I recently received the following comment to one of my posts:

Balanced said,
“Having played this game practically since the outset, I am still amazed that people think there is only one way to do things. If this is the case, why bother having talent trees at all? The way many of the commenters describe it, they make it sound like the game should be constructed such that you should pick from one of three pre-built builds – Holy, Protection or Retribution. If I may use this to illustrate a point, my wife is an amazing chef, but she uses a knife by cutting towards herself. ANY chef will tell you this is wrong, but it has no bearing on the food she prepares. My point, there is more than one way of doing things, and when you read these guides (and yes, that is what they are, guides) you massage the info gleaned to your liking. The World of Warcraft is filled with way too many knowallogists.”

So, is Balanced correct?  Is World of Warcraft filled with too many “knowallogists?”  To figure out an answer, there’s a number of questions we need to ask:

1. Does it matter what your setup is?
2. Does Blizzard have a “best” setup in mind when they design the game?  Do they expect us to do things in a certain way?
3. Can a best setup exist that Blizzard doesn’t anticipate?
4. Is best the same for everyone at all times?
5. How important is it to optimize your setup?  Is it useful to try to figure out the best setup?
6. Is it right to ask someone to conform to the best setup?

Let’s look at each of these questions below.

Does it matter what your setup is?

The answer to this question is undoubtedly yes.  Your talents, your gear, and the abilities you use affect your chances of being able to accomplish the different goals in the game.  A Retribution paladin in PvP gear is not going to be able to solo main tank heal in heroic Ulduar.  There are certain talents, gear choices, abilities, and strategies that give you an advantage when trying to accomplishing a certain task. 

But how far does this go, how in-depth do you need to be?  Is there a point where the advantages you gain from conforming to a certain strategy are too small to even be worth it?  Clearly healing is going to be easier if you spec into a healing talent tree.  But does it matter if a holy paladin overwrites a ret paladin’s judgement of light?  Does it matter if you have 16 Intellect instead of 8 Intellect and 9 Spell Power? How specific do we need to go?

Does Blizzard have a best setup in mind when they design the game?  Do they expect us to do things in a certain way?

Blizzard’s mantra for the PvE game in Wrath has been “bring the player, not the class“.  Clearly what they’re saying is that achieving the “optimum” setup shouldn’t be necessary in order to defeat even the game’s hardest encounters.  But even so, we know that Blizzard has a clear vision in mind when they design a boss, a talent, and an ability.  They don’t just throw in bosses, talents, and abilities and “hope” that we can accomplish the goal.  They know what abilities and talents we have and they design the bosses expecting us to use certain abilities at certain times.  They test the encounters themselves using these abilities and setups.  Even before the top guilds achieve their world firsts, we know that some elite raid at Blizzard has already downed the boss during internal testing. 

That’s why Blizzard keeps their testing and internal workings so close to the chest.  What addons do they use (and expect us to use)?  Do they beat the hardest hard modes without any addons?  What is their comp?  What is their strategy?  Blizzard wouldn’t introduce a boss to the Live servers that has never actually been defeated internally… would they?  One aspect of working out the best strategy is trying to get in the minds of Blizzard and figuring out what their intentions were when they designed a specific boss/talent/ability.

Can a best setup exist that Blizzard doesn’t anticipate?

The answer to this question is also clearly yes.  It happens all the time.  The player base will come up with a strategy or a composition that Blizzard never intended or anticipated and that actually makes the game easier than Blizzard anticipated.  Blizzard encourages this to an extent.  They don’t release in-depth strategies or guides because they want the player base to figure things out on their own.  Nerfs happen when a strategy that Blizzard didn’t anticipate turns out to be too powerful or makes the game too easy for a certain class (nerfs happen for other reasons as well).

Besides the unanticipated ways to defeat an encounter, Blizzard also undoubtedly plans and anticipates for multiple different ways to beat the same encounter.  I think one of Blizzard’s goals is to make sure there are as many different ways to beat an encounter as possible while still keeping the encounter challenging.  I’m sure they test encounters over and over again using multiple comps and multiple strategies and tweak things until they can get each strategy to work.  They’re trying to keep to the “bring the player, not the class” philosophy, but its obviously a difficult thing to do with tons of moving parts.

Is best the same for everyone at all times?

