I’ll agree with you, having a duo that can cover tank/heals while also pumping out DPS just the two of ‘em is probably the most powerful/easiest combo.

On the other hand… I have to say, ahem, I’ve been enjoying playing a super-squishy Mage past 40, something I never thought would ever be possible with my “tank with my face” mentality.

A bit before BC was released, I made my first foray into Azeroth. We had duoed in previous MMOs prior; however, this time I was adamant about not being stuck frikkin’ healing. Again. So we rolled up undead warrior (him, prot specced, and to put it as kindly as possible, in those days, prot was “teh suxxor”) and rogue (me). Oh, the agony: if there’s a less synergistic duo, I would not care to try it. We now reminisce in that fond “thank goodness we’ll never be stuck doing that again” way about how many times we were desperately trying to heal ourselves between fights by gobbling down the corpses of our slain foes, and how much we hated fighting non-humanoids.

Then BC was released, and we rolled…blood elf warlock and mage. Again, total lack of any healing capacity, but after level 10, we had our friendly neighborhood blueberry soaking up the damage, and later as he demonology specced, health could be pumped into the void, the drained from our foes. This duo so outperformed the warrior/rogue that they were left to gather dust at 60, while the lock/mage blew past to 70.

We then also played around with a feral druid/holy pally combo, which proved ridiculously survivable; however, they only made it to the 40s as the family was once again abandoning WoW for greener pastures. Though I was pretty “meh” about playing a healer again, I do have fond memories of that pally. Given that I was actually leveling as holy, I ended up with a wild mix of armor types in my goal for healer gear. The number of times I had people say “wut R U doing n cloth? lol n00b” or the equivalent…I ended up with a macro: “/gasp /s OMG it’s cloth! Arrrg, get it off, get it off, get it off!” /panic” Well, it was good entertainment for me at least as they slowly backed away all spooked.

Returning with WotLK, we ended up with a boomkin and blood DK. Blood and DKs in particular being what they are, leveling was a blast. And amazingly, the guild the family happened to be in didn’t explode a week after we’d reached max level, so we ended up raiding for the first time. My goal, happily achieved, quickly became turning myself into such a great DPSer that I’d never ever be asked to tank. The hubby, though, was getting dissatisfied with his boomkin’s performance and getting ready to leave WoW once again. I persuaded him to try healing, as it was something he’d never done before. Ironically, after all those years of him wanting to DPS and forcing me into healing, it turned out he’s an absolutely brilliant healer. /facepalm

We did end up taking another duo to 80: elemental/resto shaman and feral (all bear all the time) druid. Have to say that combo blew away all prior ones. It’s fairly telling when the duo’s reaction to a “5 players recommended” quest was giggles and “Leeeeeroy!”

Eh, that was rambling. Even with bandaging, I’d still probably steer well clear of warrior/rogue. The best duos definitely seemed to be the hybrid classes.

Apart from the 2nd group which we only use for fun and some BGs, there is obviously no queue for Tank/Healer group anywhere.
And the second group, queues as Healer/DPS+Tank/DPS/Healer when needed.
Perhaps a little off-topic but playing with hybrids is really REALLY fun.
Btw, does anyone know about where to read/learn about class pairing and class synergies?
Everywhere I look for something like that I end up with “Learn everything about arena 2v2!”

Well, this is definitely not needed but(t), great blog! Really.
And of course, Dire Bear tanks ftw! :)

Lytstep

Chain lightning… heal… chain lightning… heal… chain lightning… heal… all day long. On big packs of undead mobs like in the plaguelands he barely even needed me, besides to help clear poisons/diseases etc because paladins are even more ridic against undead. But tank + healer (especially because his main is a tank, so now that I’ve levelled to 80 and am able to raid and do heroics and he’s abandoned his paladin at 76, we keep the same tank/healer synergy going on).

Very useful to have you tank in your living room. “Get it off me! Get it off me!”

Still between pulls bandages are great, again watching out of any DoTs that are still ticking.

As the person being bandaged I usually prefer to bandage myself so I can reliably manage my own 1 minute cooldown as well as picking the best time to do it so I don’t get smacked and waste it.