Spec choices and when to make them
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 9th 2007 at 9:17PM
Michael asks a "newbie question" over on Livejournal. Apparently when his GL asked him what spec his pally was, he had to reply that he didn't know-- even though he's almost level 40, he hasn't chosen one yet. Now, I might be the exception on this (wouldn't be the first time), but I was surprised to hear about something like that-- most of my characters' specs are chosen from level one-- either I know what I want to do with them (as with my Rogue twink, who's been PvP-specced from the beginning), or I have a clearcut plan to follow (my Shaman was Enhancement until 60, and then respecced Resto for raiding). Usually if I ever deviate from my plan (as happened with both my Warrior and my Mage) and change my spec halfway through, I decide that the character isn't really want I want to play, and they get abandoned.How long do you wait to come up with your spec choices? I can't imagine many players wait as long as Michael did, except maybe if the character is an alt that they aren't worried about. And in general, I research specs before I choose them, but maybe I'm the exception on that as well-- I guess the alternative is to just choose talents that you're interested in and go with those. Did you have your character planned out from the beginning, or did you just make it up as you went along?
Filed under: Paladin, Rogue, Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Leveling, Classes, Talents
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Krick Aug 9th 2007 9:41PM
A hunter friend of mine leveled into her 40s before using ANY of her talent points. It's more common than you think.
Rudy Aug 9th 2007 9:30PM
I always wait until level 10. All I focus on before then is leveling through the wee single digits.
Opala Aug 9th 2007 9:28PM
When i was levelling my main, a rogue, i didn't spend a single talent point till level 46, as i thought it was like d2 where you couldn't change your skills once you'd chosen them. Also had a 29 warrior before i started the rogue, who had no talent points spent either
Gambeson Aug 9th 2007 9:30PM
I rolled my paladin to be a knight in shining armor. All paladins start out as Ret and I stayed that way for a while. What with Verigan's Fist and what-not. When I got to sixty and started slapping 'cleanse' and 'flash of light' to earn my banana shoulders, I changed my spec to Prot/Holy. And I was ever so glad when 2.0 rolled around and my prot spec was actually good for something.
Jas Aug 9th 2007 9:31PM
I remember when I started my main about a year ago - I had done a bunch of research on WoW, hunters, pets, but not too much on specs at all!
I think I had 4 talent points up before my housemate (a WoW veteran in comparison) asked me what I was doing with them!
I played around with them for a bit before hitting the forums and comitting to my BM spec. Thought about what I was doing for the most part, and read a great deal about BW, which I still love! Always thinking about refinements though, depending on what works the best after any gien patch.
Seppuki Aug 9th 2007 9:35PM
My very first character was an orc shammy, and it was also my very first time playing an MMO. I had no clue what I had chosen / gotten myself into when deciding on a shammy, yet alone spec.
In the end I was around level 20, and was informed by a friend (same one who got me in the game) that i should apply those points asap. Did some research on the talent trees and ultimately went with what i thought would be most fun / best to level with.
Today I spec all my toons well in advance, and even keep hybrid specs on standby with matching gear just to switch things up every now and again.
cheesebanana Aug 9th 2007 9:42PM
Spec allready layed out from 1-70 on alts and i know exactly what points i'm picking up next when i ding :P
John Aug 9th 2007 9:46PM
psh....that's no fun, for me, part of the fun of levelling an alt is checking out the talents, what i want, discovering for myself how things work, etc. i'm not really that "hardcore"...i want to play how i want to play, not to "maximize my dps omg"...at least a balance of the two :)
Medros Aug 9th 2007 9:51PM
My druid was feral until 60, then about 4 months into 60 I saw a balance spec in full force, and switched the next day. My Paladin was Holy from 1-70, and last week I respecced to Ret. My Hunter has always been Marks. None of my characters have had more than 4 paid respecs, and my Paladin the only one over 2. My paladin has 2 paid because I screwed up in my clicking, one for partial ret and one for Ret. I tend to find a spec and stay with it for a long time.
Arnold Aug 9th 2007 10:11PM
My first (and main) character is a druid. When I started leveling him, I plopped my points into balance--because those are pretty much the main attacks you have available at level 10. I stayed balance, continuously putting points into that tree until level 48. This was pre-BC, and I was always OOM. Then I decided to try feral. Full of trepidation I respecced, and to my surprise and joy found that I absolutely loved it. I haven't looked back since (though I have to admit that I miss the Moonkin form a bit).
