Gear changers for dual spec
by Eliah Hecht 
Apr 19th 2009 at 12:00PM
As a gear switcher makes dual spec even easier, I thought it would be helpful to do a quick rundown of support for dual specs in the various gear switchers that are out there.
- Outfitter fully supports dual specs, letting you select gear sets to automatically swap into when you activate your primary or secondary talents (see screenshot).
- For ItemRack, you can set up a custom event to switch gear when you switch specs.
- ClosetGnome can do it with the SwapSpecs plugin.
- WardrobeAL doesn't seem to have particular support for dual spec.
For users who don't already have a favorite gear switcher, I recommend Outfitter for dual-spec purposes; it's quite easy to use, and has dual-spec capabilities built in. Are there any other good options out there I'm missing?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Nerdagain Apr 19th 2009 12:08PM
I havent used anything but Itemrack and Itemrack seems to have issues with prismatic gems and leaves gear off after switching. Is there something that works just fine with JCers and prismatic gems?
Chewy&Go Apr 19th 2009 12:33PM
This is a known issue and is apparently one of the major reasons Blizz left out the gear manager from the patch.
Erzbet Apr 21st 2009 8:46AM
I use ItemSets. The Jewelcrafter's prismatic gems are a pain, but what I did was make a set with no prismatics in it (no chest, legs or gloves equipped in my case). When I want to switch between the resto gear and the elemental gear, I click the macro for the set without prismatics, then I click the macro for the set I want. It's annoying that I have to do that, but two clicks is better than searching for all the different pieces of gear separately. I hope this helps.
Frogh May 11th 2009 8:48AM
I have used Outfitter for ages now. It has been extremely dependable. It can be set up to equip anything you want whenever you need it.
Ive tried itemrack which is ok but felt bulky in its settings.
It all comes down to preference. Try any addon for 7 days.
Thander Apr 19th 2009 12:09PM
I still hope some day Blizzard will come out with a special storage space just for gear letting swap anywhere without having to lug around bags full of gear sets.
Eternauta Apr 19th 2009 3:03PM
This^
Jamesisgreat Apr 19th 2009 3:57PM
Exactly what I was thinking last night - it such a pain trying to sort through my gear (I've tons as I'm a feral druid) to put my offspec caster stuff back into the bank. Please Blizard - make our gear bound to our characters along with our mounts and pets!
Rollo Apr 19th 2009 6:21PM
Perhaps phone booths near every summoning stone. You rush in, change, and rush out. It would be awesome.
DavidC Apr 20th 2009 12:01PM
Blizzard has said repeatedly that "storage space" is like a mini-game and you have to choose what to keep and what to throw away (or what to bring to a raid).
Considering that stance, and it's somewhat justified, I don't see Blizzard give us an 2 or 3 extra 20 slot bags to store our 2nd / 3rd set of gear ... for free!
Do they know we want this? Of course, all of us want to have unlimited bag space so we can store that one item we got back when leveling ... you know that item ... the one you never use but don't want to throw away?
More bag space just means storing more things that you will never use, but don't want to throw away :-p
Erzbet Apr 21st 2009 8:46AM
I still think a closet for all those tabbards and dresses would sure be nice. I understand items with stats taking up inventory space, but for the clothing that doesn't offer any stats, it would be nice if they gave us a tab like the pets and mounts got.
Futue Apr 19th 2009 12:21PM
I use Itemrack and it's great.
I use it on the simplest level though - I just make a set for feral and a set for resto and manual click when I swap talents.
It seems to be more reliable the less you play with it and it's not exactly any trouble clicking 1 extra button which is nice and easily located.
Itemrack is my recommendation for an easy and quick solution :)
Dazaras Apr 19th 2009 12:33PM
Outfitter was the only addon that I use that was updated for 3.1 on patch day, which is funny because combined with questhelper, my second most quickly updated addon, it was the only addon which was supposedly discontinued.
you can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was while experimenting with dual specs when I found the option in outfitter to swap gear on spec switch. It works like a charm every time and I've recommended it to all of my guildies complaining about the cancellation of the blizzard gear manager.
Blackhorn Apr 19th 2009 1:27PM
Outfitter has issues with my warriors weapons.
Switching into Tank Mode leaves me without a sword equipped despite it being part of the outfit. Clicking the outfit a second time will equip the sword.
Switching to Fury Mode leaves me without an offhand weapon. It just won't go in there, even if I manually switch outfits.
Rowtan Apr 20th 2009 2:05AM
I use Itemrack for my druid, and have it set to automatically change sets when I change from feral dps to tank - no problem whatsoever - however, the druid is not dual specced. My priest, however, is - holy/shadow - I've not got enough gear to warrant using itemrack at the moment, but does anyone know if Itemrack caters for the dual-spec (ie, auto-swapping gear on changing spec?)
admiraljustin Apr 20th 2009 3:34AM
event: name
type: script
groupIndex = GetActiveTalentGroup()
if groupIndex==1 then
EquipSet("NAME OF SET FOR PRIMARY SPEC HERE")
elseif groupIndex==2 then
EquipSet("NAME OF SET FOR OFFSPEC HERE")
end
admiraljustin Apr 20th 2009 3:35AM
sorry, forgot the trigger:
ACTIVE_TALENT_GROUP_CHANGED
Rowtan Apr 20th 2009 9:08AM
Cool .. thank you :)
Lokasenna Apr 19th 2009 2:11PM
My death knight has two macros on an action bar beside her presences, like so:
/cast Blood Presence
/script ClosetGnome:WearSet("DPS")
/usetalents 1
Problem solved. And the all of the gear changing at the same time as the presence change makes a lovely racket to really let you know something's happening. :)
Yada Apr 19th 2009 3:51PM
There's an issue with ItemRack and Blizz's manager (on the PTR) for JCs: If you have 3 prismatic gems equipped in each set, the switchover will fail with the "you can only have 3 of those gems equipped" message. If you select the set a second time, it will complete the switch. It appears the gear is being switched in the background one piece at a time, and at some point, one prismatic-equipped piece has still not been removed, so the new one can't be swapped in. My question for anyone who knows—is Outfitter, or any other mod, written to deal with this issue and correctly swap gear sets without hitting the block?
Aggrajag Apr 20th 2009 6:17AM
Wouldn't this issue be solved if changing clothes was a 2-stage process:
1. Remove all current clothes.
2. Equip alternate clothes.
It would seem to me to be a simple solution for Blizzard and also any mods having this issue as you wouldn't exceed the gem count at any time.