Blizzard has posted an internal Q&A with WoW Senior Game Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street where he discusses the new duel spec feature that will be coming in the game's next content patch.

Talent Dual Spec Q&A with Ghostcrawler
With the next content patch, we will be introducing a number of additions and changes to the game. One new feature in the works is the ability to set up two separate sets of talents, or "dual spec". While the complete feature may not be immediately available in the Public Test Realms (PTR) and specifics are still liable to change, we wanted to go over some questions with Senior Game Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street to find out more.

Nethaera: What is dual speccing?
Ghostcrawler: Dual speccing is the ability to save two separate talent specs, glyphs, and action bars.

Read more here.

In my personal opinion this is a dumb thing to add to this game.  The reasoning behind that is simple, too many players have enough trouble learning how to play one spec.  Giving them the ability to have more than one will really confuse them. 

This will make pickup groups more of a nightmare than before.

a good idea in my mind but i dislike the max level only.  Again it appears that they only cater for those who have reached the max level in order to keep them playing (and thus paying fees).  As a priest i would love a dual talent system at lower levels as that means i can have my solo build and switch to my healing build when needed.  Likewise with tanks, a solo build and a tank build.  If this is introduced at lower levels i think it would greatly benefit many of the classes, add new customisation options and (possibly) help boost grouping and dungeons.

Dual.  Dual.  Dual.

Umm, hello...I think its Doowell.

I think these changes are a good thing. COX has a dual spec option  that was recently added...I thought it worked very well. I can imagine it would be no different with WoW.  I do think they should allow dual spec from the beginning...if its too complicated for some then they should just go with one spec until they feel they are ready to go for two.

Ok so now that you dont have to respec for pve and pvp the price on everything will skyrocket or everyone will just stop doing dailys since now they dont need any extra cash. Everytime i read what they are doing it makes me glad i left. I hope all who are still playing enjoy it.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

In my personal opinion this is a dumb thing to add to this game.  The reasoning behind that is simple, too many players have enough trouble learning how to play one spec.  Giving them the ability to have more than one will really confuse them. 

This will make pickup groups more of a nightmare than before.

Conversely, for those of us that have been playing MMOs since UO and other games prior, and playing WoW for the past four LONG years... /sigh ...it will be a WELCOME addition.  You have no earthly idea (or maybe you do) how ridiculously time consuming or costly it gets to continually respec your druid from resto to feral and back again for the billionth time.  UGH.  This applies to a lot of other classes as well.

Some of us who have been playing for years, not only know how to play ONE class, we've had time to learn how to play ALL of them.  So while I understand your opinion on the matter, I think Blizzard is possibly more looking at RETAINING their core subscriber base, that worrying so much about only POSSIBLY confusing new people.  They're not FORCING anyone to dual spec.  They are giving people the OPTION.  Options are good in ANY game.

If someone new decides to dual spec and gets confused....uhm....so what?  They can easily "unconfuse" themselves by only PLAYING one of the two until they learn it.  I just don't see this being an issue.  Kind of sounds more like you just wanted a good way to slam some of the games' morons with "too many players have enough trouble learning how to play one spec."  I hear ya....but that's no reason to deny anyone the OPTION.

I am split on this one, this is a great thing for the hybrids (Like my Resto Shaman), but is a slam to the pure DPS classes.

Now when someone is looking for DPS, I just respec Elemental and steal a slot from a Hunter, Warlock or Mage. When they need a healer I just spec back to Resto.

I suddenly have a even easier time grouping (Like a healer ever has trouble) and pure DPSers have a little more trouble.

On the flip side, I LOVE the idea for when I am just soloing. I hate doing quests as a Resto.

I'm looking forward to the change, my Hunter and Warlock and Mage friends not so much.

ah, finnaly

they should have done that manny years ago

maby a reason to return to wow^^

This will be a wonderful addition to the game. If only they'd make SOMETHING available to characters that aren't top level. The game doesn't actually start at top level. I know people say that, but they're being stupid. You actually have to get to top level first. And I hate having to group and switch around my skillbars. It'd give me more incentive to group if it were made easier like this. Normally, I just solo even when folks ask me to group. [Unless I randomly decide to help someone out.]

So wow copies yet another game with a good idea lol

Runes of magic has duel spec and it rocks.

Originally posted by girlgeek

Originally posted by Ozmodan

In my personal opinion this is a dumb thing to add to this game.  The reasoning behind that is simple, too many players have enough trouble learning how to play one spec.  Giving them the ability to have more than one will really confuse them. 

This will make pickup groups more of a nightmare than before.

 

Conversely, for those of us that have been playing MMOs since UO and other games prior, and playing WoW for the past four LONG years... /sigh ...it will be a WELCOME addition.  You have no earthly idea (or maybe you do) how ridiculously time consuming or costly it gets to continually respec your druid from resto to feral and back again for the billionth time.  UGH.  This applies to a lot of other classes as well.

Some of us who have been playing for years, not only know how to play ONE class, we've had time to learn how to play ALL of them.  So while I understand your opinion on the matter, I think Blizzard is possibly more looking at RETAINING their core subscriber base, that worrying so much about only POSSIBLY confusing new people.  They're not FORCING anyone to dual spec.  They are giving people the OPTION.  Options are good in ANY game.

