Posted by Juggynaut on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 - 54 Comments
Tags: dual spec, level 40, patch 3.1, ptr, zharym
The World of Warcraft forums have been buzzing with activity ever since Patch 3.1 hit the PTR. With a key detail of Dual specs just coming out, there are bound to be complaints of the 1000g cost being too high or too low, but one thread in particular prompted Zarhym to reveal a couple of other new details that have changed since some of the initial information about Dual Spec came out.
First, Dual Spec will require level 40, which will please many of those who were upset that it was initially planned to only be available to max level characters. This still may not sit well with those of you who have lower characters, but it seems like a nice middle ground to allow leveling characters to switch between a group spec and a soloing spec easily.
Second, there will be no reagent cost to change specs and will be castable whenever a player wants as long as they are out of combat and not in an arena or battleground. This means that not only are scribes not going to make money on the new feature, but players won’t need a group to change their spec if they aren’t in a major city. From Zarhym:
You literally just click a button, and after a 5 second cast, your specializations, glyphs, and action bars swap. You must be out of combat, and it still cannot be used in battlegrounds or arenas. There is currently no cooldown on the ability to swap specializations though.
This makes me even more excited for the feature. Changing specs will be like mounting up. Anyone worried that the lack of a cooldown may be a problem?
Related Posts: BigRedKitty: PTR Dual Spec Video, RaidID Fix Coming In Patch 3.1, Dual Talent Specialization to Cost 1000 Gold, Ghostcrawler Reveals Dual Spec Details, Ghostcrawler Eases Some Fears On Dual Spec,
By Frankincar on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
awesome, pure awesomeness this should make things more interesting.
By HerofTime on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
second. that is awesome. blizzard i love u.
By Henry on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
This is FREAKIN Awesome! While I’m healing Naxx I could switch to elemental to help dps and then back to Resto for the boss fights!! I can’t WAIT!!
By Sidias on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Having to drop a 1000g is still very annoying for those of us with many alts. That brings the total bill to 8000g for epic flight, cold weather, and dual specs. Pretty absurd if you ask me.
That being said, it looks like they’re taking all of the nonsense out of the process. Now I’m actually excited for this to go live.
By Dumdrakk, Executus on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Glad blizzard heard us here! I believe the cost is still 1000g at level 40 though, so get your mains farming gold to send to you alt!
By Bith on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
As a Resto/Balance druid (skilled and geared in both and run raids as both), I know that DPS are gonna be QQing about it.
I think the lack of a cooldown and reagent might become an issue that sets a rift between pure dps classes and hybrids.
By Daywind on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Not really a fan. Now, even while leveling, it’ll be twice as hard to get decent gear from instances especially for those of us who make the sacrifice of easy leveling so we can learn the humble arts of healing or tanking.
I also feel this will stretch the already hair-pulling world of bad PuGing to extreme’s. I undestand everyone has to learn sometime but all i can see happening now is rolling up to a PuG and having some DPS hero declare “It’s OK I’ll tank!” 6 wipes later and I’ll be a sad panda.
Then again, there’s the upside of being able to wring the unbelievable flexibilty out of my druid and run a Tank/DPS/Heal hybrid, which might be nice.
I feel this would be an awesome change at 80, I’m yet to be convinced at 40. I’ll be happy to be proven wrong.
By Aguzar (Darkspear EU) on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
ive seen 3.1 patchnotes, it says max level, not level 40.
WoW source > juggys source
dont feed n00bs lies please.
By Pallyev on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
This will make it much easier to find healers and tanks for instances if they have the dual spec. Everyone can be a DPS but with the Dual Spec we can simply ask someone to switch to Holy or Resto and heal.
By Juggynaut on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Aguzar, patch notes are generally not all encompassing and often omit or do not align with the actual patch.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=15198918444&sid=1&pageNo=5#88
By Stevo on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
zomg!!! yes!! this is amazing!
By pauldy on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
What this really means is as it stands, leave the following at home: Hunters, Rouges, Warriors, Deathknights. Don’t bother we don’t need ya.
Bring the following only if you have to, mages for food and ports home, warlocks to summon the rest of your party, soulstones and healthstones.
Pally’s and druids will now be expected to dps/tank spec. Everyone else best spec for both dps and heals. Depending on the fights people might get rotated in an out of the role so be prepared.
Let’s not even get into the cluster of rolls with people being multispec. I think it is a good idea but there has to be something to remove the convenience factor like a 3 hour cool down otherwise its a big nuisance in the game.
By Sean on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I like it, being a pally. I can spec Ret for solo and change to Holy for an instance or whatever.
But like, it will have it’s downfalls for many.