With regards to how to spend the talent points--On my alts I have played around with different specs. I have a lvl 41 pally now. He was mainly ret specced, as when I was leveling and learning about the class I just plopped points where I felt it was best. Recently however I learned about prot grinding, and I respecced. I really am enjoying that playstyle, though I intend to respec him to holy for pvp once he reaches the level cap.
RaydenUni Aug 9th 2007 10:22PM
In the beta I didn't really know much about talents and I thought they were hard to change, so I didn't spend any.
When it came out my priest was holy until I learned shadow is better for leveling. Then I really researched how I should spec.
robodex Aug 9th 2007 10:34PM
I just kinda spent points as i went on my rogue, so when I hit 60 I was some retarted trispec. =\
CauthonDM Aug 9th 2007 10:47PM
When I first levelled I had no idea where to spend my talent points. My druid levelled resto and has been ever since. Since then I've been a lot more careful in my talents and have only had to respec eight times (1.8, 2.0, moonkin for a weekend, moonkin for an evening, feral for a Magtheridon offtank). My alts I've always levelled for a reason (to better know a certain aspect of another class usually) and I've never respecced on.
I've found the best thing is research, research, research. Reading everything about the various builds, running models on the various talents, and trying to squeeze everything out of theory before actually spending them. Given a choice between two roughly equal talents I also don't spend points for a few levels before I know where I'm going to find the most use. Due to this approach I've quite oddly got 12 unused talent points at level 70. After the last respec I just put points into everything that improved my raid healing and left it at that. A month later I've just found no need to spend the rest.
John Aug 9th 2007 10:50PM
@12 - same with my rogue...i think rogues are one of (if not the, maybe hunters) easiest ones to not have a spec with our trees
@13 - you have 12 unused points you CANT find ANY place for????????? omg....i'd kill for 1 extra point...
CauthonDM Aug 9th 2007 11:03PM
@14
There's more than enough people in my guild who react the same way, but I do wonder if it's to do with being a specialised hybrid. I do nothing but raid heal; I don't PvP, I don't solo, I don't play my druid as a hybrid. As such a lot of the cross ability talents are pointless. I don't have a use for increased damage or improved PvP survivability at the moment. Hence I haven't taken the talents for them.
Now conversely a more single focused class, such as a rogue or mage, who's job is to do damage. I believe they have more talents designed to increase that single job and thus can spend more points to improve it.
Having said this, my guild should be on Letheros in the next week or two, at which point I may find an increase in dps is important. I fortunately then have talent points to spend in order to help with this fight.
ubu1968 Aug 9th 2007 11:33PM
This may shock many of you, but I have never "speced" any of you. My 62th Lvl Paladin is a Ret paladin, a condition I didn't know I had until I started reading this site and others. I don't raid, I rarely pvp, and I prefer soloing or just running with my friends. For me, it has always been what I felt best for that character that I spent my points in. I guess that comes from my old school gaming background when our characters where more like people to us, and not just piles of numbers.
But everyone has their own play style, and whatever makes it fun for them is what is important.
Bubbletrubel Aug 9th 2007 11:43PM
When I rolled my pally, I started out as ret.... all the way into SM... but once you get the SM gear... I moved to prot... probably one of the best decisions I ever made on my pally. I could just run into a mob of 5 red hyenas and kill them all. When I got to 60 I went holy to get into groups and never went back.
Khallah Aug 10th 2007 12:04AM
I have been extremely anal about talent builds since I began playing the game, and have spent [b]way[/b] too much time staring at talent calculators. :)
enkafiles Aug 10th 2007 1:04AM
I'll put the points where they seem best,
and around level 20 I'll have enought of a feel
for the class to research what build I want
(usually on WoWWiki.com - interesting how different the styles of the class pages are ^^) and possibly respec.
and @16: The way I see it, the specs are an important part of the personalities!
kidsmoke Aug 10th 2007 3:15AM
Well it sounds like this is the guys first character so we can give him some slack, but to tell the truth my first wow character's spec was a pretty big mess until 40. I got some decent 1h swords and went combat and chose a "spec" for the first time.
However every subsequent alt after that has pretty much had their destiny chosen for them.
Another problem with this guy is that the paladin spec tree is a total mess.
You look through it and unless you've played a paladin for a specific role into the higher levels most of the talents look uselss, because so few of them are "gauranteed talents" and those that are (past the first tier) are very low gauranteed talents.
Out of the 6 character classes I've played (4 to 30 and 2 to 70) Paladin was by far the most difficult talents to choose from. On the contrary take the rogue trees and there are a lot of gauranteed talents that boost a large number of abilities, and even their "chance" talents are pretty good. Take combat potency for example; just looking at it for a combat rogue it is a must have talent. Then look at Imp Sanct Aura.