Will you try to make a "bad" spec viable?

[Dekkers]

Survival is beast mode after Tier 2.5

[barrsftw]

Why would you ever play a spec when classic lets you triple dip?

Because people don't understand that the term "spec" had a different meaning back then. People are expecting you to be able to play a "disc spec" priest, and go full discipline. That would be the BfA equivalent of speccing Disc and ONLY picking the far right talents. Sure it's possible, but you're gimping yourself. There's nothing wrong that that not being completely viable. Not every combination of talents needs to be viable.

People need to realize that specs in vanilla are essentially like talent choices are today. You get a handful of major options. Do I go 11 points into this tree to get X, do I go 21? Do I just get these 5 minor passives? Do i go 30/21? Should I go 31 into X? etc... This is very similar to today's talent choices of: Do I go 1312233? 1312111? etc. The main difference is that there are 36 classes in today's wow, in vanilla there were only 9.

[Thunderball]

Assuming it's for PvE since half of these specs actually works decently in PvP. Shadow, Feral and Survival can actually work but they're just shit, simple as that. Everything else you cant make to work because they're simply lacking crucial tools.

[RealRevChris]

I am glad to see that Feral Druid is the #1 on the list. I have always loved Druid & mained a kitty for several years.

[Askyl]

No, I’m not invested enough in the class fantasy of any of them to go through the hassle. I’ll be playing a ret Blood Elf in TBC if that ever comes out but that’s as close as I’ll go to playing a ‘bad’ spec.

I wish I had my forum post on our guilds forum still in tact, the one that let me play retri paladin and after a while, all raiding guilds had atleast 1. The bonuses 1 retri does for a raid is huge. So it's not a bad spec at all, and you do deal quite good DPS, especially as belf because of their racial seal (get healed, get mana).

It was a hassle though since people are so narrow minded that it's freaking insane. Even after topping DPS in 5-mans, heroics people were still in denial saying they didn't even try. Every time. No one ever tried, that's why a retri could do decent DPS.

In raids, you wont top it. Except for a boss or two with like 0 armor and a nice group for WF totem etc and you really go all out. But you bring sooo much good to the raid.

[enigma77]

No I'm gonna roll a Lock so I can be good in pve and absolutely unstoppable in pvp as a soul link lock.

Notice how he reflected Mortail Coil and still lost.

[Molis]

You do fuckin know that most raid bosses are immune to taunt in vanilla?

How about OOM = no tank?

[Santti]

How about OOM = no tank?

Seal and/or Judgement of Wisdom? Can't remember how well that could sustain you.

[Livnthedream]

No I'm gonna roll a Lock so I can be good in pve and absolutely unstoppable in pvp as a soul link lock.

That is a really bad example. That lock both outgeared the rogue and that rogue was awful. Bad timing so no stun lock, no popping of cds, etc.

[enigma77]

That is a really bad example. That lock both outgeared the rogue and that rogue was awful. Bad timing so no stun lock, no popping of cds, etc.

No, Soul Link Lock is by far the best 1v1 spec. It's so good on private servers when they do duel tournaments SL locks are not allowed to compete.

[Livnthedream]

No, Soul Link Lock is by far the best 1v1 spec. It's so good on private servers when they do duel tournaments SL locks are not allowed to compete.

Basically no pvp is 1v1 though. SL is incredibly powerful, if you have the gear to support it and you want to go out and gank people. In any organized setting it is mediocre.

And I don't really care what private servers have to say, seeing as just how much they have gotten wrong has skewed everything into oblivion.

[taliey]

Ugh, no. I don't want to spend my time banging my head against a wall.

I'll be playing Holy Priest fyi.

[Aeula]

I wish I had my forum post on our guilds forum still in tact, the one that let me play retri paladin and after a while, all raiding guilds had atleast 1. The bonuses 1 retri does for a raid is huge. So it's not a bad spec at all, and you do deal quite good DPS, especially as belf because of their racial seal (get healed, get mana).

It was a hassle though since people are so narrow minded that it's freaking insane. Even after topping DPS in 5-mans, heroics people were still in denial saying they didn't even try. Every time. No one ever tried, that's why a retri could do decent DPS.

In raids, you wont top it. Except for a boss or two with like 0 armor and a nice group for WF totem etc and you really go all out. But you bring sooo much good to the raid.

I'll be a blood elf ret paladin in TBC regardless of how good it is. The Blood Knight fantasy is too strong for me to resist. I remember hearing that Seal of Blood makes Blood Elf Paladins much more viable there, but I digress.

[Razzako]

Where's the no option? lol

[Wewlad]

No.
I can forgive, and felt empathy, for Hybrid players in the past. When they were bright eyed new players who signed up to be the shining crusader, or the shapeshifting badass druid.
They had an excuse to try and prove to everyone that Feral/Enhance/etc could be viable with consumable X and gearpiece Y. They didn't pick their classes to be healbots. But endgame forced you to.

But if you go and try to make these specs "work" 15 years after the fact, then you're in for a bad time. The game is pretty much solved. You're only setting yourself up for dissapointment in the end.

The game wasn't "solved" back in 2006, players didn't theorycraft nearly as much as what has been done since then. People just went for the path of least resistance which made sense. If you seriously think that everything was figured out within the limited time that was had then you're in for a big surprise.

For one, do you know that having moonkin is good? Not because they do great damage necessarily but because they give 3% spell crit chance to all party members within 30 yd, and that is difficult to ignore.

- - - Updated - - -

Posting this for posterity—true Vanilla ret paladin DPS and he isn't even using the optimal rotation (Consecration + HoJ).

[Santti]

The game wasn't "solved" back in 2006, players didn't theorycraft nearly as much as what has been done since then. People just went for the path of least resistance which made sense. If you seriously think that everything was figured out within the limited time that was had then you're in for a big surprise.

For one, do you know that having moonkin is good? Not because they do great damage necessarily but because they give 3% spell crit chance to all party members within 30 yd, and that is difficult to ignore.

I wouldn't exactly call that "true vanilla", seeing how ret paladins got their buffs in the pre-tbc patch, and that period didn't last very long. But I guess that's a bit nitpicky.

[GreenJesus]

I've always played paladin, but since paladins can't be horde I guess I'll play undead warlock or rogue. Although if I choose warlock I would have to farm soul shards... that alone almost makes me not want to choose the class.

[Ulfric Trumpcloak]

Nope, resto shaman or holy paladin.

[S7orm]

Survival is beast mode after Tier 2.5

I mean, it was the preferred hunter spec in the latest tiers given the better scaling, but as a class overall they kept falling more and more behind at every new tier.

And never forget, only bots make their pet go red

[kail]

You need to do what you enjoy, if not what's the point? Now what people enjoy along with why, how they enjoy things really matters. If you really only like a spec but you die all the time in pvp or can't do any pve as a result I would imagine you start to hate the game.

Play what you want sure, but don't expect others to comply with invites or expect kicks once inspected.