for walls of text, so I suppose I should make the point clear.
When it comes to performance, psychological conditions may be the cause of negative effects - recognising them will help you to work around them.
This can only be good for your raid group, your guild and the community at large. People are not always open about personal issues, nor should they be; they perhaps play online games to escape ignorant social stigma. But trying to notice certain types of behaviour might illuminate what's going on with your players. I already mentioned Asperser syndrome and that could manifest itself with a sufferer only engaging in very streamlined and rigid in-game pursuits. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) causes repetitive action and thoughts, so that could easily see a player doing the same thing repeatedly and becoming anxious or angry when things change. I've no shame in admitting to a little of this myself - to the point when I used to count my footsteps as a young nipper to ensure I took the same number of left and right foot paces. Tourette's syndrome, though not on the autism spectrum, is something that can cause involuntary verbal "tics" that are normally expletive. Got a member who doesn't like being on ventrilo? No doubt it could be considered embarrassing for a sufferer of Tourette's to have to suffer it.
I'm going to wrap this up. At the end of the day, everyone should be aware of any number of issues, problems or concerns that the player base could have. The reason I'm bringing this up specifically is because I've had numerous discussions with guild members who suffer from these issues and the impact that it can have on them. These things obviously effect both performance in game and has an impact in real life. If we as a community can recognise these things and increase our general awareness, we can perhaps foster a better community for everyone.
Friday, March 04, 2011
Threatening behaviour.
After joining my new guild and becoming the small fish in the bigger pond, I've had the chance to re-evaluate many things. I'll post an update on the guild move once my trial is over but, in the meantime, here's a topic that's been bothering me since the launch of Cataclysm.
I remember when the developers explicitly stated that threat is supposed to matter to tanks. I remember it because I disagreed then and I disagree now; allow me to explain why.
To start with, it should be borne in mind that threat wasn't a tank consideration throughout The Burning Crusade and, to a greater extent, classic WoW. That might sound backward, but it was a DPS consideration; tanks couldn't produce more than their 100% threat and the tank was much more concerned with survival than he was high levels of threat and/or damage. Top quality DPS players were the ones who could construct their damage from the ground up, without producing too much threat so that the tank couldn't hold on. The development plan since WotLK is to avoid DPS being "throttled" and having to consider things that are not obviously improving their DPS. Who remembers the trinkets that reduce threat? They're now considered "boring" because they don't directly increase DPS in the eyes of the playerbase majority. The sad fact is that these trinkets WERE a DPS increase, because you could use more powerful abilities without pulling off the tank.
I'm not going to go as far as saying this is "dumbing down", but it is an indication that the developers don't think their DPS players can properly grasp the function of a basic threat table, or at the very least don't find it "fun". The logical conclusion of this belief leads us down a slippery slope.
What strikes me as odd is the fact that healers are now being asked to develop a more strategic view of their gameplay (the right spell at the right time) with regard to finite mana pools, while damage dealers are simply looking for their best button. Like the threat example above, healer mana conservation shouldn't be the concern of the healer himself - it should be the concern of the tank and the DPS. If, therefore, we want our tanks to be more heavily considering damage mitigation, it stands to reason that they'll be less concerned with threat - less threat leads to the DPS "throttle" that the developers desperately want to avoid.
Tanks cannot stack threat while considering healer mana, and they cannot stack mitigation while considering the DPS throttle. One of the two has to give. What compounds this foggy thinking is the assertion that healers find picking the right spell at the right time fun, as opposed to just their best spell. On the other hand, damage dealers are supposed to always find their best button fun, and no situational or strategic consideration takes place because, if you pull aggro, the tank is to blame; you're not supposed to be "throttled".
In short, at its most basic level, the design intent for PvE role interaction is contradictory.
Cue the entry of Vengeance.
While the stated desire for Vengeance was for it to be a scaling solution with regard to final tier DPS/threat, what it's actually doing is solving the mitigation versus threat dilemma on the part of the tank. In raid content, you simply don't have to worry about threat generation because it's taken care of on your behalf assuming you're actually bothering to press buttons. Yes, heroic dungeons provide less Vengeance and, therefore, hit and expertise will have value - but the second you hit raid content, unless you're interrupting (as I am), your hit and expertise cease being legitimate considerations.
Let's assume that Vengeance is going to do what it says on the tin, and scale well enough for tanks to not have to worry about threat later in the content. We've permanently solved the threat versus mitigation issue, but tanks have lost three gearing considerations in the space of one expansion (hit, expertise and defence rating). Fine. What this doesn't answer is the question as to why DPS players are spared strategic considerations when healers and tanks are not. I'll rephrase the question, I suppose:
Why is it fun for DPS players to always want their best button and not fun for healers?
The whole set up is horribly lopsided.
