Tank like a girl

 
It’s the simple things in life that make this warrior happy. Like breaking 8k with Shield Slam. Lavanthor’s Talisman, I want to cuddle you, hug you, and call you my BFF.

With 3.1 on the horizon, everyone in the WoW blogosphere appears to be talking about dual specs. It’s the latest rage. To my huge surprise, the naysayers are currently seemingly outweighing people looking forward to dual specs. The argument appears to be that it will make hybrids insanely powerful and popular, and that pure DPS classes will be left in the dust. As a casual player and raid leader, I do not agree with this view.

For small, casual guilds, the change to dual specs will allow easier filling of raid rosters. Let’s take my last raid. I has slotted myself for healing, but the slotted main tank turned out to be sick. I brought Kadomi to the raid instead, at the cost of having our retribution paladin spending gold on respeccing and enchants so she could heal instead of DPSing. With the change to dual spec, she could have switched with one-click, saved herself the re-glyphing, it would have been a little more pleasant. Now, this particular retribution paladin used to be a healer and that’s why I felt confident in slotting her for heals instead. To think that any hybrid can fill all roles however is utopical.

My other half is playing a feral druid as main, to tank. With dual specs she wants to try giving balance a shot for lazer pew pew chicken action. I wouldn’t dream of scheduling her for any raids until she’s actually geared up properly and has her rotations down properly. It’s a great option for one tank fights to provide extra DPS, but it will take practice. No one should expect anyone who’s picking a second spec for a different role to be immediately good at it. If I have the choice between a fire mage who’s played the spec in many raids and the balance druid who’s usually a tank, the fire mage will always win.

If people want to take the opportunity to play around with different specs now that they can, great. I have no intention of dictating to people what kind of spec they need to raid. I actually did that once, because I thought we didn’t have enough DPS, and it didn’t work, because people don’t play well when they don’t enjoy a specific role. If people offer to fill several roles and I have first-hand experience that they can, I will always lean towards letting them do their favorite role.

As for pure DPS classes, how awesome are dual-specs for you? Hunter who always wanted to try survival but loves their exotic pets? There ya go. Rogues who want to be all about mutilate, but want to be a lolstepper in Wintergrasp? Huzzah. Frost mage for soloing, frostfire in raids? Sounds tasty. Warlock who loves felguards, but kinda wants really kick-ass DoTs on the side? I could go on and on.

Cheer up, folks, it’s going to be great. For hardcore progression guilds nothing will change, other than hybrids not having to spend respec between encounters much. For casual guilds, you will eventually have a larger pool available to fill specific roles, if people are so enclined. I know that in my guild just about everyone is saying ‘Can’t wait for dual specs!’ at least once a day.

Kadomi is going to get dual specs. 15/5/51, my current spec, for maximum threat on trash and farmed content. 5/13/53 for Imp Demo Shout, Piercing Howl and Imp Spell Reflect, for progression fights. I was briefly toying with the idea of goings Arms or Fury, but heck, I do sufficient damage solo, and I do not want to be a DPS warrior in raids. I want to tank, stat.

For further views about dual spec, good or bad, check out other blogs around the blogosphere:

• Mirror Shield: I’m Buying You All A Round Of Tranq Shot
• Forever a Noob: Dual spec craziness
• Spinksville: Dual specs bringing back the hybrids?
• Tobold: Dual specs and hybrid nerfs

So, tanks of the world, what are your plans for the second spec? Join the club of dedicated tanks picking two different tanking specs?