I'm only off heal during those rare moments when the healer is either incapacitated (and the tank's overall health is getting extremely low, for example) or oom and the innervate cooldown is in effect. .... I will off-tank when necessary or WOW Classic TBC Gold if the tank is damaged due to reasons beyond my control. Bres is also on cooldown.
It is imperative to keep grouping with some pretty amazing dps as on average I've observed other classes pulling 700-1.2k in total. As a hybrid class I'm thinking that the average I'm pulling isn't too bad when you consider what else I bring to the table. I'm also offering all other students an additional 5% of critique.
My point is that tanking gives you more power for your group, and the ability to get the items that you're looking for. Even if you're dpsing in raids or other areas. My primary is a lock and yes, I can manage 1500 DPS. My pally with a different ret has 800+ dps on trash and 1k+ for bosses. I acquired all my ret gear on my pally through tanking and healing whenever I needed to and later, I was able to buy TBC Classic Gold acquire DPS gear by playing with more geared classes who were able to compete with me or even excluding them from competition.
