So can anyone explain what you mean about Zerkers needing "full support groups" to be effective DPS'ers?
Basically, a wizard can do (and I'm guessing here) around 80% of his maximum damage without buffs or help from other classes. A zerker can do maybe 50% of his maximum damage by himself. He needs shaman buffs, bard epic(makes you crit more), shaman epic (makes you crit harder), bard overhaste, ranger attack buffs, beastlord buffs who's name escapes me right now, etc... A wizard, to do max damage basically needs an enchanter and if its a long fight a druid, maybe. If he doesn't get all of those he can still get pretty close to topping the parse if not still topping it where as a zerker has NO chance without all the support, especially bard and shaman.
Basically to reach optimal burn dps some classes need more help than others, melee in particular. A bard, shaman, beastlord, ranger (maybe others?) can all improve the DPS of group mates with spells/AA/clicks that they possess. Zerkers generally put out less DPS without this support than the other melee DPS classes (monk/rogue) due certain abilities that the monks and rogues possess (hundred hands procs) that the zerkers do not, though when the zerker gets everything going together, they can outshine the others with huge parse numbers.
To put up the big boy numbers casters need a lot of support as well. Rangers, bards, enchanters, druids and full debuffs. But as emphant said without all that a wizard or casters in general can do probably 70-85% of their max whereas zerkers or melee in general can only do 50-60%. A lot of this stems from the fact that melee used to be sustained classes and were not really burst until yellow mana and fast refresh stuff came about. Now they are all burst and complain of lack of sustained. The other big issue lots see that people think is a archtype thing but isn't is the fact that rank 2 spells and group focus are a lot closer in power to raid caster power then group weapons and melee focus are to raid weapons and raid focus effects.
Makes sense - thanks. If I was to extrapolate, would you say that zerkers aren't that great DPS without the support buffs? or is it more that they still are great DPS, but wouldn't win the parse.
I would say(and correct me if I'm wrong) that would you/your group would be better off with literally any other class in the game than a zerker without support.
... for a group toon intended to dps... right now Wizard is your caster option, Monk is your melee option. That's my opinion with the *current state of the game. *subject to change without notice
I've really wanted to box a monk/sham with intent to main the monk later (when not playing necro) but one of the things that holds me back, having played mostly casters this far (all caster and priest classes to 80 minus CLR) is not having the convenience of spell gems, and the alt+number clicks they provide. I know monk is going to require a LOTTT of hot keys at high levs, and it's annoying to have to manually create alt+hotkeys and possibly run a custom UI to reduce clutter just because I wouldn't have spell gems...
lol, I bet you'd find after spending some time playing a melee seriously... that spell gems SUCK I hate being limited to such a small amount of spells. True, setting up hotkeys can take a little time if you're not used to using them, but they give you WAY more control of your playstyle. And you wouldn't really need to use a custom UI, you can shrink your buttons/windows to an appropriate size that will easily allow you to fun default UI and fit as much or more of everything you'll need on the screen at once.
I don't use Ctrl + number, I rebind the action bars....and I could make a custom new action bar bound as alt + numbers but in truth I only use a few alt spell gems and put abilities I rarely use further down that I can just click. So in the end it's laziness and a bad computer where I have to run a low resolution, shrinking stuff helps a lil
Long answer short - Wizard by a good margin. Other classes need support to max out DPS; Wizzies can do it alone. Wizzies (like all casters) do better DPS with a Chanter in the group. (But everyone does better DPS with a Chanter in the group.) I'll add this info. A well geared Wizzie can also tank a lot of light blue stuff using a J5 Healer Merc on Reactive. I know of a low 90's Wizzie that does it's lesson burn in the Grotto doing a Repo. (lvl 85 mobs) Ports in, does his lesson (and gets paid 25k for doing it!) and ports out. He gets single pulls, turns on auto-attack, and then melts them down. Healer Merc stays at 75% mana or better. I often use my wife's Chanter to give him and his merc a crack fix - then sit back and watch the show. -Rat
I rarely use my lesson. I only do Teek tasks when a guildmate needs help to do them. I hate double-XP weekends. I'm so bad. Pro Tip: If you don't have a good use for the Lesson today, you can go to the Guild Lobby, use the Lesson there, and the timer won't count down until you leave, so you can save it for next time and have two Lessons back-to-back.
Qest, how can you hate double-XP. It couldn't possibly be because the masses amounts of zone lag, no camps open, and the volatility that follows! But, if you're max AA and don't care about your alts, lesson and double exp don't really mean that much to an individual.
