Mocha
Legendary
Hey there fellow US,
Let me start by saying I'm well aware how luck comes into play when it comes to getting a good or a bad comp in PUGs. Unfortunately, at the current state, it appears as though the outcome of the game can pretty much be determined merely by the team composition alone. Obviously, this is not fool safe as big plays and errors can help to sway the outcome of the game. However, I've only been back with 19s for a few weeks now so perhaps it's due to a relatively small scope of the general movement of PUGs, but I have noticed daily that Alliance seem to always have an abundance of druids. The issue with class stacking, is that currently every druid spec is pretty much capable of insane damage, competent flag carrying and healing. Horde still seem to be abundant in rogues which become an insane detriment to a team if stacked.
If you consistently play Alliance Druids:
Now it's always okay and necessary for each team to have at least SOME druids. With that being said, it can be insanely frustrating seeing a team with 4+ druids as they are extremely potent classes. I suggest considering varying the classes you queue on from time to time with your best judgement being put into play if you are not already doing so. Below are some few suggestions.
If you consistently play Horde Rogues:
I strongly suggest you do get your fill of playing rogue in much earlier in the evening as opposed to later. In the early games of the evening, class comps are all over the place due to not as many people queuing. You purchased the game just like we all did and you're entitled to the enjoyment you are paying for. I suggest you get rogue play time in early into the evening. However, if you see 2+ rogues constantly in every game, I strongly suggest you swap to another class. Later on in the evening, as long as you don't see multiple rogues constantly on Horde, you're still able to log in and play a few games on your baby rogue.
My Enjoyability:
Cheers,
Mocha
Let me start by saying I'm well aware how luck comes into play when it comes to getting a good or a bad comp in PUGs. Unfortunately, at the current state, it appears as though the outcome of the game can pretty much be determined merely by the team composition alone. Obviously, this is not fool safe as big plays and errors can help to sway the outcome of the game. However, I've only been back with 19s for a few weeks now so perhaps it's due to a relatively small scope of the general movement of PUGs, but I have noticed daily that Alliance seem to always have an abundance of druids. The issue with class stacking, is that currently every druid spec is pretty much capable of insane damage, competent flag carrying and healing. Horde still seem to be abundant in rogues which become an insane detriment to a team if stacked.
If you consistently play Alliance Druids:
Now it's always okay and necessary for each team to have at least SOME druids. With that being said, it can be insanely frustrating seeing a team with 4+ druids as they are extremely potent classes. I suggest considering varying the classes you queue on from time to time with your best judgement being put into play if you are not already doing so. Below are some few suggestions.
If you consistently play Resto Druid:
Resto Shammy - if you're constantly FCing as a druid, atleast try out the Shaman class. Resto shammy provides amazing utility to a team, can help to counter horde rogues with flame shock, purging AGM can be game changing, the healing alone is incredible, and if your team is unlucky enough to have a druid FC, you can easily fill that role that your team is devoid of.
If you consistently play Balance Druid:
Warlock / Mage / Priest / Hunter - If you're constantly playing balance druid, these 4 classes can provide good ranged DPS, good survivability or CC (priests have no CC but have great survivability) and you're less likely to run into class stacking issues with these classes than staying on your plentiful balance druid.
If you consistently play Feral Druid:
Stop. Just stop. Broken rake stun 1 shot... stop lmao
Resto Shammy - if you're constantly FCing as a druid, atleast try out the Shaman class. Resto shammy provides amazing utility to a team, can help to counter horde rogues with flame shock, purging AGM can be game changing, the healing alone is incredible, and if your team is unlucky enough to have a druid FC, you can easily fill that role that your team is devoid of.
If you consistently play Balance Druid:
Warlock / Mage / Priest / Hunter - If you're constantly playing balance druid, these 4 classes can provide good ranged DPS, good survivability or CC (priests have no CC but have great survivability) and you're less likely to run into class stacking issues with these classes than staying on your plentiful balance druid.
If you consistently play Feral Druid:
Stop. Just stop. Broken rake stun 1 shot... stop lmao
If you consistently play Horde Rogues:
I strongly suggest you do get your fill of playing rogue in much earlier in the evening as opposed to later. In the early games of the evening, class comps are all over the place due to not as many people queuing. You purchased the game just like we all did and you're entitled to the enjoyment you are paying for. I suggest you get rogue play time in early into the evening. However, if you see 2+ rogues constantly in every game, I strongly suggest you swap to another class. Later on in the evening, as long as you don't see multiple rogues constantly on Horde, you're still able to log in and play a few games on your baby rogue.
