Dual Specs
by Laneer on Feb.12, 2009, under Editorial
Well the finally posted more details about how Dual Specs are going to work. If you have read my rantings on the forums or here at all you’d know I don’t support the idea of Dual Specs as they have visioned them. My main problem with them, is though you CAN change your spec now, people don’t do it often, and it is actually one of the few unique things you can have about yourself. There is very little I can do as a Laneer the Dwarf Priest (other than being totally awesome) that can’t be copied which is the one thing I hate about WoW.
I keep hoping for something like the EQ AA system where you can actually make you TRUELY different from another. Of course I’m digressing here on the subject 
I liked the idea of Dual specs in a more limited sense. Since 90% of the argument for it revolves around PvP I wanted a system which let you do what they said, specify a separate set of talents, glyphs and buttons for PvP and PvE. When you go into an Arena, a Battle Ground, or PvP flagged at a WorldPvP spot you are using your PvP spec, and all other times the PvE one. Simple, to the point dual specs.
Instead we get you can change your spec when ever you want in a city, or a device people can carry around with them. I know most people will disagree with me but I HATE this idea. You’re going to end up with a lot of people with very diluted skills, and like I said with little individuality we had in the game out. Right now I am a Healer, a damn good one IMHO Of course I’ve been playing one for over 4 years, and that means I know my class well. With this new system, you’ll have Healers, or do you have DPS? They can be both so you don’t know, who knows which they are really good at, or maybe neither
I’ve been argued over this that most people don’t want to be tanks or healers so you won’t even see this, I guess this remains to be seen. Then we have the complaint of the pure dps that may have a point on some level. A Mage, Warlock, Rouge, and Hunter can really only be DPS. It won’t do them much good in PvE they’ll be able to do the PvP specs. They argue why tatke a Mage on a raid for example when you can take a Boomkin, who can be dual specing to Restro. You now have presto a healer when you need an extra one, or if you loose one. Or a tank if they have tanking gear of course. The gear is really where this argument falls apart. While I could dualspec a DPS build, my gear which is even closer to DPS gear now lacks hit which would hurt me. Even worse a Paladin dualspecing to Prot would require tanking gear, to Ret requires Plate DPS gear, on top of Holy Gear.
All said and done I guess we’ll see how this changes the game. My opinion is it changes for the worse. Given my hatred for it, I may even obstain from using it even if a DPS build for questing might be useful
3 Comments for this entry
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Zarhym
February 13th, 2009 on 11:56 am
Of note in your post is how you point out the need for additional gear for the various specs required by the dual spec system. I play a paladin tank and have played one since vanilla WoW. All through TBC my bags were full of all the regular raid consummables and reagents, but what really took up the bag space was the multiple sets of gear. Not only did I have tanking gear that addressed multiple tanking situations, but I also carried a loldps as well as a healing set. Granted, before WotLK a tankadins dps was laughable (and healing only marginally better) that may have made the difference on a fight and also allowed me to not sit out if I didn’t need the gear. I raid to have fun. Not sit out while someone else is having fun. As a hybrid (of which priests fit that bill too), I really like the idea of being able to respec on the fly before a fight if I’m not the best suited tank to fit the fight.
As to this not being as much of an issue to the pure dps classes, there is some arguements against that. For instance, mages that are specced for fire but are about to fight a boss that is immune to fire damage. Depending on possible encounter designs, I can definitely see different specs being required by rogues, hunters, & warlocks as well. Doing this may just allow the devs to have a little more fun in developing encounters that might actually require what we would have previously called off-specs and in the long run create a more diverse gaming experience for us.
February 13th, 2009 on 2:37 pm
I believe at Blizzcon they state they would not design any raids around the idea that you would respec in anyway before a fight. They said however they know some people will. Some people like you always carried multiple sets of gear and played multiple roles. Those will be the people who will be best with this new ability I’m sure.
Back before they changed healing I always carried a set of DPS Gear (holy DPS) and a set of PvP gear along with my healing set so I know what it is like to carry a lot of gear. I was also always prepared with Food, Potions/Elixrs (from Inien) and Oil (R.I.P).
I can see your point, and I may eat some of my words we’ll see. Now that I moved to a PvE server and not into PvP so much anymore, it might be fun to use a second spec for Holy DPS. I did always love it even if it isn’t the most “viable” as the Mages would say
Now that I am mostly Disc I can’t do my Hybrid Healing/DPS build I always was which makes questing not quite as fun. Perhaps I could get used to the idea of having my precious SoL back, oh how I miss you 
February 14th, 2009 on 8:48 am
The aspects of the game that I have enjoyed the most are raiding as well as the economy. I didn’t really get into the PvP portion of it that much (although I do have 70 mage on a PvP server) due to the lag issues I had in battle grounds when I first started playing the game. Later when my lag issues were corrected (in TBC) I really didn’t have any desire to spend the gold and/or run back and forth to the cities to respec just to get into the PvP side of things. With the coming changes, I may very well change my tune since I will have a 2nd raid spec that is actually viable in PvP.
I understand completely your point about being a damned good healer because you have played that role and are good at it. I wouldn’t say that I am a great tank, but I am pretty good at it and have quite a few people that ask me to tank all the time. I attribute that to the “soak time” I have had through the years and if I do try the PvP thing as a ret spec… Well, I am going to suck horribly to the point of being embarrassed.
As you said, “we’ll see”.