Will dual specs eliminate the tank or healer shortage?
by Zach Yonzon 
Feb 17th 2009 at 11:30AM
Even with the addition of a new tanking class, there are many occasions where players find themselves looking for a tank. With the great improvements to hybrid class' DPS, it's also been just as hard -- maybe even harder -- to find healers for groups. It's extremely common to see healing-capable classes spec for DPS like Retribution Paladins, Enhancement (or even Elemental) Shamans, and Balance or Feral Druids. The question then is if the option were available, would these players choose healing or tanking as another spec? It seems almost certain that players who can will spec either to tank or heal as their other spec in order to easier find accommodation in groups.
Are dual specs really the answer to the perceived tank or healer shortage? Ghostcrawler mentioned that the healer shortage was due to players not yet hitting 80 and were using leveling (i.e. DPS) builds. But now that more players are at max level, we still seem to see the same class roles being sought after in the public channels. The truth is, if players don't enjoy healing -- or tanking, for that matter -- they won't necessarily spec for it. Even if they did, they probably won't appreciate being pigeonholed into the role more often than they're allowed to play the spec they truly enjoy. While the new feature of Patch 3.1 will open up options for players, will it be enough?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
zappo Feb 17th 2009 11:33AM
Reduce the tank/healer shortage by reducing the dps stupidity surplus.
Marc Sadowski Feb 17th 2009 11:34AM
But there will be a surplus in tank and healing stupidity ;-)
Malkia Feb 17th 2009 11:50AM
As a dps main with a healer alt I would like to take a moment here to say there are in fact really really bad tanks and really really bad healers. There are tanks I have blacklisted from pugs because they're THAT BAD AT IT. (This happens more on my healer honestly because I can get into more pugs than on my hunter.)
Riz Feb 17th 2009 12:09PM
@Malkia
Amen
I have the exact same - a hunter main and a priest alt. It's way easier for me to get into PUGs as a healer. Sometimes you get tank that are really good - but when a tank is bad - he's BAD!
For example:
1. Not being defense capped
2. Not taunting / pulling agro + not being able to hold agro
3. Not tanking the boss facing the opposite direction
4. Breaking LoS
and so on & so forth
However, there are bad healers out there too!
1. Healer patches up the DPS while the tank is about to get smooshed.
2. Adds agro on healer and healer doesn't hit Fade (for priests) or equivalent that will drop agro.
3. Overhealing and then crying about going OOM
seas Feb 17th 2009 12:19PM
As a Hunter u got tranq shot on ur bar and/or use it. MD 30 cd never used anymore, enraged targets destory tanks tranq shot never used.
Jesse Feb 17th 2009 12:35PM
there will be more healers and tanks, but there will be more BAD healers and tanks.
This will make the healer/tank audition much more rigorous, imo.
There's only a healer/tank shortage in pugs, actually, theres a tank surplus in guild raiding. If anything, this will just make it more likely that people will have geared specs they can't play fully.
It will likely make it easier to get groups, but harder to clear difficult instances (imagine a ret dual spec healing Loken for the first time in quest green spellpower gear) This will mostly just force more in depth skill/spec/gear discussion prior to running a pug.
But then again, for people that don't have a regular tank/healer friended, it may make the quest shorter, even if you do wind up with less than stellar group members.
Deadly. Off. Topic. Feb 17th 2009 12:53PM
“1. Not being defense capped
2. Not taunting / pulling agro + not being able to hold agro
3. Not tanking the boss facing the opposite direction
4. Breaking LoS”
Yeah, any tank who does that is not doing their job right, however it’s just as easy to point fingers at the DPS as well.
A. Defense capped is very important. You should get defense capped as soon as possible, however! It doesn’t break you if you’re a few points off in heroics - I know people will beg to differ here and I do advise getting defense capped as soon as possible cuz it would be stupid not to, but if you have a good tank you can make due until you get better gear. (I say this because in my guild, we had a tank that wasn’t defense-capped, but was trying to get defense-capped, and was still able to tank without much problem.) It really all depends on skill... but yeah get defense capped in case your healer is sloppy or not geared... it’s less of a heart-attack for them.
