I ask this question of myself in light of my recent forays into the holy side of priesting. I survived. My guild tag did not. I thought it best that I remove myself – and thus the option of my going holy from the equation.
It was with a heavy heart I made this decision, and included a three page mail as to why I gquit at 3am one morning over the weekend. They want me back, and once I explained my situation in great detail they said they were trying, and in fairness to them yes they are, and its not their fault. It seemed though that I still wasn’t getting assurances that I would be able to stay shadow – and I said that I would rather not raid then heal, but I miss the people in my guild.
Some healers aren’t 80 yet – some work late and can’ t make raid time – there were too many variables which all pointed at me having to heal again and often – Of 4 Naxx nights I was approved for I did 3 of them were as heals. thats 75% of my raid experience in Wrath so far.
Is my inflexibility my own failing? Flexibility is often to key to sucess – pathing progression roads. Would someone from a top raiding guild even hesistate when asked to do something for the team?
Have I been traumatised by previous experience as holy so badly that the idea of being stuck holy is enough reason for me to want to leave the server if not the game. The dread of logging into your favourite toon – with key bindings now on unfamiliar spells, and your face a pale pallor rather then the shadow I was used to seeing.
I didn’t roll a Shadow Priest, I rolled a Priest. My talent points made me shadow. I picked a priest 1st – Shadow second – Yet when considering my ingame identity – I’m a Shadow Priest – not a priest in shadow Spec.
The class I picked can heal – Should I be all that I can be? Even stay holy as required – especially since as a class now in raids Shadow Priests are no longer really required, easily replaced. NO! /runs screaming ” I don’t want to….!”
Oh to be a Warrior – Warlock or Mage – they never seem to face the issues that hybrid capable classes do – While the Warrior tanks – and the Warlocks & Mages Dps – everyone else suffers the odd identity crisis – Tanks – Healers- Dps?
It comes down to playing your own game, and maybe I’ve just wrecked my raiding career in wrath – or at least severely hampered it. I may even go back – once I’ve calmed down – If I’m welcome . If If if……
I wonder how many healers out there chose to be that way – or had to go that way by circumstances and just never escaped…
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I think hybrids face this a lot.
I play a shadow priest, not a priest who is shadow specced. PLEASE don’t ask me to heal. You’ll die.
I play a resto druid, not a druid who is resto specced. Ask me to DPS or tank only if you want to make the experience harder on yourself.
Just because my character CAN do something doesn’t mean I’m any good at it. And frankly, I don’t WANT to be good at healing on my priest. I raid shadow for a reason. It’s what I like to play.
If you have to choose between being a healer in a progression oriented guild, or being shadow in a guild that’s not moving as quickly as you like, that’s a choice you have to make. Which is more important, progression, or being shadow?
Oh dear. If you feel that bad about healing I don’t think you had any other option but to leave. The pressure would be too big with that lack of healers.
From a mage point of view: it isn’t always fun to be a pure dps when the competition about dps spots is so bad. How I wish that I COULD spec into healing. I wouldn’t mind, even though it would take me some time to get the hang of it I guess, never ever healed a thing before…. I’d do anything as long as it would give me a raid spot. Raiding > class/spec, in my world. It’s just that I can’t face bringing and gearing up another char from scratch, so dps-ing is my only option now.
I think hybrid classes are to be envied for their flexibility. But if you don’t want to be flexible I guess it sucks.
I’m a healer. Priest. If someday I decide to roll a DPS, I will re roll to my mage. I don’t like shadow at all.
But, I used to be a shadow priest while leveling. When I was in the LFG option, it was usually like this:
– Which spec?
-shadow
-can you heal?
-.-
No. I couldn’t.. so, While leveling 70-80, I went back to holy when I was 72…
Like Larisa said, pressure is high. I like to have spot. I have a friend that is a pally tank. I always group with him, and LFM 3 DPS for heroics and such things. Much easier and faster =D
“Would someone from a top raiding guild even hesistate when asked to do something for the team?”
hmmm… the whole take one for the team doesn’t really work if you’re the only one taking hits for the team. If the guild is taking this long to make crucial decisions on how to approach the healer problem then you’re just being victimized in liue of a proper solution.
It’s a pity you had to leave the guild over it… but I can’t even fathom forcing my members to respec so I couldn’t find fault with your leaving even if I tried.
