The problem comes when you have to convince your raid to gear up your offspec, and that offspec's gear is identical to your regular spec gear. Now, this isn't such a problem if you're one of two people in the raid on your token. But if you're a warlock fighting for cloth gear with the mages and priests and fighting for tokens with 4 other people in your 10-man, arguing that you need a second helm token for your offspec when very few people can tell you change spec...

My raid always knows when I go dps for a one-tank fight, or when our shaman goes ele for a 2-heal fight. They put priorities on getting our offspecs geared. But our arcane mage is only getting tokens for her fire spec because we've had appalling luck in teh token drop department.

I don't think that Anne is really bringing this up as an issue that needs to be resolved. I think that she is bringing it up as an object of discussion, to illustrate the disparity between the old paradigm and the new.

I can't tell you how many times in DS I wish I had two gear sets on my mage. One for fire (crit) and one for arcane (haste).

To answer Legs question, because its harder than building that healing off-set. That healing mail piece that just dropped? Resto shammy already has it. So it goes for DE or an off-set. That cloth DPS piece that just dropped? Mage already has it. But the warlock or shadow priest needs it for main set. Often DPS pieces have to drop 3-4 times before it goes to DE or off-set. This means it takes 3-4 times as long before a DPS off-set is even worth it.

Fair points, and I didn't intend to shoot down the whole article, that's for sure.

I think the annoyance/difficulty of building up 2 sets is probably quite amplified for someone like Anne who is clearly in a pretty hardcore/advanced progression guild (and can I assume doing 25man?): I come from a more casual 10man guild, where having a few pieces down half a tier isn't as big a deal (and the lfr has made getting that half tier below much much easier).

If you really want two sets of gear, just don't vendor or DE your old gear, and reforge your one-tier-behind gear for the off-spec.

There are also some specs in the game where they aim for a balance of haste-crit-mastery, always possible blizz could move in that direction for more of the pure dps class specs.

Consider the fact that in a less hardcore environment, many healers could use the same gear for both Healing and DPS (Paladins being the only case where that's never true). Sure, the specs have different stat optimizations, but as most Pure DPS know, that situation isn't unique to healers.

If your raid group is pushing progression hard enough that they need you in another spec for some of the encounters, getting them to let you gear up that off-spec is incredibly easy. It's much harder to convince people to let you gear up an alt.

Nina hit it right on, and the very last thing Anne wrote sums it up through most of the game until Cata "I never needed one until now".

My best friend used to raid with me in a 25 man during wrath, and we had the same issue with her: she was a dagger rogue, always was a dagger rogue, and never needed or wanted a combat spec.
Patch hit an we had to assemble several speed runs for her to get combat weapons so she could retain her spot.
Fortunately for her, she got the 2 heroic axes she needed within 3 weeks, and it wasn't really an issue, but it still sucked for her when she was suddenly rendered impotent for the only thing that she thought her class did: DPS.


I'm personally of the opinion that the 4 pure classes aren't actually pure dps classes, but control classes, and other than the warlock class, that's true (locks need a glyph to be viable CC). Think back to TBC, what was spammed in trade?
LF Tank, healer, Mage/rogue/hunter, and 1 dps.

Every group needed a way to cc a mob, and it just happened to be that 3 of the 4 "pure" classes were that cc option.


Fast forward to dragon soul heroic fights, my guild requires everyone to be dual spec'd and be able to justify your off spec.
Your a lock? You better have an aoe spec and a burst spec
Warrior? You better have a tank and an arms spec
Rogue? Your single target and your morchok spec. Have something other than morchok and you better explain yourself fast or get benched.

@Nina

How is gearing up two specs any different than a hybrid gearing up two specs? In Dragon Soul, combat spec is arguably the best spec. Our rogue has declared combat as his main spec. He gets main spec rolls for that gear, off-spec for gear more suited to assassination. No different than the casters getting main spec caster items before the enhancement shaman challenges the retribution paladin in off-spec healing gear.

The author's whole argument revolves around gearing. It's weak argument at best; it further pollutes the internet at worst. Methinks think the author is still bitter about WotLK.

Pure DPS going the way of the dodo? Meh, I don't care either way. It's the poor article that inspired me to post.

doctorstick, Anne's whole article is about how Pure DPS deserve to build an off-spec suit just as much as Hybrids do. That might seem obvious to you, but it isn't obvious to the vast majority of WoW players. They are the ones who need to read this article.

If you're going to be needed in two specs that require separate pieces of gear, then you need to acquire that gear. If you can explain it here, you can explain it to your raid leader. If the alternative is to be dropped from your raid, then make your case. It's the same case that a hybrid makes for offspec gear.

If I were raid leading and you came to me with that argument, I would agree to you collecting a second set of rogue gear at the same priority as my hybrids collect their second set of raid gear.

I'm finding it hard to feel sympathy for pure dps classes only now needing to carry backup gear for different specs.

Maybe it's because I'm a Druid and have to carry around my tank set, a feral dps set and a healing set (as well as a pvp set). However, the argument that you need to convince people of your need for offspec loot is, at it's core, no different to me claiming need of healing gear for my offspec.

Offspec is offspec, it should always be of a lower priority than somebody who needs it for main spec. Should you get a piece of tier gear for your offspec before your Druid friend gets his first? I'll agree that there's a need for it, but putting forth the argument that it's tough because you can't perfectly gear your offspec doesn't garner sympathy. Welcome to the rest of hybrids and our not-quite-as-good offspec gear.