Bornakk says more about two specs per character in Wrath
by Natalie Mootz 
Jul 28th 2008 at 7:00PM
I'm not sure I agree with some posters who say that respeccing is a "huge pain." It's an inconvenience, yes, but then so is flying from one zone to another or waiting in line for battlegrounds. Also, as for the cost, 50 gold is merely a grain of sand to someone at level 70. (And if it isn't then, dude, what the heck are you doing out there? Buzzing on Bash Ale all day?) Conversely, how would having two different specs at your disposal make the game "too easy," as other commenters posted? My eyes are rolling so much that they may come right out of my head. (This is exactly why I try not to read much of the forums.) There was much musing about how the respec mechanic might be best implemented -- by player posters, not by Blues -- including ideas for 24 hour cool-downs, respec token systems, higher costs, lower costs and, for some reason, portals and summoning.
Regardless of what mass opinions are, Blizzard's developers seem to be looking hard at what the ramifications of twin specs would do to the game's balance. They obviously spend a lot of time studying how PvP and PvE are played and seem to have an affinity for splitting these two gameplay styles and I don't think they will make it as simple as a mouse-click in Wrath.
Filed under: News items, PvP, Expansions, Raiding, Talents, Forums, Worldwide Invitational, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Dragonduuude Jul 28th 2008 7:11PM
1 main spec is the ideal but 2 specs is easier to balance and can be better balanced.
I really hope theres no CD tho,it would just make these kinda pointless.
For most of those that raid,its a daily thing.So you wouldnt really have a second spec,maybe only on offdays and theres no fun in that.
A00627213 Jul 28th 2008 7:10PM
Horray!
This is good news for everyone! Who wouldn't want access to two spec's?
Jack Spicer Jul 28th 2008 8:56PM
Apparently a lot of people, if you read the forums.
matt Jul 28th 2008 9:10PM
Hell, I'd settle for everyone ELSE having access to two specs. It's friggin' impossible to find a tank nowadays-- they're all specced for PvP and don't want to switch.
West Jul 28th 2008 9:21PM
Agreed!
Case in point, I love playing my Pally tank. Also, I love battlegrounds. However, Pally tanks are 95% useless in the BGs (5% comes from being fun/useful against rogues who do not realize early enough that you are prot! and maybe a little from tanking the 'bosses' in AV)
Usually for big BG sprees I spec holy. And then when it comes time for raiding again, it's back to Prot.
Having the ability to easily flop between the two specs here would be excellent and would save the hassle of respecing... since the 50g really isn't a huge disincentive.
So here's hoping that Blizzard actually pulls this one out of their hat along with all the other goodies hinted for Wrath.
Esk Jul 29th 2008 5:51AM
This is amazing news!!
And I have to disagree with the author of the article. Respeccing is a pain, if you're both an active PvPer and PvEer. We're not looking at 50g here, which is indeed very easy to get by a level70.
I'm talking 50-100g / day, which takes a bit of time to get. And you shouldn't be forced to do that farming just to play 2 aspects of the game with the proper spec.
If you're in an active PvE guild and you don't fancy to respec a lot, you're forced to put the arena games in just one day, to keep the respec cost to a minimum of 100g / week (PvP spec 50g-> back to PvE spec 50g). If you want to add a second arena day, you're looking at 200g / week.
But this is not only about arena. There is more PvP in the game. Battlegrounds for example. Ofc nobody will respec specially for the daily PvP quest, however it would be great if people there would at least play with proper specs, and not with the PvE ones.
Not to mention world PvP.. Take the poor protection warriors here (probably the most affected class). They can have top PvP gear, but if the raid a lot and only respec for arena, they're bound to lose most of the world 1v1 PvP encounters..
censorman Jul 29th 2008 10:19PM
This would rule. It's not a huge pain, but what a HUGE boon it would be.
AoC ties specs with weapons (on the barbarian tree) and I can literally switch specs on the fly by switching weapons. One spec allows more CC another higher DPS. In concert, I can orchestrate my combat strategy to unfold a symphony of destruction.
Too bad the rest of AoC is total ass.
