Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsDual specs currently cost 1000g
by Adam Holisky 
Feb 24th 2009 at 5:00AM
Many thanks to Dustin for sending us the screenshot of the process (see a larger version). You can see that the NPC gives you a little background about the feature, and then the confirmation box comes up asking if you're sure that you want to spend all that gold.
Obviously, this is the point where you click "Accept" and dance around for joy that you now have two specializations.
We'll have more about the exact mechanics and workings of dual specializations as the day goes on. In the mean time, check out the WoW Insider Guide to Patch 3.1 and the PTR Patch 3.1 Patch Notes for more information.
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 4 of 8)
Whyisretgimped Feb 24th 2009 6:48AM
So dual speccing costs the same as respeccing 20 times... I thought the whole point of it was to stop punishing people who were being forced to respec constantly. 1000g seems like a huge punishment to me and now I'll have to go and pretty much do the same farming of a massive amount of gold just to flush it again with little appreciable gain. I could level the professions of several alts for that same money, or have some more epic gear, or have an alt learn to fly (with another punishing price tag). I guess I'll stay just Ret from now on and if anyone needs a healer that's their own damn problem.
Once again, Blizzard takes something that could profoundly change the game in an awesome way and makes it a PITA... way to go...
OliveTomato Feb 24th 2009 7:12AM
Personally I too am getting really sick of the "pay to play" attitude. No wonder gold farmers are making tons of money. In this day in age when we are constantly bombarded in the news and in our own lives about money I am getting pretty tired of WoW being so focused on it as well.
I think duel specs should be a positive thing for all players to enjoy and not just those with lots of time on their hands to farm money. Currently I am trying to buy epic flyers on three other characters, much less now having to sink gold into dual spec as well. As someone else mentioned, really nice going WoW taking one of the most positive aspects of the game to come along in awhile and making it just another irritation.
There should be no gold required for this and anyone above level 70 should be able to learn this skill.
jbodar Feb 24th 2009 7:13AM
20 times is easily hit by people who respec back and forth 2 -3 times a day, such as people who are active in both PVE and PVP, not to mention the cost you save by not having to re-glyph every time you do so.
Jhestor Feb 24th 2009 7:31AM
Exactly. As I stated in my earlier comment, I have respecced my druid (since it was tracked by achievement system) over 130 times.
1,000 gold is a chunk of change.... but I've been at the 50g respec cost for a LONG time now.
This *IS* helping out people who have been screwed money-wise by respeccing constantly. I'd say after a few weeks this will have paid for itself, in my case.
Whyisretgimped Feb 24th 2009 6:13PM
In response to Jhestor and jbodar...
Though 1000g is cheaper than what people have been paying for constant respeccing, your responses completely dismiss the fact that paying this much for respecs is punishing in the first place. If it punished every character equally, it wouldn't be as bad, but it doesn't do that however.
Half the classes have multiple roles and half of them don't. Anyone who is a healer class ends up paying A LOT more money to respec than anyone else. Trying to solo in any of the healing specs (and I've solo'd in all of them) is a joke. So wanting to do anything but solo (like PvP or raid), ends up costing these classes a boat load of dough. Meanwhile, classes like hunters and Warlocks only end up respeccing every time there's a patch or they want to fine tune something and pay exponentially less money than healer classes do.
So with a dearth of healers and tanks throughout the servers, making the game less fun and enjoyable for everyone, they are going to brutalize people that actually want to try and solve this problem, by basically making them pay for another mount.
This only highlights the ridiculously bad balance problems WoW has had to nth degree. Dual speccing was supposed to make things less punishing for multi-role classes, but is still going to make them spend more gold in the next year on speccing than non-multi-role classes will...
Way to go Blizz...
jbodar Feb 25th 2009 5:23AM
First, even DPS classes are likely to have a PVP spec and a PVE spec. Some talents are just not worth it for PVE and vice-versa.
Second, if healers are ALREADY re-speccing constantly they are still going to come out ahead, since the one-time 100og fee will be paid off in mere days. If people don't respec a lot, they can choose the current "pay as you go" model, since they would take much longer to pay off the initial investment. Should some people get this for free, just because they've "paid their dues"? What is your point? So Blizz wants us to work for it... big deal.
Third, gold sinks are necessary to slow inflation; otherwise new players would need to raise hundreds in gold just to buy some greens on the AH.
Connor Mustakas Feb 24th 2009 2:28PM
crap, i transfered with only like 5g on my guy... damn
Malarkin Feb 24th 2009 8:50AM
Seems as if i won't EVER be able to get my Epic Flyer...
*Sigh* I've waited this long, why not a bit more :p
Snakeman Feb 24th 2009 7:07AM
What a total and complete load of crap. I guess the 3500 gold I've already spent respeccing since WOTLK released isn't enough for blizzard - and that's not counting glyphs. There is NO reason to make this cost ANYTHING. It should be a free feature added to the game that just exists. But no, that would go against Blizzard's policy of making everything possible translate into at least a modest time sink (and IMO that's exactly what Blizzard thinks about with everything in WoW - ways to make us take long periods of time, hence extending our subscriptions).
But 1000 gold for something that should be free is such a load of crap.
crsh Feb 24th 2009 7:19AM
It's a tad expensive, but considering my priest hasn't seen his respec fee drop below 50g for many, many months, it's not so bad that it will allow him to never have to pay for respecing again.
