Are you forced into one spec?

[Chaos Overlord]

It seems that people are being forced into one spec for their class. I knowguilds want to be able to the do the best possible, but if the spec is made to heal, it shouldnt matter if its not a priest, they should be able to heal. People shouldnt be forced to change to feral or enhancement because they can, and priests shouldnt be forced to be holy. Every spec brings something to the table imo, and people should just learn to accept it.

Im sure my guild would love me to pvp with them ret, and then respec prot for tanking for them, but they also realized that as a prot pally, I could actually help them get WSG and EOTS marks faster. Its just something I bring as my spec, and it goes to show that every spec can bring something to the table.

Thoughts on this?

 

[Dakho]

I would like to say here and now, I am prot by choice! And the spec-forcing has gone way down, as in endgame every spec is needed. Even fury!


Shadow Priests are possibly the greatest raid utility, asides from shamans.

Resto Shamans are extremely useful (mana tide, earth shield).

The only spec that is not raid-worthy is feral(cat). And that's it. But you'll still see feral(cat) druids in the raids.

 

[~Void~]

Guilds love feral druids for the tankage, but they hate balance druids. They hate frost mages, they hate enhancement shammies, they hate elemental shammies, they hate beastmaster hunters, they hate arms warriors and dislike fury warriors, they hate ret pallies, they hate any warlock that's not demonology spec, they hate rogues that aren't spec'd to do the absolute most DPS as possible. Nub guilds. I don't join guilds, I just find one that's raiding, go on their raid and try to steal as much loot as possible before I get kicked. Usually I can take 2 pieces, first time I blame on a misclick and the second they just boot me. But 2 pieces is damn good for me!

 

[Huurka]

Arms is good for raiding. With Slam, that is. If you time it right, you can go to the top of DPS meter.

 

[Chaos Overlord]

In my server each guild normally has a enhance shammy with them to help the rest of the people's dps and such. Destr locks arent viable in raids?

Lol nice on the loot taking, requires skills to do that

 

[777devil777]

In most cases its not so much "forced".

Balance druids = Pretty rare. These guys actually are a big help to raids with insect swarm and moonkin aura but most guilds need resto/feral more.

Frost Mage = If your raiding like this you should be gkicked. This is like having a prot warrior dps for raids.

Classes like warriors or rogues should always be specced for maximum dps if they are in a raiding guild. More dps = faster proggression. If you arn't going to respec for the good of your guild, why should the tanks respec for you? Why should you be given free epics?

Every week I respec frost to do arenas/pvp. I respec back to fire to raid. Its only 100g a week on respecs which is only less than a day of dailies.

Edit: Arms warriors are good dps but scale badly. By MH they will be dropping to 7-10 on meters. Enh shammies are great. Destro is THE spec for end game raiding. Feral Kitties are horrible.

Lucky classes don't have to worry. These classes are: Pally (excluding ret), Priest, Shaman, Hunter

 

[Chaos Overlord]

Why are those classes you listed on the bottom "lucky" and dont have to respec? Just going through them in my head, most of those classes specs are completely different from eachother, so it seems they would have to respec more often.

And imo, the tank isnt respeccing for anyone but himself. Im prot specced becuase I like to tank... and my server has like a shortage of tanks and its easy to find groups, but still.

 

[Dakho]

Hunter - Can go any spec but Survival and raid.

Priest - Heal or Shadow, either extremely helpful.

Paladin - Even ret is accepted for crusader's strike, and in WotLK they get a heap of raid util.'s. And of course prot/holy are great.

Warrior - All but arms, but Arms is pvp anyway...

Warlock - lol

Rogue - You go to combat but it's the same playstyle either way (subtle differences)

Druid - Balance is accepted, pretty much all of it but feral cat.

Shaman - Elemental probably least in raid but enhance shammies are awesome.

Mage - Any but arcane, but hey, arcane just sucks overall.