B. People who dps and do NOT watch their threat while the tank is initiating aggro. I’ve seen some people who will NOT wait for the tank’s pull and immediately start going ape-crazy on any mobs they see. Mages in my guild are especially guilty of this.
C. DPS who walk around and face the boss that the tank has pulled away. Come on, I know a lot of people are guilty of getting themselves IN FRONT of the boss when it’s pulled away.
D. Stupid DPS who interrupt (by stuns) or charge a mob that the tank is trying to pull back. Every try to move mobs and have some idiot hold it in place while you’re pulling back? It’s a pain in the ass.
And about that list for bad healers:
1. Healer patches up the DPS while the tank is about to get smooshed.
A. Bad timing? Actually, if you’re in an organized raid and you have assigned healers, someone else should be taking care of the raid. If a healer isn’t doing their job, then yeah I totally agree that healer is failing at their job.. You don’t heal the raid if you’re job is to heal the tank in a heal intensive fight. That’s the assigned healer’s job.
2. Adds agro on healer and healer doesn't hit Fade (for priests) or equivalent that will drop agro.
B. First of all, I agree if the tank isn’t doing their job, the healers should be hitting aggro dumps as soon as possible. It’s stupid to ignore that option. They should actually be hitting aggro dumps as soon as possible to help drop their threats.
3. Overhealing and then crying about going OOM
C. This really is conjecture right now. How do we know they weren’t healing a 50% target and 4 healers all focused at once on the same target which of course then makes that healer’s healing overhealing. What it looks like is bad organization on the healers part. You have your targets, focus on the right targets.
I think the biggest issue with bad healers is lack of communication.
RipeTomatoe Feb 17th 2009 1:03PM
@ Riz
"For example:
1. Not being defense capped
2. Not taunting / pulling agro + not being able to hold agro
3. Not tanking the boss facing the opposite direction
4. Breaking LoS
and so on & so forth"
I only see 1 of those as a major problem, for heroics you don't NEED to be 540 capped, you can do it with 530, because in heroics, you aren't getting hit that hard, however for pug raids, this IS 100% needed. Next, Taunting is harder to do than you think, with only one or two spells, if they get resisted, someone is going to die, so I guess what that means is that if my taunt gets resisted it's my fault? Also tanking boss facing away, doesn't need to be done ALL the time, only depends if it's a dragon really, and even then you want to be on his side. Some mechanics require you to turn away, some don't matter, I have tanked some bosses ON the raid, doesn't make a bit of a difference. Lastly, LoS is a huge issue, but honestly, if the tank go's down some stairs, follow him down the stairs he should be able to hold up long enough for you to run down enough. The only way I will call the tank bad is if he runs behind a pillar or something down some stairs in the next hallway.
Moral? Well don't judge tanks because the pull awkwardly, I pull very weird all the time, however, being a pally I can do weird AoE pulls and get away with it :P
James Feb 17th 2009 4:08PM
It won't eliminate the shortage. But it's safe to say it will be greatly diminished.
Respeccing isn't just about the cost. It's the hassle involved. Retalenting, new action bars, new glyphs, different spell styles, gear swapping, etc. It's something that a select few of us don't mind doing. But most players don't enjoy doing this very often. This further compounds the problem, because if you -don't- respec constantly, then you will never be that good at your off-spec role, from lack of practice.
The new respec system is going to change all that, by eliminating the hassle and allowing on-demand, constant switching. I imagine almost everyone will have two specs; with most hybrids having two completely different roles. It will take several months, but we should get to a point where people feel comfortable switching roles. That is going to help the shortages.
Afterall, if you are a dps, and it's a choice between switching roles or waiting for an hour for someone else, I think you will probably switch (or be forced to :p). You're really out of excuses now why you -can't- do it, unless for some reason you get stuck with a bunch of lazy non-switching dps ;p
Jacob Feb 17th 2009 11:34AM
I doubt it will fix the healer/tank problem
Robert M Feb 17th 2009 11:57AM
It will only serve to alleviate teh problem from the perspective of the healers out there already.
People have to A) want to heal or tank and B) actually be good at it.
It's not going to help the problem in the ways most people think it is, but it for those that "just respecced to quest."