A crying shame that…
I come at it from the other side. I’m a tank. A tankadin, to be precise. I don’t DPS. I don’t heal. Could I? Probably. I used to a LONG time ago. But I don’t have the gear to DPS or Heal. I don’t know how to spec for it. I don’t have the play time to learn. It took a lot of reading and playing to learn to tank.
It’s not just what I do.
It’s what I AM.
I play a Role. Not as in roleplaying, but playing a specific role in groups.
I have a lot of guildies that’ll respec daily, depending on what’s needed. I am just not that hardcore. I’m a tank and even if it means I can’t get a group, so be it. I’d rather PUG or skip a dungeon for days on end until there’s a healer that wants to go than make myself cranky trying to fill someone ELSE’S role.
What many people don’t understand is that the difference between specs in a hybred class is sometimes greater than the difference between the classes themselves.
I’m a healer. I’ve played around with tanking for fun once or twice, and I leveled as ret back in the day, but for the last 2.5 years, I’ve been a healer. While I appreciate and respect the people who can change specs at the drop of a hat, it’s not for everyone. In the past, I’ve explained to people that seriously asking me to respec would be like asking them to get off their mage and play a rogue. It’s a different set of skills, abilities and a mindset. I’d probably feel more comfortable swithcing to a holy priest than you would, and likewise, a proper tank would probably feel more comfortable playing my toon as prot than I would. In the end, you have to play the game the way you want.
Best of luck to you, and stay true to the way you want to play.
“…they said they were trying, and in fairness to them yes they are, and its not their fault…”
Fair enough, but based on your decision it appears that they (1) were not trying hard enough to recruit and/or (2) are at least applying enough pressure on you that if you don’t heal it won’t be comfortable sticking around.
“Some healers aren’t 80 yet – some work late and can’ t make raid time…”
And this is your responsibility how? Sure, you sucked it up and helped out in a way you didn’t want to and you should be commended for it, but enough’s enough.
“I wonder how many healers out there chose to be that way – or had to go that way by circumstances and just never escaped…”
My guess is more than half. Gut instinct. No data to support. I’m a firm believer in that healing takes a certain personality and in my experience most don’t have whatever that personality is.
“Would someone from a top raiding guild even hesistate when asked to do something for the team?”
There’s a reason that top guilds are top guilds. They do anything and everything and commit enormous amounts of time and energy to being at the top. So no they probably wouldn’t hesitate, but again they quite probably never have to worry about role shortages. They’ve got enough of everything that this would never be an issue.
Did you make the right decision? With the details you gave us, probably. If I were you, before deciding to go back, I’d express my concern about the pressure you would feel from others(whether real or imagined) by not making yourself available to heal on raid nights. Would there be resentment because you didn’t respec? If not and you felt that was the case, then I’d go back based on how you seem to like that guild.
Either way, good luck!
Looks like Isis, Captain, and Kyrilean said it all — I do think that if you went back, even if they assured you that you could stay shadow, then you would still feel the pressure (warranted or not) to heal, because it means that a mage or a rogue or hunter or some other dps-only class could not go because you went as shadow. Also, if for some reason a raid or heroic doesn’t happen because you were allowed to go as shadow but then they couldn’t somehow find a healer, you’d also feel responsible, even if they might not say anything about it.
I think you did the right thing, in other words. From the personality that you seem to have based on your writing and your posts in the past and present, you would beat yourself up over refusing to budge on the respeccing issue. That would take the enjoyment out of the game entirely, if you were constantly feeling like you had “stolen” someone’s spot or that you had let the guild down in some way by not healing.
So kudos to you for sticking to your guns! And don’t feel bad — if they’re such a top raiding guild, they’ll find other healers (if they’re so good, why haven’t they found a healer yet? Surely your reluctance to respec tipped them off that you didn’t want to heal — they either ignored your reluctance or they just didn’t care — either way it makes it seem as if they didn’t care about what you wanted.)
There are plenty of friendly, awesome, great, mature people who play this game, and I assure you that they weren’t all in your guild — you’ll find other people to run with and have fun with, I promise. 🙂
It’s a shame you’ve had bad experiences as a healer. I think the experiences you have are an enormous factor in deciding whether you’ll continue to heal or if you’ll run for the hills. When I began playing and I reached the level cap I was immediately asked by my guild to spec Resto (I play a Shaman). I was a bit apprehensive about it because I’d levelled as Enhancement and I loved my Windfury. If you ask me if I play a class or a spec I’d say a class, since Resto isn’t the only spec I like to and can play.
