Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsForum post of the day: Great idea, poor implementation
by Amanda Dean 
Feb 13th 2009 at 11:21AM
I'm still moderately excited for dual specs on my level 80 characters, it should be handy for switching between raids/instances and dailies. Cvarto of Proudmore began a thread about poor implementation about only allowing level 80 characters to use this feature. He fears that players will level as a single spec and have to relearn the other options for their class once they hit level 80.GC's reasoning is that MMOs are overwhelming for new players to learn without working with two specializations. Cvarto contends that it still more difficult to learn a completely new aspect of the game, such as tanking, at level 80. I'd like to add that most players have little patience for inexperienced tanks and healers at max level.
I'm kind of disheartened about GC's news that dual specs will require max level. Sounds like business as usual, respecs will still be a royal pain in the rear for up and coming tanks and healers. I was fine leveling my Death Knight and my Druid, but Shaman was downright painful. I was constantly switching between resto to heal instances and back to elemental to grind quests.
Zarhym assured the OP that expanding the level range that can use dual specs is still an option for the future. Some suggested allowing dual spec beginning at level 55. It never occurred to me that there would be a level requirement for this feature.
Do you believe the dual spec feature maintains utility with the max level requirement?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Leveling, Talents, Forums, Forum Post of the Day
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 10)
Adamanthis Feb 13th 2009 11:45AM
Levelling as a healer or tank is one of the least fun aspects of the game. I enjoy running instances as I level, but solo questing as Resto or Holy is just painful.
I don't buy the argument that players would be overwhelmed, since they can simply go with a simple DPS spec if they want to. But it's not rocket science, and most players will figure it out, giving them an opportunity to learn how to heal or tank properly as they level.
As others have said, the real reason is probably that they want it to function as a high-level gold sink. I'm all for gold sinks, but this is a poor place to implement one.
darian Feb 13th 2009 1:25PM
WoW is many people's first MMO, or even first foray beyond "casual" games. I know when I started WoW it was easy to be overwhelmed, and I was practically born with a Silver NES controller in my hands.
Adding a second talent spec would simply have doubled my opportunities for display how much of a newbie I was. Tell me if any of the follow sound too far fetched.
"I went to the lexicon for my new second spec and it wiped out my talents and cast bars!"
"Wait, you mean if I'm in my secondary spec I *don't* have access to the abilities in the first?"
"What's a lexicon of power?"
Those cases may seem extreme, and some of them are, but WoW is a huge game, and it's carefully designed to introduce key concepts to players *in stages*. Pushing too many new skills/concepts at once is something Blizzard has to consider and avoid.
Adamanthis Feb 13th 2009 2:22PM
Not far fetched questions, but also not very hard to answer.
I'm not suggesting the game begin with "Welcome to Northshire! Please kill 10 wolves, find a lexicon of power, and activate a second talent spec." I think by around level 30 or 40, players should be more than ready to grasp the concepts involved. That's also about the time where healers can really start to practice using build-specific talents.
And of course, for those that are still a bit overwhelmed at that stage, they can just ignore the functionality.
The Hammer Feb 13th 2009 11:46AM
I think dual-specs are still very, very useful, and pretty damn cool at max level. Healers are doing the least amount of damage in the game now, so it's a pain to even do the regular combat daily quests.
However, I agree that looking for specific roles when doing dungeons during the levelling game will still be difficult, and a part of me wishes that Blizzard make this a level 10 feature from the off.
Scarvo Feb 13th 2009 11:59AM
My opinion? Bullcrap. Reason: as a drood, I get constant clamoring from random people and some people in my guild about tanking/healing. I don't do either, I'm a boomkin. But I'd happily do healing if I could dual spec, and since multiple Naxx runs have been nixxed because we haven't had a healer ... I'm sure my guild would go easy on me long enough to learn the ropes. After all, it is entirely in their best interest.
vanye111 Feb 13th 2009 1:14PM
Your guild scrapped the runs rather than offering to pay the respec fees? That's their loss.
Atdt1991 Feb 13th 2009 1:18PM
In this instance, I was already in the run as DPS - we didn't even talk about respeccing for heals.
Hendrata Feb 13th 2009 11:48AM
This is what I'm planning to do once my priest hits 80:
start offering heals for lower level instances like UK and Nexus, NORMAL mode not heroic. This would be a good training ground, and you can tolerate a lot of mistakes especially if your tank is over-leveled / over-geared too. Once I think I'm getting the hang of it, I can try UK and Nexus heroics (two of the easiest heroics) before moving on to harder heroics and finally raids.
