What determines a main spec?

[shaeman]

My son had a pretty nasty situation crop up yesterday (solo play) and wanted to just see how others saw it.

My son is into pvp and left our guild recently to go to a pvp guild.

He's respecced a lot , and is dual specced. Now the dual spec says primary is holy and ret is secondary,
However, he plays ret as a primary spec and only took healing recently to try out a bit in arena for when I can faction transfer my shaman. He plays most of his arena games as ret.

What would you say determines what is considered the primary spec?

Here's why.

My son went on a VOA guild run yesterday, and was one of only two pallys in there.

He got whispered by a guy asking him to go holy for this run , my son responded that he was pl;aying as his main spec ret and staying ret. Nothing more from this guy.

So they down the first boss in VOA and the pally relentless item drops, my son is pleased at the prospect of rolling on it.

No roll takes place, no asking. The guy who whispered my son took them (turns out he was the raid leader).

So my son asks why there wasn't a roll for the pally item and this chump says it's because my sons main spec is holy.

I took over typing for my son at this point and said that his main spec was ret and he knew that, and had asked me to go holy for the raid and i'd refused. I figure if this guy wasn't a deliberate ninja he would have said Sorry my mistake, roll for it. Instead he says that I'm a liar.

I then called him a ninja. I would have expected some support - i mean it's a guild run, I can't believe ninja-ing something would be tolerated. Instead there's no sympathy and some pretty nasty name calling ensues.

My son's character gets kicked from the guild.

Now it probably was very childish - but given the reaction I pull the next boss.
I was going to leave it at that and go, but weirdly I get ressed, and this shaman starts to heal me, resulting in boss aggro and a wipe. I get booted from the raid before I can get back in.

So I was thinking about it last night and wondering if I'm in the wrong. Does the fact my son was saving money reglyphing and ending up with retribution as his secondary spec in the dual spec screen (although it is very much his main spec) mean that he couldn't roll on the loot?

If that is the case - then if my son had known that he would have sorted his duel specs out accordingly.

Mind you - I've never seen anything like it in the guilds I've been in.

[Otlecs]

What would you say determines what is considered the primary spec?

In a guild - my raiding guild at least - it's a declared spec and remains your primary spec (with enhanced rolling rights) no matter what role you happen to be playing for a particular encounter.

In a PuG, it's whatever role you're playing (i.e. retribution in this example), unless otherwise stated at the start.

So you and your son are clearly in the right, and the guy in question is a complete ass.

[shaeman]

It was a mainly guild run and my son hadn't been asked to declare a spec as primary.

I guess it doesn't make a difference though - as my son was never asked to declare a spec, and this guy was only
saying my son was holy to justify his ninjaing.

I could only see us being in the wrong if the ordering of your duel spec determined this - and so wanted to check I hadn't been in the wrong.

Thanks for your response.

[Khatovar]

Your son declared his main spec as Ret and the raid leader accepted that as his main spec when he let your son into the raid as ret instead of the much more desired/needed spec of holy or prot {as evidenced by his asking your son to play holy}.

What if your son had a feral druid with more /played time on it? Then his "primary spec" is feral druid. would that mean your ret pally son could only roll on feral druid drops in the raid? I'm sure that and feral druids in the raid would be totally understanding of losing an item they want to a ret paladin who can't even use it because "feral druid" is his main spec since it has more days /played. Who cares if he abandoned it a year ago. He spent more time on it, so it must be his main still.

If this was a scheduled guild run that your son signed up for and normally goes to as holy while the raid leader goes as ret, then sure, the raid leader should get dibs on a ret drop. But that's not the way it sounds to me. It sounds to me like a guild PUG which is no different to me than a regular PUG except there should be less fear of ninjas in a guild PUG.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

The boss pull after that was, as you noted, a bit peevish but from the way the guild handled things, I'm sure your son will be better off in a guild that doesn't have a lying, backstabbing retard as GM. Just proves the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.

[voodoogriff]

Yeah the whole "Primary/Secondary" thing in Armory is annoying. Should just be Spec 1/Spec 2

[Aragent]

Now I will not Justify this Raid leaders actions but having been a Guild Leader and raid leader since Vanilla, I know I have some mods that check what items are best suited to what class and spec's, and we had guild rules for Priority order.

Due to health reasons I haven't really raided since dual spec got fixed. SO I don't know how that plays with the mods.

But the Raid leader having invited and asked your son to play Holy should have known and either payed more attention passing loot or IMHO "he took it because he was perturbed that your son wouldn't switch to holy for the run and thus was determined to try and keep your son from getting gear"

[Moorea]

Pulling the boss can get your reported and will surely give you a shitty reputation - too bad because if you didn't you could probably file a ticket against them for the missing chance to roll on the item.. and they would have rightfully looked like the assholes

[shaeman]

Pulling the boss can get your reported and will surely give you a shitty reputation - too bad because if you didn't you could probably file a ticket against them for the missing chance to roll on the item.. and they would have rightfully looked like the assholes

I doubt blizzard would deal with a missed loot roll, or for a deliberate boss pull. They don't have time to get bogged down at that level.

One action shouldn't tarnish a reputation significantly, and if it has I'll pay for char renaming and transfers off and back if necessary. (It's not his fault after all).

[Altsoba]

The main spec is the spec the player decides to play, if he decides to play and when he decides to play and if he wants to change while he plays he should/can do so. He plays but he pays so he has 100% right to do whatever he wants to...

Another thing is respect agreements, which is totally personal and everyone does as he finds suitable, after all this is a game everyone can do whatever he wants as long as he abides to Blizz rules. To be honest, I don't care what people do, this game is made in a way (and others of course) that brings to the surface the worst in people.

One of the reasons although not the main reason why I multibox is because this is a MMO... weird isn't it? ^^

I've been GL, RL, whatever you can think of in all these years of wow. Seen it all or at least most of it and to be totally honest with you I disapprove with the same conviction both what they did and what you did but again who cares about what I think when I'm not paying their fees ^^

As far as bans and reports, forget it none of those offenses can even issue a warning.