So yeah, I began healing to help the guild out a bit, started running Karazhan and up. I wasn’t a very good healer, but nobody ever told me I sucked. They knew I was just starting out and that I wouldn’t know all the ins and outs of my class. I think if people had started insulting me I would’ve backed out of healing.
Luckily for me once I became better at healing I did start to enjoy myself more, so I’m still Resto now. But I won’t pretend that it was completely by choice. I’m still an Enhancement-lover and if somebody said “hey, would you like to be Enhancement for raiding?” I would probably respec in a heartbeat (since after being Resto for 2 years you start to fancy a change of pace). The annoying thing about playing a class capable of healing is that you’ll always feel personally responsible if people in your guild couldn’t get a healer for a 5 man or raid, and people will most likely make you feel bad about it as well.
Ultimately though, you should play the spec you enjoy and you should raid with people who have at least some consideration for what you want out of the game. If your guild can’t recruit new healers, that isn’t your problem, even if they try to make you feel bad about not healing for them. If Shadow Priest is your thing, you should DO your thing and have fun. Sounds a bit hypocritical coming from a Resto Shaman who really wants to play Enhancement, but hey. ;D
I don’t think you’ve ruined your raiding career. There’s bound to be a guild out there that would accept and appreciate a good Shadow Priest. Just beware… no matter where you are, someone somewhere sometime is probably going to ask you to heal something. It’s the “down” side of having heal buttons in your spell book. You could do what a friend of mine tells people who randomly whisper him to heal PUGs: “Sorry, I didn’t train that spell.”
Hehe.
Even in top raiding guilds we don’t really force someone to play a spec.
Only time my guild forces a spec is when you don’t have min-max pve spec that will help the raid either dps/healing/tanking.
Officers “ask” players if they want to spec out of their raiding spec and sometimes they even pay for it. If no, not a big deal really. If yes, awesome!
If they we do agree to change spec really quick it’s only for that run or 2.
There are 2 reasons for this that I can think of.
a.) We don’t want to give you gear you don’t wanna use or will only use once a month over someone who uses it all the time.
b.) If you get gear from raiding as a spec you really dont want … chances are you will stop raiding anyway and play the spec you want. Which means wasted gear! = another runs to gear up your replacement.
i play a spec. i play as holy and i have absolutely no interest in raiding as shadow whatsoever. i am a healing priest.
my guild has the opposite dilemma – we have no shadow priests and we wasted a good hour last night, looking for a shadow priest for naxx 25 man. i know that SP utility has gone down while pure spell damage has been buffed but have they really gone back to what they were pre-bc in terms of raid desirability?
i really don’t understand why your guild would insist that you re-spec indefinitely when you have made it clear that you are un-interested in raiding as holy. is it that hard for your guild to recruit a healer? i’m sure i’m oversimplifying b/c i play a healer and am oblivious to the LF healer dilemma. still, your guild is not doing what it should to keep you happy and abused your generosity in respecing for them. i also understand that you miss your friends but your friends should have done more to keep you, rather than make you eat one for the team during every raid and making no reassurances as to when you could go back to shadow.
you made the right choice so don’t look back and do NOT doubt yourself for a second. you are being a bit overdramatic when you say that you have ruined your raiding career. =)
you will find a guild that appreciates the awesomeness of your shadow dps. if you were horde we would extend an invite to ya 😉 we really really need a freaking shadow priest.
@Isisxotic – Being shadow is more important to me – then progression the times when I have done well while doing something I like the victory feels hollow – I don’t think I’m sucking badley – no one is dying because I heal didn’t go through.
@Larísa I don’t mind being flexible, but my idea of flexible, is emergency healing – helping keep the tank up when the healer dies I do that without thinking – before they are yelling for heals, but I can’t / don’t want to get stuck healing all the time. I don’t enjoy it.
@wowgirl – as long as you enjoy healing – I guess the good thing is that a healer is always wanted – easier to get instance runs, its just I find the other other things I like doing questing/farming/pvp I like doing are just so much harder.
@captain – they didn’t hold my head underwater to make me – its just that you can’t say no.
@Dudama – I agree that the differences in the specs means its a different type of learning. I did work at being a good S Priest – and the achiever in me wants/would want to be a good holy priest
@Healadin – cheers – I think its not only just being able to change at a drop at a hat – its being good at both roles rather then great at one.. _ I would rather be great then good.
