WOW dual spec requirements relaxed

By Oli Welsh Published 18 March, 2009

Several UI features being added, too.

In an update on the World of Warcraft website, Blizzard has confirmed that it's relaxing the requirements for the dual talent specialisation coming in the next patch.

As suggested by the test server, dual specs will be available from level 40 (not level 80 as originally planned), and will cost 1000 gold to access.

Blizzard has also removed the requirement for players to be near a Lexicon of Power in a city to switch talent spec. You'll now be able to do it anywhere, any time, as long as you're not in combat or in a PVP arena or battleground. Switching will take 5 seconds and reset mana and resources to zero.

A one-click equipment manager's being added too, allowing swift switching between gear sets at the bank or from your bags, using the character window or a hotkey.

WOW's objective tracking will be improved, allowing players to track multiple quests and achievements at once and use quest items without looking through bags. The Looking For Group interface will allow you to specify group roles - damage, tank or healer - and you'll be able to queue for PVP Battlegrounds from anywhere in the world, rather than at Battlemasters in the capital cities.

All this will be delivered in WOW's monster patch 3.1, along with the Ulduar raid zone and Argent Tournament. There's no date or title for the update yet, but expect it sooner rather than later.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • speed182 #1 3 years ago

    Looking forward to this!

  • Pirotic #2 3 years ago

    Why even bother limiting it to just 2 specs?

  • spammage #3 3 years ago

    This is old news......

  • FWB #4 3 years ago

    Why bother with classes? Why not remove all races?

  • Kami #5 3 years ago

    It is old news, one thing that I picked up and few others are is how the Engineering fratenity of WoW is ganging up on Blizzard of late. I do actually understand their reasoning - it is the one profession in the game that has been neglected for years. Blue posters have unfortunately been pretty blunt they think it has lots of use end-game (It doesn't, I know raid guilds who will not let engineers join in raids as it has no raid viability) and then, then they go and do something biblically stupid and announce a new achievement for the Ulduar raid called "Nerf Engineering".

    Blizzard may have a massively successful game but it is this one small corner of the old content that is starting to spoil the goods for people. I know Blizzard have alluded to that they will be doing a complete professions overhaul in the future, but it doesn't stop the face that forums are getting flooded with posts daily about why Engineering is and has fallen so behind.

  • BrokenSymmetry #6 3 years ago

    1000 gold is still prohibitive at level 40, for a first-time player who is not on an alt.

  • Benno #7 3 years ago

    Making it cost 1000g is silly

    It should be in the game by default, unlockable at lvl 20.

  • Pirotic #8 3 years ago

    a first time level 40 player shouldn't need anything other than a PVE spec tho anyway.

  • Oli Verified Reviews Editor, Eurogamer.net #9 3 years ago

    Re "old news", I'm aware that the relaxed requirements have been on the test server for some time, as you'll see from the link in the article - this is the first official confirmation that that's how it will be in the release patch, and it's recent (relatively - the update was made late Monday US time). Test server features should never be taken as gospel.

  • speed182 #10 3 years ago

    @Kami

    A guild who won't invite someone cause of being an Engi, is fucking stupid. I mean, what does tailoring bring to a raid? Gear? They'd replace that easy from content. Blacksmith the same, and also LW. The gear will get replaced.

  • Moz #11 3 years ago

    humm well i'm lvl 37 and have 56g think the gold could be the limiting factor for me for a while

  • Benno #12 3 years ago

    "a first time level 40 player shouldn't need anything other than a PVE spec tho anyway. "

    I dont see why you would say that? its the other way round

    A first time player would like to group and do instances. A player just powerleveling an alt would just stick to 1 pve spec and grind quests and levels to max level. The first timer however (lets take a priest for example) would like to spec holy now and again to heal in instances then go back to shadow for solo content.

  • Tomo #13 3 years ago

    I don't actually know why I opened this news story.

    It makes NOSENSE.

  • Kami #14 3 years ago

    @speed182;

    I think the problem isn't the profession but the passive buffs/benefits other professions can get. Tailors do get special buffs from clothmaking (and will get some special cloak enchants for themselves in patch which is a buffto the profession), Enchanters get their own ring enchants, Jewelcrafters get their own souped-up gems, Smiths get their own sockets for gems, Leatherworkers get bracer enchants way above anything others can get, Inscriptors get shoulder enchants that make grinding Exalted with the Sons of Hodir look a pointless waste of time, Alchemists get extra effects from their elixirs.

    I was looking at the engineering "benefits", both for end-game and pvp purposes, but it is pretty clear that they're not a patch on actual enchants, or anything others get. The goggles used to be good but were nerfed to epic 72 stats, basically outdone by instance blues at level 80. Guns that no-one buys and tanks can get their own soon cutting engineers out of the loop altogether. I will give you one thing for engineering in WoW, they can make an awesome 'copter (soon to be available to all after having engineering requirement dropped quietly) and a sick-as-hell bike (but this requires 12,500 golds worth of mats that can only be bought at a vendor, and one of those is only available at the rate of one every 8 hours) - and it will cost engineers gold to learn this stuff so it works out more expensive for them by about 600 gold overall. The few PvP benefits engineering has have and are being nerfed to be worse and even detrimental to themselves - speed boost will drop PvP flag, haste on gloves is being nerfed, cannon on gloves being nerfed a bit... ironic that it's the one profession that needs bufffing and they continue to nerf it.

