Dual Specs

With Patch 3.1 Blizzard will be releasing the ability for all classes to be able to have 2 talent specializations to switch between. In addition whenever you switch specs you will have you action bars and glyphs switch over to the new spec. I have tested this out on the PTR today and I have to say Blizzard made it real easy to understand how it works and be able to switch on the fly.

A couple of sitatuations come to mind once this all comes out live. First as a raider everyone picks a main spec that they want to play and on any given night you usually stick to that spec for the entirerty of the night. I have a wide variety of gear due to the nature of there being a lot of loot going to offspec so my gear is pretty close to what our main spec holy and ret pallies have. When I do respec to help out the raid I do really well on the healing and damage meters so I feel confident on knowing how to play my class.

This will be helpful once we start raiding in 3.1 because if there is a 1 tank fight any of our tanks will be able to switch to a secondary spec and dps or heal for that fight. The problem is not everyone has really been gearing up for a secondary spec. While it is still going to be better then dpsing in a non dps spec we will have about 15 people ulduar geared dps and about 3-4 not so geared dps. In the end it is still positive.

Another issue will be the fact that dkp becomes an issue. A lot more people are gonna be gunning for the secondary set of gear. Since people will be using this gear during a raid do you charge them the dkp for it or do you just let all offspecs roll? If you have to spend dkp you have the issue of hybrids always being much lower on dkp then characters who dont need an offset of gear. What about people who want to be a certain spec such as tanking and they're asked 75% of the time to play a dps or healer roll? Is tanking still considered their main spec even though they heal more? Should that person not be allowed to roll on that gear because it is considered their offspec? Will they get yelled at because they are not doing as well due to it not being their primary spec?

I know a lot of hardcore raiders, especially tanks will use their secondary spec as a special way of doing their primary spec. I know a lot of warrior tanks who will probably have a boss tank spec and a trash tank spec. Some people love to pvp/arena and I am one of them. What if someone wants to have a pve dps spec and a pvp dps spec? Will a raid force members to have 2 raiding specs so they can maximize what they can accomplish? Also if a tank has 2 specs that are for tanking will they always be asked to tank over someone who decides to have 2 different roles since they can bring more to the raid then that tank? Also will "pure" classes be asked to sit out for hybrids since they bring more to a raid?

As far as I go I am kinda annoyed by only having 2 specs. I actually have 5 specs that I will jump back and forth from. I will have my tank spec, raiding ret, raiding holy, arena holy, and arena ret. I more then likley will have tank spec as my main spec and raiding ret as my secondary spec. Its gonna be upsetting when I go to the trainer and pay 50g so I can go play my arena games for the week.

With all things said playing World of Warcraft will be a lot more enjoyable come 3.1. I enjoy the variety my class provides me and it'll be more fun when I throw my shield on and take it in the face on one boss and smash the next bosses face in with a big 2 hander. With our tanking corps we like to rotate on every boss so no one feels left out. This way the raid wont be hurting for bringing 4 tanks since we can all switch to our 2nd favorite thing.