The one thing you’ll never find a shortage of is bad Rets, and entitled Warrior DPS who use guilds as stepping stones to acquire gear.
I think should you want a truly optimal raid, you probably don’t need a Ret. But those truly optimal raids are rife with drama, lots of flexing over logs and parses, and lots of turnover.
Method and some historically good guilds in the retail scene have such a stranglehold on talent, and their players are so skilled, that many have numerous alts, and they have farm guilds and trial guilds.
I’m Vanilla WoW, just the sheer amount of time it takes to level makes this a heck of a task. Many of the top tier guilds on private servers have players with alts, but at most, 1 or 2. And funny as it is, these alts are specifically for everything that is not optimal. Meme specs, testing Druid tanks, a random Elemental Shaman, etc.
Initially during progression, and with your goal being server first, you won’t see many Rets. But they’ll be there shortly after content is on farm and as more gear and content is released. And by the time AQ40 is out, you’ll see far more due to their tier set there giving them a noticeable power spike.
The whole point I’m driving at though, is that these Rets are lifers. They know the struggle they bring to a raid that has DPS issues. But they are family. They tryhard and farm consumes and legitimately play with passion. They will heal when need be and enjoy the luxury of getting to DPS at times. They will use Nightfall and will farm consumes and keep the raid happy.
A lot of Warrior DPS are so primadonna, they are arguably soulless. Trading everything they can for more gear to parse higher. Some cutthroat mentality is good, but with it comes an ego that you don’t find on a Ret. People may argue that it is selfish for a player to go Ret, but in my subjective opinion, I’ve seen much more selfish play from incredible Warrior DPS who feel shafted over getting Onslaught Girdle 3rd or 4th, and walk away with a bunch of T2 and other stuff.
Due to the small number of Rets raiding, I have yet to see any of them walk away, because they understand where they are on the totem pole and table.
I remember when I was on Nost with Theo and Smiter and both told me, “good luck getting Onslaught Girdle or Flameguard Gauntlets” and they were right. I waited and waited and as different Warriors joined, I continued to wait. I never got it. Nost got shut down and then our characters had new life breathed into them on Elysium and I kept going. And I kept waiting. But when we got to Naxx and all 14 of the Warriors we had played with had Onslaught Girdle, Girdle of the Mentor dropped, and every single one of them was happy for me to take it first.
It never “gimped” the raid. I had funneled over 10,000g through the hands of raiders due to Devilsaur Mafia farming, and my Armor smithing generating me tons of gold from crafting Lionheart Helms. I used to hand them out to new Warriors and Warrior alts who attained a core raiding spot.
Everyone is right that Ret DPS = not Warrior DPS. But people sleep on Warrior DPS = bigtime drama and constant turnover. There is a reason guilds that run AQ40 in 45 minutes on private servers constantly recruit Fury Warriors over everything else. Their DPS is so good that gear becomes a problem. And people, especially in this day and age, are far more entitled than they used to be.
When and if Classic launches well, Luuni said it best; the private server all stars will be scattered to the wind, and you’ll have smaller servers with more working class NA people who can’t afford to spend the rigorous amount of time it takes to farm for end-game raiding. This is where you will see Rets take up slots.
Warriors require an absurd amount of gearing. Lionheart Helm, Edgemasters, Devilsaur Set, Battlechaser Greaves; that is at minimum going to cost you 1000g or so just for a baseline. Prot is even worse. Stockade Pauldrons, Medallion of Grand Marshal Morris, Stonegrip Gauntlets, Alcor’s Sunrazor, Myrmidon Signet. 500g. 500g. 250g. 1000g. 250g.
People will have Google and a ton of knowledge available and the cost of getting to play Fury but being forced to tank, and spending 5,000g to do all that is going to burn out Warriors. When they don’t get their item and are burned out? We haven’t even touched enchants, epic mounts, or consumables.
Rets will be taking some of these spots. You just have to understand it.