Everything you said is pretty much true, especially concerning low to mid realm rank hib groups like you guys are running.
The all around most powerful groups we ever ran were definantly the balanced ones ashmir is talking about. But this all falls back on both our casters in the group being over rank 10. This made a huge difference in survivability and dmg output.
When our A balanced group was in top form, we could rape any alb group. Period.
And on the other side, we won more against Release with our casters than with our melee group. Never fought LA, have never played on lance when they were around. So I dont know the results.
But pound for pound we held our own alot better running: 1 bard, 1 druid, 1 warden, 2 Heros, 1 bm, 1 eld, 1 chanter. The healing output sounds gimp on paper, it just worked becuase our dmg output was so great.
My weekly IRS on my Eld the last few months I played him was between 6.5-8 k. My Hero during the time I played him was usually 4-5 k. So even being a caster in paper armor, my groups did so much better.
Im definantly in favor of running your guys setup if I wasnt playing with incredibly high realm rank casters that played day in and day out who were on top of their game.
So generally speaking your right, its just not optimal.
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Melkorai-Eldritch
Nis/Mis-WAR
{KoS} {Free Rps}