most underpowered class in game?

[greatdane]

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

There is a small problem with your assertion that "DPS is the most important thing in a group". If it was, then you would screen gear. That is my point. Gear does significantly impact a melee character's DPS. For all you know, the rogue coming into your group doesn't have a haste item. If DPS was really that important, you would by necessity have to screen for gear on melee DPS characters. Otherwise, they just wouldn't be able to perform to your standards. You cannot simultaneously assume DPS is extremely important while also not caring about how much DPS someone does by not performing gear checks. It just doesn't make sense.

Having group members who know how to play the game and a decent group composition is all you really need to run most successful groups. Typically speaking a decent group composition has good utility, which is why utility is generally more important. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule, as some camps are harder than usual, and need more specific compositions to be successful, but most normal camps do not need this.

I agree doing gear checks is a shitty thing to do, but luckily you don't actually have to do them, because DPS isn't as important as you claim[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

EDIT: You are also incorrect about gear having no effect on caster DPS. Max mana can very much effect how much DPS a caster is doing. More med time = less casting = less DPS. And to be clear, I include CC and Healing in the "utility" category.

Nope. People don't screen gear because gear matters very little for DPS. Weapons and haste item for melees, and that's all. Since there's only two melee DPS classes and one of them can buy a pretty good weapon in EC for a modest sum and the other can pick its epic up from the gutter, there's no real need to screen them for gear. Casters don't rely on gear at all, the only thing that matters for caster DPS is mana regen and there isn't really any of that on gear in the P99 era. Doesn't matter in the slightest whether your mana pool is 3k or 4k if you're in a chain-pulling group where you're never dumping a full mana pool into one mob anyway. Besides, it's pretty trivial to reach the 200 int softcap, and nobody in the history of this server has ever scoffed at a mage who shows up wearing SMR, stein of moggok, runed cowl, etc. just because their mana pool is less than that of a raid-geared mage. It's irrelevant. They'll be sitting at ~50% mana the entire time anyway and the depth of their mana pool had no bearing on anything. Mana pool matters for quad-kiters and raiding clerics, and that's about it.

DPS matters an incredible amount, but DPS is mostly down to class, not gear. How often do you willingly choose a wizard over a rogue, or a druid over a magician, when filling a DPS spot? Probably never, unless you're favoring a friend over a stranger. That's because DPS matters more than anything when grinding, provided that you're not literally dying to XP mobs, which is very easy to prevent with just the very basics covered. Nobody puts together a group consisting of a cleric, druid, bard, enchanter, paladin and ranger, because while that group would have all the utility in the world, it wouldn't maintain an acceptable rate of kills/hour. Meanwhile, people will happily go with three or even four top-tier DPS classes and just a single healer and a tank.