I dps and tank on my druid, switching is never a problem, only thing it is a pain to set up all the icons properly for both dualspecs

I, too, worried about my tanking performance slipping once I dual spec'd into DPS (which I didn't really want to do but YOU try getting into Vault when only 2/10 or 2/25 players are tanks =P).

In an effort to combat this, I try to make sure I tank SOMETHING every other time I'm on. I do all my dailys in DPS gear as I'm still trying to learn timing and rotations. I try to do Vault as a tank, but I'll go as DPS vs. not going at all. I'm trying to do instances that I know like the back of my hand as DPS to sort of "wade slowly into the pool" vs. jumping into the deep end and going for Loken's uber axe in H HOL. Also when I do tank, I will try to notice what any melee DPS in the group are doing. Where are they positioned? Do they need to move at all during the fight and, if so, where are they moving to? How long are they waiting after I pull to join in so they don't pull aggro? I'll also whisper melee DPS in my group with specific questions if I have them and most are really cool about it.

The bottom line is that I think this practice is keeping my tank skills sharp and really helping me learn my role as melee DPS.

I think the issue of dual specs has hurt tanking and healing pugs for the short term. Since a lot of dps are now switching over in order to secure groups (or try something new), you get a lot of wrongly-geared and inexperienced tanks/healers which make things annoying at the very least.

In the long term, I think its a good thing. The people who switch and like it, will make the effort to gear up and learn, and those who are awful will probably go back to dpsing.

And yes, that first paragraph couldn't be truer, tanks and healers are constantly scrutinized for pretty much every move they make. (/me dodges the incoming flame wall)

I list my priest as DPS in LFG even though my second spec is Disc. If the group is desperate for a healer, I offer up my services - but I'm definitely more comfortable in the DPS role. Flexibility over quality in this case. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.

My Warrior is strictly tanking now. I've found that long stints as DPS severly diminish my tank sharpness. And let's face it, if a tank makes a mistake he's judged like an umpire at a little league game - hated by all the parents .... no win situation.

Yeah, I have been the primary healer for so many instances that I can't DPS one without constantly looking at everone's health bars, even though there's nothing I can do about them... or about the fact that I instictively hit my healing hotkeys on the wrong toon...

Completely, Candina. Dual-spec is a privilege, not a right.

My ret-pal could moonlight as a healer — could, but shouldn't, because I've never brought a healer up through weeks and weeks of group quests and instances at increasing degrees of difficulty. Spot-healing here and there, even in heroic instances, just doesn't cut it.

As for tanking: zoom out, watch your group like a mother hen, husband your cooldowns, maintain aggro, maintain aggro, maintain aggro. A tank without stubborn regard for fellow players ain't worth a damn.

@Aedilhild

I disagree, dual spec is awesome, if (and only if) you warn your group before hand that tanking or healing is new, and that your learning. Eventually, with practice and some guidance from "real" tanks/healers of your class, you'll be good at it.

Right now I have a dual space ret/protadin, and dualspeced my Shaman who has never been anything other then enhancement to resto. The pally has less problems, since it just is entering Outland, and thus has pug tanked as ret before. I still warn groups that I'm new at this, and if I mess up tell me where and how.

The Shaman is more difficult, even if I've managed to get lucky on healing mail. I caused a couple VOA wipes, etc... I offer to bow out when I notice that I'm not helping too much. I decided to ask some of the top shamie healers in the top guilds on our server for advice. I also spent some time doing crappy DPS, by focusing on what our healing shamies were doing.

I still suck, but I managed to keep our OT alive on the new VOA boss, and the DPS on the charged mob. Which is a very small achievement, but shows that people can learn.

I have a Priest dual-specced Disc and I had my first actual healing stint since Wailing Caverns back in the day. I healed heroic Old Kingdom and it went pretty well. The only actual non-boss mechanic (Insanity ftl) and non-bug (bugged Jedoga adds) wipe was when the tank tanked a pack of those @#@! elementals down the stairs and the ranged DPS was up above the top step... which meant I had to run back and forth to heal either the tank and melee, or the ranged since the LOS split my heals. At one point the ranged took a flamestrike, and the tank got banged up while I was running back to heal the ranged, then I took a flamestrike, and it went South from there.

I think dual-specs can be an overall plus, if for no other reason than some players will experience roles outside of their normal tracks and can use that to help them in their other roles. I learned a lot about healing and tanking while sitting back and DPSing. I DPSed as Shadow all through BC and balanced my threat on the 120% razor's edge. I learned a lot about tanking, since I had to know how the tank was generating threat so that I wouldn't pass them and pull aggro. I was doing over 1k DPS in ZA before the nerf without pulling through, back when number like that meant something. :^) These days when I tank on my DK or Druid, those threat lessons come in useful. I also work as emergency heals when I'm DPSing on my Spriest. I've kept more than one group up when the healer got aced in BC and in WotLK, which keeps me somewhat sharp for Disc healing. The only thing is I don't yet have the reaction time I should have when healing on Disc. I have to think about which spell to use and then find it on my bar... so I sometimes lag a bit between when I should throw my heal and when it goes off, however that'll tighten up with practice.