Breakfast Topic: Favorite off-spec
by Eliah Hecht 
Feb 17th 2007 at 8:00AM
An off-spec is any talent distrubution that doesn't agree with a class's canonical raid role. Shadow Priest, feral or balance Druid, retribution or protection Paladin, elemental or enhancement Shaman, or fury or arms Warrior. You'll notice that those are all classes that can heal. DPS classes don't tend to have on- vs. off-specs per se, since by and large all of a DPS class's talent trees add to their DPS. Their raid role is to DPS; therefore, all specs help their raid role. But for a class that can heal, most of the time, their raid role is to heal.Now don't get me wrong -- I'm a huge supporter of raiding shadow Priests, feral Druids, and all the rest. Your character is your own, and you should spec it however makes you happy. With that in mind, what's your favorite off-spec, either to play yourself or to have in your parties/raids?
Filed under: Breakfast topics, Features, Raiding, Classes, Talents
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ryan D. Feb 17th 2007 8:09AM
Warriors can heal now?
Garviel Feb 17th 2007 8:09AM
warriors can heal? heh ^_^
feral droods all the way, i did retrain mine to resto for a small period, but i got bored
Caen Feb 17th 2007 8:29AM
Bloodthirst! :P
Ekrim Feb 19th 2007 12:53PM
Well, considering how the Shammy buffs work, it'd actually be smart to have them in EVERY party in a raid, spec'd for that party's role. That way everyone gets the buffs they need, and Shammys don't HAVE an off-spec build.
Jason Feb 17th 2007 9:14AM
Enhance Shaman, hands down. Plenty of DPS, and they bring a huge amount of melee buffs for rogues and warriors and feral droods. Oh, and Dual Wield is super sweet.
Thomas Feb 17th 2007 9:22AM
Druid is a hybrid, skill it 35 feral and 26 heal, and you can play whatever you like in any instance (heroic too). Need a tank/dps/healer? Im ready, switching gear.
TonyMotorola Feb 17th 2007 9:27AM
I'm sorry, but some 'off-specs' are about as useful to a raid as specing 0/0/0.
I'm not sure I understand how some people feel that raids are obligated to reserve a spot for them regardless of how they spec.
Raids content is getting harder, and focused on smaller groups. That generally leaves less room for slack-ass specs that don't quite give the highest possible level of contribution.
Now I know every person out there that chooses some odd 'off-specs' has found a way to legitimize their contributions and often you'll hear moonkin telling you that their dmg output is better than any mage on the server, shadow priests telling people that no warlock can touch their dmg and ferals that think rogues got nothing on them, but delusions aside, this simply isn't the case.
If you enjoy playing a less than useful spec and a raid team has made room for you at its own expense, then kudos. But just because you enjoy playing a certain way doesn't mean that you are going to be particularly useful to your raid team or are obligated a spot.
Blizzard says hybrids and off-specs were going to play a bigger role in the smaller raids, but I'm 8 bosses deep in Karazhan and I haven't seen it yet.
Dangfraggit Feb 17th 2007 11:06AM
For crying out loud, have a cookie or something.
Nataku Feb 17th 2007 9:39AM
As a warlock, I love being in a group/raid with a shadow priest. Between Curse of shadow, and the shadow damage buff that they put up, we can bust out some serious damge. Not to mention all the fear kiting that can take place
Heyasuki Feb 17th 2007 10:05AM
Wait a minute Feral druid (Rawr!) can now do some serious $hit! I play with one all the time and he tanks Karazhan on a daily basis. I wouldn't label feral as an off spec anymore.
Breledorm Feb 17th 2007 10:35AM
I prefer a feral druid over a rogue/extra warior in any raid!
Feral druids can both tank and melee-DPS with some gear-changes, just like a warrior. But a druid with some decent gear can also go healing if that is needed in some boss-fights. Now when raids are down to 25-man (or 10), flexebility is worth a lot!
dlanni Feb 17th 2007 10:53AM
"Slack-ass specs"? You sound like the guy who was bashing my tank-friend for using a shield to quest. I'll never understand the amount of hatred spewed over watching somebody play a video game differently. Everytime a raider opens his or her mouth, it makes me happier that I'm not a raider.
I'm a frost spec mage, and I play mostly with a resto druid and a prot warrior. I always love when a shadow priest joins the group vs. a rogue or hunter. They're usually very adept at their class and, yes, their damage output is simply amazing. Same with Ret. pallies. I can't think of a more useful group member than either of those classes.
My favorite to play is a shadow-priest, hands-down. Anyone who slags them off should roll one and see what all the fuss is about.
Zarl Feb 17th 2007 10:57AM
Druids are by far my favorite in the expansion. I've done every instance through Shadow Labs, Arcatraz & Steamvaults with a feral tank. Love that they can pop up and throw a few heals around, and their tanking is amazing. It's really turned into an awesome class.
Argent Feb 17th 2007 11:04AM
@6:
well, i've cleared 10 bosses in kara (2 weeks running -- not that either means all that much, really), and i personally think you couldn't be more wrong about offspec/hybrid classes. right now, their contribution to 10 man raids really shines.
i've been in groups that have had a paladin offtank (worked fantastic - prot paladin on illhoof 2.0 = win), been in groups that had a feral druid tank (so good atm that it's just impossible that blizz isn't gonna nerf them.)
i've seen ret paladins and cat druids put out some amazing dps on fights like prince and netherspite and lastly, as someone who plays a holy paladin, i routinely outheal most all other classes. shadow priests? put them in a group with a paladin/priest and a warlock and you got one of the more awesome dps/healing setups in the game today.
the simple truth is that the more you stack your raid with multi-role hybrids, the simpler karazhan becomes. this was a notion first promulgated by people on the DnT boards and the more i've seen of kara, the more i have to agree with it. blizzard did a very good job of putting a lot of useful tools at the disposal of the varous hybrid classes (either via talent or itemization) and the instanced content they put together shows off these abilities rather well.
John Feb 17th 2007 11:15AM
I think the problem isn't with "slack-ass specs" but more with "slack-ass players". I don't care what your spec is as long as we don't wipe. Wow me.
Smokey Feb 17th 2007 11:23AM
Balance. I hate the norm of either going resto or if you want to do damage, feral as a druid. When I levelled balance, 60-70, I had more fun playing WoW than I had for a long long time. Along the way, I had a friend nagging me to go feral. I wanted to strangle him with his guts.
kekleon64 Feb 17th 2007 11:42AM
I play a shadow priest and love it. In the 40 man raids I was always in the top 5 DPS and the top 5 healing (VE FTW) holy priests loved me because I made their job a lot easier, warlocks loved me because I increased their damage, and warrior loved me because I kept them alive. Good times those were, good times, cant wait to get to 70 and start raiding with them again!
Rich Feb 19th 2007 3:05PM
GIVE WARRIOR SOME FAST AND GRAET HEAL
Nemdok Feb 17th 2007 3:44PM
I prefer the base classes for dps, tanking and healing. Give me a rogue, a mage, a warrior and a priest any day over their counterparts.
Krianna Feb 17th 2007 1:50PM
@7
....
So your favorite off-spec is ranting about folks raiding? Seems like a main-spec to me.....
I adore cat-druids on my side, especially for PVP. That annoying mage who manages to get better than a thousand off of an AE? Heh, he's dead, AND the druid just HOTed my lil'mage so we can kill 'em more....
I haven't had a chance to group with a shadow priest, but I really look forward to it with my frost mage-- I just got my shadow priest up to the point where she can give the group mana AND hp, loving it. *evil grin* Throw my fiance's lock in and we'll be very, very evil....