Originally Posted by Ghostcrawler

Our older design was that warlocks and mages were the kinds of AOE. We've backed off that because it's just not a very fun niche. To be "the best" at something implies you're second best at other things. If that is not the case, then mage and warlock are just the best damage classes because they are tied for everything while also being the best at one thing. So then the design needs to become something unsatisfying like mages and locks are the best at AE, but not as good at single-target, or not as good at staying alive, or not as good on long fights. That technically gives everyone a role, but we found it wasn't a fun role for the mages and locks.

Our LK design is that single-target dps matters the most, because that's the most important to players, and things like AE, crowd-control, survivability, etc. are all "good enough" for everyone. There isn't a "best at AE" -- it's just something all classes do. You don't park the rogue when you have a high AE fight and you don't park the mage when you have a high single-target fight. AE matters on almost all of the Ulduar fights to some degree, but single-target dps still probably matters more.