Malkia Feb 13th 2009 11:48AM
I'm not sure whether it should only be open to 80s...but what does he think people do now? I know tanks who haven't tanked until they hit 80 and are trying to learn it. No matter what you get a learning curve with your secondary spec. Whichever one you don't use for leveling is going to have to be relearned each time you go back to it to some extent.
samothrake Feb 13th 2009 11:55AM
If the only reason they wont give people the flexibility they need to enjoy the game fully from level 10 is that having dual-specs is overwheling, make the same rule for it as DK's you need to have at least one level 55+ char on any server to get dual spec for any char you have rom level 10.
agobelle Feb 13th 2009 11:49AM
I'm more inclined to say lvl 55/60 for dual spec since many leveling healing classes and hybrid classes could use the flexibility to be all they can be in both dungeon, pvp and questing groups.
The best leveling specs are often not the best for grouping.
JustSomeGuy Feb 13th 2009 11:50AM
" He fears that players will level as a single spec and have to relearn the other options for their class once they hit level 80."
Most people ALREADY do that. It's called, oddly enough, the "leveling spec". I would say the amount of players who bounce around from one spec to another is far below 1% of the player base, whether it's pre- or post- 80. There just aren't enough indecisive players to make it worthwhile pre-80.
After 80, you go with either a PvP or raiding build. Some classes are lucky or OP enough that it doesn't matter, but most involve decisions.
Ktok Feb 13th 2009 11:52AM
Leveling is so easy now anyway, and so fast, that you have no real reason to need dual specs before the cap anyway. Sure, if you really, really want to instance on the way up, it could help, but that is a choice and not a requirement.
What I am bothered by is that it's going to cost money. I had a lot of characters at 70 back in BC and I've got two 80s right now and multiple other characters closing in. Just how much gold are we talking here, Blizz? I'd be fine with 1000g, but what if it's 5000g? Over 9000?!
...yeah, anyway, for people like me who run multiple capped out, raid geared characters, that's a hell of a lot of gold. Then again, they *were* advertising gold farmer sites on their web page not long ago. Maybe Blizzard gets a cut if they drive us that way :P
Shawn Feb 13th 2009 11:51AM
I've never had any problem healing/tanking in a DPS build while leveling. It may not be the best way to do it, but the instances while leveling just aren't that hard.
duskhawk Feb 13th 2009 11:52AM
What's the point at which healing or tanking with a mostly DPS spec becomes difficult? I know for a lot of the priests I know who leveled shadow in TBC, it was when they started healing heroics that they really had to switch. Is it still like that? (Haven't leveled my priest past 71 yet.) If so, then it's really not a huge deal in terms of utility if we don't have dual specs until 80.
However, if tanking/healing is hard to do in DPS specs at an earlier point, it would make sense to get access to them earlier.
Ironically, it is my priest that probably won't bother with a dual-spec, at least until I have wads of extra cash. I had no problems soloing, DPSing, or healing with her hybrid spec after the spellpower change. The hunter and the rogue are going to both get "fun" vs. "optimal DPS" specs, most likely.
poot1 Feb 13th 2009 11:55AM
I don't see the 80 requirement as a problem. When leveling I find I am either just following an 80 through instances just trying to keep up with the looting and not doing any fighting or healing, or I am in a PUG and I'm lucky if the entire time isn't spent running back from the graveyard because one of the DPS has elected himself assistant puller and wiped the party yet again.
Just use a max DPS spec to level, get an 80 buddy to help you with group quests and to run you through instances. Once you hit 80 just get some buddies to do a couple of heroics with you til you're feeling confident.
protopws Feb 13th 2009 11:54AM
I don't see the problem at all. I play a druid and the first time I ever played resto was a heroic strat run 5 minutes after respeccing. There is a learning curve but its not very steep. I have no problem with dual specs only being available to lvl 80 characters.
Jason Feb 13th 2009 11:55AM
I completely agree with GC
I have a friend playing for the first time and offering him to specs would cause even more confusion.
I think level 60 would be a good time to offer dual specs.
Noteveryoneat80! Feb 14th 2009 5:45PM
Well, then you don't "completely agree with GC" now, do you? Your level 60 idea, while right on target, isn't "max level", is it?
Astemus Feb 13th 2009 11:56AM
You said first as well. So you fail! Good day, sir!