By Jaime on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
just the fact its level 40 makes me happy now!!! ya 1000g SUCKS!!! but thats what your mains for lol
By Kaminye on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Sure, give us dual spec after i delete my mage
By Jagganatha on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
I have yet to see much of a downside. This is going to be awesome.
By kevin on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
well i like the idea but gotta say, for me being a hunter this isnt going to change much. at heart i am a marksman hunter but atm i am survival just to scope it out and it will be nice to be able to go back to my true spec but overall for pure dps classes like me not much will change.
By Zaraken on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Awesome. When this comes out I can make leveling my healer priest and tank paladin much easier. Shadow and Ret for soloing then a quick switch over to group mode. Unless they need dps on that rare chance.
By Ancasta on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I have been looking forward to dual spec for a while now. My main is a druid - lots of opportunities now. My lvl 80 alt is a Ret pally - again hybrid class with multiple roles available now.
My concern now is gear. I have lost many drops (and won a few) purely based on ‘main-spec’. I see a lot of bickering and drama in the future now that all specs are ‘main-spec’
The lack of a cooldown feels too easy, almost cheap. I was expecting a 30 or 60 min cooldown, which I felt was reasonable.
By Slyfanitor on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
@Aguzar
Don’t you dare call the Great Juggynaut a lier, it will always, no matter what you do, end in your failure
On topic: I’m quite interested about the dual specc, would be nice to see the affi side on my lock, or even destro, but I’m not going to blow off all my g immediately when it comes available, will need to think everything thru first
By CappyG on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Heh! Can’t get a group on your pure DPS main, go level a hybrid alt for guaranteed group runs…
On the other hand I can now go PvP and PvE effectively with one gear set.
By Sardit on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Quote : it will be much easier to find tanks and healers, everyone can dps but now we can just ask someone to switch and do that for us !
Really, healing and tanking take more then a specc mate both take gear and skill, something dps does not require. Both healers and tanks spend their entire leveling career learning all the abilities they have and how and when to use them. Asking a feral druid to respec to healer and go heal will just cause you to wipe a lot. He’ll have no spellpower gear, no clue what when to cast or how to keep the party up.
Next to the fact that he will not have any healing addons installed or will be used to watching a bunch of raid frames while at the same time being aware of his threat, mobs and adds spawning, and aoe effects. Heck dps has trouble to move out of fires half the time, so they’ll have a realy hard time in healing.
And worse, if you happen to be leveling a healer as your mainspec you’ll have to roll with all the greedy sons of bitches that will start needing on gear you actually need for your mainspec. Since its their offspecc and they need to gear that up. Have fun in instances when this goes live…
Though on the other hand i’ll finally have a spec that might make grinding daylies and world pvp somewhat easier.
By Zantetsu on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
2 words…
needs cooldown
but all in all a great post Juggy, keep up the good work.
By JasonMB on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Ok so i dont play WOW as of yet but im keeping my eye on things before I start and let me tell you dual specing is awesome :).
When i do start this takes A LOT of pressure of me with a few of my character choices.
By Voldenmist on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
I don’t like this news too much, the fact that you will be able to switch whenever, it’s just Blizz’s attemp to make trolls stop QQ. Anytime you want, hmmm, I want to switch b/c this pull may be a bit harder, etc, etc. WHERES THE CHALLENGE BLIZZ??? Why not just give everyone lvl 226 legendary maces and let everyone go one hit everything including each other.
By Toomuchtopay on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Kinda stupid if it still costs 1000g i have nothing close to that at lvl 51 so wooohoo that the required lvl is 40. Hopefully it wouldnt cost anything. Why should it even cost? Better that every1 would get it at lvl 40 from a trainer or a simple short quest.
I wouldnt like to pay for my riding skills AND cold weather flying AND dual spec. That would be A LOT of money.
By Daywind on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
@ Sardit,
You’ve hit the nail on the head. It’ll be fanstastically easy to form a PuG once the changes are implemented, and fantastically hard to finish an instance. I know how fantastically hard it can be to be a good tank (I wasn’t a good one, passable but only just) and being a good healer isn’t a walk in he park either. Now, every fury warrior will likely be expected to tank any time they want to walk through the swirling portal and my Resto Druid may cop the same anytime a priest hops on LFG.
As a hybrid class I theoretically should be jumping for joy at this but honestly I just see this diminishing the number of skilled effective tanks and healers and bumping up the hacks and wannabe’s.
The only saving grace here is the 1k gold. For me, I find it hard enough to scrape up the cash for my epic LAND mount, let alone anything else.
I just feel sorry for anyone who wanted to play as a mage, warlock, rogue, hunter, or just plain wanted to dps.
