Introducing our Candidates

So, which are are our initial candidates?

Currently, there are no talent trees which support healing which are not utilised effectively for a healing play-style. Similarly, there are no tank-support trees which are not utilised for a tanking playstyle. Although rogues, shaman, hunter, hunter pets and warlock pets could, in theory, tank a mob given sufficient gearing and very good healers, that's just brute force. Similarly, mages and warlocks have 'range-tanked' certain gimmic fights in the past, but outside those encounters, it is not a common or viable approach.

Also, its very hard to experiment with a tanking or healer spec against a target dummy!

Therefore , we will be examining three potential new DPS specs. Two of these are healer trees (Priest and Paladin) that, for the purposes of levelling and soloing, have in-built damage abilities (Shaman and Druid healers, due to their hybrid nature, don't need specific damage-dealing support in their healer role to the same degree). Although all tank specs do quite good damage as an essential element of threat-generation, this blog will, at least not initially, argue in favour of Prot- or Bear- dedicated DPS roles.

Our third candidate takes an existing DPS tree and changes the playstyle from 'ranged' to 'melee'.

Let's meet them . . .

The Smite Priest (Holy/Discipline Hybrid)
Long gone are the days when shadow priest DPS was laughed at. Priests already have a wholly legitimate ranged-caster DPS specialization. Nevertheless, there is a potential for a hybrid build that takes both Surge of Light and Power Infusion to work as a second ranged caster dps specialisation.

For more reading on Smite Priests, see the Holy Fire Spec blog and this thread at elitistjerks.com

The Melee Hunter (Survival/Beast Master Hybrid)
Once upon a time, Survival was the hunter's melee tree. Don't believe me, check out this. Survival limped on for a while as the Hunter PvP tree, until being made a viable dps option in Wrath. Elements of Survival's haunted past, however, survive until the present day, and Gweryc, among others, has made a living validating its ongoing existence.

That said, melee hunters are in a pretty bad way at the moment. Successive changes by Blizzard has virtually killed it off entirely. I should know - I've tried levelling one through BC content. Gweryc himself has specced almost entirely into Beastmaster and, for lack of a better term, 'plays' as his pet. Has hunter melee dps survived? This blog aims to find out.

The Shockadin (Holy Paladin)
Ah, shockadins. Once upon a time, a holy/retribution hybrid that took 31-points in the Holy tree to get Holy Shock performed very well in PvP. Now, however, that Retribution abilities scale significantly better with attack power than spellpower, the received wisdom is that putting 31 points into the Holy tree gives one little more than a gimped retadin.

There is, however, another option, typified by this thread. In short, one takes Holy Guidance, Judgements of the Pure and Enlightened Judgements, taking the Holy tree almost to its maximum. This transforms the paladin into a lean, mean, spellcasting machine. Moreover, one that has significant ranged DPS capability. What can such a spec do? This blog aims to find out.

Until next time . . .