Deuwowlity had a post here, and some things stuck me about it, talking about playing the game the way you want to – and other people giving up what they want to do, so others don’t have to.
Who you play with is a massive motivation to keep playing, and especially now with other distractions, a pre expansion slump, new games to distract you – people matter – and I have learned that it comes down to who you want to play with V how you want to play.
I was ok with following around someone being their pocket healer on a brief leveling project of a Elemental Shammy. Even though I had picked the class for something new and fun. I ended up healing while we were questing. More because it was for time spent with that someone.
I was quite happy leveling up my Healing priest in dugeons because of who I leveled with, and I probably enjoyed healing more, because I was with someone I enjoyed playing with.
I am ok healing H Sin in my current guild – ( even though I feel like most of my job is just to eat the unchained Magics sometimes)
I wasn’t ok with being forced to heal all the time on my main when Wrath came out, and I left a guild back in early days Wrath because the intended healers for the 10 man Naxx were slow levelers, so the Shadow Priest was good to use. It meant there was more than likely no permanent spot for me in the raid when the healers did finally get there. I got called selfish when I told them my reason for wanting to move on. If the people had mattered more I think I would have been ok. My attitude to healing has changed a lot now – for the right people now it wouldn’t be such a big deal.
In another guild I wasn’t ok with three active Shadow Priest raiders, when one of them refused to sit out. Ever, and this influenced my move to what become the first guild I felt like was ‘home’
I guess Healing / DPS come up for me as the most frequent circumstances of times where how I want to play v how others wanted me to play became an issue because it impacted on how I enjoyed playing. I don’t have other preferences that affect how I play. What wing gets done first is negligible, If we work on Hard Mode LK, or Hardmode RS doesn’t matter, and depends on a heck of a lot more than just one persons whim on how they want to play. Maybe my warrior will have Tank / Dps Issues in the future, or if I gear her up reasonably well she might be in a good position to be a tank in cata. ( OH THE HORROR)
Deuwowlity asked how many people are stuck playing the game in a way that doesn’t make them 100% happy and came to the conclusion it was probably a staggeringly high number. I wanted to answer – it’s who you play with that makes the difference – who you will stick around for when things aren’t all roses, but I would tend to agree. If you could ask your guild their inner most desires what spec / role they would truly love to play – I doubt you would have a viable raid.
When the people don’t become important enough to make a little sacrifice for, be it spec, time, content, progression – or lack of – then the reason you play changes – and makes it easier to leave for something /someone who is more important. I had to learn that when I was not logging in and enjoying playing that leaving is sometimes better than logging in, and hate what you will be doing for the next few hours.
When Cata comes out we will all have that chance to refresh our mains again. Asking someone to level 80-85 because you’re not going to have enough healers/tanks will be a massive ask. But some people will do that, let their choices as to who they level first, and gear up be influenced by what will be needed by their friends or guild. Duel specs will make it easier to get there, and you can try to pick up gear for both along the way, but you will still need to focus more on one aspect. You can only pick one piece for a quest reward. Do you pick what will help you level faster – or what will be more useful for the needed spec.
I am sure some guilds will be planning for this – of course things change, people change – they might get to 81 and hate their class, but it’s something to think about. Will you be leveling what you want to – playing how you want to? Or you will play what others need you to, and I guess as Gnomeaggedon points out – in his post Play the way you want to and I know us hybrids don’t let the pure dps classes complain too much about choice – but playing what you enjoy the most doesn’t just had to be a difference in role tank/dps/heals, but also the style of dps you do.
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Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 
I totally agree that who you play with matters most. Often more than what you’re actually doing: role/spec.
I hate being asked to heal. But I don’t mind volunteering if we really need it.
I jumped on the chance to join a guild 10 man run so I could get some practise at Heroic Sindragosa before our 25 man attempted her (this week was our first week learning the encounter).
I was dismayed to discover that I was the ONLY caster DPS in the 10 man. Yeah… 10 minutes of Unchained Magic. I was further upset by the end of the night: I felt that the 10 man experience hadn’t really taught me anything I could apply to our 25 mans. In the 10 man I was just assigned a quarter of the room all for myself and I did all I could to push the limits of how many stacks I could accumulate without accidentally dropping them during Icy Grip/Blistering Cold.
