ChoosingFollow

Depends what you plan to do with these hybrids? What spec are you going to go? Do you plane to PvE or PvP? Do you plan to solo quest or run instances?

More info please.

Yeah to the above post.

Also, of note, post-50 and into BC, Boomkin and Shamage (Balance and Elemental) become much quicker levelers than previously. The spell critical levels go up a bunch due to the +spell crit gear available, and because of that, Boomkins cast faster and Shamages don't use up the mana nearly as fast.

Couple small edit points from my server's side of things... Enhc shamans are almost to the point of preference in raids over rogues now, and feral tanks are wildly popular, both classes being almost more prevalent than the healing equivalents. And my GM is a resto druid, and is a fantastic healer where HoTs are concerned... but in terms of large heals, I would prefer my officer buddy shaman or a pally.

Just EI for you though, so might not be the case everywhere (I hope not, my other character is a rogue).

Edited, Jul 19th 2007 3:26pm by lobienzo

Situationally, Yes. Granted, this 1 Dimentional mindset from the naive populace, is what shoe horned us into taking a back seat to anything but healer. Tho old habits still die hard, so Enh haven't completely been accepted into raid setups, where a rogue previously was.

One of the big differences is situation. Rogues are basically a 1 dimentional melee dps class, with a situational CC. Granted all classes that actually have a form of CC has some sort of "limitation" (exp. "Only on undead", "Only on humanoids", etc...), their usefulness in CC and dps type in lv 70 raids has been comprimised.

While Rogues can be the kings of melee dps when given the chance. When up close and personal, rogues can unload all their skills, with little recourse. Enh Sham's typically have to hold back, and/or completely dependant on the skills of thoughs around them (Tanks ability to hold hate is a biggy) to do their best, making our melee dps "situational", but possible. IMO, this dps "limit/situations" that Enh sham's have to deal with typically, is a contributor to why Sham's have been typically shoe horned into "just" healing in endgame. Raid's didn't want to deal with the "limit", where as Rogues are kinda a simply plug and play, if you will. This worked great previously in raids, but the situations of a "raid" has changed, and no flexibilty ,bite them in the ***!

Many raid situations now, limit the amount of possible melee dps, typically on bosses. Also, many CC don't allow rogues to use theirs (good example is Kara). Which can force a rogue into either participating in a "bad" situation (usually resulting in a quick death and/or heavy strain on healer support), or "trying not to be a third leg".

Enh Sham's tho spec'd for melee combat mostly, thanks to HEAVY gear dependancy of the class (Thx blizz btw, for making Sham's work 3 times hard for gear than most other classes -_-), can simply switch gear sets and play the role of backup/spot healer and/or ranged DPS, on the fly, if melee dps isn't possible, or dangerous! This obviously requires Sham's to Rogues, can well...hit sprint and try to bandage as many ppl as they can :P

This is starting to be realized by the populace...but its coming along slowly.

Roll a rogue and stealth around.