@kyrilean – I think there could be some resentment – imagine the idea that a raid or a particular boss can’t be brought down because I won’t respec as needed. I think for now the decision was right. If I can stick to it before my invite to go back gets withdrawn – I’m not so sure.
@D – I hope they attract the people they need – they are a good bunch – It just seems to be fierce competition for healers – or they are slower to level – and I did offer to help out healers level but no one wanted it..
@Neppy Maybe I’d enjoy healing – but no – I like melting face – in raid/ in instances/ in questing/farming.. I’m sorry you had to respec 😦 but if your enjoying it then its ok.. hopefully your transistion wasn’t too painful.
@Seri – lol – I don’t think anyone would be impressed with me of I didn’t train holy spells lol – it would be as bad as hunter not training traps..
@Herc – I agree on the gear part – its also a concern that you will get passed over for loot on your main spec because you just scored a healer item so you can heal item – they would have to do it all again anyway to gear up another healer.
@neku74 – we are at least unrequired in 10 mans – its easy to stack it with other dps – Its not their intent on my being a healer permanently – but for the long forseeable future of 10 mans and then while we get into 25’s and go through the same shortage it would happen again. Maybe I’m being a little overdramatic about the raiding career – but its put me off looking elsewhere for a while
cheers everyone for your comments!
90% of the people would do what’s told and stay holy.
You did not! I know you got lot of support on this blog, yet it’s you who made the decision to follow your own way and not serve a bunch of selfish kids.
You – unlike most – are not a dumb loser. I have no doubt that you will raid. Especially since 25 man naxx demands SP. They need you. Simplest way to find them:
/2 Shadow priest, hitcapped for Razuvius, having Replenishment buff (about 200MP5 for 10 men in the raid), ready to spec 23/0/48 if you need Imp divine spirit, having XX spellpower, looking for a raiding guild
I’m just as sure you will see Malygos down, as sure I am that people are buying my Ice Cold Milk for 1G as I write.
@gevlon – I do respect them alot.. and as long as people don’t object then kids and adults will get away with what they want. and im not hitcapped yet! = Almost! but thanks to everyone for your support and urs too 🙂 and I hope your making as much money in Rl as you seem to do so easily in wow 🙂
I play the class more than a spec tbh, if my guild asked me to play shadow or to heal I would do what was best/needed.
It is up to you as you pay the money and should play how you want.
I play more for the social aspect and if truth be told I would LOVE to stay Discipline and my guild is going to let me to prove to them how good it is.
Ps I will link you tomorrow as I am now going to have tomorrow blog called “Class or Spec?” thank you.
For what it’s worth, you did the right thing. Everyone has a different take on this game but the bottom line is it’s only worth playing if you enjoy it. Good luck finding your new home.
I play a tank, and I tank.
Occasionally I heal or dps, sometimes I make others heal or dps (had a boomkin healing when we accidentally picked up four dps for a heroic). Flexibility is key, but only on your terms, you are recruited as a role, not as anything else, if they want flexibility they need to have it on your terms, there are some people that love doing both, but they need to gear you for both, my healing gear last time lagged about a tier behind my tank gear, in short I wasn’t worth bringing as a healer except in an emergency.
*Cheer Zahrah up* I’m sorry that you have to go through all these…I hope that things will settle down and you can find a guild that you love as much as your previous one soon. I commend you for knowing what you want and sticking to it! After all, this is your game too 🙂 Keep us posted, ok!
I rolled a spec.
I am a healing priest, and I do not enjoy dpsing on my priest. I rolled with friends, with the full understanding that I would be healing. I LOVE healing on my priest, and not once has it ever felt like something I have been pressured into, nor have I ever felt the burning desire to embrace the shadows.
I know I’m fairly unique in this – I know many hybrids (and yes, priests are hybrids) who rolled for a damage spec and were then pressured into a healing role.
I would feel extremely unhappy to be pressured to be shadow, just as you are unhappy being pressured to be holy. It’s different when it is our choice.
I hope that you find a home – a place where you can be yourself with people that appreciate you. Play the game to have fun – anything else, and you’re just paying to have another job you hate.
