Witch Elf or Marauder for dps?

[BIGXz]

Thanks for the replies guys. Very interesting debate indeed. Just sad those two classes are a bit behind.

Personally I dont like the playstyle of the Choppa/Slayer, and since im playing Destro with my buddies, White Lion is not an option either.
Maybe I should just pick Sorcerer haha xD

[sighy]

I never played mara after the nerfs, but to say that WE does significantly more single target damage than mara the nerfs must have been pretty brutal (haha get it?).

WE is also boring to play OP, it's a literal handful of buttons ape class most of the time. Mara has so much more going on to stimulate your brain and increase the skill ceiling bc of pulls, m1 plays, stance switching, debuff prioties etc...

Ironically mara was broadly buffed like two weeks ago and does very solid damage, while WE has basically nothing going for it outside of morale pump/drain. So it's basically like a monstro mara used to be, except it has next to no aoe damage, no aoe KD, ok single target and is squishy as ****.

It wasn't broadly buffed, it took a morale drain nerf and got a damage buff in return. That's called a functionality change. The Marauder damage now is "solid" but it's the worst out of any MDPS class, including WE/WH (on a single target of course, since WE/WH AoE is now non-existent). WE/WHs are definitely nothing like Monstro maras used to be, you still do more ST damage then a ST Mara, a Monstro Marauder used to do Sword and Board tank level AoE damage.

I'm not saying WH/WE's don't need love here my friend, just that the comparison you made above isn't all that accurate. The Marauder right now still does worse damage then a WH/WE (on a single target), and that's even after the buff, which the class had to take a nerf to even get.

It would be like if they decide to change the WE/WH by giving you your AOE back, and removing your morale pump/drain. I guarantee if that the devs did that, you would not call it a "broad buff" for the class you play, so calling the Marauder changes "broadly buffs" isn't accurate.

Mara had morale drain and stop swapped between Wave of Terror and Crushing Blows. They didn't lose it and got a damge buff across the board, while remaining the toughest of mdps, with the most utility out of any mdps. (Can't exactly have it all until you get the sov +2 mastery bonus tho)

While WE has alright ST, nowhere near the original state... certainly less than the top dogs of mDPS, who bring big aoe to boot. WE's group utility basically ends on a st knockdown, st heal debuff and morale drain/pump. WE just got their meh at best aoe nerfed to a third of what it used to be and the excuse we got is "I fix bugs, you can make a suggestion"... seriously? Is there no consideration as to how the "bugfix" will impact the already severely struggling class?

[Foofmonger]

Mara had morale drain and stop swapped between Wave of Terror and Crushing Blows. They didn't lose it and got a damge buff across the board, while remaining the toughest of mdps, with the most utility out of any mdps. (Can't exactly have it all until you get the sov +2 mastery bonus tho)

While WE has alright ST, nowhere near the original state... certainly less than the top dogs of mDPS, who bring big aoe to boot. WE's group utility basically ends on a st knockdown, st heal debuff and morale drain/pump. WE just got their meh at best aoe nerfed to a third of what it used to be and the excuse we got is "I fix bugs, you can make a suggestion"... seriously? Is there no consideration as to how the "bugfix" will impact the already severely struggling class?

I agree with you that WE's/WHs need to be buffed. You need to understand though that bugfixes and balance changes are two different things though. That was a bugfix, and although it sucks, the point was that the functionality the WE/WH had was not intended by the developers, that is why it is classified as a "bug", a balance change is an "intentional change". Now, I think I agree with you when you say "fixing the bug without also considering a balance change is not the way to do things", but this is fairly routine in the gaming industry to be honest. Bugs are not features.

On the Marauder topic, there's far more nuance here, and I've already done a lengthly mathematical analysis on the topic in this thread if you really want to know all the details. It's not a straight buff though: viewtopic.php?f=72&t=36886

[wildwindblows]

Okay, thats right mara has utility. However, these utilities come with huge cost. Mara should pick silly tactics to get these utilities like ap drain/morale stop/cd increase so can't take tactics which increase damage. Monstro mara already has lowest damage output compared to other dps classes (also any dps healer and 2h dps tanks). Also, it is not possible to use these utilities in st build. I don't think other dps classes has same huge trade off. Altough,mara have been "buffed" recently (another staight nerf for aoe morale drain), damage output still low compared to others. I hope mara will be "buffed" again.

[bichka]

like already said nobody wants WE for WB and city siege unless you have guild which is ready to carry you. Even in PVE WE is low priority due to lolaoe.

[bichka]

if you want to play solo dps shaman is best choice.
heal spec for getting gear
dps for fun

[BIGXz]

if you want to play solo dps shaman is best choice.
heal spec for getting gear
dps for fun

Bummer with the Witch Elf. I actually think the play style is cool.

Actually my highest char is a 23 shaman lol. But I couldn't even imagine playing him as a dps class. Do people really play that at high level content?

[bichka]

WE in low tier is complete useless.
WE highly related on crit and tactic for 50% dmg for crits which is not available for lowbies till lvl19+. Lowbie gear doesn't provide much crit% so only way to increase it is to use ini debuff kiss. So WE have to suffer till something like rr45.

Dps shammie shine from lvl1.