[devonin]

These people are probably expecting everyone else in the raid to be set up "optimally," as well. In this case, provided everyone has the necessary personal skill to run their spec correctly, they shouldn't -need- to vary from their primary job.

I'm not sure how my example of a healer getting a lag spike suggests that they are failing to play optimally. To me, optimal play in the case of a KT fight, is that anybody who has healing spells that are quick try and get a heal on the frost tombed player. The loss of DPS from the 2 seconds you aren't DPSing is lower than the loss of DPS caused by a DPS player DYING in the middle of the fight (Or a healer dying, or the off-tank(s) dying)

Another Mage example: Noth. From what I understand, it -shouldn't- be necessary for Mages to decurse people, because healers have it within the limits of their class to handle it by themselves. But I know that that's not going to work in the vast majority of groups, so I'll sacrifice DPS and take care of the curses. I actually have my decurse bound to an easy key combination (alt+q, since I'm already using WASD to move it's an easy reach) specifically for this purpose.

My point is twofold in response to this:

1/ There are many people who won't do this, they won't sacrifice their DPS to make sure decursing gets done

2/ You -view- sacrificing your DPS to make sure the group gets decursed as part of being the best raid member you can be which puts you in a seperate group from the people I'm talking about.

And since my focus is on constantly striving toward perfection, whatever the current perception of "perfection" is, those are the builds I need to use.

To me the ideal way to "strive for perfection" would be to either figure out the numbers, or use their figured out numbers, and then use that knowledge to create your own spec. If you're going to just use their spec and rotation anyway because you "trust them to be correct" then what's the point in also reading about the underlying numbers? You're going to just use their conclusions too anyway.

My spec is not the ideal spec or rotation as specified by those websites, and yet I like to think I'm a pretty optimal tank at least in terms of the fact that if everybody else is doing their jobs passably well too (Like say, the biggest burst DPS in the raid isn't opening up on the guy I clearly haven't established full aggro on yet [Like guy number 4 or 5 in a big pull]) I do a damn good job building and holding aggro, stacking enough defense and avoidance to be surviviable for the healers to keep up with a minimum of effort, and yet here I am, passing on "better" pieces of gear, putting points in "bad" talents, and yet being diagnosed as "geared to be 2nd or 3rd tank" and having to either pull aggro off the main tank, or hold back to keep myself third on the list.