As you’ve heard already, Blizzard plans to bring an option to switch between two specs at the drop of a hat (probably out of combat) including switching your gliph selection in the process. A neat feature on the surface, right? In particular for all tanks and healers.
See, when you’re actually not needed in your main function for a specific fight, you can switch specs and gear and take a second role instead of being either nigh-useless (and thus a liability to the raid) or even switched out.
It is a very exciting prospect, but it also carries an inherent risk. Until 3.1 hits and the system supposedly goes live, Blizzard has to at least pay lip service into improving solo viability and possibly fun for the tanks and healers out there. After that? Not so much.
If there is currently fear that healadins switch to Ret in droves because dealing DPS is more fun than healing in Holy’s present shape, Blizzard will at least have to consider the issue (their knee-jerk reaction right now is exactly the same as last time Ret was fun to play, which takes us back to patch 2.0.1 before TBC went live: oh noes, Ret does damage, nurf quick). With dual specs, though, the standard answer risks to simply become dual spec Ret for soloing, and be a brave little one-trick FoL-bot if you want to raid.
I think the risk to see this happen as very real, and it will be supported and sustained by the droves of players who can’t just say “I experience things differently and find healing fun myself” but have to post, ad nauseam, that since they actually find something you loathe fun you must either find it fun too or be severely brain-damaged. You can find examples of this attitude in any of the o-boards’ healing class forums. Never mind that these players shoot their class in their collective foot, though, we all know that the most vocal individuals on the o-boards aren’t usually the brightest crayons in the box.
With 3.1, we will need more than ever to be vigilant about Dual Specs as an excuse. Never, ever should “just spec DPS on your second spec” become admissible as answer to issues within one specific talent tree. And players should really avoid at all costs to resort to “Spec X is fine, dual Spec Y if you don’t like it”. We cannot afford to leave Blizzard off that particular hook, at the risk of ending with a constant downward spiral in terms of gameplay quality.
Related posts:
I dont know how other people think of the patch or dual specs. I was really excited to hear we would be able to carry 2 specs. I had pretty much planned to have a prot spec for tanking, and a Holy spec for healing. Honestly, I have been completely blown away by the way prot handles after the patch. This is the character that I wanted to play when I started playing Wow 2 years ago. I havent looked at ret, I may take a look at that this weekend, but AOE grinding is so much fun with prot, I really don’t need a second option. Well, I guess whack a mole is fun sometimes.
You raise a great point, and something that I had not considered. If that is their design philosophy, then we are in trouble. That said, 2 specs will help us play more, so I’d hope we go carefully forward rather than avoid it.
As a hunter I’m worried that dual-speccing might mean that hybrid classes are becoming more and more viable choice over a pure dps-class for raid utillity. (switching to a healing spec when needed etc.) I’m also wondering how they’ll implement this for BM hunter who want to switch to a different spec.. since exotic pets are the norm for them. Would they be stuck using a non-exotic pet?
Wow, you’re right, I hadn’t ever considered this issue with BM. Far-reaching implications, to say the least.
It’s a good point. I support the dual-spec feature as a way to get more out of one class.
Hunters, for example may find that BM is the preferred solo spec, but MM or Surv works out better for total raid contribution.
Let’s face it…if a Holy Paladin can’t heal as well as a Resto shaman, people will complain to Blizz and they will look into it. With all the improvements in WotLK, I have more faith in Blizz now than I ever have.
I acknowledge the significance of the point you raise. A second immediately accessible spec is never an excuse for a half-done talent tree in any class, and neither is it an excuse for a half-fun talent healing or tanking tree.
With that said, I think the whole “fun” discussion around this issue is more dependant on an issue related to the psychology of people generally. Tanks are Protectors (trees being called Protection is a clue), and protectors more often than not are leaders (many tanks like to mark targets themselves & in the vast majority of fights they’re the ones who start the fight or pull). Leaders are always going to be few, and good leaders are always going to be even fewere. On the other hand, Healers are like Doctors and Nurses, they take care of others, keep them healthy, and even save their lives. Again, this type of people is always going to be less common than others who go after profit, technical skills, or fun & thrill. It is just the nature of humanity. So basically people who enjoy tanking & healing or find them fun will always be fewer than those who enjoy killing & nuking things.
That’s not to say that the “mechanics” of tanking & healing can be boring & tedious, and some people are expected to still like them! Heck no! I’m only saying that no matter how fun Blizzard makes the tanking & healing trees, they’ll just always be chosen less frequently than pure DPS trees. At the same time, it would simply not make any sense if the Shadow Priest’s passive healing from their DPS, for example, was enough to main-heal a 5-person group in a dungeon run. There wouldn’t be a need for a healer then, and at the same time the Shadow Priest would quickly be dubbed “overpowered” and non-priests would scream for a nerf, we all know the story.
