(The correct continuation of the title, by the way, is “Carmen Sandiego” said in a deep Rockapella voice. This shall not be disputed.)

One of the things that has been on the ol’ mind lately is the popularity or lack thereof of various specs and classes. Not so much in a QQ sense even, but in a “Man, where did all those [insert spec] here go? I kinda miss having one in my raid” sense.

These mysterious endangered species specs vary from server to server and even from personal experience to personal experience but here, I’ll tell you mine, class by class…

Death Knight:
I actually see all three DK specs fairly evenly represented. Unholy is probably ahead by a smidge. It’s the pet, I tell ya, people love ‘em (more on this later).

Druid:
This is what inspired me to write this post. Where the heck are all the feral druids? I can’t even remember when the last time I had a bear tank was. The other druid specs are doing quite well. Trees are arguably the healer I see most these days (though not by a large margin… but I would put them in front), and I probably group with more boomkin than mages. Cats are seen frequently in lower level dungeons, and by the same token, bears are seen relatively frequently at low levels too because it’s easy for a leveling kitty to just step in.

But at endgame? Where are all you lovely fuzzy teddybears with a yummy 5% crit bonus hiding? My hunters miss you dearly. Seriously, let’s say I get into a VoA. “We need one more tank,” someone says. “Invite [so-and-so]“, says someone else. /who So-and-so. 40% chance it’s a paladin, 40% chance it’s a death knight, 15% chance it’s a warrior, and 5% chance it’s a bear. Why? I dunno. Ghostcrawler keeps saying they’re OP, how does he know if no one is playing them? =P

It is my hope that with the next patch and the improved forms, more people will be inspired to take Feral for a spin. I miss bear tanks.

Hunter:
I’m sure most of the readers of my blog know this one goes without saying. Survival is currently eating the biggest piece of the cake by far in my groups. Interestingly there seem to be roughly similar (though much smaller) numbers of Marksmanship and Beast Master. I sorta think it’s cause I’m on an RP server. We’re more likely to get the people who think about their character when they think about their spec, hence, more people staying BM. On the same token, I swear I am the only hunter on the dang server without a Spirit Beast in the stable.

Mage:
Okay. What I am about to tell you is going to blow your mind.

…

…

I raid with Frost mages more than both of the other specs combined.

It’s actually gotten to the point where I wonder what it’s like to raid with a non-Frost mage.

I think it’s the water elemental. Like I said, people love them pets.

Or maybe it’s because the poor frost mages are in the same boat with me, the Beast Mastery hunter, so all we do is PuG stuff. Who knows!

Paladin:
Paladins are living the high life right now, I swear. They’re so ubiquitous that being in a group without at least one is a surreal experience. “…where’s Might? Where’s Kings? Didn’t they come default with Heroics? Is this a bad dream?”

I see paladins of all three specs quite frequently, although I see Prot and Ret slightly more than Holy. Probably because they synergize together better so everyone dualspecs to those. Although, the Prot/Holy types who are good with both specs? They are to be feared. For being the most useful person in the world. Seriously.

Priest:
I see priests pretty evenly represented. Shadow priests are in vogue right now mostly because the good ones are Gods of Recount. Disc is still sorta that crazy spec that no one understands so they’re lagging behind Holy a bit, but I’ve seen them in my groups too.

My priest knowledge is roughly comparable to my knowledge of higher mathematics (“Oooh look guys, I can make my caluclator say “Hello”), so moving on…

Rogue:
I know nothing about the rogue specs. Like, Subtlety is for sneaking around I guess? I couldn’t tell ya who is what by playstyle though. Fortunately I’ve configured my XPerl to show me someone’s spec when I target them. As such, I have cleverly deduced that Assassination was all the rage at the beginning of WotLK, but since then the pendulum has largely swung back around to Combat, at least from what I’ve seen. Subtlety is pretty much extinct although you still see the random Sub rogue while leveling.

Did I mention I know nothing about rogues? I know nothing about rogues. The class is a completely foreign concept to me.

Shaman:
I have no idea where all the resto shamans are hiding, because I know they’re there.. I sorta think they all got scooped up by raid guilds the second they materialized in the game world because I never see any in PuGs, but I always see them standing around in Ironforge (never Stormwind) with super fancy gear and usually an Amani War Bear and a Hand of A’dal title. Hence my hypothesis.