*hugs*
Just wanted to drop in and offer my $.02. Having been a mage for two and a half years before switching recently to my Shadow Priest, I sympathize with what you’re saying. When I was a mage, I was always conscious of what I was doing because there was always someone ready and willing to replace me. I think I had it a little easier than some because I’m the DPS lead officer in my guild, so my spot was safer than it might have otherwise been. Being pure dps and nothing else is a lot of pressure to perform.
Where my shadow priest is concerned, I’m still feeling a little wobbly on my new DPS legs. I’ve not been a shadow priest long, but I think I’m pretty good at it. I changed for the challenge. That said, I’m still constantly asked to respec and heal. I always say no, without exception because I’m not a healer. I get a lot of derision, ugliness form guildies and from non-guildies who’re trying to pug me as a healer. If I had a gold for every time I heard “So? Just respec!” or “I miss the days when priests didn’t pretend to be DPS,” or “Be a team player,” I’d have a shiny new Dalaran ring AND a new mammoth mount. I just simply say no and they can take it or leave it.
Recently, I had a run in with another officer, a pally. He’s a constant respeccer, he’s whatever spec he needs to be to get by for the group. He wanted me to respec and heal an instance and when I said no, he called me out in front of the whole guild, he told me I wasn’t being a team player. I nearly gquit right then. He was just being ugly, but it stung. The fact is, I’m a team player, part of the reason I changed my main to Shadow Priest is for the replenishment buff for healers. For him to say that to me, in front of everyone, it hurt. I still said no. I told him that I was DPS and if he didn’t need DPS I would sit out. He let it go, thankfully.
All in all, I would say you should do what you enjoy. Do what feels right to you, you pay for this game and you should be able to play it the way you want. Yes, healers are scarce everywhere these days, but that doesn’t mean you should have to be one just because you happen to have a talent tree called holy. Be a Shadow Priest if that’s what you are, they should respect that.
Okay, now that I’ve written you a book, I’m off. I’ve enjoyed what you’ve had to say! Best of luck to you with whatever you decide to do.
Just wanted to drop in and offer my $.02. Having been a mage for two and a half years before switching recently to my Shadow Priest, I sympathize with what you’re saying. When I was a mage, I was always conscious of what I was doing because there was always someone ready and willing to replace me. I think I had it a little easier than some because I’m the DPS lead officer in my guild, so my spot was safer than it might have otherwise been. Being pure dps and nothing else is a lot of pressure to perform.
Where my shadow priest is concerned, I’m still feeling a little wobbly on my new DPS legs. I’ve not been a shadow priest long, but I think I’m pretty good at it. I changed for the challenge. That said, I’m still constantly asked to respec and heal. I always say no, without exception because I’m not a healer. I get a lot of derision, ugliness form guildies and from non-guildies who’re trying to pug me as a healer. If I had a gold for every time I heard “So? Just respec!” or “I miss the days when priests didn’t pretend to be DPS,” or “Be a team player,” I’d have a shiny new Dalaran ring AND a new mammoth mount. I just simply say no and they can take it or leave it.
Recently, I had a run in with another officer, a pally. He’s a constant respeccer, he’s whatever spec he needs to be to get by for the group. He wanted me to respec and heal an instance and when I said no, he called me out in front of the whole guild, he told me I wasn’t being a team player. I nearly gquit right then. He was just being ugly, but it stung. The fact is, I’m a team player, part of the reason I changed my main to Shadow Priest is for the replenishment buff for healers. For him to say that to me, in front of everyone, it hurt. I still said no. I told him that I was DPS and if he didn’t need DPS I would sit out. He let it go, thankfully.
All in all, I would say you should do what you enjoy. Do what feels right to you, you pay for this game and you should be able to play it the way you want. Yes, healers are scarce everywhere these days, but that doesn’t mean you should have to be one just because you happen to have a talent tree called holy. Be a Shadow Priest if that’s what you are, they should respect that.
Okay, now that I’ve written you a book, I’m off. I’ve enjoyed what you’ve had to say! Best of luck to you with whatever you decide to do.
PS. The other comment is mine, but has a different name/website on it. If you could just delete that one, I’d appreciate it. Thanks!
I played a healadin throughout vanilla and tbc, and was one of my guilds staple healers with maybe a 75% raid attendance, and saw most of the first kills through hydross to illidan. Come wotlk the plan was to level my shadow priest first then eventually level my healadin. I enjoyed the change with my priest and stayed with him and havent levelled my paladin.
