Weaksauce!? No, Just Equilibrium

I see a lot of people complaining on forums about their class being too underpowered with the release of the 3.0.x patch. The weird thing to me is that every class is saying this. And no class is getting weaker than they are now. So people are assuming that other classes are getting more buffs than their own class is. How paranoid can you get?

Having never been forced to sit out due to min-maxing, it's a lot easier for me to see the buffs at face value. I can understand how people would be worried that they will get side-lined, but if Blizzard's statement about role equity is taken as true no class will be sidelined. Only certain players will be sidelined. I support this change.

As I understand it (and have seen for myself), there will still be "specialization" among roles for each class, but these abilities won't be head and shoulders above the other classes in those areas. Since tanking is my "forte," I'll give some examples of that.

• AOE tanking - Thunderclap and swipe will now hit all targets, but consecration will still be more threat per target.

• Off tanking - Druids will still have a "larger-than-average" health pool, but paladins and warriors scale with stamina exceptionally well compared to non-tanks.

• Main tanking - Every boss will be tankable by every class. Warrriors still have the most tricks up their sleeves, but that gap is narrowing fast.

I haven't mentioned death knights in these comparisons because I don't have a 70, and haven't done enough playing on one to know exactly where they fit. But everything I've read indicates that they will be a high avoidance/low(ish) health tank class. Threat won't be different to any significant degree on a single target, and will only slightly vary on AOE targets, between all classes.

I can't see any reason for anyone to worry about their class not being wanted by a raid. Except perhaps healers, but that would be a rare case indeed and would require serious construing of raid makeup.

I admit that the ones hit hardest by the changes are dps players. With healers and tanks able to do some notable damage, dps have to bring some truly remarkable damage to be beneficial to the raid. But I think this is a great change. One of my biggest pet peeves is a dps class who can't do more damage (or dps) than my tank. Having a reason to push those players to do even halfway decent damage can be nothing but good.

So to all the people who think that they won't be able to get a spot in a raid after the changes, maybe you should consider whether the problem is your class, or your ability.