Anyways, Elemental/Enhancement representation seems to be pretty even, with Enhancement gaining the edge in lower levels and Elemental gaining it at higher ones. I like shamans. I could never get into playing them, but I like having them in my group. *pets them*

Warlocks:
You’d think I’d know more about warlocks seeing as my boyfriend plays one and writes about them on WoW Insider. But I really don’t. All I know is that there are approximately 1395802462 times as many Demonology warlocks as any other spec, and I blame the Felguard. (See? It’s that pet thing again like I was telling you about.)

Sometimes I’m in a group with an Affliction or Destruction warlock that isn’t my boyfriend. It freaks me out. “Wait, you mean warlocks that aren’t my boyfriend use their imp/felpuppy? /boggle”

Warlocks in general are kind of an endangered species, which saddens me, because the world could always use more in-instance summoning stones, don’t you think? >.>

Warriors:
I am convinced that 99% of the world’s prot warriors either rerolled Death Knight, or respec’d to DPS. Yes, I have no idea where our tanky warrior friends went. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for prot warriors, they just looked like they were working so hard in Burning Crusade– no idea if they still have to work hard or not, but the soft spot remains. I’d like to see more of them just for that.

This one time I saw a Fury warrior dual-wielding Legacy and something else. I was kinda jealous. The End.

And that, as they say… is that.

This has been a Pike Incorporated Presentation. One’s experiences with various classes and specs may vary. Some restrictions may apply.

(Shamelessly stolen from a couple other blogs)

Pike rolled a druid. She Wrathed and Moonfired her way up to about level 5 and then got bored and quit. Several months later she rolled another druid. This time she got to level 10 and got Bear Form! Then she got bored and quit. Another several months later she rolled a third druid, somehow managed to get to level 15ish… and was promptly invited to heal Deadmines and then SFK. “What… what is this… this healy thing is… fun?” Pike respec’d to Resto and is now level 64. Trees ftw baby.

Pike rolled a hunter. She thought it was a weird silly class until level 30 or so at which point something clicked. Then she rolled another hunter, and another hunter, and another hunter, and made a hunter blog, and rolled another hunter, and and and…

Pike rolled a mage. She liked it except that she kept dying, running out of mana, and running into hunters in Deadmines who looked like they were having ten times more fun than she was. Mage shelved at level 21. Though she did end up rolling another mage later that she has been having more fun with. (Must log into more often.)

Pike rolled a paladin. She tried doggedly to make this her “secondary main” way back when she’d first started playing. She tried hard. She got to level 17. Then she realized she was spending way too much time fumbling around with this confusing seals-thing and dying all the time (yes, as a paladin) while hunters ran blissfully past with their pets. Paladin shelved. Pike has since tried to make new paladins because she likes the lore behind them but she fails miserably every time she tries.

Pike rolled a priest. It was fun but didn’t seem to “hook” her at all. Priest shelved at level 8. She has since rolled a few more priests but none of them have gotten past level 10. Bugger.

Pike rolled a rogue. She got to level 8 and decided she didn’t like it and shelved it. Pike rolled another rogue much later, with a backstory that she really liked a lot. Pike found roguing slightly more intriguing this time but not intriguing enough. Rogue shelved at level 10; no real interest in trying again.

Pike rolled a draenei shaman. She got to level 7 and decided it was the most confusing class in the world and turned that shaman into a bank alt. Later Pike made a new Hordie shaman who was actually pretty fun and reached level 10, but then she got distracted. Shaman on indefinite hiatus.

Pike rolled a warrior. She got to level 6 and then rerolled hunter. Warrior turned into a bank alt.

Pike rolled a warlock. She kept telling her imp to tank and then wondering why he was so horrible at it, and why it took eight million years to cast Shadowbolt. She eventually fumbled her way into getting a Voidwalker but, as usual, got distracted. Warlock on hiatus; Pike feels better leaving the ‘locking to her boyfriend.

Pike rolled a Death Knight. It was actually really fun, although she had absolutely no idea what she was doing. Then she was booted out of the starting zone into Hellfire Peninsula which was being heavily camped by about 500 other Death Knights. DK on hiatus.

And there you have it. Other than hunters and that random lucky resto druid, Pike really does have no class. … -es. /cough