Wrath of the Lich King

[Aristes]

It's like they saw the sins of Burning Crusade and completely flipped things over. Burning Crusade made early PvP grueling because overgeared folks, so now there's a battle ground where I get a battleground token when all I do is mine and farm gas clouds on the other end of the map. Heroics and raids used to require folks know the fights and play their character well. Now, my brother cleared a 25 man heroic raid (Obsidian Sanctum) with a character that did not even hit 1k on the dps meter. Yes, they killed all the dragons first, but still...!

 

Getting rid of the lexicons and letting folks place inscriptions anywhere is a good move. It was a pointless burden. However, forcing folks to make decisions about their talent selection made sense. I'm sure it goes a long way towards making Death Knights even more uber, but it just seems like such a cop out. I mean, when they lowered the level requirement for riding to 30, I was never one of those people who complained about the fact that I had to wait until level 40 to buy my horse. That wasn't a choice someone had to make. It was merely a burden. Conversely, I didn't like the premise of the DK class because I thought folks should have to decide whether or not to be dps or tank. Now its even worse. You don't have to choose. You can spec both iwth only a "cool-down?" There's no choice. You can do it all.

 

This dual-speccing is probably the first real gripe I have against WotLK as it stands. Making the game easier isn't such a bad thing, I guess. ...But making our choices meaningless bugs me.

[alanschu]

I like the dual speccing because most people in our guild with viable alternative specs had all the gear for it anyway. It just saves them the hassle of heading to Stormwind (or wherever) to respec their character for 50 gold.

 

I guess some people might have a "trash" spec and a "boss" spec but I'm not too worried about it.

 

 

It's also nice because if you're in a raid and someone has to leave due to real life, if it's a healer/tank they can be replaced without much downtime.

[Gfted1]

Hopefully it comes with a significant cooldown (Id be happy with 10 minutes or so) just so you dont get people metagaming right in the middle of an instance / battleground.

[Aristes]

Yeah, and all the happiness associated with folks who don't need need that great item for an "offset." Now, it's for one of their two primary sets. personally, I'm not any more unhappy about this decision than I was with some of the decisions in BC, and I still think WotLK has been a great expansion.

[Calax]

I'll use dual spec like a fiend because of the fact I'll have a MUCH better chance at raiding in my dps gear (still need to get that enchanted and gemmed )

[Maedhros]

Hopefully it comes with a significant cooldown (Id be happy with 10 minutes or so) just so you dont get people metagaming right in the middle of an instance / battleground.

 

From what I've read you can only swap speccs in a city.

[Gfted1]

Ah, well thats not so bad then.

[Matthew Rorie]

Ah, well thats not so bad then.

 

Pretty sure you can swap specs anywhere outside of an Arena or while you're in combat, actually. Maybe not in battlegrounds, either.

 

http://www.wowwiki.com/Dual_Talent_Specialization

 

Switching between specializations

 

Currently in the PTR, there is no reagent, cooldown, or monetary cost to switch. Players will not be able to switch between specs during combat, in Battlegrounds (except during Preparation, before the battle begins), or in Arenas (no exception).[1]

Lexicons of Power will not be necessary for switching between saved talent specs and glyphs. Players will be able to switch between their chosen talents anywhere.[1]

Switching between talent specs will take 5 seconds, and all mana and resources will be reset to zero when doing so.[1]

To switch, pull up the talent pane, select the primary or secondary spec and activate the talents. Once the 5 second cast has completed, your glyphs, action bars, and talents have all be restored to your other specialization.

[Aristes]

If that's the case, then I'm okay with it also. You could always go to the city to respec. Now it just won't cost you the cash, I take it.

 

EDIT: Oops. I guess not. Will there at least be a cooldown?

Edited April 14, 2009 by Aristes

[alanschu]

Yup. I think the idea was that people were respeccing anyway, they just made it less of a hassle for people. It is annoying waiting in your Naxx run because someone needs to quickly go and respec.

[Matthew Rorie]

It doesn't cost 50g to respec (at least not with the dual specialization ability), but you have to plunk down 1000g to buy the ability. (Actually, I guess it will cost you 50g to change a spec that you've already laid out after you buy the ability; not sure).

 

I don't think there's a cooldown.

