The “Hybrid Tax”
The debate about whether a “hybrid” class should be able to perform as well as “pure” classes has been around for far longer than I can recall. WoW.com reported about a post on the official forums by Ghostcrawler on the twenty-sixth of October that addresses this topic yet again.
Before looking further at why I want to call attention to this particular issue, let’s make certain some things are completely clear about what this means:
- There are three roles: healing, tanking, and damage-dealing.
- Hunters, Rogues, Mages, and Warlocks are the “pure” classes.
- Druids, Death Knights, Priests, Paladins, Shaman, and Warriors are “hybrid” classes.
- This does not mean a class is incapable or impractical in use in a DPS role. This merely that the hybrids will not, if all things are equal under equal conditions, perform “as well as” the pure classes. Note that there is a lot of room for interpretation and “grey area” in this statement.
- There is not a “pure” tank.
- There is not a “pure” healer.
While in theory this all makes perfect sense, it breaks down when some other thoughts are brought to light. Does this “hybrid tax” get applied further when taking into account the number of roles fulfilled (such as a class that can do all three roles versus one that can only fulfill two)? Should or shouldn’t their be some reward for those able to master all available roles? Obviously there are a fair number of other variables that affect whether or not the “hybrid tax” is viewed as justifiable or not based on perception, and the perception of a player is to always side with the class or classes they play. Therefore, how can any measurement truly be applied that states “the fair and/or equitable way to keep things in balance is to do x or y?”
The debate arises so often when speaking of comparisons in healing and tanking that most are able to turn a deaf ear to the noise generated by those who are so blinded by their perspectives that they are unable to think through any semblance of rational thought. These types of questions must be viewed as objectively as possible when evaluating such things as class balance. This is one of those areas where the work done by Blizzard developers is certainly under appreciated.
The Philosophy of “Perception.”
Think about these statements and how they are generally perceived, from the wording itself to the underlying meaning we impose on them based on what we think the meaning actually is:
- “You should not be able to do the same thing I do as well as I do it.”
- “You should be able to do the same thing I do, but I should be able to do it a little bit better.”
- “We should both be able to do the same thing well. I should have a slight advantage because it is the only thing I can do.”
- “If everything were equal, I would be able to do a little better than you due to the way we are designed.”
- “Given equal circumstances, you should be able to do a little better than me as a result of my versatility in doing other things as well.”
Each of those statements represents the same concept, yet each is interpreted differently based on the way in which it is worded. Trying to overanalyze something is futile. The overall meaning is, quite simply, that one is going to perform better than the other for one reason (be it skill, inequality in gear, or a number of other variables that simply cannot be taken into account in the scope of this post). The concept is, quite simply, that instead of trying to place some measurable value on what, exactly, it means to be “a little better” is a waste of energy and time. Strive to do the best possible and the decision will come down to which person is desired to be present, not which class that person plays.
Remember that how words are chosen is normally not at the forefront of a person’s mind when trying to explain a concept. The overwhelming interest is in trying to get the point of the concept across.
In this case, the point is simply that viability is not a focus of the “hybrid tax.” The entire issue is to ensure there is some level of fairness (complete fairness is impossible) when evaluating the ability of a pure class to outperform a hybrid class on completely equal footing while maintaining the ability for both classes to fill the role in question. Let’s remember that when trying to provide feedback to the people that have to hear all sorts of variations on the above thoughts, and who try to remain objective in the face of “I can’t do the exact same thing as x because I’m y, why do you hate me?” rants from players too blinded by their interpretation of what things should be, or of what things mean, to step back and look objectively at the same situation.
I think of it more along the lines of helping so-called “pure” DPS classes justify their raid spot. As it is, when I raid in 10 mans our leader will have people switch between DPS and healing or tanking and healing based on the fight. (or even tanking and DPS).
My ‘main’ is a ‘pure’ DPS class and doesn’t have that option, so I feel like I need to bring something extra to the table other than I don’t wear the same kind of gear or use the same weapon as the rest of them.
Otherwise the raid group would be all paladins, druids, and priests.
The “pure” classes bring more to the raid than dps, each of them contributes to the raid. Or should be contributing to the raid. eg. Hunters (trap, kite, md), Rogues (stun, tricks, interupts, poisons), Mages (sheep, buffs, food), and Warlocks (buffs, sould and health stones, summons). And so on.
Should they be slightly better dps? Yes, but only by a touch. And that touch should be so slight that its really not relevant except in theory crafting spreadsheets; not in game. They are as important to good group composition that every other class.
As an aside consider that somebody might happen to play a “hybrid” class, but not actually ever do an alternate role in the raid. I know of Warriors with two Tank specs, and Druids who are both Boomkin and Cat. Their role is solid and valuable.
Typhoonandrew´s last blog ..Can we try for 3 hours of raiding?
“Strive to do the best possible and the decision will come down to which person is desired to be present, not which class that person plays.”
I suppose this is still true if you intend to farm heroics or old content such as Naxx. For current progression raiding, your statement doesn’t hold true since the hybrids (esp. Druids + Paladins) bring a lot more versatility to a raid group. You can bring a hybrid to a raid and have them be competitive in any role that they are asked to fill. You can’t ask a Warlock to heal, or a Hunter to tank, etc. Once you fill certain spots based on buffs (Mage Intellect+food, Warlock Healthstone, etc) there is little incentive to bring any more…if a raid leader needs a melee dps and there’s a rogue or a feral druid available, he’s going to lean towards bringing the Druid for the battle rez. The reason for the hybrid tax is to provide some kind of incentive for bringing pures so they don’t gradually disappear from the raid scene. This has nothing to do with the person behind the keyboard, and everything to do with balancing classes to make them equally viable in various situations.
“if a raid leader needs a melee dps and there’s a rogue or a feral druid available, he’s going to lean towards bringing the Druid for the battle rez. ”
So we can either adjust DPS so the druid falls below the rogue, or give the rogue something as good as a battle rez that makes RAIDs want them. It use to be the ability to sap things and unlock chests, but now not so much.
I have a warlock (pure DPS) and a pally (one pure DPS spec, one pure Heal spec, I don’t tank with him, I’m just plain bad at it). So I understand the drawbacks of being a pure DPS class. However I have never EVER been asked to switch from heals to DPS on RAIDs (well once on Lotheb, but I pointed out I could heal the tank and 2~3 others in my 3 second tick and was asked to stay heals). So the “advantage” is more “in theory”…kind of. I have saved heroics from wipes by hopping back from DPSing and doing some healing in the middle of “pull gone bad”.
However that isn’t so much “pally has a DPS _and_ a healing build” as “pally DPS builds can still throw out far better healing then a bandage”.
So I view it as “role swapping has a modest utility value, highly dependent on the player and what their other gear and trees are!”…but other things have BIG utility. Sometimes utility that scales up as you add more of that class, sometimes it doesn’t. One warlock can bring up a summoning stone, sometimes very useful. Two warlocks can bring up two stones, never more useful then the one stone (they can soul stone 2 players though). Two pallys can give 2 pally buffs, and two auras. More then 3 is seldom helpful, and more then 4 almost never is.
Should we balance different amounts of utility provided by different classes with different amounts of DPS? Or should we balance the utility?
Should the mages get a 300DPS buff, or should they get a battle rez?
Should the warlocks get a 300DPS buff, or should they get a tanking tree?
(as a warlock, I would rather get the buff because I HATE tanking…but if it were a healing tree, as bizarre as it would be for a ‘lock…I would take it!)