Dual spec update
by Adam Holisky 
Nov 26th 2008 at 4:00PM
Ghostcrawler provided a bit of an update yesterday on the ETA of Dual Specs. He makes it clear that while they'd love to have them in patch 3.1 (which is when we'll see Ulduar and some other post Wrath), he doesn't want to say something and then not deliver – only to get players upset.Dual specs are a feature that's very much looked forward to by many players, in particular tanks and healers. No longer will players have to spend horrendous amounts of gold just to enjoy both solo content and group content. The introduction of them will truly be game changing for many folks.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll see dual specs appear in 3.1. The 3.0.4 PTR should be coming around shortly, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a 3.1 PTR shortly after the beginning of the new year. So maybe if I'm lucky around February or March next year I won't be spending 400g/week respecing.
Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.Filed under: Patches, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Joe Nov 26th 2008 4:05PM
A link to the actual post by GC would be nice.
cjshrader Nov 26th 2008 4:15PM
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12891016624&pageNo=1&sid=1#13
Just had to click "Source" under the posting.
Michael Nov 27th 2008 1:34AM
I'm sorry, but that's a lame way to link to anything. They should do away with the "source" link altogether if they can't just remember to put the link in the text of the post.
Andy Nov 27th 2008 4:01AM
@ Michael
Nothing lame about it. The facts posted in these blogs must have the source listed in order to give credit to the persons who originally conceived the said concept.
Removing the source link and posting a bunch of long urls is what would be lame.
Saelorn Nov 26th 2008 4:08PM
How exactly "game-changing" this is will depend entirely on the ease of use. The most generous thing I've heard is just an at-will, not in combat instant swap (so my elemental shaman can swap over to resto to heal up after a tough fight); that kind of defeats the purpose of even having distinct specs, though, so I'm much more likely to believe that there will be some sort of cost associated with it.
Arcaria Nov 26th 2008 4:18PM
At Blizzcon they said that it would not be implemented in a way that lets people do what you're describing. They weren't specific but kind of lead us to believe that there would probably be some kind of a cool down period. Not a short one either.
pudds Nov 26th 2008 4:36PM
Actually the last I read, they'd decided that a cooldown didn't make sense. Players already hearth and respec, and being locked out of changing back is worse than not being able to change at all.
...
Dug up a post: http://www.curse.com/articles/wow-en-news/316614.aspx
Ghostcrawler:
"We're unlikely to enforce a time-based cooldown on it. That defeats the whole purpose of giving players flexibility. We're also unlikely to make it simply macro based. There will be some choice (as in whether to do it or not) involved. "
Sagara Nov 27th 2008 2:16AM
The best bet around know is probably making it like Glyphs requiring the tome of wathever -
you need to be in specific places to activate the switch.
Also, inns mayhap?
Andy Nov 27th 2008 4:07AM
Nope they also said that you would be able to switch specs between boss fights in raids. Not only that they also implied that MAYBE it would automatically switch out action bars, glyphs and gear. Keep in mind, a item rack type system is also on the to do list.
What I want to know is are these dual specs going to allow a complete change of the talent tree or if you will have both static and semi-dynamic talent points. (static - points that remain the same in both specs, semi-dynamic points that change between the two specs).
jessierockeron Nov 27th 2008 6:33AM
Why not just make it so you can't change in the middle of a fight?
Grathor Dec 11th 2008 1:43AM
The Reason why its gamechanging is you dont have to pay to switch between two specs. its an instant on the fly thing and (from what they have said) its free so you dont have to pay 50g evry time to respec just so you can raid or pvp or level.
Nikkodemus Dec 22nd 2008 1:32PM
I believe they said it would be trivial to do in Dalaran... not that you could necessarily do it trivially in the bottom of a dungeon...
Clbull Nov 26th 2008 4:10PM
I bet it will be 3.1 or 3.2 until it comes out
skreed Nov 26th 2008 4:11PM
Thankfully I'm not hard up for gold (seems to come pretty freely questing through Wrath)... but I've already spent several hundred switching back and forth between Prot and Fury for guild runs. Dual specs cant come soon enough.
Will Nov 26th 2008 4:20PM
I have a feeling that blizzard is trying to create a spec option for us that is viable for classes in a raid and pve, give each talent a pve/pvp advantage (like reduces casting time of [pve] spell, and provides [pvp] benefit) but it would take a lot of work and they may just go for the easier option of giving us dual spec.
http://www.wowconfidential.com
Hmmm... Nov 26th 2008 4:19PM
Speaking as a prot war, I'm not sure I'd even use the ability to dual-spec, since prot is so much fun. Again, the dual-speccing is nice, but unless it's combined with some kind of closetgnome method of switching out equipment I doubt many paladins or warriors will find it incredibly useful, at least not without a bunch of addons for armor switching.
Wats Dec 1st 2008 7:26AM
Actually I would love to have the ability to swap (Paladin) and being a person who changes based on my guilds needs and not my own I find I spend (0r our guild bank) quite a bit switching. I would LOVE this change, and addons are easy, you just use Outfitter, your bars will save based on your spec I am hearing.
Gessilea Nov 26th 2008 10:15PM
Pretty much any warrior or paladin is already using an armor switching mod. I rarely respec on my prot warrior, but I still have my defense tanking set, my dps tanking set, my dps soloing set, my avoidance set, etc etc.
Amusingly enough, I plan on using the dual spec option to have two slightly different prot specs, one for soloing and one for grouping.
Gotelc Dec 3rd 2008 12:41AM
Well if they make an "item rack" so that you can carry a different set around with you it will definitely be usefull to anybody that would need to change gear based upon their spec. My main is a druid feral tank, and if i want him to dual spec as healing i would have to change my gear out as well, because i have no spell-power at all... the same can be said of My Protection Paladin, who if i was healing would have an incredible amount of spell power from gear.
Orean Nov 26th 2008 4:25PM
Why don't they just lower the cost of respec'ing in the meantime? I never understood the gold penalty in the first place.
As a casual player I have to depend on guides and other players to help me build my specs because I don't have the gold to afford to experiment.