    I do get the balance problem, you can't make one profession too OP than another, but I do think Engineers deserve some recognition. Blizzard have barely answered their pleas, pretty much insulted them and are being so quiet that it's driving them to despair. Sad really. Raid guilds not taking engineers is completely understandable - they cannot improve themselves in any beneficial way so are being left at the wayside. The problem is compared to engineering, every other profession in WoW is OP - and raid guilds, especially those getting ready for Ulduar and the hard modes, want people who can improve their own stats and be more effective in that situation. This is raid guild logic, engineers are just unfortunate that their profession isn't working for themselves in a similar way.

    But yeah, I think when we talk about World of Warcraft we tend to look at it as if Blizzard are getting it right. Thought at least on page one of comments about this upcoming patch, it might be worth reminding people that there are still parts of this game that are inherently broken and unworkable, and this is one. Thought it might be nice to at least show them that some of us have been paying attention to their pleas and we'll stand with them in demanding equal rights. Jeez, that sounds so damned political doesn't it...

    Still, I admire engineers in their dogged faith that their profession will get buffed, they've been waiting two years or more now... it's inspirational and depressing in equal measure.
    Edited by Kami at 18/03/09 @ 11:55

  • irishgamer21 #15 3 years ago

    Not to be a crank or anything but is this really interesting to anything but a tiny subset of Eurogamer readers? I love the site and everything but the flood of MMO-related news is something I personally don't like, especially when the contents don't make any sense to anyone except players of that particular game. Can you at least make it more accessible? Or keep this kind of story to the MMO section? I mean, the story above is kind of impenetrable...

  • KillerMonkey #16 3 years ago

    "especially when the contents don't make any sense to anyone except players of that particular game."
    Which happens to be about half the world?

  • Kami #17 3 years ago

    Well, Blizzard are making a BIG deal out of these changes. The next couple of big patches are going to be moving the game in the direction that they want to take it, and Dual Spec is pretty much at the forefront of it. It's about making the game more accessible and taking away annoying details, like needing to be in a specific place at a specific time to be able to do something. Dual Spec is more about giving people the oppertunity to be able to change their role as is necessary, like a druid can switch between healing and tanking dependant on the situation without always blowing 50 gold on a respec and then assigning all the talents again every day.

    But as someone who does play WoW, these changes do make the game more accessible but I will say this - it's a lot of fuss over very little and it doesn't actually hide the fact that there are still parts of the game which have been neglected for some time. Battleground queues will not improve with this, Arena is still not as popular as it once was, instances got nerfed so much that people are bored rigid with them and the general state of professions - no profession likes the other because each one has specific advantages over the other (other than engineering which as I stated, is the butt of the joke), the economies are in a bit of a state right now and achievements are a sticking plaster over the stark realisation that Wrath of the Lich King actually didn't bring with it a heck of a lot that was new.

    This said however, if Blizzard are serious that their next major content expansion will be the end of this year, the lack of content can be justified (less content additions but with more frequency can add up to a lot over the next couple of years). I just don't know if that is going to happen, what with work on Diablo 3 AND an as-of-yet-unnamed MMO in development, I wonder if they're just killing time until they wrap it up and show off their new baby.

  • irishgamer21 #18 3 years ago

    You're right KillerMonkey, WOW is a phenomenon with many millions of subscribed players. As such its something that needs to be covered regularly on Eurogamer. No problems there.
    Now the recent article on politics in EVE was intriguing to the MMO layman (and I would wager that a great deal of gamers who consider themselves hardcore don't have any major experience of MMOs). I just think there's something fansite-ish about the covering of every twist and turn in WOW that doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of Eurogamer's news. But in fairness I don't need to read these articles and that's fine!

  • Krelle #19 3 years ago

    Kami
    "It doesn't, I know raid guilds who will not let engineers join in raids as it has no raid viability"

    lol, what did you raid? BRM?
    No serious guild would ever have such a rule. You simply must have made it up yourself.

  • Krelle #20 3 years ago

    irishgamer21
    omg, get real.
    The upcoming patch is a rather big thing I hear.

    EG covers LOTRO and WAR in the same way. If there is a big patch coming, itll get some news articles.

    It must be wonderful to have as little to do as you. Cant imagine how it would be to be able to bitch about stuff I dont even care about. God bless you.

  • irishgamer21 #21 3 years ago

    Hey Krelle, I was trying to be constructive- I love EG and have done so for years. I was just making a suggestion. I wasn't bitching, and I've never posted a comment before here. We're all entitled to our views, there's no need to be insulting or to personalise it, that's just uncalled for. (This is my last post in this thread.)