Last night when I logged on, there were no tanks that I usually run with, so I respecced balance to get some questing done. About an hour later, one of my friended tanks asked me if I could heal a heroic. I had to tell him that I had just respecced to do some questing. If that didn't turn into a 100g gold dump,I would have happily switched over to heal.
Though I am elated with the dual spec system, it will have minimal effect on the healer shortage and will only create huge issues with gear drops for those douchebags that will want to roll in case they actually heal someday.
If I do decide to heal for a pug, I will be sure to make sure that if item x drops I get dibbs on it or I won't go in.
In that same vein, I really wish Blizzard would stop trying to make spirit so damn useful for the clothies. *see upcoming mage changes* I don't mind rolling against a priest, even shadow who as twisted faith, of hell even another druid who specced improved moonkin, but its insane that you have all these casters fjucking the healers because they now get some secondary effect from spirit.
I'll pass on spellhit gear, I'll debate myself furiously for an upgrade that doesn't have spirit and gauge whether it's actually an upgrade and ask if I can roll if it is, but for god's sake you retarded makes and locks, leave the damn spirit gear alone!
Jacob Feb 17th 2009 12:08PM
blizz is changing my class to need this to perform well. So because somebody else can use it I'm suppose to back off? Guess what, I need it too. If it makes my toon do what he is suppose to do better then i'm /rolling away. If you have a problem with locks benefiting from +spirit, take it up with blizz, not the people rolling. I am sick of the hyrbrid stuff where everybody needs it. When classes start be able to do anything then problems with looting for my off-off-off spec. DPS should DPS. Heals should Heal, and a Tank should Tank Period. If you want to do the other, reroll
Robert M Feb 17th 2009 12:49PM
Well, since you actually didn't read a very specific part, I'll quote myself, "I really wish Blizzard would stop trying to make spirit so damn useful for the clothies."
"blizz is changing my class to need this to perform well???" Really? You need spirit to perform? At best it's a bonus stat for a lock that's a result of the gear new consolidation. It's hardly going to make a huge difference. 60 spirit is going to give you 18 (19.8 with demonic aegis) spellpower while giving a druid 69 spirit (talented of course), 10.36 spellpower, 11.11 MP5. This is barely a discussion if the druid is dropping you a LB everytime you lifetap.
And you are allowed to roll, I don't have a problem with that, but if you agree to pass before we head in, then you agree to pass, and I'd hope you keep your word. If not, find another healer.
/problem solved
BitterCupOJoe Feb 17th 2009 1:02PM
I agree. There's several underlying problems, some related to class issues, and others related to gear problems, and still others related to human nature.
The change from +healing/spelldammg to spellpower was a great boon to the idea of dual speccing. Spell DPS gear might not be ideal for healing with, but it's not terrible, either. The lack of mana regen and the wasted (for purposes of healing) hit rating are an issue, but if the rest of the group is well geared, these probably wont' be a big issue. So that's (mostly) priests, elemental shamans and moonkin druids taken care of.
On the tank side, well, that's another issue. Trying to tank heroics without dedicated tank gear is asking for trouble. Druids can kinda skirt around this, with the talent to remove criticals from the table, but a ret paladin trying to tank heroic HoL in ret gear, or even piecemeal tank blues picked up while leveling are just going to die. A lot. The same is true for the other two tank classes: the normal dungeons are doable, if difficult, but for heroics, they really are going to need some tank gear. Of course, the good news is that a lot of that is attainable from either rep rewards or crafting.
The ones who are going to kinda lose out here are holy/ret and holy/prot paladins and enhancement/resto shamans. There's pretty much no overlap in the gear required for the jobs. Ret/prot isn't great, but it's not at the "they're all going to laugh at you" level that someone trying to heal in prot gear is. Again, some of this can be mitigated through crafting and rep rewards, but there's a much bigger hurdle there, in terms of effort required than going from shadow to holy; there's just no gear that overlaps between holy and ret, and almost none that overlaps between enhancement and resto.
And then we come slamming into the bigger problem. Part of the reason for dual speccing is to help with the lack of tanks and healers. That's a great idea; the problem is going to come when both of the linchpins of the team, the tank and the healer (sorry, DPS, you're important, but not nearly as irreplaceable) are running in offspecs with offspec gear. That's a train wreck waiting to happen, both because it's not their primary skillset and because there's a good chance they're not wearing the appropriate gear.
