Anti-Aliased: From Captain America to the whirling dervish, dual-specs discussed pt. 2

While Warcraft's original dual-spec system, which required a lexicon of power to be present to change specs, had the same restriction, the final system removed that restriction. Now, players will lose all energy/mana when changing specs, and they also can't do it in battlegrounds, arenas, or in combat, they can still switch while in instances and in world PvP.

If Blizzard believes that a 5 second cast time and a loss of all mana/rage/energy is enough of a detriment to prevent people from abusing the system, then they are pretty wrong. Already, as a paladin, I could easily switch specs, switch weapons with short cuts on my hotbars, use divine plea to gain back 25% of my mana, and rush right back into combat. Rogues regenerate energy back at a quick pace, giving them the ability to switch between combat when they feel confident and subtlety when they feel they might lose a fight. As long as you can gain a breather and have the gear on you, you can switch.

I feel quite certain that players will find ways to abuse the new system when in instances as well. Groups will find that they can do dungeon easier with less people, as players will be able to switch across multiple roles. This means pure classes, such as the mage, priest, and hunter will also have a tougher time finding groups. Why take the hunter when you have a paladin who can do protection and retribution and has the gear to outclass the hunter in both cases? Certainly it's bad now, but it can get even worse because now the paladin can fulfill both roles while in the dungeon, when the hunter cannot.

My personal opinion is to have left the requirement to be with a lexicon of power in place. This would have allowed the system to function in the capacity it was designed for -- ease of talent changes. Now the system may have a potential impact on the PvE and world PvP side of the game, one that I and the developers may not be able to guess.

And the news that's in the middle

It really does seem like Warcraft has completely forgotten about rewarding gameplay in favor of tangible asset rewards, but that's something the game has been doing for a long, long time. While the leveling game is more focused on exploring the world and solving problems, the endgame comes down to number crunching and gameplay theory.

Is this good or bad? I'm going to clarify that it's neither, and simply the direction that Warcraft wishes to take at this current time. This is the part that comes down to player preference -- if the player doesn't enjoy what Warcraft wishes the player to do, then just don't play.

Are dual specs going to destroy the game? No, probably not. Will they complicate things and cause new areas of stress for the player culture? Oh, absolutely. As to what those stresses may be, we'll only find out once the system is fully introduced and the impacts on each server can be witnessed.

Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who is taking a "wait and see" attitude towards dual-specs. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's rambling on his personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow him on Twitter through Massively, or through his personal feed.