  • Oli Verified Reviews Editor, Eurogamer.net #22 3 years ago

    irishgamer21, I'm sorry you found the article impenetrable. As MMO editor I try to keep a balance in the site's MMO content between keeping it relevant for players of the games and accessible to everyone else. I do generally tried to avoid articles that won't make sense to non-players, as you say. Believe me, there are many, many more technical and game-specific stories that I could run that I don't.

    That said, it's true that I do go into more detail on WOW, but that's because many more of our readers play WOW than any other MMO (it's certainly not a "tiny subset";). This particular story deals mostly withl issues that would be time-consuming to explain to a layman, and the end result wouldn't have been much more interesting to you, so it didn't seem worth it.

    As a side note, it's not just MMOs; we've run similarly detailed stories on updates to Gears of War 2 and Team Fortress 2, for instance.

  • butler` #23 3 years ago

    Erm, engi is insane in pvp (hence the dig with that Ulduar achievement), and useless in raiding. Fair trade off IMO vs some other professions.

    They've added crit to the boot enchant to help a bit, too.

  • irishgamer21 #24 3 years ago

    Cheers for that Oli. I certainly appreciate that as MMO Editor you face a difficult task in balancing the need for accessibility with being relevant to people with in-depth knowledge of the workings of specific MMOs.
    MMOs are complex beasts, more so arguably than most other genres, and this does create challenges for how MMOs should be covered. With that in mind, you're right to not even attempt to make this particular news story more accessible to non- WOWers, it wouldn't be worth it.
    Maybe it's just the old-fashioned gamer in me struggling to come to terms with this new breed of games, and a frustration at being 'out of the loop'. I know I'm not the only reader who's ambivalent about MMOs. But I do appreciate that you're aware of this, and I think the more accessible you can be (at least where its appropriate), the more likely it is that the likes of me will give something like WOW or EVE a chance!
    Keep up the good work.

  • Entity #25 3 years ago

    "how old is this!! jesus"

    Level 40 dual-specs is new to me.

    1000G? There goes the forth bank tab I was saving for.

  • TitusCrow #26 3 years ago

    1000g a drop in the ocean! i still got 37,000g left from the arena points selling days of the end of TBC

  • Krelle #27 3 years ago

    irishgamer21
    Thank you. I accept the apology.

  • dingo75 #28 3 years ago

    @Moz:
    Make a Death Knight on the same side you play your lvl 37 char.
    Do the quest line until you are sent to Sylvanas & Thrall / King (depending which faction you play).
    Collect the 30g+ you got for 1 hour of questing and send it to your lvl 37.
    Delete your DK.
    Repeat...

    Fastest way for someone without a high level char to make 30g+ in an hour in game at least until you arrive in Outland.
    With a high level char you simply do 3 dailies in like 20 min or less.

    Edited by dingo75 at 18/03/09 @ 15:50

  • speed182 #29 3 years ago

    @Fluffy

    Oli: Re "old news", I'm aware that the relaxed requirements have been on the test server for some time, as you'll see from the link in the article - this is the first official confirmation that that's how it will be in the release patch, and it's recent (relatively - the update was made late Monday US time). Test server features should never be taken as gospel...

  • RedSparrows #30 3 years ago

    1000g is a snip at 80. Well, not a snip, but can make that in a good day's herb farm.

  • GamesConnoisseur #31 3 years ago

    I am another of the dazed and not clued up re MMO crowd! But people complaining about this is like complaining there are too many PS3 or Wii news, EG serves all kind of gamers and there are MMO section. In future MMO may indeed take up a larger share of the market.

    /Wonder if I m socially handcapped/retarded and thus why not interested in MMO?

  • Wyrm #32 3 years ago

    The lexicon removal is completley stupid imo, if you can change talents on the fly as and when you please then you remove all identity with the character. May as well not have a class, no-one has a role anymore.

  • ElectricDemon #33 3 years ago

    I'm assuming they've taken that into consideration, and given it a cooldown period or something

  • paulf #34 3 years ago

    cant you only make death knights if you have a character over 55?

    I think this will sooner rather than later as I already have downloaded the patch in the background dloader

    tbh i think it would be a good idea if they got rid of the gold requirement, this would mean that lower level dungeons would be more accessible to new players and people could learn to play their class earlier - its very rare you'll see a tank of healer in lfg for any instance under 70

  • paulf #35 3 years ago

    'The lexicon removal is completley stupid imo, if you can change talents on the fly as and when you please then you remove all identity with the character. May as well not have a class, no-one has a role anymore.'

    the problem is there are too many dpsers and not enough tanks or healers

    at least with this it will allow people who play hybrid classes play different roles depending on the situation - you still have a role its just this role may vary from situation to situation - imo this is a great move

  • otto #36 3 years ago

    End-game engineers get to make some of the best items in the entire game, it's loads more fun that boring crappy old leatherworking. Boring purple trousers that I'll replace in Naxx, or roflcopter? No contest.