What bothers me is that people seems to think it is a travesty to want to play as DPS on a class that can tank (or heal). Just because there is a shortage doesn't mean I should tank an instance for you on my Paladin. Same goes for healing.

Each dps class has its own flavor, and some people like the Fury warrior or Ret pally variety. Its the kind of thinking that says "Your class can tank, therefore you SHOULD tank" that most likely drives a lot of people away from that role.

When I play WoW, its to get away from the pressures of daily life for a short time, not worry about keeping another group of people happy, and being blamed for anything that goes wrong.

You have no idea how fun charging is. Until you know, you'll never understand.

@Jacobins

Its not a travesty that you're a DPS Warrior or Ret Pally. It is a travesty that you're a DPS warrior or a Ret Pally or a Moonkin and you want to do 5-man instances and wonder why no one can ever get a group together.

@Izbay

Ha! That's exactly right. As sad as it is to admit, I made a warrior *because of* the charge skill. I started off as a shaman and then saw a warrior charging some boar or something in the newbie area and immediately rerolled. :D

The answer is simple: some people don't like Tanking.

I rolled and leveled a Ret Paladin from LV1, and every time I'm in the LFG channel, despite a note proclaiming my status as a DPS, I'm constantly bombarded with "Tank or Healer"?.

Why should people refrain from rolling Warriors, Druids or Paladins who enjoy DPS?

I think a major contributing factor to why people hate rolling Healers and Tanks is their lack of viability in soloing, farming or grinding. My wife for example, has a Holy Priest with +1500 to heals, but has difficulty doing many of the daily quests on her own. I know Prot Warriors who say they hate not being able to kill stuff in a timely fashion, or to go into PvP Battlegrounds / Arena without having to respec.

If Protection spec and Healing spec were giving more options for 'DPS', and thereby more capability in soloing, I think you would see more Tanks and Healers.

I agree with turkeyspit ... when you play a DPS class, guess what you can, if you are good, effectively play every part of the game. For example, both PVE and PVP ... Warriors can't PVP prot spec, if you have to respec every day to do something different, it makes you want to stick with one and use it. DPS is alot more viable of an option for daily use and uses less time if you can't be on for 3+ hours at a time every day to run high end instances.