I just want to play Paladin or Druid without being forced to heal

[Hothwompa-coilfang (Hothwompa)]

It’s like Blizzard’s thought process in Vanilla WoW was “healers may not be very popular, so we must pigeon hole the classes that can heal to boost the amount of healers in game whether players like it or not”.

This is kind of true from what Ive read. At some point during the development of WoW, the team decided that hybrids would be jacks of all trades and masters of nothing.

The argument was that If a hybrid could tank or dps as well as a pure class, then what would be the point of the pures at all.

So it was decided that in exchange for a hybrid being able to fulfill any group role, they would not be as good as pures in the tanking and dps roles.

Healing was the only safe role for a hybrid to perform well at it.

But there’s tons of anecdotal evidence of hybrids doing well at dps, and tanking roles in vanilla wow. Its just a hybrid player needs to understand the hybrid tax, and maybe more importantly, so does their group mates.

[Eaglesgift-ravenholdt (Eaglesgift)]

Play what you want the way you want.

Nobody can force you to do anything in WoW.

If you let some guild dictate your play style, that’s on you.

[Miraari-sisters-of-elune]

This actually contributed to me opting out of Vanilla originally (I wanted a druid at the time but didn’t want to heal after doing it in guild wars and deciding I didn’t like the game of staring at dancing life bars more than the actual graphics), but it is what it is and I’m sure they won’t change it. I’m just going with pure dps in classic, if I want to play ret or something I’ve always got retail.

[Theloras-llane (Theloras)]

Play what you want the way you want.

Nobody can force you to do anything in WoW.

If you let some guild dictate your play style, that’s on you.

very well put my friend!

[Hatchmarket-malganis]

hahahahahahahahahahaha

im sorry

[Ironpelt-greymane]

Paladin Tier 2 is about the worst healing set for any hybrid class in the game lol. It’s a spell damage set

I was going to say, Tier 2 has Ret Pally written all over it…

[Ohshiftson-area-52]

Is it too much to ask that Blizzard simply add the stat to the gear those classes already have?

Yes. No changes.

[Kalfou-boulderfist (Kalfou)]

Play what you want the way you want.

Nobody can force you to do anything in WoW.

If you let some guild dictate your play style, that’s on you.

That works right up until you want to raid with a guild, then they get to decide what you do. It’s just how it works.

It’s possible you might convince them to give you a try, but it’s still the guild deciding.

[Currentlyafk-area-52]

It is too much that you ask them to add stats to these classes in Classic.

However if you want to raid casually you will be able to find groups you can raid with as feral or ret. You just won’t be able to do top end AOTC raiding. But that’s okay, IMO - most players won’t.

Alternatively you can do PvP, as those specs were considered more for PvP.

Lol this just simply is un true. He can easily do the top raids as a feral or Ret paladin etc.

Everyone has become so blinded about min/max no one realizes there will be plenty of guilds taking all classes, and will have no problem with fights lasting a bit longer… as long as you know the class, having a bit lower dps doesn’t mean **** unless you are an elitist, in which case the elitists won’t be around after a year or two anyways.

it’s not about having the right classes to raid with, it’s about having the right people to play with. All specs can raid at a high level, anyone telling you differently is going off min/maxing and has no clue what they are even insinuating.

[Currentlyafk-area-52]

Isn’t that why you tell the guilds what you play, and they decide if they want to add you to the ranks??

IMO you are in the wrong guild, if you joined with the intention of playing one spec, but they are telling you, you must play another or else…

[Kalfou-boulderfist (Kalfou)]

Without server transfers, you are limited to the guilds on your server. Often only a few are really clearing raid content, and you are stuck with them, or you start over on a new server

[Justan-skullcrusher]

it isnt the defense rating that holds paladins back, wasn’t it the lack of a taunt?

[Theloras-llane (Theloras)]

it isnt the defense rating that holds paladins back, wasn’t it the lack of a taunt?

neither - a Prot Paladin can hit def cap with pre raid Blues and epic world drops

the only drawback was that there wasn’t a raid tier progression path for them in Vanilla specifically for them - there are offset tanking raid drops - but nothing like the spec tier sets that were introduced in TBC and onwards

as far as taunt goes, it’s a crutch at best since like 90% of the raid bosses in Vanilla are immune to taunt in the first place

the other pushback was “ZOMG CRUSHING BLOWS” but dual wield Fury Tanks literally say, “Hold my shield…”

so lol gg

[Oriendaria-medivh (Oriendaria)]

You easily can. Just brace yourself for them flaming you.

[Justan-skullcrusher]

Informative response, thank you. I was always horde in vanilla, and i vaguely remember paladin tanks not having a taunt but knew there was more to it than that.

[Nermal-echo-isles (Nermal)]

it isnt the defense rating that holds paladins back, wasn’t it the lack of a taunt?

neither - a Prot Paladin can hit def cap with pre raid Blues and epic world drops

the only drawback was that there wasn’t a raid tier progression path for them in Vanilla specifically for them - there are offset tanking raid drops - but nothing like the spec tier sets that were introduced in TBC and onwards

as far as taunt goes, it’s a crutch at best since like 90% of the raid bosses in Vanilla are immune to taunt in the first place

the other pushback was “ZOMG CRUSHING BLOWS” but dual wield Fury Tanks literally say, “Hold my shield…”

so lol gg

Crushing is only 1.5 times the damage while a critical is 2 times. Everyone is all “ERMAHGERD CRUSHING!!!” when criticals are much worse. This is also why Paladins stack stamina above all else, to help smooth damage for healers (sounds like later expansions, doesn’t it?).

And as for taunt…Blessing of Protection is the Paladin emergency taunt. Most raid bosses were immune to taunts anyway. AND only a couple of classes didn’t have SOMETHING to reduce or remove aggro anyway. So you only BoPped Warlocks, really.

On privates, as Theloras said, dual wield Fury tanks! They exist and will be the min/max tank, not really Protection Warriors, as time marches on in Classic…provided the privates got the numbers right.

“Paladins cannot tank” is a meme. It takes effort to Paladin tank, but it is more than possible. You can practice this in the open world with a 20/31/0 spec, since you become a walking 5 man with that spec.

[Currentlyafk-area-52]

Perhaps early in the release. After a few years, and more raid loot has been acquired, expectations will be lower, and more guilds will have progressed towards nax.

I think you are comparing it to often to classic, which your point would have been true, but this time around it is going to be a lot different and there is no time limit on when u need to have raids done since classic is going to be the same 10 years from now

[Xianmisuto-thrall (Xianmisuto)]

Than play them.

[Aresia-altar-of-storms]

That would be a change and or balancing issue which the community and Blizzard has been very clear on. They will not make any changes to the 1.12 patch. This game is for people who want it as it was including all the imbalance and suboptimal specs.

[Kalfou-boulderfist (Kalfou)]

well yeah after a few years there will probably so few people playing that they will take anything they can get.