DPS spec but queueing as Tank while leveling

[Glurp]

The few people you met are just idiots who think they are part of some sort of master race by being healers and they abide by stupid ethics that haven't been relevant for years. Leave them be and just find a new group, no matter how well you do they will always refuse to listen and ignore everything you say.

I meet the same sort of people every now and then at level 90. Despite having 2x the health of a tank you'd usually see in 5man heroics, doing 500k DPS, never losing aggro and never falling under 80% health some people will still refuse to heal me and sit at the start of the dungeon/port out meanwhile I go and solo the place in 10 minutes. Rejuvenation OP.

[Deleted]

So I've been leveling a Paladin as Ret spec and queueing for dungeons as a Tank. So far I am level 40 and have not had any problems holding threat or taking too much damage. With all of the heirloom gear I am already pretty tanky and I can do more DPS as Ret and therefore get the dungeon finished quicker. However, I have now had two healers who refused to heal me and said something along the lines of "I don't heal morons who pretend to be tanks." What do you guys think? Am in the wrong here or are these people just jerks?

I'm extremely surprised, almost to the level where I won't believe you even if you present evidence, that you claim to do more dps as ret.

Maybe you feel very insecure as prot and try to engage as few mobs as possible? You can basically pull all trash from boss to boss without stopping as a protadin after you get Hammer of the righteous (since that secures 100% aggro at all times).

You should also be able to keep ~700-1.5k dps (even more in some dungeons with very large packs) at least while pulling multiple trash packs. Are you really doing that dps as ret?

And as a healer, I _HATE_ it when people tank in dps spec. They are most definitely doing less dps than what a tank does and they have incredibly bad AoE threat, which forces me to get off my slacking position and switch targets, unless I'm leveling another priest.

[Deleted]

On one hand it doesn't really matter, if you can hold aggro even in a different specc you're fine with it.

Just only on low level that is. Since it's much easyier.

But.. Some healers like the ones you mentioned seem to have that old feature in their head '' Tank = Tank specc / Dps = Dps specc else me no heel ''

If you're having no trouble with it and possibly explain it to them WHY and they still complain just kick them or continue. Can't be that hard to level up.

But once you reach 50+ i suggest you switch over to a tanking Specc,

the dungeons at that level require some Aoe tanking especially in BRD and UBRS/LBRS and TBC dungeons.

As the upper coments have stated. What matters as a Tank is that you -hold- aggro. Anything else is just some other guy his or her job.

Such as healing. Oh yea and don't stand in things etc.

[Nikkaszal]

Go nuts and tank however you want in old-world dungeons. Healers can literally keep people from dying using only sporadic "small" spells (ie Rejuv, Riptide, Renew) unless it's like a clothie or something with fifty mobs on him. Healers can spend 80% of a levelling dungeon DPS'ing while occasionally topping up or shielding the tank, so it's not like damage intake is a major concern. As for aggro, see above - healing is stupidly easy at low levels. If everyone has their own mob aggro'd on them, who cares? Renew on everyone and keep spamming Smite.

[Deleted]

Care to elaborate?

Less dps, more damage taken, less threat and other people get aggro.

[Siri]

I care because dps specs generally do trash dps compared to tanks and I hate people who only care about what is good for themselves.

[Deleted]

Go nuts and tank however you want in old-world dungeons. Healers can literally keep people from dying using only sporadic "small" spells (ie Rejuv, Riptide, Renew) unless it's like a clothie or something with fifty mobs on him. Healers can spend 80% of a levelling dungeon DPS'ing while occasionally topping up or shielding the tank, so it's not like damage intake is a major concern. As for aggro, see above - healing is stupidly easy at low levels. If everyone has their own mob aggro'd on them, who cares? Renew on everyone and keep spamming Smite.

That's why it's annoying when LFR heroes don't go tank spec. I don't get to slack as much.

[Zka]

I used to tank a lot of LFD runs back in LK as prot spec but DPS gear+shield. Never said anything, just chainpulled and done HUGE dps all the way. Most of the healers haven't even noticed it. I imagine ret tanking could work in a similar way.

[Luzzifus]

I as a healer appreciate it. If I ever queue for a dungeon I want it to go fast. Even in heroics if I'm like totally bored with healing I tell the tank he may go dps spec if he wants to.

[CandyCotton Marshmallows]

Yeah, I have dual spec but I don't have the heirloom tank sword and shield and I am RAF'd with my wife right now so I level so fast that anything that drops in the dungeons is useless before I can replace it.

You'd do more damage in prot even if you were in the full tanking heirlooms. The sword and board don't matter that much, just look into keeping up with it every 15-20 levels. As long as it isn't 'pretty', the stuff can be cheap (pretty stuff goes high for xmog). Remember that stats are mild until you hit outlands. Vanilla greens and blues are not impressive to start because stats were all over the place and never in high quantities.

Just paying attention to shield drops and the AH will keep you at a decent spot for that, any weapon will do. You think you are doing great now, prot is a beast both in damage and survivability. It is also much, much easier to heal.

