Two specs too easy?
by Eliah Hecht 
Mar 13th 2007 at 3:57PM
As far as basic skills go, every character of a given class in WoW is the same (assuming they bothered to train all their skills; I've certainly left Feedback on my Priest and Wound Poison on my Rogue well alone). Where character customization comes in is with talents and gear. Gear is relatively easily switched -- many classes carry multiple sets routinely, and mods like ItemRack or Outfitter are great at helping you switch between them. Talents, on the other hand, are not quite so easy to switch up. Not only do you have to trek back into Azeroth to a major city to find a trainer, but you also have to pay, and of course the more you respec the more it costs. Granted, even the 50g maximum cost is a lot less now than it used to be, due to inflation, but it certainly adds up, and it's not really attractive to pay 100g (respec away, then respec back) just for one night of instances, PvP, grinding, or what have you. Blizz have said that the respec cost is not going away, as they want talents to have some kind of lasting implications, to be a somewhat weighty choice, but it does get somewhat frustrating to have to gimp yourself in one part of the game to be great at another part.
Tobold's MMORPG Blog is always a good read, and today he debuts a new column about "single features that I think are easy enough to implement and which could make World of Warcraft a much better game." This being WoW, I'm sure the idea has arisen before, but this week Tobold has come up with the idea of letting everyone have two specs and be able to switch between them for free. You could still charge to change either spec, on the same plan as before. To avoid on-the-fly spec switching abuse, you could make people go to a trainer to switch. If this were implemented, I'd also want to see a spec switcher NPC in Shattrath, because that's where the party is these days.
I absolutely agree that this would be a great feature, and I don't think it would weaken the talent system very much. We would still be motivated to think hard about each of our two specs, it would just let us do one thing while we can't do another. I think two specs is the right number, too. There are basically three environments in this game: solo PvE, group PvE, and (group) PvP (group PvE and PvP further differentiate into Raid/5-man and BG/Arena, but I don't think that's important for these purposes). Making people choose two out of them makes sense to me for some reason (of course, that could always be because I don't PvP very much). It seems that most people pick either PvP or group PvE as their endgame challenge, and everyone needs to solo from time to time, so giving us two specs would let us solo and do our group thing of choice.
There are two concerns that arose in the comments on Tobold's post that I would like to address here. One commenter worries that this will cause cookie-cutter speccing: everyone will pick what eventually emerges as the best pair of specs. To this I simply reply that cookie-cutterism is already rampant. Today, people pick a role and tend to spec cookie cutter for it. This wouldn't be any different in that respect, you'd just use whatever standard spec applied to the job you were trying to do. The other concern is that it would require people to collect two sets of gear, one for each of their specs. Once again, this is already happening. As a Priest I carry two sets, healing and DPS; they only share one piece right now. Druids routinely carry three sets, as do Paladins; Warriors often carry two; etc. There's a certain extent, in fact, to which a dual spec system would merely be an extension of carrying multiple sets of gear.
What do you guys think? Is this a good idea, or would it give us too much power? What ideas for simple, game-improving features have you come up with?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Talents
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Flit Mar 13th 2007 4:14PM
Stupid Idea. Sounds like he wants to make it more like a single player game, where you can do anything you want to, anytime you want to. Everyone would roll hybrids. This game should focus on being spec'd a certain way, and fitting that into groups and playing with other people who take care of those other things.
Seper Mar 13th 2007 4:25PM
I dont agree with that at all. Everyone would be uber elite. Tres lame.
I think what they should do which would be tres easy to implement.
Is take exsisting talent trees and abilities and mix and match into new classes. So have like a healer DOT class. Or a tank control class. It would be pretty sweet to see them reuse old content to make these new classes.
Might not work.. but an idea none the less :)
Matt Park Mar 13th 2007 4:29PM
Maybe if it did it for a reduced cost - say a 1G cumulative, up to 25G - but not for free. That trivializes the talent trees.
Here's an example: Let's say that Blizzard suddenly says respeccing is free, you can go do it any time you like. Would it really be different than this plan? Yes, people might switch around a lot at first, but I definately think they'll settle down to 2 specs that they'll switch back and forth from.