 

[777devil777]

Why are those classes you listed on the bottom "lucky" and dont have to respec? Just going through them in my head, most of those classes specs are completely different from eachother, so it seems they would have to respec more often.

I listed those classes because they can be any spec.

Protection pallys are heavily needed for MH and MT in ssc, not to mention it makes many BT pulls easier. Latley I've seen a couple arena setups using a prot pally up in the 1700s.
Holy pallies heal. 'Nuff said.
Ret pallies have seen a great improvment in pvp, and can actually do some pretty good burst along with having the advantage of plate and being able to heal.

Holy priest - healing. 'Nuff said.
Shadow Priest - Every high end raiding guild has atleast one, sometimes up to three. They give mana back to their party (Which is awsome in boss fights or long arenas) and they do minor healing which helps overall.
Disc Priest - Improved spirit for raids, pain supression on BB in BT, Power infusion, not to mention its the best arena spec for priests.

Enh Shammy - Great dps and totems. Burst for arenas.
Ele Shammy - Great dps and totems. Burst for arenas.
Resto Shammy - Heals. 'Nuff said.

BM hunter - Decent raiding and pvp spec for many hunters.
Marks hunter - Same as above
Survival - Not as great for pvp as they lose some dps, but of course they get more survival. Survivals hunters are a huge addition to raids with their talents.

This is why I listed these classes as not needing to worry about spec as much. All their specs are great.

@Above poster, pretty much right there except for a courple things. In the kara/ssc level there arn't that many good warrior 1Hs so a 2H arms warr can actually do more dps with something as low as a honor pvp weapon.

Arcane is the best mage spec in the game.

Warlocks are more like rofl.

 

[Chaos Overlord]

Alright I get what you meant, I thought you said they were lucky because they could do all of their roles in any of their specs so they wouldnt have to respec that way. I get what you mean now.

The Storm is Comin'

 

[Schinxz]

Guilds love feral druids for the tankage, but they hate balance druids. They hate frost mages, they hate enhancement shammies, they hate elemental shammies, they hate beastmaster hunters, they hate arms warriors and dislike fury warriors, they hate ret pallies, they hate any warlock that's not demonology spec, they hate rogues that aren't spec'd to do the absolute most DPS as possible. Nub guilds. I don't join guilds, I just find one that's raiding, go on their raid and try to steal as much loot as possible before I get kicked. Usually I can take 2 pieces, first time I blame on a misclick and the second they just boot me. But 2 pieces is damn good for me!

I agree on some of this, and disagree on some.
My guild doesn't dislike the cats. They have good functionality because the feral dps and the feral tanking spec is the same. Bring a cat as dps and you will also bring an off tank as long as he got the gear. Their dps isnt half bad either.
I Strongly disagree when you say that guilds dislike elemental/enhancement shammies. Elemental shammies deals some of the most awesome dps in late game raids. If you bring elemental shammies, you should bring atleast one enhancement shammy too for the lowered nature resistance from stormstrike.
Bm hunters isn't hated, their dps can almost match the mm hunters, and they have party benifits such as ferocious inspirations.
Atleast one arms warrior should be in a raid for mortal strike.
Fury warriors do awesome dps but often have some aggro issues.

I agree with the hate for ret palas. But if you roll a pala, i dont see why you would wanna spec it retri tbh
They hate warlocks who isnt demon spec? wtf, we only have destro and affil locks in our guild, dont ever see demon locks in late game raids :S
They hate rogues who isnt specced for max dps. Well, rogues is a pure dps class, so why not do it as good as possible? You wouldnt like a healer who didnt spec for optimal healing when grouping with your prot warrior/pala (whatever you are xD)

I don't join guilds, I just find one that's raiding, go on their raid and try to steal as much loot as possible before I get kicked. Usually I can take 2 pieces, first time I blame on a misclick and the second they just boot me. But 2 pieces is damn good for me!

You suck -.-