Breakfast topic: Your role in World of Warcraft

Setting classes aside, there are four roles World of Warcraft: tank, healer, melee DPS, and ranged DPS. As a raider, I have been in all of these roles at one point or another, and I have found that it’s important to at least try out another role — after all, the worst that can happen is you might not like it (or you might)! Also, wisdom has always stated to go tank or healer if you want to be able to get into groups, which is always a good reason to give those classes a spin.

In most raid teams, however, healing and tanking spots are highly coveted.  With only two tanking spots and four or five healing spots in an encounter, most groups will have very limited spots for either, while DPS — particularly ranged DPS — might have more options for spots, given that this leaves open 13-14 spots for a Mythic team (and even more for a heroic or normal team).

So why do you play the role you play? I healed for several  years because my team had found that I was a dedicated healer, and then I went ranged DPS because I expressed a dislike for healing… and then I went tanking, because I found my spot in the tank role.  You feel like the pitcher, and there’s a certain feeling of immortality from surviving a heavy blow. However, I now play a melee DPS, simply because it fit the needs of the group more.

So, why do you play what role you do? What other roles have you played in the past?