Freehugz Mar 13th 2007 4:27PM
Why is it that most of the "ideas" that come about online can be summarized with: "Make this game easier for me please!!"
Bad Idea. Two thumbs down
Ryan Mar 13th 2007 4:34PM
I disagree with the posters above. Given how hard it is to get anything done solo with a healing class in healing spec, I think this would be a great idea. Also given how differently one must spec to be viable in PvP and PvE this kind of a change is almost a necessity.
Einbroch Mar 13th 2007 4:30PM
This would be a great idea, if it had a cooldown. Say, 24 hours?
This is great for healers and tanks. People that are DPSers don't know what it means to tank/heal, then not be able to do anything. Want to quest? Can't. Want to grind for gold? Can't.
Thumbs up.
froglok Mar 13th 2007 5:11PM
Einbroch hit the nail on the head.
Those that say this would make the game too easy likely have never played a healing/tanking class.
Mekias Mar 13th 2007 4:36PM
Right now people are forced to make decisions. With 2 specs, they really wouldn't have to make those decisions. It sure would be nice if healers and tanks could spec back and forth when needed but I know it's not going to happen.
I personally think that the talent respec should be lowered to about 20 gold max but I'm not holding my breath.
Scruffy Mar 13th 2007 4:43PM
What they need is an arena-like area to test respecs so you can decide if it's worth the cost. And to keep people from abusing that, make it 25% of the cost of a respec (deciding you like the respec, it would cost the remaining 75% of today's respec costs).
And/or scaling respec cost to level so figuring out what talent tree you want to invest won't incur multiple (and full) respec costs.
Ragbar Mar 13th 2007 5:03PM
Posts 1 and 2 are completely unfounded and just ridiculous.
How is this spec-switching any different than what players can do now? All it is doing is making it cheaper, and slightly easier to do.
Post #2 says "everyone would be uber elite" - so by that definition, any player with 1000 gold can respec 20 times in 30 minutes if they wanted to. Does this make them "uber elite?" Of course not. The specs are the same as they always were. "Switching" is only easier because I don't have to go through my talent tree and reclick/retrain all the skills over again.
I also like the idea of a timer.
I belong to a PvP guild. Right now, our warriors spec Arms/Fury for Arena, but then respect Prot from Tuesday-Thursday night. This way they have their PvP specs for all the bonus weekends, and yet allow us to farm instances Tuesday to Thursday until midnight.
Bravest on Ursin Mar 13th 2007 5:01PM
While this might, in a way, make the game easier, I think the more important point is that it would make WoW far more enjoyable. Personally, I don't feel that I should be stuck enjoying only one aspect of the game, be it PvP/PvE/Solo, and penalized 50g if I so choose to enjoy a different aspect of the game. WoW is already nicely balanced and flexible, and this would add to the flexibility. I agree with putting limitations on the implementation, whether it be a cooldown, limited to 2 specs, a small switching fee, or what not. Definitely a wonderful idea and I hope to see Blizzard implementing it sometime soon.
Kent Sharkey Mar 13th 2007 5:15PM
What about a system like the stables today for hunters? It would let you "shelf" a spec so that you could check out another one to see if you like it. As with stables, you could buy multiple shelves (for say a 2-4X over the cost of respeccing).
Keire Mar 13th 2007 5:37PM
I think this is a great idea. You could certainly put some limitations on it, such as 12 hour cooldown on talent switches to keep people from hotswapping their specs.
It's severely limiting to have to choose whether you want to be great at raiding, or great at pvp.
This is the case with healing/tanking classes right now. End game instancing almost REQUIRE that tanks/healers be speced specifically for said role. If those players also want to excel in pvp, they either have to re-roll or respec.
It's a source of alot of problems with creating good groups for either pvp or pve. For example, It's hard as hell to find a protection warrior these days, because few warriors are interested in raiding so much that they'd give up their ability to solo.
Trogg Mar 13th 2007 5:21PM
Play 2 characters? I do. My druid is feral specced and is generally more fun in the chaos of pvp. My warrior is prot (pve) specced and tanks instances. They can both hold their own in pvp or pve, but they each have a strength as well.
I don't feel "limited" in choices at all. I like that each character commits to a combat style.