Assuming there are a few “best” strategies to use when facing an encounter, is it right to expect everyone to use those same strategies?  Is it ever appropriate for someone to use a less than ideal strategy?  Should an online guide that has been determined to be “the best” still be interpreted and evaluated by an individual, or just blindly followed?

On the one hand, you can argue that the best is the best and with practice, patience, and work anyone should be able to learn how to play “the best”.  In reality, that probably isn’t true.  Everyone has a different playstyle.  One set of gear choice or play style that works the best for one person may not in fact be the best for a different person.  They may not be able to pump out as much dps or heals as they could with an alternate setup, no matter how much practice they put in.

In addition to this, each boss encounter is different.  Each raid group is different.  And even a single person can play differently on different days.  What is the best on one day or for one boss may not be the best the next day or on the next boss.  Multiply this by 25 people and you have a ton of variables to take into account.  Part of the skill that’s involved in WoW is not just blindly following an online guide but understanding your class and your raid enough to be able to conform to the circumstances at hand… being able to use your abilities in the most optimum way possible despite them being less than ideal.

How important is it to optimize your setup?  Is it useful to try to figure out the best setup?

If there isn’t a best setup for everyone all the time, then what is the point of online guides?  Is it useful at all to try to figure out what the best setup is, when everything is so dynamic?

Online guides can still be very useful.  A good online guide will usually not declare that a certain strategy is the best.  It will give tips, it will give ideas, and it will give examples to help you out.  Ideally, it will give you multiple ideas and strategies and the advantages and disadvantages of each.  It will give you the background, give you the information and the math, and will help guide you to want your “best” setup is.

There are times in WoW where there is only one way to beat a boss.  There are times, depending on your raid group and the skills of your raid, where you absolutely need a certain talent, a certain class or a certain ability… where you need to perform a certain task at a certain time or the raid will wipe. 

Finding what this perfect setup is and executing it correctly is the biggest challenge of WoW, especially when that setup can potentially change each day.  What worked one day may not work again the next.  What worked for one group may not work for another.  The more difficult the encounter and the more undergeared your raid is compared to the content, the less flexibility you have when determining your ideal setup.  There are some small things you can do that will help your raid in a big way.  Online guides can help you figure out what that is.  On the other hand, there are some big things you could do that will only very slightly help the raid, and it might not be worth it to you to make the change.  Finding what setup is right for you and your raid is really the core of what makes this game fun.

Is it right to ask someone to conform to the best setup?

Whether its right to ask someone to make a change depends on what the impact of the change will be, both on their playstyle and on the outcome of the raid.  Its usually okay to ask someone to make a small change that will have a big impact on the raid.  A lot of people will appreciate it because it will improve their skills, make them more valuable, and probably make the game more fun for them (not to mention, allow you to down the content). 

On the other hand, asking someone to make a big change that will only have a small  impact on the raid may not be a smart thing to do, especially if the person is resistant to it.  You may end up hurting the raid more than helping it.  There are usually a number of different ways to solve a problem.  If your raid just isn’t working and the person in question refuses to try a new solution, you could fill that hole with someone new who will do what is required for the raid to succeed.  Or instead, you could postpone the progression content until you’ve farmed more gear for everyone.  Or you could try changing some other people around or trying a completely new strategy.  Which one you choose will determine the direction of your raid and your guild.

The best situation is when people are open and willing to experiment, to try new things, and to figure out what the best setup and strategy is for your group to be able to down the encounter at hand.  Keep the discussion open, talk over things, brainstorm, read and evaluate the online guides, and figure out what works best for you and your group.  Don’t be critical, judgemental, or insulting.  Don’t be afraid to try new things and to take other’s advice, even if its very different.  You may find it to be a lot funner than you thought.

Ultimately, as long as you and your guild is achieving your goals, it doesn’t matter exactly what your setup is.  The game is meant to be fun and if you find a certain setup more fun than another, and you’re still able to achieve your goals, then more power to you.  Depending on your group and what content you’re doing, there may be a number of different valid ways to defeat an encounter.  If you’re in an Ulduar-geared raid running 10-man Naxxramas, it probably doesn’t matter at all what you do.  The key is that you’re achieving your goals, working with your guild to figure out the best way to do that, and having a good time in the process.