By kiley on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
/agree with toomuchtopay
what happened to quest lines for abilities? nowadays it’s basically, alright a new ability is out! fork over the gold and tada! How does blizz think this is going to stop gold spammers?? I’m sure they musta thought that ‘oh we’ll just make it really expensive to do anything in this game, that’ll stop the gold spammers in their tracks.’ >.<
*claps* good job blizz 9_9
By Dan on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 12:41 am
Kinda sucks they screwed Scribes over. I made my priest a Scribe so I could change her spec whenever I wanted with her profession. Guess I can drop Inscription and pick up Alchemy =/
By Dksev on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 1:44 am
Come on lvl my pally lvl u can be a tank/healbot/dps on the same freakin raid!!!!!
By Dksev on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 1:45 am
also Gratz to blizz that was best idea… iv spent about 800G on respecing! and ya…..
By Loneblade on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 3:27 am
I have my doubts about this, sure this will be great for my pally being able to switch between holy and prot but no one will won’t a DK tank now even if i can tank better than some fury warrior or ret pally that hits a button to hide his lack of tanking skills.
By Loneblade on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 3:28 am
Edit: Want instead of won’t
By Destro on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 5:21 am
to Aguzar….
“With a single 5-second, out of combat cast, players level 40 or higher will instantly be able to swap between two different talent specializations, glyph sets, and action bar set-ups from virtually anywhere in the world. ”
taken from the official blue post.
Zarhym > you.
/fail.
Ignorantly open your mouth about things you havent done research for, please.
By Valentinex on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 6:38 am
Well seeing as though I’ve spent nearly 3k gold just respeccing between Holy/Retri/Prot, I welcome dualspec with open arms, regardless of whether or not it comes with a cooldown or a downside. My talent switching once Dualspec goes live wont cost anymore aside from the original 1k gold. Going Holy for raids, and maybe Prot or Retri for heroic instances won’t be a money sink anymore for me.
For those that have trouble just getting 1k gold, there’s always the Auction House to resort to, and you can make money with your professions. There are bound to be players with almost endless amounts of money that will pay to powerlevel their professions on their alt. Abuse your gathering profession and farm. Even if it’s only for an hour a day, its better than earning a little gold than not earning anything at all.
By friskydingo on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 6:46 am
Now I’m not the type who goes out and makes money in WoW, but i make exactly what i need to cover repairs and food for raiding. i can make 1000g, it isn’t too hard, especially since look how much time they are giving us til 3.1 comes out. there are also many people who are saying that it is pointless, and it’s funny because all of those people are rogues, mages, and hunters. well for you yes, ur stuck for pvp to pve, not blizz’s fault, play a different class if you want it to do you any real good. I OT on my Dk and it gets annoying having to respec. i spent 200g in one day respeccing back and forth for diff raids we cleared all in one day. so i can cover the 1000g and switch whenever? sounds good.
By Razius on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 6:47 am
Besides having the same price as Cold Weather Flying,Dual-Spec is going to be a game-changer feature
No more paying 50G everytime I want to shift from Fury to Prot
By rin on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 8:34 am
This is a great way to help people who like to tank/ heal in instances. There is no downside to this, all you pure dps classes have it easy getting to 80 or soloing where as us guys who prefer the tanking or healing side of the game are stuck with either slow leveling or high budget respecs!
By Eventime on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 9:40 am
At toomuchtopay, if this wasn’t going to be implemented you would never even have a chance at getting a dual-spec. The fact that it costs gold like everything else in this game means it’s a priveledge and something you need to earn. Honestly there’s no real reason a level 40 needs to be switching specs all the time. Any leveling instance can more or less be tanked/healed by any spec as long as you have a few pieces of gear (1h + shield for tanks if you usually use a 2h, etc…). Even at 80 I’m a ret pally but can easily heal any regular instance with my healing set without switching specs. Obviously you need a real healer for heroics or anything above, but again those are no longer “leveling” dungeons.
By hai on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 10:48 am
simply make it unavaible in instances blizz
By mahehahe on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 10:54 am
How can you think this is a bad thing?!?!
By Ironhoof on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Great news. It means that every player becomes a Hybrid. A Warrior can switch from tank to dps and the other way in just 5 sec. A druid, a paladin, from a tank to a healer, to a good DPSer. The price of 1000g is a bit high and the lvl 40 req. is a problem. This can be used at lvl 40+ for twinks, but i won’t be spending 1k gold for my twink. And you need to start selling stuff to get the gold, beacause it’s a moderate amount of money for that lvl.
By Snaggly on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
@ rin
There are lots of downsides to this, just read a lot of the comments, too me the biggest down side is likelihood of more guild drama over people rolling on drops for there “offspec”. As well as that there will be people who will say they can tank or heal (even dps to an extent, i guess..) who really have no idea what there doing and will cause wipes. How ever I still feel the positive out weighs the negative.