It could be argued that DPS players have to deal with encounter mechanics, not standing in fire and crowd control. But tanks and healers are also dealing with all of these, often instead of DPS players when it comes to CC such as interrupting. In fact, with the paladin spell Rebuke becoming baseline, all tanks can interrupt and they are soon never going to miss which further devalues threat stats.
What else are DPS players worrying about? It's in the consideration of this fundamental question that we note where the imbalance lies. Ignore the facets of tactics, mechanics and crowd control because all three roles can fulfil those jobs.
The tank: Responsible for threat management (damage), positioning and damage mitigation.
The healer: Responsible for tank health, unavoidable raid damage and their mana pool.
The DPS: Responsible for dealing damage.
The tank and the healer are weighing up one thing against another and making the best choice for that moment - a strategic decision. In the case of the tank, does he need more threat or have to consider mitigation? The healer has to choose the best spell for the situation, without ploughing through his mana pool too quickly. The DPS... Waits on his best buttons lighting up.
Pointing out where this doesn't add up is one thing. Coming up with a potential solution is quite another. I'm not saying sweeping changes need to be made, I don't think the game is horribly broken. But at the moment, the entire pantheon of success is resting on the shoulders of tanks and healers because the developers are determined to make it as easy as possible on DPS players.
There are two options:
1) The use of best spell "procs" for healers, rather than micro-managing mana.
If looking for a proc is considered fun, why is this not a gameplay style adopted more liberally with healers? A good way of implementing a proc is the synergy of Sword and Board; lovely to get procs from it, but the cooldown is short enough to make it work well, anyway. My only concern would be making sure the proc wasn't so sparse as to be unavailable at time of need (Surge of Light), but the implementation of Word of Glory shows how successful this type of thing can be. And what's the class with the least mana issues?
2) The splitting of responsibility between roles.
Tanks and healers managing everything is fine, but it is engaging for the DPS themselves? We're continually told that strategic decisions and triage are "fun", so let's see more of that from our DPS players. But thinking about the same types of things as another role is tiresome, as an over performer in one role can cover for a lack of ability in the other. How about this:
Tank: Positioning and damage mitigation.
Healer: Unavoidable damage and mana.
DPS: Threat and crowd control.
Obviously the tank will still have to attack the target for baseline threat, but how about taking away the 200% threat bonus to Defensive Stance/Blood Presence/Dire Bear Form/Righteous Fury and baking in 100%? The creation of a decent threat UI wouldn't be too hard (Omen/Skada are very light) and, all of a sudden, proper decision-making is introduced to DPS players. Ensure that all DPS specs get a sustainable form of crowd control in their talent tree, as well as an interrupt (baseline for pure DPS), and this silly request for "lf dps no war/dk" goes away.
As already hinted, I don't think the game is busted - I really don't. I just find it utterly bizarre that DPS being throttled isn't fun, yet throttling healers IS fun. According to whom? Based on what? And perhaps if everyone had to show a greater level of attention, and couldn't merely be carried by team mates, raiding experiences would go up. Yes, certain specs would need things added so that they could do what they're required to do, but I also think this could be a good first step to something that's worried me for a long time:
What is the aim of each role in a raid group, and what are they there to do?
I remember when the developers explicitly stated that threat is supposed to matter to tanks. I remember it because I disagreed then and I disagree now; allow me to explain why.
To start with, it should be borne in mind that threat wasn't a tank consideration throughout The Burning Crusade and, to a greater extent, classic WoW. That might sound backward, but it was a DPS consideration; tanks couldn't produce more than their 100% threat and the tank was much more concerned with survival than he was high levels of threat and/or damage. Top quality DPS players were the ones who could construct their damage from the ground up, without producing too much threat so that the tank couldn't hold on. The development plan since WotLK is to avoid DPS being "throttled" and having to consider things that are not obviously improving their DPS. Who remembers the trinkets that reduce threat? They're now considered "boring" because they don't directly increase DPS in the eyes of the playerbase majority. The sad fact is that these trinkets WERE a DPS increase, because you could use more powerful abilities without pulling off the tank.
I'm not going to go as far as saying this is "dumbing down", but it is an indication that the developers don't think their DPS players can properly grasp the function of a basic threat table, or at the very least don't find it "fun". The logical conclusion of this belief leads us down a slippery slope.
What strikes me as odd is the fact that healers are now being asked to develop a more strategic view of their gameplay (the right spell at the right time) with regard to finite mana pools, while damage dealers are simply looking for their best button. Like the threat example above, healer mana conservation shouldn't be the concern of the healer himself - it should be the concern of the tank and the DPS. If, therefore, we want our tanks to be more heavily considering damage mitigation, it stands to reason that they'll be less concerned with threat - less threat leads to the DPS "throttle" that the developers desperately want to avoid.
