Hybrids in Vanilla

[Anshinritsumai]

There wasn't anything for mages as a hybrid class, though "elemental" (fire/frost or frost/fire) mages were a bit new and controversial near the end of classic.

I started playing WoW right before MC was released, so by the time I was 60 on my Paladin, people were already into BWL.

MC was never "released," it was in WoW at launch. Patch 1.3 added the BRD attunement portal to get there quicker though.

[philefluxx]

I played a shadow priest. I was the mana battery that did some damage, but not like a dps class. It was all about utility, I loved it.

[Deleted]

I played a shadow priest. I was the mana battery that did some damage, but not like a dps class. It was all about utility, I loved it.

Same goes for me as elemental buffing casters. Switching groups around during raids to get the max amount of output out of certain buffs...it was amazing.

[demonocus]

Elemental shaman, used to roll with another ele shaman. If either of us were in trouble, spam lesser healing wave on the other. Loved popping zhc and nac and killing 3 people with a chain lighting.

[madwabbit]

interesting read

[SamR]

With 40 slots, you always had a few hybrids spec into poor specs for the buffs while still healing. Paladins are the best example to get the blessings down the other trees. Shaman, too, for Imp WF Totem.

There was no real reason to carry a feral or balance druid in the raid, but I'm sure most guilds were like mine and had that one guy who really really wanted to play feral so we let him even though his DPS was way below the pure DPS classes.

[Gsara]

26/25 healing priest hybrid, best healing spec pre-BC. PvP shadow, amazing with the AQ40 set and Naxx 40 off pieces.

[speehs]

I raided as an enhance shaman. It was pretty fun. I basically just autoattacked the boss and switched between dps and throwing out heals as needed.

[LazarusLong]

There wasn't anything for mages as a hybrid class, though "elemental" (fire/frost or frost/fire) mages were a bit new and controversial near the end of classic.




MC was never "released," it was in WoW at launch. Patch 1.3 added the BRD attunement portal to get there quicker though.

I remember frostfire specs popular at some point in TBC

---------- Post added 2013-01-15 at 09:51 PM ----------

I played a shadow priest. I was the mana battery that did some damage, but not like a dps class. It was all about utility, I loved it.

I'm pretty sure priests got Vampiric Touch in TBC.

---------- Post added 2013-01-15 at 09:53 PM ----------

With 40 slots, you always had a few hybrids spec into poor specs for the buffs while still healing. Paladins are the best example to get the blessings down the other trees. Shaman, too, for Imp WF Totem.

There was no real reason to carry a feral or balance druid in the raid, but I'm sure most guilds were like mine and had that one guy who really really wanted to play feral so we let him even though his DPS was way below the pure DPS classes.

I think we had feral in AQ40. Something about Huhuran in Maraudon gear and also AQ40 had feral drops.

[Deleted]

I played a shadow priest. I was the mana battery that did some damage, but not like a dps class. It was all about utility, I loved it.

Shadow priests weren't mana batteries before the TBC pre-patch arrived.


Regarding the topic. I had both a lvl 60 alliance warrior and a lvl 60 horde rogue back in vanilla. In raids I only saw shadow priests (you needed 1 for the shadow weaving debuff), and fury warriors (I'm quite sure fury warriors were the highest single target with Naxx gear).

Both enhance and resto shamans offered good utility, so shamans could often decide what spec they would play (if I am not mistaken). Regarding paladins, they could play whatever spec they wanted, as long as the raid had all blessings: Blessing of kings, blessing of light, blessing of sanctuary, blessing of salvation, blessing of might and blessing of wisdom. I am quite sure that some of those were talented depending on patch date (BoSanctuary was always prot, BoK went from retri to protection).

Shamans and paladins often had a healing set (mostly cloth) in their bags depending on wether or not they were assigned for healing. Because their talents were so weak, there were little difference in what talents they used, and basically what made the difference wether they were dpsing or healing were what kind of gear the wore.

Druids had to spec resto for innervate, so there weren't really much of a choice until the druid talent revamp (all classes had a revamp at some point during vanilla). I don't think I ever saw a balance or feral druid during raids.

[Gsara]

I remember frostfire specs popular at some point in TBC

---------- Post added 2013-01-15 at 09:51 PM ----------



I'm pretty sure priests got Vampiric Touch in TBC.

---------- Post added 2013-01-15 at 09:53 PM ----------



I think we had feral in AQ40. Something about Huhuran in Maraudon gear and also AQ40 had feral drops.

Needed melee with high nature resist to soak.

[xindykawai]

im playing my shamy as healer, and i simply cant do otherwise, im in love with shamy healing since the day i start playing it ! And im healing with no more addon atm only the wow frame ;3 its refreshing !

[LazarusLong]

Needed melee with high nature resist to soak.

Yes, I mean before introducing crafted NR gear feral druids were better soakers in Mara gear, I think.
Or maybe I'm remembering it wrong.

[Dragore]

Was fury on my warrior for a while then switched to my shaman and just healed. Though I did have a enhancement(2h) set and was a lot of fun in BGs. I loved yet hated the RNG of WF.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Warrior was the only class that broke hybrid rules by having a viable Fury spec.

But you are correct, the "three-hybrid" classes (shaman, paladin, druid) were locked into healing at endgame. Because they were set up as "jack of all trades, master of none" they didn't have the same DPS output or survivability of their pure counterparts. Healing, being a fairy basic role, was hard to make them sub-par in. So raid guilds quickly found the niche for those classes in healing, and the rest was history.


I played a Fury Warrior back in vanilla, so I didn't have a problem with hybriding.

[Perkunas]

I was a dps warrior, but then...it wasn't uncommon, because we were beast!

And paladins role wasn't healing, it was oocressing and buffs, healing was for priests and druids

Not entirely true. I raided all the way from MC through half of Naxx on my Holy Pally and was easily the best healer in my guild by a mile. You just had to mix and match with cloth/mail/plate armor to get potent spell power(+healing). I could literally cast down-ranked spells through entire encounters without ever going oom. Coupled with Blessing of Light which made even the lowest ranks put out great numbers.

[CaptRik]

The threat a shadow priest could generate in vanilla was incredible - here's our guild in vanilla fighting onyxia with a shadow priest tank:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x22dkcbpE4U

[Drilnos]

Bear druid. When I wasn't tanking, which was most of the time early on, I was in tank spec and healer gear, and I healed. HT spam, downranking, etc. They knew I wasn't specced for innervate, but they kept me around because I was in the core group that had basically started the guild, and I wasn't bad at healing anyway. That was at first. Later they kept me around because it turned out Maul hit like a freight train and they didn't need to wait for me to gain a threat head start half as long as it took a standard warrior.

I kept two sets of gear in Vanilla and TBC (healing and tanking), moved up to three in Wrath (healing, cat and bear), and finally stopped maintaining the healing set in late Cata, after having kept it up for no other reason than sheer force of habit since the start of TBC. I needed the bank space for transmog gear.

[Kujako]

I tanked as a Druid starting shortly after the game was released (still do today, never got into alts). That included all of the vanilla raid content. It was very rough getting my stats to the point where it was remotely viable, but that was also part of the fun.

Here I am breaking 20k armor for the first time in Blackwing Lair.

[Drilnos]

I tanked as a Druid starting shortly after the game was released (still do today, never got into alts). That included all of the vanilla raid content. It was very rough getting my stats to the point where it was remotely viable, but that was also part of the fun.

Here I am breaking 20k armor for the first time in Blackwing Lair.

Good old Smoking Heart of the Mountain and Mark of Tyranny.