Is WOW beginning to die out?

[Xellos]

Shockadin is a 40/0/21 build of holy where you get sanc aura to boost your holy damage (SoR, JoR, and Holy Shock, hence Shockadin). Kind of a hybrid dps/healer. You may have a spell damage set, some spell damage pieces intermingled with your healing set, or just have a healing set due to the healing > SD conversion.

[Ithekro]

Since the Spell damage and Healing sets have been changed to "Spell Power" for all, that might be deadly viable again. But those in Beta might know more...at least until the pre-expansion patch comes out and the rest of the world can try it out.

[DragoonKain3]

Well, it wasn't called a Shockadin then, but the Pally I played was basically an INT based pally specializing in the holy tree, up to the point of getting Holy Shock. Being a tough ass healer in BGs with some ability to help nuke down flag stealers was fun.

[Telmah]

Which so wrong on different levels, since most players just play them as a healbot since they don't have enough AP to heal AND damage at the same time, as the high magic mechanic only reduces cast time or increase effectiveness of instants. Maybe when they fix their mechanic, I'll take a look into it again, since I loved playing 3.x DnD Mystic Theurge and nothing in MMO's offer anything close to a viablecaster nuker/healer hybrid.

Yeah, many people at least on my side, see Shamans as only healers, but that's true of most games, if you can heal, people expect you to heal. I assume the same is true for Archmages. You can always do your own thing but you won't make many friends that way often. :/

The DoK or Warrior-Priest has two pools, one that is used for attacks and one that is used for healing. In order to refill the healing pool, he has to attack--each move refills a small amount. There's a channeled move if you absolutely cannot melee, but it's sorta of a last resort thing. It does make you more vunerable to being kited though...they can run out your healing pool and you cannot replenish it.

In alot of ways, they are fair better than the WoW hybrids (my main is a DoK) simply because of the dual targetting system. I can heal an ally and not lose track of who I am autoattacking. We don't get shields or heavy armor (only tanks get either), but we are as tanky as anyone else is, especially with the armor aura (it scales each level).

I think compairing it to the Mystic Theurgy or any online game is a fallacy. Nearly every spell in WoW (Warhammer is no better) (Everquest is probably your best bet for an online game, just because there's so many different types of often useless spells or situational ones), is a pure attack spell or a heal or a buff. There's a handful of other things like summoning food or ports. DnD due to having a human being as the DM to adjucate, had any number of other types of spells, divinations, illusions, and insane amount of flexibilty. Even low level spells like presidigation had countless ways to roleplay and actually decent uses. Mystic Theurgy has much more choice of spell selection. in DnD you could be a warmachine one day, a super information gatherer the next, an amazing healer the third, buff yourself to fight better than a warrior type (with divine power and such) or something else entirely. In fourth edition, they really toned player spell choice (many say killed it) and removed all kinds of things, making it much more like the online type game. Again seeking something like that in an online game is, well no offense, a lost cause.