Monk - If you're looking for an alternative that is extremely similar, you need to look into these bad boys. Although I strongly like WW monk as it is extremely reminiscent in play style to the unparalleled gameplay of the TBC rogue, BM monks on horde are in short supply and are strongly desired for Horde. However, if you cannot be bothered to keg smash people for their remaining health pools and snare the entire team endlessly, consider making a WW monk as it can satisfy the crave of playing your rogue and it is a much more useful spec in some occasions. Monks feel like rogues without stealth, have great mobility, whom can also toss some great accumulated off healing, has a extremely satisfying CC abilities, can provide great burst damage, and can either help to return flags or offer incredible support to your own FC. I suggest you look into playing BM monk or WW monk if you cannot be bothered to play BM (I absolutely HATE BMs but I have done so garbage-ly in premades).
Hunter - That's right you little demon, I said hunter. The absolute bane of your backstabbing existence... The Hunter. Hunters have gotten a lot of trash for their ez mode input and gamebreaking damage output, however as of MOP+ they've been much more realistically scaled back. I play my hunter more for the pure CC and support than some damage bot and my focus is mainly on getting that disengage Conc shot on EFC. It's an extremely fun class to play solo and you don't really have to worry about getting 5v1d as much as you do on a melee class.
Resto Shammy - If you're looking for something that can be extremely useful to your team, I'd say give the resto shammy a try. You can have a blast purging AGMs, dispelling magic effects (an ability that has been gone from our community for years), dotting fellow pesky rogues, provide incredible resilience to your team through your insane healing ability, or hell even FC if your team is lacking a resto druid FC.
Resto Druid - Most of the time, horde is extremely lacking in having a dedicated resto druid FC. Although balance druids can provide many benefits, most of the time they're too focused on EF dot spamming enemies thanks to mouseover macros than actually providing helpful assistance in the team effort of capturing flags. Resto druids will take a second to get the hang of and were frustratingly abundant in play style possibilities for me, however with my tricky macros I've always found ways to make it fun and interesting for myself. I understand the pressure of being the one to carry the flag for your team, but long story short, you'll never get better at it if you don't practice. If vets want to talk shit for you still learning to FC and bumming a few plays, those fools SHOULD have made a FC and SHOULD be playing that instead. FCing requires the most skill out of anything in the bracket in my opinion. It's a role that the extremely top of the top most skilled and mentally focused players are capable of excelling at such as [MENTION=11761]Hunnybuns19[/MENTION] and [MENTION=65]Pizza[/MENTION]. It's about being able to make clear minded decisions under extreme pressure however it also requires centered focus as a team effort. I mean sure some worgen druid FCs may be able to pretty much solo 3-0 an unorganized horde team (highly unlikely as usually someone smartens up to focus on EFC) but it can be extremely difficult to solo queue a FC with 0 support so it requires some team coordination which is never a bad thing.
Arms Warrior - These guys are capable of topping the damage charts with melee ranged spreading of dots and finishers. They're kind of broken with crusader swapping, but it's nice for melee to not be completely laughed at for the first time in years. Since these are extremely OP, I'd say roll one if you don't see multiple on your team each game.
Ret Pally - Now this option some may consider to be similar to an arms warrior, I strongly disagree. A ret pally to me is MUCH more similar towards playing a WW monk than an arms warrior. Ret pallies provide great off healing, HoJ is an incredible CC similar to fists of fury without the added damage, and their bursty 2h damage is similar to that of the bursty melee damage monks have due to energy regen limitations. You'll have some added mobility as ret pally (@Player Tiger's Lust- I mean Burst of Speed). The only thing you're really missing is the added movement speed bonus aura but you're gaining the survivability of an arms warrior... so if WW monk isn't for you, ret pally may be a better option. However, class stacking ret pallies can be particularly damaging to a team. As with anything, use your best judgement in avoiding class stacking.
Hunter - That's right you little demon, I said hunter. The absolute bane of your backstabbing existence... The Hunter. Hunters have gotten a lot of trash for their ez mode input and gamebreaking damage output, however as of MOP+ they've been much more realistically scaled back. I play my hunter more for the pure CC and support than some damage bot and my focus is mainly on getting that disengage Conc shot on EFC. It's an extremely fun class to play solo and you don't really have to worry about getting 5v1d as much as you do on a melee class.
Resto Shammy - If you're looking for something that can be extremely useful to your team, I'd say give the resto shammy a try. You can have a blast purging AGMs, dispelling magic effects (an ability that has been gone from our community for years), dotting fellow pesky rogues, provide incredible resilience to your team through your insane healing ability, or hell even FC if your team is lacking a resto druid FC.