If your wife has a healing spec, have her heal you in prot and ret and ask her what she thinks. Don't just assume healers are being lazy. Healing a good, geared tank can be boring until a certain point; healing a no defensive stats dps can be a nightmare once you reach say Dire Maul with the ogres who hit like a truck. I've been prot in full tank heirlooms (which have less armor than comparative level blues) and would still get hit pretty hard when you can first queue up for it, I wouldn't want to be ret in ret gear for those hits (but it has been done for years, just at less of a level disadvantage).

I even quested in Prot. Trust me, the survivability and aoe damage is far superior to switching to ret for a long time ...

so in my humble, honest opinion ... either queue as ret and eat the long timer, you are playing with your wife anyway, RAF'd with 3x xp boost, or switch to tank spec for dungeons (dual spec is what 10g? 1g?).

If I were you, I'd slow the hell down and let your wife enjoy the story. If it is her first time playing a game like this; skipping the story just to grind gear at the end game is the worst possible thing you can do. Let her get into the lore. Let her see the stories of zones. Let her go at a slower pace and appreciate everything ... for new players, it is about the journey, not the destination. She'll love the game much longer for it, and it can be better quality time for you two to be in the zones and not speed running dungeons.

Unless, ofc, she is a long time gamer and loves the gear grind; then by all means race to max level and have her spam the same 6 dungeons and LFR+ for the next 4-6 months.

See, my wife and I have played WoW for a long time; we cannot take it slow even when we try. We have to play a different game to even attempt it; but our past influences us at some point usually. Once you turn, it is hard to go back. I'd LOVE to enjoy WoW like I did before I met a guild and a couple people in it told me to ignore (low level) gear and just 'get to max' then worry about it. It was the start of me changing pace and perception of the game as a whole. Now, I can 1-20 in under an hour and casually get 10 levels a night up to around cata (before the xp nerfs). But I don't see the fun in that for a new player ... no connection to the zones, the lore ... the WORLD is a huge part of the draw of the game ... not instanced dungeon killing spree funtime.

[Hyve]

As long as you're playing more defensively, and making use of what cooldowns you have, there is no issue with it.

I've almost always been a healer, and as long as they know what they're doing, I don't mind. If they think they can just run in and do a normal DPS job, and hope for the best, that annoys me as someone always gets killed, but generally if you're good at what you're doing, just keep doing it.

If people complain, just ignore them and continue.

[Raiju]

As others said, tank specs while levelling do significantly more damage. If you are using the right spells you will never be under double what the dps are doing.

[Deleted]

Don't do it as dps. It may be possible but you gain exactly nothing with it. Tanks completely dominate damage until about level 80 anyways and are less spiky once they get their good abilities (in your case the level 45 talents). The only reason that you're not dying as a retri pally is because you are either pulling slowly or that half the adds are running about.

Maybe you feel very insecure as prot and try to engage as few mobs as possible? You can basically pull all trash from boss to boss without stopping as a protadin after you get Hammer of the righteous (since that secures 100% aggro at all times).

Not true unless you're running with a disc priest. At that level you have exactly one 20% damage reduction and in 70% of the dungeons there are tons of stuns. You have no self healing and are completely dependent on your healer catching up to you and hoping to not get stunned. Don't overdo it.

[Raiju]

The only reason that you're not dying as a retri pally is because you are either pulling slowly or that half the adds are running about.

Or that dungeons are a complete joke and ANY heirloomed class can solo them up to about level 40, some bosses being a bit tricky granted.

[Deleted]

To me around L40 was the breaking point of damage anyways. In full DPS-Heirlooms the DPS I got off was higher in prot than in ret, seeing how it firstly let me chain pull more hence AoE more, and also vengeance which you can keep stacked for a rather long time seeing how you mostly never leave combat.

Dual spec is 10g and you'll probs WIN dps going prot, so really I'd say you should go for prot in dungeons

[Maelstrom51]

As someone who just leveled a healer, I don't mind. Nothing hits too hard in normal dungeons. Heck, I quite often purposely facepulled (and ended up tanking) things as a healer to get the tank to hurry up.

Its really not a big deal at all.

[Puri]

Most tanks don't have many mitigating skills at that level. And don't forget that before cata even tank skilled classes would be crit because their lack of defense.
So as long as you are holding threat I don't see a problem with that.

But putting that aside I don't see a reason why you would want to tank in a dps spec, as you will do much more damage in tank spec due to the inherent cleave for trash groups.

[Jawless Jones]

wait until you get to diremaul north, i'm pretty sure the dmg of those ogres hasnt been changed from since they were lvl 50-ish

[Ihnasir]

I've been in their shoes as a healer, but nowadays, I just want the group to go by fast. Look, if you put on Righteous Fury and seem to care about keeping the entire group safe, I'll heal the fuck out of you. Paladins have a much easier way of gaining threat in non-tank specs, and great damage. I personally wouldn't care at all unless we fucked up and died.

[Orion71483]

As long as threat and dmg intake aren't all over the place then I'm fine on my healers, otherwise you'd better be in your tank spec or I will be voting to kick. I guess really I would be kicking you for performing badly at the job you signed up to do, not the fact that you're in a different spec. If you do your job and we kill shit then I don't care.