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!)

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.
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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.