Is dps easy mode?

I normally read the Greedy Goblin in the way that lawyers and doctors watch Gerry Springer on their days off — largely for the shock value and the schadenfreude, but with a smug belief that none of it really applies to me.

And then I read this post, in which Gevlon accuses Blizzard of placing all the responsibility for a raid's success on the shoulders of tanks and healers, effectively giving dps a free ride. As you know, I've been chain-healing my ample Tauren butt off lately and this analysis hit a slight nerve.

To be fair, I think Blizzard has come up with lots of devices and strategies to test the dps this expansion — not just enrage timers. Fires, and debuffs, and weird-old buffy things and caster tanking and a zillion phases and target switches. And dps tactics are a lot more complex and interactive than they used to be (unless you're a frost mage). I think the days of facerolling your way through fights that you don't outgear are long gone. It feels like tanks 'n' spanks are very much the exceptional bosses now, instead of the norm.

But I'll admit Gevlon's view feeds a little pocket of righteous anger that bubbles away inside of me every time I wipe to one of Blizzard's Machiavellian encounters. Because every time Blizzard tries to shake up the dps a bit, they invariably take a collateral swipe at the healers — it's either things that healers have to look out for too, or else things that healers have to cope with incidentally if the dps aren't on their toes. (It goes without saying that tanks have it hard too, in my eyes.)

In Cataclysm, healers are going to have to manage their mana pools far more carefully than they do now. They will have a larger array of healing spells to pick from, and casting the wrong one at the wrong time could have far-reaching consequences. The enrage point will be when healers oom, not when bosses get bored and one-shot the tank.

So yes, I find myself in the unfamiliar position of agreeing with Gevlon, and grumbling uncharitably about the injustice of this stupid game.

But a small part of me feels a little soiled, like I've just caught myself enjoying Fox news. Somebody put me straight, please.