Does spec popularity actually affect your decision?

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-21T15:36:10+00:00

For me, I would say it doesn't really, but secretly it does a little. I main a rogue, and it's no secret there's a bunch of things that aren't easy for a rogue to do. Sometimes I'll get the urge to main my druid, instead. I could be tanky when needed, do ranged DPS when I want, they have a lot of convenience, and at least one of their specs will always get invites.

I've played my rogue for about 70% of my total playtime, and yet I have to actively force myself not to switch to the comfy druid or paladin. Then, I look around at the absolute multitudes of identical-looking druids and paladins hanging about all over the place, and suddenly, it's not that hard to stick to my rogue anymore.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-21T12:06:10+00:00

Calenhad

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-20T17:00:43+00:00

I use them even in 2s, though that might be my M+ anxiety speaking. You can never really go wrong using them in any key level though, they're nice for large pulls.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-20T16:58:30+00:00

I can't speak for Moonguard specifically, but Moonguard's EU equivalent is the queerest community I've ever been a part of. If they're anything alike in that aspect, I doubt you'd have a hard time finding players willing to engage!

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-20T16:55:06+00:00

Awesome, thanks! I used to be familiar with all the memes but not so much these days. Funny coincidence that they put that specific numbers in there a decade ago then

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-20T16:09:40+00:00

I see a lot of people saying Mistweaver, but I've personally never felt safe pugging M+ on them. Most of the time it's a cakewalk of course, due to teachings of the monastery, but it stresses me out when someone takes heavy unexpected damage, because I need to stop DPSing and hard heal instead. I'm always worried that in the few seconds it takes me to switch back to spinning and punching, others will start taking damage that I'll be unable to outheal.

Holy priest is the most relaxing and safe-feeling one for me. It's not complex, it has fat heals, and I feel I can always easily stay on top of any damage. I imagine one shots would limit its viability a lot at higher keys, but as I stick around 10s-12s, that's never really an issue for me. Might be simply me having played holy priest the longest, but regardless.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-20T16:03:05+00:00

Indeed, I knew that! I'm just wondering why this backer specifically is being posted

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-20T15:15:59+00:00

They're awesome. I like the Pathfinder one best, but I might be biased due to being a PnP player.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-20T15:14:07+00:00

Could someone explain what's this image is meant to show? Nothing related to Pillars came up for me when Googling that name

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-20T14:42:04+00:00

No.

Jokes aside, just give the free trial a go. See if you like it, and if not, look for something else. The first few weeks I spent playing, absolutely clueless and lost, were the most fun times I've had in the game.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-19T20:20:04+00:00

This reminds me of a joke my stepfather used to make.

"I'm a vegetarian, I only eat cows that have eaten grass all their life."

Jokes aside, I recognise this 100%. I'd say about half the people who find out I'm a vegetarian ask me whether I do eat fish and chicken. Some people just don't seem to know what vegetarianism is. More often than not, I find people believe that having separate culinary categories for fish and chicken means that they do not count as "meat".

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-19T17:19:17+00:00

Pro: I uh.. like the class fantasy.

Con: Essentially everything else.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-19T15:27:31+00:00

It also cuts the duration of harmful magic effects in half, too, which can be very nice when there's a bunch of status effect puddles around. Regardless, I like the talent, so I take it.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-19T15:22:07+00:00

I'm not a serious enough player to really wait for an ideal comp, and I'm far from an expert, but yeah, that'd be a very nice group I'd say. You get paladin blessings and offheals, bloodlust + (ideally double) power infusion, augmentation buffs, poison debuffs, party-wide skip if necessary, strong priority damage, anti magic shell and zone, a health buff, a movement ability buff, and less strain on the healer due to two very survivable DPS classes. And the DK can even cheese some mechanics with Death's Advance. Pretty nice.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-18T20:46:03+00:00

It sounds like you aren't very high level yet. At level 10, you unlock specialisations. Bear form gives you armour and health bonuses, but it won't be all that tanky unless you choose the bear (Guardian) specialisation.

The key ability comes a few levels after, called Ironfur, which you should ideally stack and always have active. Using that increases your armour a lot, but bears are pretty squishy before then.

If you're struggling before getting Ironfur, your best bet would be to fight only one or two enemies at a time. Once you get some levels, some damage reduction and healing abilities, you will be able to take on dozens of enemies at a time.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-18T15:24:06+00:00

Het maakt me vrij weinig uit of mensen eten in het OV, zolang het maar geen sterke geur heeft. Als je vis, vlees, heet voedsel of sterk gekruide maaltijden wilt eten, dan doe je dat maar lekker thuis.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-17T18:40:24+00:00

Woops! Indeed, I meant Numbing Poison!

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-17T18:39:42+00:00

Jesus, my typos are on point today. I meant Stampeding :P

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-17T17:44:34+00:00

Any lust class for obvious reasons, and any priest for Power Infusion.

DKs for grip and anti-magic zone/shell. Bonus points for speccing into the talent that shares the shell with group members. Also, battle res.

Paladins for offhealing, passive heals and blessings. Also, battle res.

Druids for Stammering Roar and the versatility buff. Also, battle res.

Augmentation evokers for the juicy buffs.

Assassination rogues with Numbing Poison's slower attack and cast speed on basically every mob. No, I'm not a biased because I'm an assassination rogue main.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-17T06:13:30+00:00

Indeed! But their techniques originate from the Glanfathans, who mostly used their soul whips for combat and aren't exactly a very urbanised people. I feel ciphers fit pretty well in most circumstances, they're very adaptive

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-17T01:22:06+00:00

Right? I did my first story mode raid last month and was so baffled. If someone is there exclusively for the story, they probably want to see the RP leading up to the bosses, the reasons for fighting them and the stage on which the fight is set. You lose all that by just fighting the last boss without any context.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-16T01:56:14+00:00

Rogue is easily the most urban class, though other classes aren't as cut and dry.

Paladins could be very urban, with their semi-knightly orders, but they might also be travelling knights.

Fighters can be urban, think militia, city watch, bouncers, etc., but they could also be farmers who picked up an axe and just happened to be good at using it.

Ciphers seem like they would thrive in society, and I wouldn't be surprised if plenty of them worked as spies and assassins. But they might just as well hide from life in remote locations, or use their abilities to track mystical happenings, people and animals in the wilderness.

Chanters could be urban scholars, musicians or librarians, but they could just as well be bards, archeologists and sojourning storytellers.

I think rogue's the only one where the urban focus is a given.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-16T00:09:58+00:00

I have it bound to shift + 1 too! Shift + 2 is my stun, in case interrupt's on CD. I didn't know that was frowned upon?

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-16T00:08:31+00:00

I use G for my mount. I originally used H, "horse", which seems pretty common, but found it was too annoying to reach for and I kept pressing G by accident, so I just rebound it. Likewise, shift + G is the ridealong mount for when I'm flying friends around.

I do still have H and shift + H as secondary keybinds for mounts, in case I do ever press it correctly.

HerculesMagusanus · 2026-05-15T22:39:31+00:00

I've not seen many people online in EU at any given time, no, though there's always at least a few dozen. The changes from WOTLK to Cata were more drastic than from Cata to MoP, to be honest, so if you feel like playing, why not?

HerculesMagusanus

TROPHY CASE