Gear vs. Spec...which matters most?

A lot of the time, people tell me that they can't do PVP very well because they aren't specced for it. I am one person who isn't specced for PVP at all....any PVP talents that I have are only there because they mean something in PVE as well. So how come Gullkurack and I have a 1700 rating? He doesn't have the purest PVP spec either, although he doesn't go all out PVE like I do. It's gear.

Gully and I each have over 10K HP buffed, and he has over 200 resilience (I have closer to 180). This is one of the reasons we've been successful. The same thing goes for in PVE...if you have PVP gear in PVE as a hunter, as Gully says often, you will run out of mana...pure and simple.

By the same token, Azi has some excellent tanking gear, but is specced for PVP and DPS. I don't even know if he has any prot points at all. And he did well tanking in heroic Underbog last night, but it wasn't the same. If he were a prot warrior, we may not have wiped at all.

So yes, spec and gear matter. But which matters the most? I think this is a moot point. There is a third element at work that people don't think about too much. Many people call it skill, others call it reactability. I like to call it playstyle. Skill implies something that cannot change. Playstyle is adaptable. Many people simply don't know the mechanics of their class.

I have explained countless times the number of priests I've had to explain the five second rule to. They were simply unaware of how it worked, and it hurt their healing I'm certain. People who want to be successful at WoW need to understand that yes gear and spec mean something. But their attitude, knowledge of the game, and willingness to learn need to be unrivaled for them to truly master the game. Learning is always a part of my process....I'm still trying to determine what healing style is successful in particular fights. If you feel that there is nothing that you can do to improve yourself, then you're flat out wrong.

This is how you can see MS warriors tanking heroics and shadow priests healing heroics. They know how to play the game. The spec is part of knowing the game, and the gear will fall into place.