Ragbar Mar 13th 2007 5:19PM
@ #3, please tell me how this makes the game easier?
Players still have to learn how to play each spec, they still have to gather the appropriate gear for each spec.
The only difference in this suggestion is that it would take a little less gold, and be a bit more convenient than having to reclick all your new talents and retrain all your talent-based skills.
This doesn't suddenly lower the difficulty of the game. If anything, it allows players to get better at the game by learning different specs without having to spend 200g to do it.
Melf Mar 13th 2007 5:20PM
I would personally rather just have the ability to edit talent points one at a time, away from the trainer, for a nominal cost each. Like... you can do a full respec for 15 g or you can move one talent point each for 1g. That would give people the ability to try out different builds without having to respec completely every time.
Plus, the only thing I really hate about respeccing is . . . . SKILL COST. Buying rank 9 or a skill costs some serious gold, and speccing from Marksmanship to Beastmastery and back again costs much more than the talent respeccing cost.
Give us the option of respeccing point by point.
BitWarrior Mar 13th 2007 5:29PM
Personally, I have been thinking about an idea like this for a LONG time, but actually with a slight adjustment. I find that there are some classes which really do all the same thing in PvE and PvP, and some classes which do not. Priests are an excellent example. When spec'd Shadow, Priests enjoy fantastic PvE and PvP, while spec'd Holy, Priests enjoy excellent healing in PvE. Why are we limiting these players to what they can do? Can we not let a Priest enjoy the game on as many levels as a mage, warlock, hunter or rogue?
I believe that with two spec's, "dual role" classes obtain the ability to simply play the game on as many levels as the other classes out there. Why be penalized because, well, your guild has decided to pigeon hole you into the role of, well, healing them? Or tanking for them? It seems the less self-serving people are somewhat victimized.
By allowing 2 specs (at least for some classes), you allow Priests, Warriors, Druids, Paladins and even Shaman to enjoy all aspects of the game. I personally only believe this to be fair. They would handle both their spec's intelligently, and there should be the standard cost involved in respec'ing any of the two. There indeed should be a cooldown involved, something which you have to consider, but not something which means you can PvE one day but then only PvP the next. A 1-2 hour cooldown seems appropriate, just so you're not permitted to switching off and on "on the fly" as a raid would need or something like that. However, it should be flexible enough so you can be enjoying your PvP or soloing/farming, jump into a raid as a healer/tank, and once that raid is complete, return to your original task. Just the thing we don't want happening is someone saying, "Ok, be a healer" and then 5 minutes later saying "Oh, we have enough healing, just go DPS". There does need to be some weight to the decision, but it still should allow you to enjoy all aspects of the game at the same time. Warlocks, Hunters, Rogues and Mages enjoy this factor, as well as Shaman at times, so why should everyone else be forced to suffer so they can, in essence, keep those other classes alive during end-game content?
Rod Oracheski Mar 13th 2007 5:42PM
Why not allow PVE and PVP specs? Just have it converting from one to another whenever you enter a battleground - where the majority of PVP is these days.
Derbeste Mar 13th 2007 5:47PM
hehe..
I've been saying this would be a great idea for a LONG time.
I think a spec change cool down is also a good idea.
I can't express how frustrating it is to have to be holy to get a group....and retribution to do anything solo. There have been times I have paid out the 100+ G for ONE night just to tank for my guild one night, and then heal the next.
Whoever says this makes players uber elite is just rediculous. You can still only do one thing at a time. And if there is a cool down, you can't even switch anytime you want (for free) like you can if you have enough Gold.
Also....there are other MMOs that do this. FFXI comes to mind. You can change your job and sub job ANY time in a major city. Everyone loves it!!
This kind of thing really works people. It's been proven.
Personally, I think if they want some lasting choices with implications blah blah blah....they need to impliment another facet of custumization other than specs and items.
Heaven knows the game could use the extra depth.
Chadwick Mar 13th 2007 5:49PM
I Disagree with this. Pay the price to respec, or level a second toon. This would do away with a lot of specs and needs for many of the classes. Rogues...gone...mages...gone...hunters...already gone (jk). Why have any other classes?