By elion on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Thats what iam talking about now its worth 1000g i dont know how any of you can complian that your paying to little for this AWSOME!! thing not matter what you do their is allways gointo be a problem or 2 hunters, rogue might be in abit of a rut after this hits the game theirs gointo bee more DPS than ever and being that rogues and hunters are only good for dps their not gointo be as wanted teh past few post realy got me down bu this one post restored my faigh in blizzard dont mass it up blizzard as for the cooldowns and reagents if you realy wanto nerf think it might cause to many problems give it a regent reguire ment i dont know about the cooldown its sweet to be able to DPS the mobs heal the bosses
By Plfan on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
IMO, they should make it a 1 time fee, account or realm idc, of 1000 gold. That way, it achieves the purpose of not giving it too noobs (damit ebayers) and at the same time you can use it on your alts if you have a main. My main is 76, but I dont get rabid money till 80; just have 1.8k gold right now (and i never spend on anything but skills).
I have another 7 characters spread across various realms over level 40.
By Zach on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 11:31 am
Its not bad enough that the pure DPS specs are lagging behind in damage to the hybrid classes? They have to make it so people can switch on the fly for a one time fee anywhere in the world? Seriously… make them at least go somewhere to do it.
Further pushing the gap between the pure DPS classes and the hybrid classes.
By Specter on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 10:25 am
Dual Spec yes ths is great even level 40 i will be easy to find a tank and a healer but paying 1000g is to high for low levels i think i dont wanna have dual spec if i have it to pay it
By Magradon on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
As an 80 hunter, I have mixed feelings about this. The term “huntard” just came to mind…god I hate that. I can only imagine how much harder it’s going to be for me to get into groups. And forget rolling for loot! Omg…it’s going to be a bitch fest. On the other hand, it’s totally going to rock for other classes and will definitely be beneficial during raids. I wish I had rolled a pally now! lol **plate armor**drool
By Yvrael on Friday, March 6th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
this will be sooooo awesome! on characters that can heal or dps this will be usefull in raids where there are strictly healing or strictly dps fights (for instance sapphiron, heals, and thaddius, dps, in naxx). you will now be able to switch in prep for these fights.
also when people ask you to come do an instance and your not specced you dont hav to run to a trainor in azeroth and then waste time or even possibly a hearth. one time we didnt hav a lock, our mt wasnt going to tank that night so he wasnt specced for it but he ended up having to anyway so he went to IF to respec, his hearth wasnt up and horde controled the summoning stone at naxx, we had to send someone to dalaran to queue him for a bg to get him there. it woulda been waaay easier if he coulda just switched speccs in five seconds. this will be great!
By Yvrael on Friday, March 6th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
and who cares about cooldowns? geesh!
By SomeAnonymousNoobWarlockLev31DawnbringerRealm on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
sounds great, 1000g is worth it for being able to switch specs completely in only 5 seconds, although i doubt i’ll be seeing any lv 40’s with dual spec. i’m still a lv 31 so what do i know? warlocks+Dual Spec=…wow…one sec you got a MACHINE minion, next second you got insane crits with shadow bolt and that kind of thing.
By padred on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 1:08 pm
pretty sure this isnt real…. or it would be on the official blizzard forums
By crazy on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 4:37 am
duel specs are real…what happens is you go to a trainer and you buy a 2nd spec for 1k gold and then u can respec them from 50g (say you go from ret to holy on your 2nd spec) but to switch from spec one to spec two you only need to be need a lexion on power that ins can make so this is very good news for ins to make gold and to start a naxx set if they havn’t alread ( ins can make temp lexions of powers)
By Egma on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
@toomuchtopay,
I fully disagree. 1K gold is not that hard at 40 anymore, I have made over 1.2K on both my enchant/miner alt and on my herb/skining alt both by 40… the trick to making money is to not be leveling professions besides enchanting untill you have a main that is a gatherer and can do dailies. Herbs are great money, ores are great money, and enchant mats are descent money.
Besides that 1K at 40 is low enough to where people who know the game and its mechanics can afford it, while new players who have no experience yet can’t… this filters out the people who spec heal/tank just because they have 2 specs, and those who spec heal/tank because they know the mechanics, know how to do it and just can’t stand solo questing in these specs.
The change is not to add tank/healer suply for low levels by sure quantity, but rather the add better tank/healer suply low level by letting people who have played healer or tank on their main level up alts in solo spec while questing, yet switching to tank/heal for instances depending on which they know better. Like me, I know how to tank, I love to tank, but there aint no way I am leveling as tank on a alt because its to annoying, so now I can actualy go fill in PuG tanking rolls as tanking spec and knowing how to tank without being being limited to having to spend 100G per instance in respecs from leveling to instancing and back to leveling.
1K gold is made up in only 10 instance runs by not having to respec for those who know how to fill the role.