Sincenearly the dawn of World of Warcraft manyplayers have clamored for the ability to have two talentspecs.With the release of Patch 3.1 those players finallygot their wish. Many aspects of the game were changed forever with thisintroduction and most of those changes were for the better. No longerdid raids or groups need to wait for a player to hearth back andrespec, no longer did hybrid class have
to shell out 50g every timethey were needed to perform a different task Many aspects of the game were changed forever with thisintroduction and most of those changes were for the better. No longerdid raids or groups need to wait for a player to hearth back andrespec, no longer did hybrid class have to shell out 50g every timethey were needed to perform a different task. The
flip side to this was increased loot competition as the linesbetween main spec and off spec blurred, with players asked to fill somany roles so often it becomes hard for anyone to keep track. No wherein the game did the ability to have two specs available with the pressof a button become more of an issue than in end game raiding.
Anyoneknow a tank?
Prior
to patch 3.1 most players were invited to or applied to a raidingguild with one specific role to fill in mind. All three hybrid classesalong with Priests and Warriors became accustomed to switching it upperiodically to help out with a deficiency or when a strat called for alittle more of one archetype or an extra body that could perform aspecific task. Prior to WoW 2.0 a respec was rarely ever seenunless a player decided to permanently change roles. The 25 man raidformat of The Burning Crusade changed that and the 10 man format ofWrath of the Lich King made those changes even morepronounced. With the narrowed beam and the mantra of“bring the player, not the class” hitting fullforce it was nearly a necessity for Blizzard to add the ability of dualtalent
specializations (not to mention the nice money grab that helpedfarm more gold back out of the economy) Many players were changingspecs two to three times per raid. The number of raids being canceleddue to lack of a specific archetype was very frustrating for manygroups and guilds. The ability to quickly change specs has given manyplayers who previously considered themselves “only ahealer” or “only a tank” theencouragement and freedom to try something new
.
Becareful what you wish for?
Even Houdini would have had a hard time keeping up with the quickchange acts most hybrids were being asked to perform, and the cries ofthe players were heard loud and clear in Irvine. Blizzard answeredthose cries with a very stable system that worked flawlessly from theday it went live. The initial euphoria didn’t takelong to wear off however; many players who so loudly clamored for thisability watched gear for their “main spec” getdoled out to others as they were advised “well you have beendoing this other duty more for us lately”.A good DKP systemwill usually alleviate those concerns as you will have a declared mainspec on record with your guild. The questions still linger however asplayers develop an affinity
for this new second spec and can becomeresentful of performing their old task. As a healer I can tell you thatsome raw face smashing DPS is a welcome change many times from thestress of being tasked with the raids survival. Conversely you maybegin to lose some of your best DPS to the far away gaze of dreams ofheroism as they hoist tanking abilities on their shoulders
and rise toa new challenge.
Survivingthe Dual Spec Paradox
All of these factors that weigh independently on the minds of theindividual players are multiplied on the raid leader as they are taskedwith fitting everyone in to accomplish the greater goal. In speakingwith multiple raid leaders the refrain they spoke was of starkcontrasts. Dual spec is either seen as a total blessing to the smalle