However healer shortage means I specced holy to help out, which means I collect holy gear and puts me behind any other shadow priests in the guild. Other hybrids havent respecced so I cant complain too much but I certainly felt an unsaid pressure to turn holy with my healer background.
Cant see any time in the future where the guild will have enough regular h for me to try dps so Im watching green bars again for a year it seems. Still I enjoy it more than some, and with the ease of raiding these days hopefully soon loot will open to offspecs.
awesome stories guys – thankyou for sharing and making me feel like I’m not alone, and that I don’t have to feel guilty about not wanting to play a healer. So many of your stories have been that through circumstances you have had to play healers, and either gotten to like it or not – I know there are people out there who do love healing, but it seems there are alot of unwilling or reluctant healers out there too.. and without people who do heal we can’t raid Its a catch 22 – and even though i appreciate that there are healers out there I honestly hope they are doing it because they guinuely enjoy that.
After 4 raids you gave up on the guild? Your toon can heal, you should be the first ( especially now that gear goes both ways ) to offer to help out. You should be the first to leave shadow aura and throw a few heals if it’s going badly. I think you didn’t like the guild very much.
@Johnny – if it were as simple as breaking out of shadow and fulfuling a raid healing requirements then It wouldnt be a problem, the issue has been about repecing to holy which means I am not playing a Shadow Priest due to tree talents, as an emergency healer in raids or instances I don’t have a problem , I did it in Heroic yesterday Healer died, I kept the tank and rest of group up and we finished the fight without a wipe. That should be standard, if the situation is salvagable then you would be a bad player if you didn’t use all your tools to keep the fight going. However I don’t enjoy healing as a primary role. I don’t want to respec as required, and even when they bring in duel specs I don’t want to be holy – I’m planning on going PVP spec for my 2nd as once it becomes so easy to make any and all dps healers then any hybrid class will be a healer. No options. because its so easy. I don’t mind being utilty as the moment calls for it, but I have not chosen to play wow as a healer and while i love Priests.. If I was forced without choice to do so i would find another game or make my mage my main.
Healers are very important – and I don’t think we appreciate them enough people who do love healing will beifit a great deal from the duel specs as they will be able to fight well farming/pvp/dailys well without having to be gimped because they chose to heal.
I would agree with most people here and say you did the right thing for the given situation. I would say I don’t really play a class or a spec, but rather a role. When I’m playing my priest I play the role of a healer, either disc or holy. I have tried playing shadow, but always go back to holy because it is what I enjoy doing with him. Whenever I dps I always feel like I’m not performing as well as I should (probably how you feel when playing Holy) and I’m slowing down the run. When I play my warrior I play as a tank and again when I have to dps with him I just don’t seem to do very well. Finally on my hunter I obviously have to dps but I don’t play him hardly at all since I don’t feel like his dps is on the same level as other dps around his level. So I say stick to what you enjoy playing and don’t change just because “you have to”. I will never spec my priest for DPS to do a raid and when the dual spec system comes out he still won’t have a DPS spec. I’ll have a disc healing build and a Holy healing build and will happily dps my way through dailies and other random things at a severely gimped DPS output. 🙂 Kudos to you for not giving in to the pressure.
didn’t see a way to edit my comment but right now I’m Disc and loving it, not holy.
I love all of the comments. Now here’s mine:
Has anyone else had this conversation?
PersonRandomlyWhisperingMe: Wanna heal (Random Instance)?? 🙂
Me: I’m shadow.
Them: Yeah, but you can heal.
(Thanks, I didn’t know I could do that.)
Me: Not very well.
Them: It’s cool. We just need any healer and we’re g2g
At this point I’m annoyed. So I click on the name to see who I’m talking to. It’s a druid.
Me: Um, can’t you heal?
Them: I’m Feral
Me: Yeah, but you can heal.
Them: Not very well.
Me: It’s cool. You just need any healer and you’re g2g.
And if I’m really feeling snarky:
Me: Send invite. I’ll dps AND replenish you.
Why are we the only class that has to deal with this?
@Rob – I think Pallys and druids are used to flitting back and forth between specs, maybe its the appeal of the toon but I think Dps pallys would be in the same situation as we are – why dps when you could tank OR heal – and poor shamans.. aka oomkins..
maybe its because its common perception that in relevant gearing we make awesome healers, but we will never be taken seriously as being able to pump out the dps that mages and warlocks do..
