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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsAsk WoW Insider: Is there a class/spec truly viable for both PvP and PvE?
by Barb Dybwad 
Nov 2nd 2007 at 4:20PM
Welcome everyone to this week's edition of Ask WoW Insider, where we throw your questions out to the wisdom of crowds. Last week we looked at how to approach PuGs when everyone can see your spec in one click, and this week we have another talent-related question. David wants to know if there are any truly great builds that are highly viable in both PvP and PvE: I'm on my second re-roll and finally have my character to 70, fairly well geared and have found myself in the exact same position as before... My PvE 5-man spec is entirely unsuitable for raids, or PVP, my raid spec is unsuitable for soloing or PvP, and my PvP spec is useless outside of BGs and Arenas! I was previously a Warrior, who needs to be Prot for tanking but Arms/Fury for Arena and I at least only had to bounce between two specs. Now I'm a Mage, and I have to consider bouncing between THREE specs to be what everyone expects me to be if I expect to be competitve!You heard the man -- what's your answer? How do you find a balance between PvP and PvE-oriented specs, and how do you maximize your ability to enjoy all the types of content you want to enjoy without spending a fortune respeccing every 5 minutes?
I know the common answer is "suck it up and pay to respec whenever you want to do whatever you want to do" because dailies give out so much free money, but this doesn't work for my mage with however many hundreds of gold and hours of work put into getting my Frozen Shadoweave set. The problem is, I rolled a mage for the exclusive purpose of not HAVING to fill two roles with one character and not having to respec every time I wanted to branch out and experience multiple aspects of the game.
So, my question is this: Is there any class+spec out there, that is equally effective and in demand for 5-man instances, raids, solo play and PvP?
We know you've got questions, and Ask WoW Insider wants 'em! Send us your queries at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
Filed under: PvP, Raiding, Ask WoW Insider, Classes, Talents
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
navalpha Nov 2nd 2007 8:10PM
This really wouldn't be a problem if respecing didnt cost money.
Heraclea Nov 3rd 2007 4:02AM
I'm a warrior who WILL not spec Prot. The Arms tree is closest to our generalist class: certainly able to do more than enough PvE DPS to get by, coveted in arenas for the Mortal Strike debuff (Which is the only thing keeping warriors afloat in PvP. Warriors are not overpowered; rather, healing is overemphasized, so the presence of an anti-healing debuff is major enough to cover up the problems warriors have in PvP.)
The problem I see is the level of difficulty in raids, which erodes at some of the social aspects of the game, and makes certain specs obligatory in order to maximize the one thing you bring to the table. Raids are so hard and require such concentrated attention from each player that the raiding culture requires cookie cutter builds that are designed to meet a single purpose.
vildmule Nov 3rd 2007 8:27AM
Hunters can pull off several different arena specs fairly easy in pve, but you'll need to carry two sets of gear.
RaydenUni Nov 3rd 2007 11:45AM
Shadow priests could do it pretty well. Obviously if you want the best bang for your buck then moving those 2 or 3 talents would be important.
Richie Nov 5th 2007 9:38AM
Hmmm, I have struggled with this from Day One on my Mage as i like to do all things in WoW and I have found that Speccing Fully (ALL YOUR POINTS) in one tree actually creates a well tuned dedicated class. I Specced 100% fire with a couple of points in a frost skill that benefits the fire tree. and i find that as long as you stick to fire spells you are unstoppable.
Solo: I just down Mobs before they reach me.
PvP: Ignition and Blazing speed.
Raiding: Ok, maybe lacking in a bit of CC but stupid amounts of DPS.