On changing mains

[Texaporte]

Last night, Adam said that he was getting bored of Cazi and wanted to play Hanth in the future. This is a game, so I personally have no problems with his decision. However, his switch costs the raid 2k DPS when we're still grasping at progression, and that affects the 24 of us who play with him.

So if you're thinking about changing mains, please make sure you are ready to replace yourself. If I wanted to switch to Wulfstan (god forbid) I would spend a couple weeks making sure my rotation was right and my gear was up to par before jumping into 25 IC, and our ToC25 and IC10 runs would be a good place to work out the kinks.

[janin]

I really should have posted this before the run last night, and I apologize if it caused problems. I'm happy to trade the Loop of the Endless Labyrinth ring to anyone who was in the raid.

I'm a bit bored with Cazi, so I'm thinking about switching main. If I actually do change, I'll make Cazi officially an alt for loot purposes, but continue to bring him on guild progression runs until my new main catches up in gear.

The leading contender for new main is my priest Hanth, just because he's the best geared and I can get as many heroics as I can tolerate. Hanth is currently discipline and shadow. I'd like to keep those specs, since disc is good for pvp and pve healing, and shadow is good for dps. I prefer dps for raiding, but I know shadow priests aren't rated too highly, so I could also disc heal.

Another option would be my paladin Rila. I've decided I really don't like tanking (too thin-skinned to tank pugs), but I could respec heals in order to do heroics for gear, and ret for raid dps. The only problem is that Rila is far behind in gear (*no* heal gear; only minor dps gear).

I have other 80s too, but I want to stick with somebody who can heal so that I can gear up quickly in heroics. Pure dps (e.g. my hunter) take too long to get into heroics in comparison.

Since the reason for the change is just for variety, I'm open to suggestions from the guild on which direction I should go, even if it's "stick with Cazi at least until Cataclysm".

Adam

[Daewen]

Nah, changing mains for variety is as good a reason as any. Way back during the Loot Rules debates we had talked about this scenario too, and it's not bad for you at all.

So, whenever and wherever possible, bring Hanth, and either be healbot or pretend to be the Starship Enter-Priest (shields up, laser pew pew). Which did you mean would be your main spec? Anyway, bring Hanth, and thus collect loots as your main.

Currently only the Ugly Twins have a high dps bar for which Cazi might be better than shadow-Hanth, but we probably use you as a healer there more than damage, so I don't see the situation where we'd ask you to switch. BUT, note well that if you are ASKED to bring a diff character just for sake of doing better dps than you currently can, then you get to carry with you the loot priority of a main... at least, I'm pretty sure we had decided that so that people who are asked to bring a diff character aren't shafted from drops.

Also, as you study at the feet of Master Chamomile, your dps as Shadow Hanth is sure to come up to the bar soon enough.

[Dengeki]

Shadow priests are actually considered to be doing fairly well right now as DPS goes. The current classes that Blizzard has admitted might be a bit low and need a buff are Elemental Shaman and Balance Druid.

[Terry | Saerra]

Play what you have fun with is always the first rule of thumb.

That said, pallying healing is something we often lack and is incredibly useful, and disc priests probably have the least synergy with each other of the healing classes in a raid situation. For what it's worth.

[janin]

My paladin Rila is now geared for heroic healing. Still a bit short for ICC - using leather +hit shoulders, PVP chest, etc. She should be ready by next week.

If anybody has Titansteel cooldowns I can mooch, let me know!

Adam