Tanks cannot stack threat while considering healer mana, and they cannot stack mitigation while considering the DPS throttle. One of the two has to give. What compounds this foggy thinking is the assertion that healers find picking the right spell at the right time fun, as opposed to just their best spell. On the other hand, damage dealers are supposed to always find their best button fun, and no situational or strategic consideration takes place because, if you pull aggro, the tank is to blame; you're not supposed to be "throttled".
In short, at its most basic level, the design intent for PvE role interaction is contradictory.
Cue the entry of Vengeance.
While the stated desire for Vengeance was for it to be a scaling solution with regard to final tier DPS/threat, what it's actually doing is solving the mitigation versus threat dilemma on the part of the tank. In raid content, you simply don't have to worry about threat generation because it's taken care of on your behalf assuming you're actually bothering to press buttons. Yes, heroic dungeons provide less Vengeance and, therefore, hit and expertise will have value - but the second you hit raid content, unless you're interrupting (as I am), your hit and expertise cease being legitimate considerations.
Let's assume that Vengeance is going to do what it says on the tin, and scale well enough for tanks to not have to worry about threat later in the content. We've permanently solved the threat versus mitigation issue, but tanks have lost three gearing considerations in the space of one expansion (hit, expertise and defence rating). Fine. What this doesn't answer is the question as to why DPS players are spared strategic considerations when healers and tanks are not. I'll rephrase the question, I suppose:
Why is it fun for DPS players to always want their best button and not fun for healers?
The whole set up is horribly lopsided.
It could be argued that DPS players have to deal with encounter mechanics, not standing in fire and crowd control. But tanks and healers are also dealing with all of these, often instead of DPS players when it comes to CC such as interrupting. In fact, with the paladin spell Rebuke becoming baseline, all tanks can interrupt and they are soon never going to miss which further devalues threat stats.
What else are DPS players worrying about? It's in the consideration of this fundamental question that we note where the imbalance lies. Ignore the facets of tactics, mechanics and crowd control because all three roles can fulfil those jobs.
The tank: Responsible for threat management (damage), positioning and damage mitigation.
The healer: Responsible for tank health, unavoidable raid damage and their mana pool.
The DPS: Responsible for dealing damage.
The tank and the healer are weighing up one thing against another and making the best choice for that moment - a strategic decision. In the case of the tank, does he need more threat or have to consider mitigation? The healer has to choose the best spell for the situation, without ploughing through his mana pool too quickly. The DPS... Waits on his best buttons lighting up.
Pointing out where this doesn't add up is one thing. Coming up with a potential solution is quite another. I'm not saying sweeping changes need to be made, I don't think the game is horribly broken. But at the moment, the entire pantheon of success is resting on the shoulders of tanks and healers because the developers are determined to make it as easy as possible on DPS players.
There are two options:
1) The use of best spell "procs" for healers, rather than micro-managing mana.
If looking for a proc is considered fun, why is this not a gameplay style adopted more liberally with healers? A good way of implementing a proc is the synergy of Sword and Board; lovely to get procs from it, but the cooldown is short enough to make it work well, anyway. My only concern would be making sure the proc wasn't so sparse as to be unavailable at time of need (Surge of Light), but the implementation of Word of Glory shows how successful this type of thing can be. And what's the class with the least mana issues?
2) The splitting of responsibility between roles.
Tanks and healers managing everything is fine, but it is engaging for the DPS themselves? We're continually told that strategic decisions and triage are "fun", so let's see more of that from our DPS players. But thinking about the same types of things as another role is tiresome, as an over performer in one role can cover for a lack of ability in the other. How about this:
Tank: Positioning and damage mitigation.
Healer: Unavoidable damage and mana.
DPS: Threat and crowd control.
Obviously the tank will still have to attack the target for baseline threat, but how about taking away the 200% threat bonus to Defensive Stance/Blood Presence/Dire Bear Form/Righteous Fury and baking in 100%? The creation of a decent threat UI wouldn't be too hard (Omen/Skada are very light) and, all of a sudden, proper decision-making is introduced to DPS players. Ensure that all DPS specs get a sustainable form of crowd control in their talent tree, as well as an interrupt (baseline for pure DPS), and this silly request for "lf dps no war/dk" goes away.
As already hinted, I don't think the game is busted - I really don't. I just find it utterly bizarre that DPS being throttled isn't fun, yet throttling healers IS fun. According to whom? Based on what? And perhaps if everyone had to show a greater level of attention, and couldn't merely be carried by team mates, raiding experiences would go up. Yes, certain specs would need things added so that they could do what they're required to do, but I also think this could be a good first step to something that's worried me for a long time:
What is the aim of each role in a raid group, and what are they there to do?
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