Wednesday, June 3, 2009

How did dual-spec impact your gameplay?

With dual spec now having been around for a while and us probably being well on our way to get tri-spec or triple spec further down the line (call it prophecy if you will) there's pretty widespread yet seemingly minor changes to adapt to the option.

Most guilds seem to have undergone a short period of loot rule adjustment to deal with the whole main-spec / off-spec concept of dual speccing.
There were some pros and cons listed here and there about dual speccing but in the end most have settled on a main-spec / off-spec / not-specced concept and built their loot rules around that.

I had expected more really: guilds forcing all the classes with healer capacity into a a dual specced healer role, refusals to spec your second spec for the guild resulting in widespread drama, hefty complaints by pure dps classes that really only have another dps spec to spec into.

None of these seem to have materialized. The cost of dual spec is not prohibitive enough to assume people don't have dual spec yet at 80 and so it almost seems like dual spec was introduced and absorbed wholely by the wow community at large without too much fuss.

Bummer really... nothing like a broken system to bring all the classes closer together and end some age old class rivalries (or at least put a damper on them for a while). Although I suppose it's probably wrong to wish doom and gloom upon the system just to have something amusing to blog about (or is it?).

Personally my dual speccing adventures usually ended up with me having my usual spec as main spec and the dual spec is usually relegated to being a 'test area' where I throw fairly random stuff together to see what it does. Oddly enough my re-speccing cost have gone up significantly since dual specs were introduced because now I am in a perpetual state of having 2 specs I am not entirely happy with.

I still consider carrying extra sets of gear largely a waste and my dual specs tend to feed off of what is already equipped... but in the end my primary problem with dual specs is not the concept but the fact that I always forget I have it.

There's nothing like standing at a meeting stone waiting for that healer to arrive to fill up your party and not remembering that your moonkin is also a tree... or alternatively when I do remember repressing the thought that I might as well heal the thing and get it over with rather than standing around like a stupid dps waiting for a healer (because I don't feel like healing at that time).

That said, now that we have dual specs and no obvious problems (obvious as in even I noticed) have arised I have a feeling we'll soon be looking at tri-spec at the cost of 2k gold.

Maybe dual spec was just an elaborate gold-sink after all. So then dear blog connoiseur: How did dual spec impact your gameplay?

7 comments:

Dorgol said...

On my Paladin I regularly switch specs. I can kill normal mobs faster as Ret, but I can kill group quests easier as Holy (specifically the dragon for the Threat from Above daily).

My druid does 90% of his instances as a tree, but switches to Feral for 90% of his BGs (my tree gear is crap for PvP).

My Warlock, though, hasn't switched specs in weeks. If I weren't rolling in gold, I would feel somewhat upset at the waste.

Copernicus said...

My goal has always been to have a tank, healer and DPS character that I can pull out as needed. Being able to dual spec my shaman as resto and elemental has just made it so I can do it with two characters instead of three.

Being in a smaller guild where we sometimes have trouble getting healers or DPS (four of our regulars have the ability to tank so no problems there), it's made it easier for people to switch around as needed. It's a higher cost up front, but it saves a lot of time not needing to go respec.

Most of our DPS people are using their second spec for PvP or setting up a secondary DPS spec for different situations. All of it is voluntary, since our guild doesn't make anyone run a particular spec.

MMO Player said...

I had expected dual specs to cause more loot drama than it has. I'm glad that so far people are civil when dealing with main spec versus off spec stuff.

The downside to dual specs is that people aren't necessarily very good at their "other" spec. For some, it's because they just don't have enough practice in that other spec. For others it's a question of not having the right gear.

An in-game friend of mine has long claimed that he can respec as needed (despite the cost) and fill the role of tank / dps / healer on either his Druid or Pally. But, he is only geared properly for the one he enjoys most. So, it has always been painful to allow him to respec on the spot. Our saving grace back then was the cost -- sometimes it was just not worth it.

Now that dual specs are out the problem is worse. He no longer has to pay to respec, so now he does it freely. And he still doesn't have the right gear for the second spec. And...on top of that, he will still pay to respec to the third spec. Bless his heart, he means well.

I haven't yet gotten dual spec fo my priest. I'm too lazy to dedicate the time to getting the +hit gear she'll need to go Shadow.

Fish said...

It has basically been a waste of 1000g for me. I bought a ret offspec for my paladin with the thought that while I was getting geared to tank heroics+ I could DPS and get gear. I think I have used it all of 3 times. I don't really enjoy ret, and even questing, I do more and can take more as prot. . .

Misamane said...

I absolutely love dual spec. Being a priest, the ability to switch to shadow for questing and dailies and then switch back to heal raids and heroics is wonderful.

It doesn't hurt that my guild leader considers my specs to be main spec/main spec as far as loot rolling is concerned, so I basically see a cloth drop and I roll. :)

It also makes me happy right now, as I level my RAF druid, than I can spec Tree/Owlbear at 80, and my RAF buddy is gonna spec his shaman Resto/Enhancement.

Happy Times.

Anonymous said...

While I hate carrying two sets of gear at all times I love the versatility of dual spec for my pally. I was prot for 75ish lvls, before dual spec came out and while I could not be killed it was slow. On patch day I specd into Prot/Ret. Dailies and questing are way faster as ret and there is not a group quest outside of dungeons I couldn't solo as prot.

I made 80 in no time and now that I raid if we don't need a tank I can drop into my ret set and gear and kill without having to sit out because we don't have room for another tank. Best Wow Addition Ever.

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