In response to the back and forth about bards being easy and how to play them... I'm not sure if Strawberry and Iven are talking about how to play a level 70 bard or a 120 bard. I know Cloud is talking about a 120 bard. If Straw and Iven are talking about a level 70, please say so and be clear about it. If talking about level 120 barding, then please go and spend some time learning how to bard a little before spewing off such horrible strategy. End game bards weave in aria, 3 or 4 dots, 1 or 2 insults, and maybe warmarch if you are in a heavy melee dps group. And unless you are in a highly specialized situation, you probably aren't going to variate from that if you are trying to maximize your total effectiveness. Casting requiem of time on a regular basis or bandoliering a tash proc weapon? That's so level 60...
Most stressful: Cleric - because that's right where the blame goes and maintaining that level of focus throughout an encounter (blink and something bad hit your tank and he's dead and the wipe is all your fault) is just super stressy. Difficult: I'd say a SK, easy to play to basic competence, ultra hard to do all the jobs it can simultaneously (pull, position, tank, keep aggro, don't over aggro, dps and heal yourself)
Assassinate was literally nerfed against lower content with the riposte changes. No other class took such a huge hit.
It's an interesting discussion point since it can involve all kinds of conditions and situations. I'll kind of put my eggs in the "how much did their maximizing their potential change the outcome." I would say paladins. They can fill several critical roles, have to decide which roles provides the most benefit at any given moment, and still has a high top threshold for skill. I can only think of a couple paladins I considered truly exceptional, and adding those people on that class to the roster would make a bigger overall influence on the raids success than the truly exceptional people I know of other classes. That isn't to say that getting another 10% dps from masterful self clicking and stacking of skills and synergizing with others doesn't require incredible skill, but it's benefit is muted if other people aren't doing their jobs. Or viewed from another angle. The raid is at a critical point where a wipe is eminent because reason_01, but class_05 is about to zone in. Which class would be most likely to turn the tide from the decisions they make in those first 20s? Or if you can only have 1 A-team player with an otherwise D-team cast, which class would be most likely to weasel in wins.
No single class would save a raid from wiping. Maybe old school raids where there was just a single mob to be killed but modern raid wipes are more about failing to do what the event needs you to do then just wiping to a single mob. Some of the old modern raids are still really hard to solo because they require so many different things to be done and failing it causes the event to reset, it doesn't matter what class you are.
Bard. I don't even play one, but i know the learning curve to play the role 'perfectly' is near impossible
I have a box shaman that I will main in a group from time to time. I've even raided an end-game event a couple times with the shaman. There's an incredible amount of stress on healers, so I will just assume that people know that. Recently, I took control of a friend's druid while she was out of town so I could help fill in some aug gaps for her. I did a lot of research and tried to box the druid in group. My conclusions: The shaman heal "portfolio" is just better: HoTs, group effects, multi-generational spells on different timers, and the recast times. Holy hell managing Druid mana is hard. Debuffing and DPSing is tough if you don't have a bunch HoTs and wave heals like a shaman.
Sadly... I see enough wipes and near wipes on raids to say definitely that individual players can 100% change the tide of a wipe.
I'm happy to say that the berserker shouldn't be on anyone's list. One of my primary advertisements for the class has always been, "Even an idiot can get to 80% max potential on a berserker." Follow this burn order... Set up these multi-binds... Get this kind of gear... Do these things when an encounter goes south... Getting to max potential is only different because you Have multiple burn orders depending on scenario (different encounters, raid make-ups, group make-ups) Need to collect more items and pay more attention to help off-tank when official off-tanks are slow
Well yea 1 person screwing up an emote can wipe a raid. I don't think the class of that person matters though in modern raids. There are certain actions that are pretty basic like no tanks picking up adds could wipe the raid, so in that case yea 1 person could sorta save the raid but at the same time 1 tank worthless without a healer and/or slower for the mob they are off tanking. Back in the PoP era when I ran open raids I had certain rangers that were always in my raids and I had them and myself being a bard waiting to try to pickup aggro if the tank died using WS abilities and that could keep the raid alive to finish off the last 10-20% of the boss. That is the only case I can think of 1 ranger making the difference between wipe or win.
I play a cleric half the time. I'd not that difficult/stressful. (It does require you to pay attention though, you can't just watch tv and mash one button)