Now, for people like me, that just want to do their dailies without either burning 100g each time or running them at a snail's pace, it's a godsend. Sure, I'll have to put together a passable ret set, but that's better than "Holy Shock! Judgment! Consecrate! Wait. Wait. Wait." But for someone that wants to primarily be DPS, I'm not sure there's the drive there to put together a healing/tanking set AND the drive to learn the necessary skills. Probably easier to just go PVE/PVP dual spec and leave it at that.
Jacob Feb 17th 2009 1:03PM
Agreed that spirit is not going to boost my dps tremendously. I think what it comes down to is that if there is a piece and its an upgrade, and an actual upgrade, not a well, i have +1 more w/e with that piece, then i will roll, no matter what stats it has. On deciding whether or not to roll before- I think that is a huge problem and one of the main causes why people get so upset. I have seen it personally. People don't define what the looting rules are before hand. Then when it comes time to roll. quick decisions are made, then people get confused and angry. If people would clearly, emphasis on clearly, define what the loot rules are, it would take care of so many problems.
Deadly. Off. Topic. Feb 17th 2009 1:05PM
People who selfishly roll for off-spec gear when main specced players are there are idiots. You roll for the spec that is your main and that spec only. If and only if no one wants it, THEN you can roll with those who want for an off spec.
Anyone who rolls for both is being a selfish jerk. Pick one, NOT both unless no one else wants it.
steve Feb 17th 2009 2:32PM
@BitterCupOfJoe hits the nail on the head. To be successful, you'll need to spend time and gold to itemize, gem, and enchant some gear (esp as a tank), learn your new offspec at level 80, get some practice in, maybe configure some add-ons. I think some of the regular raiders in my guild will be happy to sink the time and effort into doing this and we'll never have to pug someone into a 25 man again, because we'll have more options and those offspecs will be geared and know their class.
But for the 5 man PUGs, I'm not seeing it. Since the main group need is usually healers closely followed by tanks, having someone try to just roll into one of those roles as an offspec to fill the spot isn't going to work for most: one tank, one healer, single point of failure for each, so pretty unforgiving if your gear isn't up to snuff or you only rarely play the offspec. Offspec'ing in the other direction, into dps, is a different story -- with 3 dps in most groups, we all have stories of dragging the low dps'er through some heroic or other. As a healer who PUGs a lot, some groups are happy to take me no questions asked, but I do get quizzed on spec and spellpower. Like the other poster who said he was changing his LFG message to say "main spec", I imagine I'll start getting the question: "is your main spec heals?"
Mairiiv Feb 18th 2009 3:42AM
@Robert M
I disagree a bit with you. The problem isn't as much that Blizz is making spirit handy for DPSers, it's that Blizz have so few pieces of gear without spirit. I'm going to take a few examples, mainly using wowhead to get my info. I list some examples of cloth gear in brackets that excludes tier pieces as well as PvP pieces.
Chests iLevel 200 Epics
2 Pieces with Hit
2 Pieces with MP5
2 Pieces with Spirit
Chests iLevel 213 (Excluding Frost resist)
2 Pieces Hit
1 Pieces with MP5
3 Pieces with spirit
Legs iLevel 200
1 Piece with MP5
2 Pieces with Spirit
1 Piece without Spirit
So you say on my mage I should only roll on 1 piece out of 3/4 for a specific slot while on my priest I can roll on 2 of 3 or 3 of 4 pieces that can drop. Further take into account that I hardly ever see a group or a raid with more cloth wearing healers than cloth wearing DPSers. The way I see how Blizzard wants the gear to be is that there is some pieces of gear that is ideal for certain roles but a lot that's very servicable to both roles, that's why they had all these gear consolidation excersises going on, from removing the + heal through to making ret and prot not so dependant on spell power and intelect (I could be wrong on ret as I don't know what their primary stats where before 3.0)
kala Feb 17th 2009 11:36AM
The answer is: NO
Becouse the shortage is not only for the endgamer minority.
As long as the dualspecs wont be available for the main playerbase - 30-70 people, the problems stay around.
Basic Feb 17th 2009 11:48AM
Sub-80 instances are obviously not a concern. Take up inscription/herbalism and purchase runs or just level up faster.