Hybrid value: 3 roles, one class

My first commenter and good rogue mate, Lale, brought up a good question in the comments yesterday, which I think I will address.

“I would like to make a quick point up for debate = hybrids are good at many, masters of none. I have seen times where a druid tank has been a far better option than a warrior. Has the shift in the game changed? Can hybrids now be masters of particular roles? I smell a new post today...”

I made a point in the post to focus on classes, not talent specializations. This was because including talent trees into the discussion muddies the waters a bit more. With in hybrid classes the talent trees allow you to either focus on one role, or spread talent points around and gain a hybrid setup. The confusing part is that even in a so called pure class, like a priest, talent specialization allows players to play different roles or a hybrid mix.

That said, I think I can still answer to your question. When a hybrid class focuses on any specific role, they can be as effective as the focused pure class at that role, while bringing additional abilities outside that role. They may not have all the exact same abilities as the pure class, but the skills they do have should allow equal capability to fill the role. Before TBC talent trees, gear and the new 70 skills, the hybrid classes actually only had one role they could effectively spec into, healing. This has been resolved and now druids can be great healers, tanks, and melee or spell damage dealers. Paladins can be healers, tanks, and melee damage dealer.

If a hybrid class puts his talents in multiple trees then he becomes the jack of all trades player that you are talking about. In that case he is less effective at all roles then a focused primary or hybrid class, but can more effectively switch roles on the fly. This is the same as a pure class, like a priest, who can specialize into healing or damage dealing, or a mix of the two. I think that the hybrid classed have better synergy in the design of our talent trees post-TBC, which allows us to use a hybrid talent build more effectively then say a hybrid specialized warrior or priest. Druids, for instance, have a feral talent that translates strength into +heal, and restoration talents lower in the tree that effect rage generation and damage in feral forms.

With the number of talent points players now have at 70 they will generally specialize into one role mainly and then still have enough points to get a hybrid level specialization in another role. For instance my paladin is currently 41 points into holy, and 20 points into protection. This allows him more survivability then a full holy build, which is very helpful in pvp and surviving bad pulls in pve. He could also tank instances effectively, if he had the proper gear.

This brings up one final issue that all classes face, especially hybrid classes, the issue of gearing. If a class plays one role all the time, like most pure classes, then they only need one set of gear. They may want other bits for different uses like pvp, or resistance gear, but your gear is mainly one set. Hybrid classes, on the other hand, will need a fully different set for each role they want to play. If they attempt to use a hybrid set of gear, with a mix of stats for different roles, then they will be less effective at each of those roles then the pure class, even if they are fully specialized into that role at the time. It is the same as if a warrior attempted to use his tanking gear with an arms build to deal damage in an instance, it would not be nearly as effective as if he switched to gear with the proper stats for arms. A hybrid specialized player, hybrid or pure class, will be able to use role specific gear to buff his abilities in a certain role, or use a hybrid gear setup to improve his abilities across all roles by a smaller amount.

The biggest hassle of playing a hybrid class is getting the proper gear to effectively play the roles that people expect of you. On my druid, I have 4 sets of gear in Item Rack, I have a healing set, a bear set, a cat set, and a hybrid set. That is a lot of gear to carry around and more importantly to collect, even if there is some overlap. It makes it hard to have a good level of gear for all the roles you play in a group. I would always recommend gearing up for your main role first and then working through the other gear sets. In my guild I am known for snatching up anything that would add to my gear sets, be it caster, melee, or tank gear. They may complain at the time that they missed out on a shard, but when the gear is needed to save their bacon I have it available.

So in review, you have 4 requirements to play a hybrid class as a master of a particular role. First, pick the correct class that will allow you to play the role you want. Second, pick the proper talent specialization for the role. Third, gather the proper gear to play the role. Fourth, you must have imagination to use the class to its fullest potential. You do all that, and you can beat out pure classes in an otherwise equal situation. Remember you have skills they can never match, so make sure you take advantage of them when the situation allows. Don’t just stay in cat form dealing damage if the healer is out of mana, and the mage is getting hammered on. Switch to caster form, throw the healer an innervate, switch to bear form, and taunt the mob off the mage. You do that, and they will take you over that uber geared, damage meter whoring rogue every time!