Iolden is rolling an Arcane Mage which tbh I think is pretty dope!

Shadow priest is actually very welcome to the raid. Only one shadow priest though. They bring very useful dmg buff for the locks. I haven't played that spec myself but you could search for it and find out if it would be enjoyable playstyle for you. I just know that they start getting some nice items once BWL and ZG come out.

I have seen some very good feral druid dps as well, but they are more effort demanding then other dps to make it rly shine.
I think that you should play any spec you will enjoy, just keep in mind that there will be some downsides to playing suboptimal specs.
I would love to see players go different specs for diverse experience, would be much more fun imo.

@Iolden is rolling an Arcane Mage which tbh I think is pretty dope!

I havent seen any pure arcane mage apart from pvp either. I quess they have nice burst but very high mana costs so it isn't worth it using just arcane spells.
From what I have seen, many mages do spec deep into arcane for Arcane Power and then the rest into frost, apparently giving them higher overall dps in raids.

People always say shadowpriests can't raid but in my experience that isn't true. It's kind of like how you'll adapt to it. In most cases regular guilds will probably let you raid as shadow but as an off-healer or something. DPSing as a shadowpriest is still a possibility but usually just 1 manages to take that spot. So if you're cool with healing but staying shadow I think you'll be good.

People always say shadowpriests can't raid but in my experience that isn't true. It's kind of like how you'll adapt to it. In most cases regular guilds will probably let you raid as shadow but as an off-healer or something. DPSing as a shadowpriest is still a possibility but usually just 1 manages to take that spot. So if you're cool with healing but staying shadow I think you'll be good.

I have seen both pure shadow dps and hybrid shadow/heal priests

Enhancement shaman is a good one. You're useful for nightfall wielding and totem twisting. Not many people play it and not many people take the spec to raids. Sad.

@Iolden is rolling an Arcane Mage which tbh I think is pretty dope!

Hey! That's me :D
I just fell in love with the concept of being an arcanist just randomly blowing up things. I am aware of the quirkiness of the spec and somewhat afraid of not being let into dungeon runs in high levels, let alone raids.

Then again I won't have that much time to play so just reaching 60 will be woth the run, but I do intend to do the endgame as an arcanist.

I mean, if they dont like my magic tricks, at least they will like my flasks, right?

I really don’t think you’re going to have trouble getting into anything man - it’s a very interesting spec and perhaps people haven’t really investigated its true potential. It will certainly make you stand out from the crowd!

Ele Shaman is something I have seriously considered maining and trying to raid with. The talents add +11% crit +3% hit and 1 sec reduced cast time on lightning spells, 100% crit damage multiplier. Can heal quite effectively too, even in the caster gear. The main problem? The gear. To raid effectively, you will likely be wearing mostly cloth, and the tier gear isn't suited. Yuck!

This is something that I am still considering. I love druids and I'm 99% sure I will main one, but the Ele Shaman is the only other thing drawing me in...

My vote would have to g to bear tank. For all the cheers the warriors get, bears can tank a surprising amount of things even main tanking raids. Of course it has its limitations, but bears have been proven already to tank raids and what you cant main tank you can definitely off tank. Its something I tempted to do myself

@Iolden is rolling an Arcane Mage which tbh I think is pretty dope!

Arcane mage isn't particularly hipster at all if he ends up just using frost spells. If he commits to using arcane missiles, then it's hipster. But 31/0/20, with those 20 points in Frost going into the only talents that help PvE damage except for one talent, is a super mainstream build.

Props to him if he's for real going for arcane missiles. Like holy shit I'm so curious how that goes.

My vote would have to g to bear tank. For all the cheers the warriors get, bears can tank a surprising amount of things even main tanking raids. Of course it has its limitations, but bears have been proven already to tank raids and what you cant main tank you can definitely off tank. Its something I tempted to do myself

I've played bear tank the last time I took a deep dive on a vanilla server and leveling and tanking 5 mans before and at 60 is super fun. You'll like it.

I experimented with a bit of bear tank in very very late vanilla, and early BC. Definitely was fun, and for sure is the "hipster" spec.

On the topic of Shadow Priest, things to consider:

I would like to start a new character with a spec that no one normally plays but it also works in raids.

Example would be a shadow priest, any other thoughts?

Shadow priest actually does have some cool synergy with Warlocks, When fully optimized a raid that revolves around spriest is probably disgusting.

On the topic of Shadow Priest, things to consider:

Actually, in some polling data taken from the classic wow subreddit, there was no disparity in the number of warlocks between PvP and PvE servers. The only big changes going from PvP to PvE was a big drop in rogues and a big influx of priests. But there wasn't data from this specific survey how the factions cut on PvP vs. PvE

Additionally, it'd be huge if we knew what Blizzard was planning on post-Naxx, because whether there'd be more vanilla content or burning crusade would influence me on my class choice. All these hipster specs become way better in BC (to the point that they're not hipster anymore), and even some specs that are too bad even for the hipsters in vanilla are solid, like I'd 100% play elemental shaman in BC but I wouldn't even play it in vanilla as a hipster. Woof.

Though, tbh, I'm not even brave enough to play full arcane mage. It's cool b/c talents give you +10 hit (!) so you can stack + damage and not worry about hit gear as much, but arcane missiles doesn't crit at all.

On the topic of Shadow Priest, things to consider:

Actually, in some polling data taken from the classic wow subreddit, there was no disparity in the number of warlocks between PvP and PvE servers. The only big changes going from PvP to PvE was a big drop in rogues and a big influx of priests. But there wasn't data from this specific survey how the factions cut on PvP vs. PvE

Additionally, it'd be huge if we knew what Blizzard was planning on post-Naxx, because whether there'd be more vanilla content or burning crusade would influence me on my class choice. All these hipster specs become way better in BC (to the point that they're not hipster anymore), and even some specs that are too bad even for the hipsters in vanilla are solid, like I'd 100% play elemental shaman in BC but I wouldn't even play it in vanilla as a hipster. Woof.

Though, tbh, I'm not even brave enough to play full arcane mage. It's cool b/c talents give you +10 hit (!) so you can stack + damage and not worry about hit gear as much, but arcane missiles doesn't crit at all.

If the experience I had on private servers is anything to consider, the faction slice for PvP warlocks is huge.

For the current big name private servers it's hard to see the slice because they essentially encompass both PvP and PvE players, but in my own experience warlocks were a scarcity on the Alliance side in Warsong despite having enough warlocks in our raids. Once those PvE warlocks get sifted out and instead the PvP warlocks are being relied on I have a feel that extreme poaching will begin.

Ele Shaman is something I have seriously considered maining and trying to raid with. The talents add +11% crit +3% hit and 1 sec reduced cast time on lightning spells, 100% crit damage multiplier. Can heal quite effectively too, even in the caster gear. The main problem? The gear. To raid effectively, you will likely be wearing mostly cloth, and the tier gear isn't suited. Yuck!

This is something that I am still considering. I love druids and I'm 99% sure I will main one, but the Ele Shaman is the only other thing drawing me in...

I would love to talk to you about what spec you're planning to run. I've never even leveled a shaman past 30 but I was noodling around on the wowhead talent calculators and I thought I got a pretty neat talent spec for elemental shamans. How does this look? https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/shaman/BPMfAHQAAzTxDA

I plan on playing a warlock but the idea of throwing lightning bolts has me intrigued.

I would love to talk to you about what spec you're planning to run.

I'll shoot you a PM.