Sargentd Jul 28th 2008 7:11PM
I'd be fine with a 24 hour cooldown on some sore of respec option. Maybe you could just have the option in your talents tab of the character menu.
my2cents Jul 28th 2008 7:14PM
I'd say just place two separate tabs on the talent pane for Spec A and Spec B (I'm sure they can come up with a better name though =P) You can toggle between the two freely at any class trainer. Then for example if you want to reset your "Spec A" talents, you visit the trainer, choose which "Spec A" as the set of talents you want to reset, and pay the normal re-speccing fee. "Spec B" would remain unchanged. Hope that made sense ;)
Nick=har Jul 29th 2008 12:51AM
yes
/agree
Stephen Jul 28th 2008 7:25PM
"Huge Pain" = After completing a raid or instance, then going to join your arena team requires a respec. You need to go back to old Azeroth to a trainer & then back to Outlands again. You have one hearthstones to get back and forth. It's also not just 50g per raid or arena. It's 100g because you have to switch back. Prot warrior, Resto-tree druid, Holy priest specs for raiding struggle at grinding or pvp.
It would be a simple fix to let the summoning stones offer respecs, but I would be happy with a secondary spec that I can switch to while in an instance or battleground.
Farrell Jul 28th 2008 7:27PM
the "huge pain" comes from the possibility of making a mistake in your respec [clicking a talent too many times, when you only want a couple of points in it, for instance], or from having to put skills back onto your action bars [or getting the keys set up for them, etc, etc]
There are other things, but these are the main ones that spring to mind for me
Memzer Jul 28th 2008 7:38PM
There are mods that can help with this, and one was recently covered on this website :)
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/07/20/addon-spotlight-talented/
Eternalpayn Jul 28th 2008 7:29PM
Aww, I was hoping for actual news. I know my case isn't as mandatory as a tank, but I'd love to have easy access to switch between PvP and PvE specced on my rogue.
Markymark Jul 30th 2008 2:53PM
Just have two specs you can swap into back and forth and to change the compostion of one requires gold.... plain and simple now ppl dont have to roll two chars to enjoy one class.
Jeremy Jul 28th 2008 7:46PM
"Also, as for the cost, 50 gold is merely a grain of sand to someone at level 70. (And if it isn't then, dude, what the heck are you doing out there?"
Raiding.
dan Jul 28th 2008 8:04PM
This response is pure win. Was there even a point to this initial topic? This and the motorbike post added NOTHING new to the topic.
Charlie Jul 28th 2008 10:05PM
Agreed.
Try having two characters who want to PvP and Raid at the BT/Hyjal Level. I'm short on cash all the time. And i still have an SR set, and 4 enchnats to go (Subtley x2, +15 damage, +81 healing). I have upwards of 50 primals to go.
I support a "buy a respec-tab" idea. I love arenaing on my priest, but no way you can arena as holy. You must be deep disc. Same goes for raiding, you gotta be holy.
The worst part isnt the 50g respec, its the extra 50g to get back to what you were before.
Dave Jul 28th 2008 7:41PM
Honestly, the huge pain I see is that you have to go all the way back to an Azeroth capital city to do it.
If you're a multi-role type of class, this is less than ideal if you're in the middle of a raid and someone has to leave and you're short a whatever just left. If you didn't pack a warlock, you're looking at a 15-20 minute wait for someone to hearth to Shat, (or Dalaran soon) run to the portals, run through the capital city to train, respec and then get re-summoned through the stone. I hope you weren't in a hurry.
If they'd make them on some sort of a cooldown and make us pay an absurd amount of money to have the ability to switch specs on the fly, it'd go a long way to making the game more casual friendly. Hardcore raiders are totally into sticking with the same spec all week and it's not a huge deal. Casual players... it's never like that.
Ideal system:
You pay 5k to add a second spec tab. You pay 100/200/500g every time you want to alter a spec. (have it increment increasingly like normal spec changes). You pay 50g for a respec rune, let them stack in 20's or whatever just in case, and you can use a rune once every 4hrs or 12hrs or whatever. You've got your two specs, lets say Prot and Arms and you can swap back and forth between the two for 50g a pop with some sort of cooldown if they really think it's going to break the game to allow a tank to just pay 50g and boom he's DPS mid-raid.
stonehead Jul 29th 2008 5:06PM
It's funny to me that you begin by making the case for a 2-spec system based on the need of the casual player, and then jack the cost up to hardcore 2nd-jobbers' status.
The point IS the cost. I am having a hard enough time getting my epic flier because I cannot devote an hour or more every single day to doing dailies, and when I do, more often than not, the money goes to respecs so I can tank an instance or PVP some. Shouldn't you be able to have a rewarding lvl 70 experience on