It’s just a game, and you made one fatal mistake which is not buying the gold from day 1.

I would empathize you if you decided to buy it due to imbalanced odds of getting a rare item or if you just don’t have enough time to play. (120 hours two weeks? gg)
But you’re just plain lazy and by the looks of it also misinformed like some mentioned.

Buy gold, but have a real reason behind it, if you know that you bought it for all the wrong reasons then I say you’re an idiot.

I live in Israel and I would buy gold directly from Al-Quaida just so you get the gist of it. Stop being a bunch of saints. At the end of the day anyone who buys gold can put up a perfect facade and you’ll never know that your best friend got his shining armor from Aldo de pachi and his gang. It’s only him who must live with it if he made the right decision or not.

Why Blizzard won’t sell gold
“Permit people to buy gold through Blizzard, the argument goes, and the keyloggers, site spoofers, hackers, and spammers will go back to the rock from under which they came”
http://www.wow.com/2010/03/16/the-lawbringer-legal-gold-sales-not-a-blizzards-chance-in-hel/

With that being said, soon after I bought gold, my CC company informed me that my CC number may have been compromised and sent me a new CC immediately.

Do I regret it? Honestly, not really. Had something bad happened I most definitely would have regretted it. Moral of the story, shady things do happen with these gold selling websites and I don’t intend to risk it again for a little fun in a video game.

What is needed, is that new players look for advice and listen to it, while old (veteran) players give that advice instead of laughing and /flexing with their superiority.

By the way, official WoW forums have “newcomers” section, have class forums and “professions” section where everyone can ask questions and read guides, so they don’t end up penniless (copperless?), with spec that hinders their gameplay and useless equipment.

Yes, veteran players can sped 5000 gold on levelling their profession, respec twice a day even with dual spec, buy expensive mounts and other luxuries and still have heaps of gold left, but not everyone enjoys AH camping, and nothing actually requires you to have 100k gold. Most stuff you can do in much more efficient manner and save yourself some of the expenses, especially buying gear and levelling professions has alternatives for the “gold impaired”.

Dual spec isn’t needed in a way people levelled without it before it was introduced, and dungeons didn’t get harder, on the contrary, they got relatively easier with boosts to players and nerfs to the content. Before level 65-70 dps specced healer / tank class can perform their role, warriors and paladins only should keep a shield and one-hander (with levelled skill, until Cataclysm delivers us from that atrocity of a weapon skill).

I am so pleased that apparently some of you are so adept that you can reach the gold cap by the time you leave the starting area on a new realm and then head immediately for Silithus or EPL to AOE grind at lvl6 but I think you are being a little harsh. It simply isn’t that easy for a new player who knows nothing about the game when they start.

Buying gold is bad. Don’t do it. But complaining that new players aren’t as Uber as you is also bad. Don’t do that, either.

“My priest is currently set up as a pure healer, but I desperately want to be able to switch to a DPS spec when soloing.”

If you happen to read all the comments even if they’re posted “two weeks too late”, honestly, don’t listen to people who repeat what they don’t understand.

I levelled my priest as Holy. Actually, I levelled it as “smite spec” that is, put 3 points in spirit tap, fill holy until surge of light (remember searing light), fill disc until meditation, rest as you wish, I followed disc later for reflective shield and power infusion.
Use glyph of smite, stack spellpower and spirit on gear. I never ever had to “respec shadow to level up”. I expected from the people’s doomsaying that I’ll “have to go shadow” at some point, but now I know this point is dpsing in groups (dungeons, raids), never solo.

I bought dual spec at level 68-70, because it’s the point where everyone rushes to Northrend instances without Northrend gear and they are given a lot of punishment from the encounters. Once I got to 75 or so and was repeatedly running Violet Hold, I stopped bothering switching specs when I entered the dungeon, got back to healing in my solo spec.

I still have the solo spec before I decide what I “need for end-game content”, if you want to check me out, here’s armory:
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Argent+Dawn&cn=Deidrit

Also I heard a lot of “omg don’t go holy in crap gear, you’ll be oom in no time, respec disc to heal”. Not true either. What helps, is getting a decent group instead of persistent fire-sitters, abusing a mage table and utilizing your mana cooldowns, like when to use shadowfiend for most profit. I also don’t use “holy raid spec”, I picked some talents that are more useful when healing 5-man content in not high-end gear. Understand what for is a talent / glyph, what it does. For example many people do not understand that glyph allowing your circle of healing hit 6-targets is a big waste before you start running 25-man raids.

One more point, levelling up specs are not copies of raiding specs just with fewer points in it and survivability talents can be more useful solo when you have everything on your face instead of on the group’s tank. Levelling a tank character in tank spec? No problem and you’ll never have to beg anyone to boost you on group quest. Also raid specs will throw out all the talents “you get bonus when you kill something giving you experience or honor”. Because in group you rarely deal the killing blow. Solo? You deal 100% of them.

And getting good gear has more impact on character’s performance while levelling than talent specs before… very, very late. That doesn’t mean you have to buy gold to get good gear, rather finding out how to get good gear for free, which quests and instances have them. Or if it’s crafted, have a gathering profession and gather the mats. Or sell the mats and you’ll have a nice gold cushion when you desperately need to buy something.