Dual Spec: No Reagent, No Cooldown, Requires Level 40
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Juggynaut on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 - 54 Comments Tags: dual spec, level 40, patch 3.1, ptr, zharym
Juggynaut on Tuesday, February 24, 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?
Reader Comments (54)
awesome, pure awesomeness this should make things more interesting.
second. that is awesome. blizzard i love u.
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!!
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.
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!
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.
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.
ive seen 3.1 patchnotes, it says max level, not level 40.
WoW source > juggys source
dont feed n00bs lies please.
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.
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
zomg!!! yes!! this is amazing!
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.
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.
just the fact its level 40 makes me happy now!!! ya 1000g SUCKS!!! but thats what your mains for lol
Sure, give us dual spec after i delete my mage
I have yet to see much of a downside. This is going to be awesome.
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.
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.
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.
@Aguzar
Don't you dare call the Great Juggynaut a lier, it will always, no matter what you do, end in your failure :P
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
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.
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.
2 words...
needs cooldown
but all in all a great post Juggy, keep up the good work.
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.
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.