February 12, 2009

The Greatest Improvement to World of Warcraft

Now that the lead designer on World of Warcraft is officially stepping down, I thought it would be a great time to point out World of Warcraft's single best improvement since launch: Dual Spec.

Dual Spec, part of WoW's new patch, allows characters to maintain two talent specs at a time and switch freely between the two. Having played a Shaman or Paladin for my entire WoW career, I can't count the number of times I wanted to change specs for a dungeon run or a guild event, but didn't do so because the cost in gold was outrageous.

I missed a lot of events in WoW because I refused to swap to a healing spec on my Shaman or Paladin. I even had the gear needed for each spec on my characters, but it just wasn't worth it to pay to swap and thirty minutes later watch my group disintegrate because the Warrior we picked up wasn't defense spec.

Dual Spec is fundamentally game changing, in a way that nothing else in a WoW patch has ever been. It truly brings the player to the forefront, and not the spec. The beauty is beyond just letting hybrid classes fulfill their various roles at any time. The pure classes benefit greatly as well, able to try off specs and pure specs at the drop of a hat.

I honestly can't state how great of an improvement this is for WoW. Unfortunately, Dual Spec is a couple years too late for me.