Two talent trees for the price of one?
by Matthew Rossi 
Jun 28th 2008 at 4:00PM
Ripped from the WWI Dev Q&A comes news that I think is, frankly, massively important for the future of World of Warcraft, At around 7:30 central european summer time, the following question and answer exchange tried to slip under the radar:"7:34pm CEST: Q: Any plans to be able to switch between Talent specs easier?
A: We are working on a plan to give players access to two Talent specs. More details in the future."
Reread that. Because every time I read that passage, with a prot spec warrior as my main, I get ludicrously giddy. Two specs? Access to two specs? You mean I can go tank spec, and then switch to fury? Can I do this in an instance? If yes, holy heck.
The viability gets even more ridiculous for hybrid classes. Imagine if you arrive at a raid on your elemental shaman, only to discover that the raid is down a healer. You no longer have to go respec. You just throw on your healing gear (and with Universal Spellpower coming, you might not even have to switch gear) and you're good to go. Need another tank for one particular boss? The healing paladin has you covered. The flexibility for raiding this would allow is almost impossible to underestimate, and the freedom it brings for people to grind, quest, PvP or raid depending on what they want to do becomes mind-numbing. You would no longer have to worry as much about balancing all class' specs for PvP, PvE and soloing, since each character could have two specs to help them make the transition easier. "Well, I need to grind some primal ice for my Northern Hammer of Ragnarok, so I'll just switch to retribution for a few hours."
Of course, we have no idea what will actually be implemented beyond the statement that players will be given access to two Talent specs. How will they be given this access? How often can you switch between them? Is there a fee, or do you have to find a talent trainer for the switch? How on the fly is it, exactly? But it's still incredibly exciting news.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, Talents, Wrath of the Lich King, Worldwide Invitational
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
UberNoober Jun 28th 2008 4:11PM
From watching this on the stream I thought that this would be implemented as something like having two or more talent trees saved in the game's memory, but still having to pay and visit the trainer to switch those specs.
I can't really see switching specs mid instance. But who knows what Blizzard has in store for us?
SpaceDog Jun 28th 2008 4:30PM
I agree. That's what I thought when I heard it.
Lanth Jun 28th 2008 4:12PM
Of course, if this is implemented, soon after will come the legions clamouring for three talent trees (Raiding, PvP, Solo)
dan Jun 28th 2008 4:23PM
Well, yeah... they should do that. Two trees is still limited in comparison. Guild Wars for all it's shortcomings does this sort of thing best out of all the mmos.
Assuming this isn't meant as a bandaid to the arena system how cool would it be if there was an npc outside of every dungeon hub that was not only your vendor or repair dude but also your spec-changer? That why they could potentially maintain the money sink (if that's the plan but I doubt it is) but still make it less of a hassle in terms of travel time.
Zayd Jun 28th 2008 4:16PM
I refuse to believe this will happen.
Roflpanda Jun 28th 2008 4:16PM
They have needed this for a long time. I've been so burned out on my warrior because EVERYONE wants me to do different things. One day they need a tank, a few hours our raid has too many tanks and I'm the best warrior geared for fury! Bah! And then after the raid, we break into 5s for heroics, and look who gets left out! The fury warrior because he lacks heroic utility!
/rant off.
rosencratz Jun 28th 2008 4:19PM
I've suggested this myself in the forums and i have heard they were going ahead with it a long while back around the same time they said there would be an inbuilt type "outfitter"/wardrobe type set up.
I'd imagine it'd work more or less like the stabels do for pets. You have to pay for the additional slot. Probably 1kg i'd imagine and once you've got it you can switch to it whenever you visit the class trainer but respec'ing it or your other spec would still cost g's.
Could be wrong though.
Muse Jun 28th 2008 4:24PM
Likely with some kind of cooldown, likely once a day or once a week, or switch free once a month without upping the gold needed for a respec.
bradv10 Jun 28th 2008 4:28PM
thank heavens alive!
vlad Jun 28th 2008 4:37PM
i dont really see it as being of massive importance to the future of the game. thats a little dramatic i think.
its going to save money/or time respeccing. its more af a convenience than the life altering paradigm shift your hoping it is. lol "2 specs" is not the "next gen mmo" blizz is hiding from us.
Summer Jun 28th 2008 4:47PM
Considering I recently became bored with my Rogue and am currently loving my Shadow Priest, I DESPISE this news. Now instead of random 'What spec RU?' tells and people noticing my 'Shadow' note in LFG, I'll have people going 'Oh we can't find a healer but theres a mage LFG, so you have to heal this run.'
I despise healing in WoW, it's the most boring thing I've ever done in a video game.
rosencratz Jun 28th 2008 4:59PM
If the rewards of doing the run aren't substantial enough that you don't want to go with a different spec then maybe you just didn't want to go enough?
Otherwise just tell them you don't/can't switch. Your not forced to do anything... my main concern is the increase of people rolling on "off"-specs if they're made to be not so "off" anymore.
Anteia Jun 28th 2008 4:52PM
I'd honestly really hope there'd be a major cooldown on the ability to switch specs. Having a healer go tank for a boss then switch back is a bit absurd. I think it makes sense to require a trainer visit, and switch there. That, or a once a day ability to switch. So if you do switch, that's it. You have to pay to switch again that day. But storing two different specs would be awesome, and would definitely make me actually willing to heal as my boomkin druid and willing to tank as my arms warrior.
dan Jun 28th 2008 4:58PM
My girlfriend very smartly mentioned this earlier today... keep in mind that soon they're going to be storing key bindings and macros server side. This switch is probably a big reason as to why they're doing that.
Ikarus Jun 30th 2008 3:13PM
er...wait, what? Does this mean i won't have to re-keybind when i switch between my 70's? That would be awesome
dan Jun 30th 2008 3:23PM
Pretty sure. It was announced awhile back.
Baluki Jun 28th 2008 5:20PM
Ooh, can't wait for this. I'll finally be able to switch between a 40/0/21 Elemental PvP spec and a 41/0/20 Elemental PvE spec whenever I want to!
Roxton Jun 28th 2008 6:01PM
All in favour say "aye".
clarke Jun 28th 2008 6:36PM
I think it will be like pets, where you have to visit a certain person who is most likely at an inn or such. I do believe there will a cool-down for it to try and keep it from being abused, ie. twice a day or so. I also think you will have to pay like 100G or more to set a spec to one of the spots, but then only have to pay like 5G to switch between one of the pre-saved specs. You will still have to do it at an inn or such to keep people from doing it in the middle of an instance or such.
But that is just my idea of how it would work
weasldude Jun 28th 2008 7:06PM
This is very simple to implement. I think the most straight forward proposed method would be to utilize a cooldown that can be simply activated anytime, anyplace that it is up. An example of unique ability of this sort already exists in the game as the hearthstone.
I would think a 2-4 hour cooldown would be ideal. This allows the act of switching to be available for example to a tank who is not needed for every encounter in the instance he's running, but not available so easily that it shatters the idea of main spec off spec completely for everyone planning to attend the raid.
The other reason this has been ABSOLUTELY needed for a long long time is that a lot of people want to PVP and also do raids. Tanks and healers get stuck respeccing a lot and the time it takes to go and do that is more the issue than the gold you are sinking into it. So, I would be happiest if this were implemented with no cost to simply swap to your pre-allocated alt spec on a reasonable cooldown, without having to go out of your way too far.
This would be about as helpful as the change allowing you to not have to buy the ranks of talent abilities if it did retain a cost every swap and/or still asked you to visit class trainers.