Finally, in any case, I think the dual-spec is a very, very welcome addition to the game because regardless to everything else, time is the most valuable resource in the world for any smart person, and dual-speccing will really help us all save a LOT of time when trying to start a dungeon run. Simply because even if a DPS Shaman doesn’t enjoy healing at all, some of the ones who value time highly would still go for Restoration as their second spec so they can start a dungeon run sooner than later when they’re LF1M (looking for one more) for a party of 5; they can say, for example, “Well, if we don’t find a healer, I’ll just switch to Resto and heal, no problem.” Maybe grudgingly, but if it saves time for them & others, then why not…many people who hate waiting will probably go for similar choices. And I would just automatically appreciate & love any feature that saves us time in this game, because it takes enough time already as it is.
So basically people who enjoy tanking & healing or find them fun will always be fewer than those who enjoy killing & nuking things.
Oh, I agree, “Fun” is largely a subjective matter. Part of managing a group, I suspect even more specifically part of being a successful raid / guild leader, is balancing out the players focused on their own performance (who are in reality playing the damage meters instead of the game) with those who are concerned with the group’s success.
That being said, regardless of what other means are provided (like dual specs) to cover other aspects of the game, I feel there’s currently something fundamentally stale in the way healing works in the game. As evidenced by the new healer role forum, healing is more of a raid frames whack-a-mole game than anything else. Writing with paladin healing experience, while I used to find satisfaction in keeping my group up and wipe-free throughout any instance and parts of Kara, or keeping an AV offensive alive and running, in other words a satisfying end, the means to that end used to be pretty much one single button 80% of the time, with the occasional cleanses and situational Blessings / Hands thrown in for good measure.
Tanking at least provides with a very different experience – you have to actually watch your surroundings for starters, and react to a variety of events through a relative wider variety of means, including running around to consecrate and pick up strays etc.
Much less boring gameplay, IMO.
Also food for thought, but when you say “At the same time, it would simply not make any sense if the Shadow Priest’s passive healing from their DPS, for example, was enough to main-heal a 5-person group in a dungeon run”, my provocative question here is why not? We’re operating under the paradigm of the dedicated healer for a 5-men group, but what if we shift that paradigm?
Last question to you specifically, if you don’t mind: Yes, dual spec is going to be welcome. However, how does this work out from a RP perspective? That a protector of the people (tank) decides, at time, that offense is the best defense, I can imagine. But how does the shadow priest deal with this? Isn’t that a bit disruptive when the character who’s been hell-bent on destroying stuff with the dark power suddenly goes “you know what, I’m actually feeling caring and compassionate today, I’m going to embrace the light for a couple of hours”? I’m aware that this kind of questions may be more suited to people who treat RP like a religion rather than game-enhancing experience, but wondering if you could share your opinion nonetheless.
“you know what, I’m actually feeling caring and compassionate today, I’m going to embrace the light for a couple of hours”
The only thing the dual spec option will change in regard to this matter is the cost of doing so. As you can already change your specialization whenever you feel like it.
Nerfing the Ret Pallies won’t be a bad thing at all. They need a good nerf. I have a pally too, btw.
It’s good that they made them more raid viable, but now they’re out of control.
@Temps
Fair enough
@Vendrill
I have a pally too, btw.
At what level? What do you do with him?
but now they’re out of control
Before Wrath release and all the nerfing surely, but now, I’d appreciate if you’d care to specify the context of this assessment.
Gwaendar…are you reading what you’ve been posting? lol This dual spec will be the best thing since sliced bread. First off…there is no way they (blizz) can give healing spec’s any sort of dps. It would just (obviously) make them OP. (I’m a druid, and if resto could do hard dps it would be OP…so I’m not just QQing about OPness. I would call myself out on it).
Healers shouldn’t “have” to dps anyway, and with dual spec they can switch to their dps specs to do dailies/farm/or whatever else they want to do with damage.
When they do this, my two spec’s will be Feral Tank and Resto. Because like someone else posted…this is going to save so much time. I’ll start a group with me tanking because thats my main…say…we can’t find a healer and have a fury war in group whose 2nd spec is prot…mines is resto…BAM now we have a tank AND healer.
Pre-dual spec AKA…now…I have sat wasting away in front of my computer for hours… /2 LF1M Heals blah blah blah
Dual specs are going to save the world………………of warcraft.
Also Gwaendar, about your RP questionings…
Go to an RP server (unless you’re already on one) and just run your one spec…nobody is shoving a dual spec down your throat.
BUT!!
I guarantee you that if I form a group and there is a WAR in it, we can not find a healer, and I say my dual spec is resto and I will heal, and the WAR’s dual spec is not Prot…they’ll be out of my party faster than they could blink an eye.
That would mean that a WAR has 2 dps spec’s equipped or dps / pvp w/e, but the whole point of this is so that tank/dps or heal/tank/dps or heal/dps classes can have the option to save their group hours and hours of time. I have sat waiting for close to 2 hours some nights (doing other stuff while waiting of course) waiting for healers, but if this could be solved in 5 min. with dual spec and a quick gear swap, I just don’t see why you are in opposition to this.
