This is an issue that came to the forefront of my thought during a recent Ulduar raid when, looking at the raid composition, I noted that the overwhelming majority of the classes represented were hybrids.

Let’s take a look at what the representation should be. Considering that 4 of the 10 classes in WoW are Pure DPS – as in, they can spec for nothing but DPS – every raid should theoretically post a 40% representation of Pure DPS. That’s significant, close to half of what a raid’s numbers should be. It’s clear that the original design intent was that DPS would be filled by these roles and that the roles of Tanks and Healers would be filled by hybrids, being around 30% and 30% respectively.

Instead, what we see today is that the DPS roles are overwhelmingly going to Hybrids as well. In a typical 25man raid you might see as little as 1 or 2 mages, 1 or 2 hunters, and here and there a warlock or rogue. In an Ulduar raid last night I counted exactly 1 warlock, 1 hunter , 1 rogue and zero mage. That’s 3 out of 25 spots filled by pure DPS, and a whopping 12% raid representation. There were easily as many Death Knights alone rounding out those spots.

Something is decidedly out of whack. I think it’s pretty clear that this whole Bring The Player Not The Class initiative has been a dismall failure with regards to DPS. The current WoW class demographic has taken a nosedive towards some rather unhealthy and unbalanced territory, with the combination of Paladin’s and Death Knights account for more than half of the population according to recent census data.

It is with no doubt in my mind that I conclude that Blizzard needs to seriously re-evaluate the viability of pure-DPS. Statements that a ‘well played’ mage or warlock might out-dps a well-played Death Knight of equivalent gear and skill may be true, but even so the margin is usually so small that’s it’s barely noticeable.

Something needs to be done to make people want to play a mage or a warlock or a rogue again. Personally I believe that the lead that pure-DPS have over hybrid-DPS should be noticeable. And while this may enrage many a happy elemental shammy or retribution paladin, you guys should -all other things being equal- always be middle of the pack. Because if it doesn’t happen, we’re looking at a game that’ll degrade to the point that only 60% of the available classes get played at all.

Diversity is one of the things that makes this game fun, and BTPNTC is effectively removing that. After all, why play a squishy rogue when you can play a plate-wearing, bubble-throwing self-healing divine-eye-laser sporting paladin pushing out the same DPS with none of the drawbacks?