Healer, Tank, Random

The vocabulary of MMORPG players is changing all the time. Since a couple of months I hear more and more the term "random" used in the looking for group chat, as in "LF4M DM: tank, healer, 2 random". Initially I took the word at face value, and when somebody was looking for a "random" to go to a dungeon I wanted to go, I applied with my priest. Then I learned that a priest does *not* qualify as random, nor does a warrior. The exact definition of random varies, but it is either anyone who is not a priest or warrior, or for some people anyone from a damage dealing class. Some people do accept a paladin as random, some don't. As a druid or shaman you might need to argue with your talent build to qualify for random.

There is something slightly derogatory behind calling all damage dealers random. It suggests that there really is no difference between a mage, a hunter, a warlock, or a rogue. Damage is damage, and in many situations it doesn't matter who applies it in what way. Additional abilities like polymorph, varying degrees of area of effect spells, banishing, tranquilizing shots, or opening locks might make one class more desirable than the other for a specific expedition. But often that difference is small enough for the group to decide to rather go with any damage dealer, instead of waiting a long time for a specific class. We would *like* to get a mage, but we'd rather accept a hunter than stand around waiting.

That attitude is markedly different from most groups attitudes towards healers and tanks. Only very few groups are willing to accept alternatives to using a priest as main healer and a warrior as tank. Curiously you have a better chance to get the healer spot in a group as a shadow priest than as a restoration spec'd druid. And few people ever bother to ask the warrior whether he is actually having the gear and the talents for tanking.

Something similar happens in my guilds raid chat, only that the damage dealers are called "dps" there, which sounds less insulting than "random". As long as we have enough warlocks for banishing, enough mages for AoE and water, and enough hunters for tranquilizing shot, we don't care much what class the remaining damage dealers are. But in all fairness we are treating restoration spec'd druids and shamans as healers.

Anyone got an idea why a healer is a priest, a tank is a warrior, but for damage dealing you just need a "random"?