It's the kind of stuff you really only need on your main if you're strapped for cash anyway, like I won't bother getting this on lv80 alts. Makes me happy my priest will be able to switch between shadow and disc on the fly.
crsh Feb 24th 2009 7:38AM
Not to mention the real winners here are going to be Scribes, everybody will need to get glyphs again (temporary rush, but still).
OliveTomato Feb 24th 2009 7:19AM
I have to agree as well with the poster above me. There are plenty of time sinks in the game already.. but they have to turn everything into a way to take up even more time. There is enough to keep me busy for the coming six months. Yes, I know that's the nature of an MMO but really.. is that the ONLY way they can come up with to keep us playing, by creating more and more gold sinks?
Syio Feb 24th 2009 7:22AM
Personally, I don't think 1,000g is a big deal. I'm a fairly new and casual player who only just dinged 80 on her first and only character. I could save to get 5,000g for my epic flying at level 72, comfortably affording Cold Weather Flying at 77, and am now making that amount back steadily without any real need to farm anything like a maniac. Really don't get why the veteran players are complaining about this amount when they've probably been around longer than this newbie. After all, no one is forcing you for fork out that 1,000k; proceed as usual.
Sentient Feb 24th 2009 7:25AM
Was hoping it'd be a bit more expensive but I suppose they have to make it accessible.
Alessi Feb 24th 2009 7:31AM
Oh quit whining. I know people who respec 2 or 3 times a day. 1000 gold is like a weeks worth of respecs. The other night we had a guy respec 3 time in mid-raid. He went from heal to DPS (50g) to heal again (50g) and back to DPS at the end (50g). We had a few people that had to come and go and things like that.
These guys will gladly spend it to be done with it once and for all. You people who are level 80 and complain about making gold... how do you ever raid? Are you getting consumables donated? And if you don't raid, you shouldn't need dual-specs anyway. If you are one who your guild constantly asks to respec, maybe they will split that with you since it's a one time cost.
It's the same with people who "save-up" for months to get epic flying. You can farm that up in a few days. Don't tell me you can't because I did it. I was a LW/Skinner. I dropped skinning and picked up mining. Leveled that in a day. You can smelt most of it these days. Farmed for like 2-3 days and made the money I needed and dropped mining and releveled skinning. No biggie. I later dropped LW/Skinning again and went herb/alch, so I'm not afraid to relevel gatherings. It's a pain for the 2 days it takes, but it's worth it. Some people farm for it in a day.
5000 gold isn't a lot. And if you roll a DK, or anything else and whine about buying flying and epic flying at 70... DON'T. Simple. You buy the mount at 70 and park it anyway. You can't touch it again till 77. So... wait till you hit 77. Most people are hitting Northrend at 68 anyway now, and you can't fly anyway so save the money slower. No need to stress yourself out over it.
Gosh, some of you guys whine so much. If you can't make 1000g in this game, you should just stick with one spec. I keep a few thousand gold. Not a ton. I know people with max gold allowable in game. I don't need all that. I have what I need, epic flying, cold weather, I make my own food and pots, etc... so I have what I need. I don't mind dropping several hundred on an orb of deception or a drake pet, or buying things for someone that needs it. What else are we going to do with it? You can't take it with you and you can't pay the bills with it, so... have fun.
Just quit whining. It's too early in the morning. Besides, the price might go down before it goes live anyway.
Eversor Feb 24th 2009 7:41AM
Exactly. You can easily get gold, you just need to know how to restrain yourself from not spending it on various crap as soon as your gold pile allows.
I remember buying Titansteel bars not long after the launch, when they cost 400g without flinching... and I still got my epic flyer on a rather fresh character, dinging 70 slightly before the Scourge invasion event. I entered Northrend with whooping 50g. I had no professions. It is really easy to get gold in Northrend, it's all about motivating yourself.
Malkia Feb 24th 2009 8:56AM
You going to spend several hours a day saving up the money for those of us with real life jobs? Not everyone's maxed out LW. Do you have any idea how hard it is to max that out just by skinning your own stuff? I tried to sell my services in trade and immediately three maxxed out lw took all the business. And yeah I could go pick up mining...the problem is I can only mine in azeroth proper because if I try to mine in northrend better be prepared to be beaten by every jerk out there on a giant dragon flying 3000 times faster than me. And if you can sell LW created items at a profit you are one seriously lucky person because that does NOT happen on my server.
And blizzard wonders why gold sellers have a market.
Malkia Feb 24th 2009 9:54AM
Remember that when there aren't any healers or tanks because they judge the cost too much to help people.
darian Feb 24th 2009 1:35PM
Leatherworking is not hard to level. Spend one hour in any number of farming spots and you can have 3+ stacks of Heavy Borean at your disposal.
I reached 430 just through the incidental skinning I did while leveling and in instances.
Regarding mining, competition isn't as bad as you claim. On my dinky level 70 paladin I ran around Scholazar on my ground mount farming Saronite. Despite the fact that A) everything was 6+ levels higher B) this was peak hours and C) I didn't have a particularly efficient route I managed to get four or so stacks in a couple of hours. The only maddening thing was that I had to skip a number of Titanium nodes until I hit 450 mining.
Alessi Feb 24th 2009 7:33AM
Sorry... that was WAY longer than planned.