But I knew that in 25 man I wouldn’t be able to steal that much space for myself. In fact, I expected that as a Shadow Priest I wouldn’t be given any concessions to the fact UCM is the enemy of DoTs and a slow DPS build up.
I offered to change my PVP offspec to Holy. If i was going to be an UCM soaker, I might as well use the occasional 10 second gaps to help heal.
By the second night of attempts we’d gotten so far so fast that not only did we not need additional DPS to change to heals, the Mages and Shadow Priests were given their own spots to DPS with UCM.
We killed her last night, on our 2nd night of attempts. And not only did I do it as Shadow spec, the other Shadow Priest and I took places #1 and #3 on the damage done meters.
I love my guild. I still wouldn’t like to be expected to heal. But I am willing to offer.
For what it’s worth, changing to holy wouldn’t of helped too much. The mechanics of Unchained Magic always choose 1 healer and 1 caster-dps when available. If no caster-dps are available (or no healer) it will choose two healers (or two caster-dps).
The samething applies in 25-man, except the numbers are 3 caster-dps and 3 healers.
I have to agree.
I’ll be honest – some of the people in my guild shit me to tears at times – but as a group of people we all have our heads on the right way and when it comes to game time, everyone has their game faces on and we kill shit.
Would I socialise with these people outside of WoW? Probably not. But they accept me with my specs, and as long as I show up on time and do my role – whatever it may be – I get rewarded.
The good part is that our guild is also flexible enough for things like alt runs and other types of kills that make things better for everyone involved – and ultimately this is why I stay.
That’s what I’ve noticed about MMOs – I come for the gameplay, but it takes other people to make me stay. (Which would be why I’m not playing WoW atm – my pre-cata MMO tourism frenzy distracts from the lack of company on Dath)
And you can’t have everything just how you like it. I would like to be in the 25 man guild team every run. I would like to be in the H mode 10 man every run. I would like to drop Holy and go Disc/Shadow. But the guild has Shadow Priests and sometimes needs me in Holy and sometimes in Disc. And because it’s a decent, well-run guild and I get reasonable raiding time with largely pleasant people – my hard won Shadow set stays in the bank, at least for now.
I know what I am playing. Unquestionably, it will be a priest. Will it be shadow? Will it be holy? Will it be discipline? Those I don’t really know. Depends on how things shake out.
That said, throughout Wrath I’ve often been funneled towards playing Discipline whereas I think Holy is far more fun and entertaining. None of the other priests wanted to play Discipline, and while I thought Holy was more fun, I didn’t really mind as much. So I ended up being the token Disc Priest (boy! did that come in handy for HLK!).
Of course that said, all of our Priests were dual spec Disc / Holy, since even the most ardent Holy Priests found to use to Discipline in at least 1 fight per a raid tier (Vezax, Algalon, Anub’arak, Lich King).
I play in a high-order progression guild, but I’ve turned down offers from higher-end guild because I enjoyed the atmosphere. To me, progression is NOT the most important thing, it’s also atmosphere. I don’t think I’d like one of those (and excuse the French) “nigger, fucker, whore” type guilds.
To me it’s a bit about balance, balance between progression, between atmosphere, between being able to do what I want (Shadow, Disc, Holy), balance between loot systems, balance between raid leaders and a slew of other things. But I think class is too fundamental for me to change.
I don’t want to main-heal as a Paladin, I prefer the style of a Priest. I won’t change that.
I took it down to make some edits, I’ll put it back up this week.
For me, personally, it matters who I’m playing with. I make no apologies to my guild when I remind them that I’m not playing the spec I really love to play, but I don’t resent it. They are so good to me, friendly, and supportive of how my particular life issues affect the game that I would give up a lot to hang with them, even if it means I have to heal.
I’ll get that post back up today or tomorrow, just so people know what you’re referencing.
cool – it was a good read. Must have caught it through rss