I guess you’re just way into the RP, and just goes back to what I said…go to an RP server (unless already on one) and roll with one spec don’t take the time to fill out your dual spec that they give you, and leave the rest of us on our PvP PvE realms with all dual spec people that want to contribute to saving time.
” Also food for thought, but when you say “At the same time, it would simply not make any sense if the Shadow Priest’s passive healing from their DPS, for example, was enough to main-heal a 5-person group in a dungeon run”, my provocative question here is why not? We’re operating under the paradigm of the dedicated healer for a 5-men group, but what if we shift that paradigm? ”
The why not is simple…everything comes back to PvP, and (my observation) a lot more people are into PvP and PvE both rather than just PvE and RP.
Think about fighting a shadow priest that has enough heals for a 5 person dungeon run. Unless you give the other classes enough stuns to keep them locked the whole fight they are just over powered plain and simple, and if you did give the stuns then those classes would OP the priests.
They will out-heal you, and be doing “shadow priest” quality damage to you. It would be wrong in so many ways to classes with no healing capabilities ie…mage, warlock, hunter, warrior, rogue. A regular shadow priest, however, with a dual spec of disc/holy can heal 25 man raids one day and switch and go solo all they want and have no trouble mowing down mobs all by themselves.
On my old mage main, I used to feel sorry for the poor Resto Druids and other heal-bots that I would see spamming the /1 in the Isle of Q.
/1 anyone want a heal-bot for dailies. They have no way to “efficiently (in a timely manner)” kill mobs alone…BUT…giving them a way to kill mobs alone AND still have resto druid heals is not the answer. Blizz nailed it with a dual spec and I can’t wait for it. Heroic dungeons are going to fly by. Imagine it…we’ll be able to rock out 5 Heroics in the same ammount of time it took to do “maybe” 2 before dual spec.
This is the only fix for healers and it’s a good one. I wouldn’t mind healing if I could quest/farm as Resto and be able to kill stuff in the same ammount of time as feral.
Takameanie has hit the nail on the head. I have yet to hear from a warrior on these or for that matter in any forum discussing this issue.
So here is my POV from a tank who has been MT raiding End-game instances and raids for 3.5 years. This is THE BEST thing Blizz has considered doing. I cannot begin to tell you how many hours, try more like adding them up and saying days or weeks, of game time I have lost because I am waiting for a healer. One spec that four different classes can do effectively and still I wait for hours on end for someone to fulfill that single role. This is the main reason I have rolled other toons, so that my friends and I can all run together. Even now with the latest patch being 3.09 this tuesday, we find ourselves stuck in this mess. Our situation is different now we have 2 healers and 2 tanks and usually only 2 or 3 DPS players on M-T. So now when we run heroics to help gear out other members not only does our DPS suck, but in order for me, a Prot War to deal good enough DPS for a raid I HAVE to tank to build rage enough to use my DPS skillz. Our other tank is a Protadin, and now she is stuck to a DPS non tanking role and I cannot help her to improve her skillz as an effective tank. I cannot say this is a large demographic and that we represent the majority of players, but we are tired of the BS and drama that comes with guilds large enough for 25 mans and therefore have enough players to not worry about players switching specs for a run. We have 10 80′s and 10 more getting to 80 very soon but the money involved in switching specs so that we can all play together is rediculous. This Dual Spec, which cannot come out soon enough IMHO, is a GODSEND and I cannot stress enough how much it will improve this game for groups of friends like ours.
To the Hunters out there concerned about BM spec and the new Dual Spec. It is very simple to address your pet concerns, my wife is a 3yr Vet huntard so I hear about stuff all the time from her but, When in the BS spec you have a prechosen Pet and a prechosen Pet for Sur or MM or W/E your other tree is going to be. Then when you switch spec in town you will just dismiss your pet and then the next time you call your pet it will be the prechosen one you have already set up. This can be accomplished very easily and if it can be done with Glyphs I do not see the problem for Pets.
To the Pally’s who want 3 specs Holy/Prot/Ret. Holy OPed Palladin Poop Batman. You would seriously cry about not being given the option to spec all three of your trees instead of just two????? I roll a 78 Druid and have done all three specs in Raids and Partys and would be more than happy with having 2 options under the Dual Spec, whether that is Boom/Feral or Feral/Resto or Boom/Resto it is up to me and what 2 specs would best serve my desires to play.
There have been alot of changes to our classes over the past year or so since 2.01. I think that if they introduced Dual Spec in that build instead of the class changes, things would be much better now and the need for complete class changes would not be so demanding.
For the ones who’d like to hear a warrior’s perspective of this. I also believe that dual specs are a godsend, but i honestly dont plan on using this tool on my warrior. Sure its a good way to find quick pugs and complete heroic dungeons. Even if I was planning on using dual specs I would definately appreciate the fact that I could tank and have some “fun” dpsing things down.