Resto Druid - Most of the time, horde is extremely lacking in having a dedicated resto druid FC. Although balance druids can provide many benefits, most of the time they're too focused on EF dot spamming enemies thanks to mouseover macros than actually providing helpful assistance in the team effort of capturing flags. Resto druids will take a second to get the hang of and were frustratingly abundant in play style possibilities for me, however with my tricky macros I've always found ways to make it fun and interesting for myself. I understand the pressure of being the one to carry the flag for your team, but long story short, you'll never get better at it if you don't practice. If vets want to talk shit for you still learning to FC and bumming a few plays, those fools SHOULD have made a FC and SHOULD be playing that instead. FCing requires the most skill out of anything in the bracket in my opinion. It's a role that the extremely top of the top most skilled and mentally focused players are capable of excelling at such as [MENTION=11761]Hunnybuns19[/MENTION] and [MENTION=65]Pizza[/MENTION]. It's about being able to make clear minded decisions under extreme pressure however it also requires centered focus as a team effort. I mean sure some worgen druid FCs may be able to pretty much solo 3-0 an unorganized horde team (highly unlikely as usually someone smartens up to focus on EFC) but it can be extremely difficult to solo queue a FC with 0 support so it requires some team coordination which is never a bad thing.
Arms Warrior - These guys are capable of topping the damage charts with melee ranged spreading of dots and finishers. They're kind of broken with crusader swapping, but it's nice for melee to not be completely laughed at for the first time in years. Since these are extremely OP, I'd say roll one if you don't see multiple on your team each game.
Ret Pally - Now this option some may consider to be similar to an arms warrior, I strongly disagree. A ret pally to me is MUCH more similar towards playing a WW monk than an arms warrior. Ret pallies provide great off healing, HoJ is an incredible CC similar to fists of fury without the added damage, and their bursty 2h damage is similar to that of the bursty melee damage monks have due to energy regen limitations. You'll have some added mobility as ret pally (@Player Tiger's Lust- I mean Burst of Speed). The only thing you're really missing is the added movement speed bonus aura but you're gaining the survivability of an arms warrior... so if WW monk isn't for you, ret pally may be a better option. However, class stacking ret pallies can be particularly damaging to a team. As with anything, use your best judgement in avoiding class stacking.
My Enjoyability:
The only class that I've truly ever enjoyed playing was always rogue for the saps and dodgy 1v1 combat. However, as of Cata I've played many other support roles since in attempts to provide more faction balance to games, but I would get more selfish enjoyment losing a game on my baby rogue than winning a game as a healer or a FC (both of which roles I'm pretty garbage at). With that being said, I feel as though when you play a game that you have purchased, you should be able to play whatever you want, whenever you want. But, what I've learned is that sometimes a faction desperately needs a role and with twinks being able to be made in about 3 hours (my hunter was created and outfitted at 19 within an hour), now truly is the time to outfit your faction or perhaps both factions with these support roles / classes and really step up to the plate. When I log on my druid FC, it's only really because I'm being told "Horde needs a FC" and when I join a game, I like to test the truth in that statement by encouraging others to FC so I can log onto something more satisfying for me to play like WW monk or Ret pally. I haven't played druid since WOTLK and I've never really cared for the class, so I try to spend as little time on it as possible.
As of right now I'm well aware that just about any post associated with my name (for better or for worse) will be clicked on and the exposure is pretty incredible. With that, I'm going to push the encouragement of diversity as much as possible. This thread is one I had been contemplating making for awhile now as it's grown more and more apparent and supported with the results I find with queuing 19s. I understand that most people on TI may already be doing this, but encouraging the relay of likeminded information is extremely important and will have numerous benefits to the growth and enjoyability of PUG games for all. With that being said, whether this post helps to encourage one or ten people to seek enjoyment in different roles / specs they may have not tried, this post will be well worth it because as it may be known to veterans, new players are not adept with the desirability of classes / specs and are often shunned and confronted and met with a negative impression of the 19s community. That needs to stop. Games to me have not been very fun when I see consistent abundances. A lot of people have been complaining about too many druids on ally or bms on ally or rogues on horde, but not many people provide argument for possibly negating the presence of such class stacking in our community. Here I provide a few suggestions to get the ball rolling.
Hopefully this may help to contribute inspiration in changing up roles / specs.
As of right now I'm well aware that just about any post associated with my name (for better or for worse) will be clicked on and the exposure is pretty incredible. With that, I'm going to push the encouragement of diversity as much as possible. This thread is one I had been contemplating making for awhile now as it's grown more and more apparent and supported with the results I find with queuing 19s. I understand that most people on TI may already be doing this, but encouraging the relay of likeminded information is extremely important and will have numerous benefits to the growth and enjoyability of PUG games for all. With that being said, whether this post helps to encourage one or ten people to seek enjoyment in different roles / specs they may have not tried, this post will be well worth it because as it may be known to veterans, new players are not adept with the desirability of classes / specs and are often shunned and confronted and met with a negative impression of the 19s community. That needs to stop. Games to me have not been very fun when I see consistent abundances. A lot of people have been complaining about too many druids on ally or bms on ally or rogues on horde, but not many people provide argument for possibly negating the presence of such class stacking in our community. Here I provide a few suggestions to get the ball rolling.
Hopefully this may help to contribute inspiration in changing up roles / specs.
Cheers,
Mocha