If someone new decides to dual spec and gets confused....uhm....so what?  They can easily "unconfuse" themselves by only PLAYING one of the two until they learn it.  I just don't see this being an issue.  Kind of sounds more like you just wanted a good way to slam some of the games' morons with "too many players have enough trouble learning how to play one spec."  I hear ya....but that's no reason to deny anyone the OPTION.

Well put Madam, Bravo!

Originally posted by SabbathSMC

So wow copies yet another game with a good idea lol

Runes of magic has duel spec and it rocks.

Actually....no.  Runes of Magic has dual CLASS, not dual SPEC.  Those two things are actually QUITE different.  If you haven't played both games, however, that difference might not be very clear to you.  Dual CLASS means you have two separate classes, for instance, mage/scout or scout/knight, etc.  Dual SPEC is only a reworking of talent points within ONE class.  In other words, a mage has three talent trees (all classes in WoW do).  The way you distribute your points between those three talent trees is your "spec," and that determines your strengths and weaknesses, and to a degree, how the class is played.  But you never change CLASSES, only the areas where your specific talents are.

WoW

mage 

frost

fire

arcane

(You are a mage 100 percent of the time.  You are never a priest or a rogue, etc.  Whatever your talents are in, determines the "type" of mage you are.  You can mix some talents from two trees, or three, whatever.  But your talents will never make you a rogue or a hunter, etc.  You are a mage that specializes in arcane, fire, or frost, or sometimes a slight mixture of two......still....you're a mage.)

RoM

mage               scout

assorted      assorted

mage               scout

skills                skills

(You have to go to your house to "change" classes.  They also have to be leveled separately.  While you have access to SOME basic skills from your secondary class, you don't have FULL access to ALL skills from that class unless you switch over and play it in primary mode.  Whatever is your primary class at the time, is the one that your xp goes to.  Therefore to level your seconday class, you must go and "change over" to it, for the xp to count toward that class's level.)

Yup, dual classing and dual speccing are very different things. They have dual specs in City of Heroes now.

I want this in WoW but I want it in for all levels. There's no reason to restrict it for top level. I've got 50 characters, not all of them are gonna see level 80 anytime soon. Make the journey more pleasant. I thought they were FINALLY starting to realize that when they lowered the level you can get a mount. I thought there was progress coming. *sigh* Okay, I've ranted. I'm calm now.

I honestly cant believe people are opposed to this.  DO YOU GUYS EVEN PLAY THIS GAME?  I mean seriously, EVERYBODY that plays this game endgame knows that you do not use the same talent build in raiding as you do in arena.  Hell, I played a Paladin and I would constantly be switching between 2 different holy builds: 1 for arena, and another for pve.  And that was just one tree.

I was spending 50g every other day on respecs.  The gold wasn't really the issue though.  Having to turn down helping a friend run something because i was specced dps at that moment and they wanted a tank, or i was specced healing and they needed dps was more the frustrating part.

And to that person that said this will create a surge in prices because everybody will have a new abundance of gold....yea dude, you really do not know what you are talking about.  Epic 80 gear that is not crafted is going for over 2k gold.  LOL.  Everybody ALREADY has an abundance of gold, its what happens to game economies that have been around for a couple of years.

I can't believe you have to be top level..many people lincluding myself were considering the priest alt since we thought we'd be able to switch for a dungeon and go back for questing..this is very dissapointing and yes this is a slam to dps only classes.

Originally posted by SabbathSMC

So wow copies yet another game with a good idea lol

Runes of magic has duel spec and it rocks.

Two completely different things the way they are implemented.  RoM requires you to level the 2nd spec, Wow just gives it to you.  Way different.

RoM does not rock, it has lame pvp where the only method of success is to buy your way, no skill involved.  If you call that rocking you have a distorted sense of it.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Originally posted by SabbathSMC

So wow copies yet another game with a good idea lol

Runes of magic has duel spec and it rocks.

 

Two completely different things the way they are implemented.  RoM requires you to level the 2nd spec, Wow just gives it to you.  Way different.

RoM does not rock, it has lame pvp where the only method of success is to buy your way, no skill involved.  If you call that rocking you have a distorted sense of it.

Sorry, but AGAIN...this isn't quite correct.  RoM has dual CLASSES, not dual SPEC of your ONE class.  They're not only implemented differently, they're not even REMOTELY the same thing.  Sorry, but this is the second time I've said that.  Having played both games at length, I can truthfully say....they are NOT the same thing.  Like you said....different....although not really for the reason you stated, since WoW is not giving you dual CLASSES, simply dual SPEC of your singular class.  You're still going to be (always) a warlock, a priest, a warrior, whatever....ONE class.  In WoW you will never be a paladin/rogue, like you can be a knight/scout in RoM, basically is what I'm saying.

there's no point in saying how good something is based on how it was implemented in a single game

dual class - GW, pretty rubbish game (IMHO)

dual class - RoM, awsome game

and the same goes for dual spec, in CoH/CoV it is awsome but we don't know how good it will be in WoW untill they actually implement it.

what I'd like to know is will you be able to change either of your 2 specs after they have been "saved"? for instance, at the moment, when dual specs come in, I will probably go disc/holy and shadow for my 2 specs. however, sometime in the future I might want to change 1 of them to full disc or full holy.