[Aristes]

Oh, 1k per character? I guess, if it's a paid ability like flying, then I'll probably buy it for... I don't know... no one at the moment. I don't feel the need to use it for any of my characters and, unless I really feel the need to do a heroic or whatnot, I don't play with anyone other than family and my characters already have a slot. ...And I can solo just fine with any of my characters. Finally, I don't really care about PvP. I don't mind it. I do it from time to time still, but I don't do it enough to warrant spending cash that will likely go to other folks fast flyers anyhow.

 

On the other hand, I can see getting it somewhere down the road maybe.

 

This is pretty typical in WoW -- using gold as a way to balance the game. Provides pretty crappy balance if you ask me, but It's not all that hard to get 1kg in WotLK. Hell, you can have 1kg in less than a day just by adventuring at 80.

[alanschu]

It used to cost 50 gold for a respec. With the dual spec (and 1000 gold down payment) it no longer does.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Anyone notice there's just no logic to stats anymore? A gnome mage has the same strength as a tauren warrior.

 

Heck, WoW just lost its traditional RPG simplicity with BC.

Edited April 15, 2009 by WILL THE ALMIGHTY

[alanschu]

Taurens lost their racial?

[Calax]

well there doesn't seem to be a cooldown on my duel spec, but I don't have any money for extra upgrades for everything.

[Gfted1]

Anyone notice there's just no logic to stats anymore? A gnome mage has the same strength as a tauren warrior.

 

Heck, WoW just lost its traditional RPG simplicity with BC.

 

 

Huh? My mage has a strength of like 25. Im lucky to be able to move under my own power, lol.

 

So after playing around with the dual spec thing its no big deal. It was a total was of 1k gold for me because up untill yesterday I had never even respeced once before but eh, I can afford to piss it away. Went with Arcane for my dual and I think I actually came out better on my Fire tree with a much smarter selection this time around. Not a huge difference between the two, Arcane providing more mana and higher overall crit percentage at the expense of fire focused crit percentage and Fire having better AoE, CC and fire focused crit. Havent had a chance yet to see which is the better dps.

[Calax]

Anyone notice there's just no logic to stats anymore? A gnome mage has the same strength as a tauren warrior.

 

Heck, WoW just lost its traditional RPG simplicity with BC.

 

 

Huh? My mage has a strength of like 25. Im lucky to be able to move under my own power, lol.

 

So after playing around with the dual spec thing its no big deal. It was a total was of 1k gold for me because up untill yesterday I had never even respeced once before but eh, I can afford to piss it away. Went with Arcane for my dual and I think I actually came out better on my Fire tree with a much smarter selection this time around. Not a huge difference between the two, Arcane providing more mana and higher overall crit percentage at the expense of fire focused crit percentage and Fire having better AoE, CC and fire focused crit. Havent had a chance yet to see which is the better dps.

my friend has an arcane mage. One thing about arcane is the threat reduction (40% to all arcane spells), certainly helps me keep my agro on the target.

 

I'm just wondering if I should go Arms or Fury for my dps spec.

[Aristes]

Well, according to all the groans of pain and suffering on the fury side of things, I'd say arms, but there were laments of suffering for holy specced pallies a while back and I notice there are still paladin healers.

[alanschu]

Everyone always groans and complains.

[Calax]

Well, according to all the groans of pain and suffering on the fury side of things, I'd say arms, but there were laments of suffering for holy specced pallies a while back and I notice there are still paladin healers.

yeah I ended up just taking Fury (already had a spec for it and KINDA knew how to play it) still gotta glyph the sucker.

[Gfted1]

So Im pretty underwhelmed with the Arcane tree. I really lose a lot of CC and AoE by not having Dragons Breath, Blast Wave and Living Bomb, not to mention the insta-proc of Flamestrike after using either Blastwave or Dragons Breath. Doing a couple of BG's last night really drove home the fact that my DPS was about half of what I normally do in an average BG. Im going to give it a few more attempts to make sure Im not overlooking some nuance, and Id like to run an instance as Arcane but if things dont improve dramatically Im going to change my offspec to Frost.

[kirottu]

I really really don

[Gfted1]

Wasnt your main a mage? You were my inspiration to try Arcane.

 

Yeah, I saw some grousing in trade chat that the nerf hammer was dropping on Warlocks, how bad is it?

[kirottu]

Fear is like sheep now. You can apparently do about 1k damage to feared target at 80lvl before it disspells itself.

 

Oh, and I have this bad habit making character and when it hits max level I start a new one.