The role is the role. I think most people play a role, not a class; I’m a holy paladin, not a paladin-who-happens-to-be-holy-right-now. (In fact, *cough*, I’m actually Ret right now – but that’s not the point!)
If I couldn’t play my paladin as holy, I’d be more likely to change to another healer class than I would to respec full time. You’re not unreasonable for wanting to play your character the way you want.
But one thing you said jarred a bit – “Oh to be a Warrior – Warlock or Mage – they never seem to face the issues that hybrid capable classes do – While the Warrior tanks – and the Warlocks & Mages Dps”
Heh. I have known a lot of DPS warriors who wanted to tank about as much as you want to heal.
The only true non-hybrids in the game are mages, warlocks, hunters, and rogues. Everyone else can fulfil two, three or four roles. 🙂
hey.
this is just an idea – you could try discipline which has a lot more survivability than holy, though over all healing power is reduced, disc is amazing for damage absorption. i think it a good main tank healer build in WotLK. i raided as pure holy in TBC and now am going to be doing so discipline.
you shouldn’t feel so guilty for not fulfilling a guild need. you pay the same subscription fees like everyone else and deserve to enjoy the game. if this means you enjoy shadow then that’s what it is.
i enjoy healing. i can’t imagine playing any other kind of role in raiding/dungeoneering. some things come more naturally to people. i think tanking, like healing is quite specialized. as you can figure i’ve never played much of a dps class at all.
anyway, enjoy what you are – make the most of it. i am sure there will be a guild who will accept you as you are. good luck.
ack so selfish, you guys would rather cancel a raid than respec, you’d never EVER fit into a hardcore guild. I have 3 specs of tanking, healing, and DPS, and i love all three. I mostly play DPS but sometimes when we’re short once a week or every other week (more at beginning of expansions obviously) i respec and i’d much rather raid and be included than be sat because i wasn’t capable of thinking of other people besides myself.
BTW – When pure classes don’t respec, or their spec isn’t needed, they obviously aren’t forced to respec, they SIT OUT.
i’d NEVER be happy with myself if my guild was losing world rating on wowprogress because i refused to respec to feral to tank… :S.
Hi Ailetha,
I didn’t think people used druid tanks anymore 😛
I don’t play wow to be that flexible, I don’t think the original concept of raiding was that there be so much flexibility, if everyone can be hybrids, wheres the purity of class, abilitys, skill. I can heal. I can even following healing assignments, and work on mana regen, I have understanding of my classes healing abilitys, but the idea of doing that for raiding stints of up to 5 hours. I would burn out. Then quit raiding. Then quit playing wow. I do not have fun, and if part of your fun is the world rating, then thats your fun.
maybe I will never be one of wow’s top raiders, but I tell you that If I ever decided to have a go, I would roll a pure damage class.
I read your article(blogicle?) here and just cant help myself, I have to comment.
Thank GOD, there is someone else(apparently quite a few) who is sane and plays WoW.
Ill admit, when I started playing a paladin 2 yrs ago, I did it as a favor to some friends of mine that bought me the game(and subscription). They needed someone to tank, and at low levels all ye really need is some mail or plate 😉 I liked the idea of a paladin because Id be a magic user and a holy warrior full of fanaticism and zeal!
Then the leveling grind began, I started learning. I went retribution. I got nice bit crits and swung huge swords(well, axes usually actually). Then I got to the magic number, level 70.
‘lvl 70 paladin LFG!’
‘Spec?’
‘Ret.’
‘u suck.’
Variants of that, some polite…most not. I finally asked my guild friends and they told me that most people want paladins as tanks or healers. I hate healing(let me wiggle my fingers and stand in the back like a scared man, whoo! Fun), so I went tank.
And Ive never looked back. Ive gotten pretty damn good at it, had alot of help gearing up(and I get it even now in WoTLK), I know alot of good healers, decent DPS’ers…and if I feel the urge to just one-shot something instead of wearing down a mob of ten, I log in on my warlock.
The few times Im ever asked if I heal, I respond with ‘Sure; pay for my respec fees, buy me all the gear Id need for this encounter level, and train me. Or, go find someone who actually heals’.
Hi, Im TheOneTrueTank, and Im a paladin. *que WoW commercial here*
Always stick to your guns, and to hell with the naysayers. There are reasonable fun folk out there in the gameworld.