Community Blog Topic - Should all classes get 4 specs?

This weeks's Wow Insider Community Blog Topic is - Should all classes get 4 specs?
So here's my long-winded answer

The idea of adding a fourth spec to classes has been floating around since it was decided to pull the tanking spec out of the druid's feral tree and give it it's own tree called guardian. And I really don't like it. With druids it made sense because they already had the in-game presence of four specs. It wasn't really adding another spec so much as finally freeing up the feral tree from that tanking influence. It was very much coming.

When death knights were created Blizzard tried an experiment where every tree could do everything. And they decided it was a mess. To be successful at tanking the dps became too strong with their defenses and to be successful dps the tanks became too powerful. But it wasn't an entirely new experiment. The druid feral tree has long been supporting two different roles. But it wasn't always doing it well.

While I didn't play in vanilla I've heard from enough sources to be confident in saying that the original bear and cat specs weren't very good. Unless you were resto you weren't going to raid. I'm sure there were exceptions. There always seems to be exceptions. In BC, specs were given some love and allowed to be useful. Although some classes and specs were more valuable then others. From what I understand bears could tank but weren't quite as good as warriors and pallys because they didn't have access to as much gear with defense and they lacked two of the defensive stats. I also heard that feral cats just could not produce the dps values that rogues could so were less desirable to bring along as dps. Wrath took the progress BC made and continued to work to make all specs viable. It was in Wrath that I really started to play.

In Wrath cats were either really freaking good or they just sucked. It depended on how well you could master the madness that was the cat rotation. Bears on the other hand were a mindless spam of swipe and maul with some mangles and one bleed to watch. But they made good tanks. And it was possible, with careful allocations of talents to be a really good cat and when the shit hit the fan to turn into a perfectly capable tank. But they weren't the only ones who could. Death knights were able to as well. I think if the experiment had worked there might have been some experimenting to make other specs open to two roles.

But it didn't work. So Blizzard fixed the biggest mess first. The death knight. They took a look at what they had and decided that blood tanks were the preferred spec for tanks that were working on heroic Lich King. I'll admit I might be wrong about that since I didn't play a death knight back then and could barely keep abreast of all the stuff that was happening with druids. But I do remember seeing a lot of blood tanks for raids and a lot of frost ones for dungeons. But for whatever their reason they choose blood for the tanking tree. And began to make sure that each spec could support one role and do that well. It did mean there were a lot of changes to death knights but it was a good thing. Before that change death knights saw a constant round of nerfs and changes ever patch to try and address balancing issues. Time that might have been spent working on other issues. Such as frost mages.

While it was a cool idea to have every tree support tanking and dps it was just took too much time and effort to try and bring things inline. So in Cata the druids were the only class with a spec that covered two roles again. And it was still possible to make a dps that could tank well if not as well as other tanks or to make a tank that could dps well if not as well as other dps. It put feral druids in a rather odd spot. Some loved being a bearcat. I'll admit that I tanked quite a few dungeons in my dps spec just because I forgot to change it. But was that really fair?

I think it with the changes in mind for Mists it would have been much harder to prevent ferals from being bearcats if not impossible. One click would change someone from dps to tank. While the gear wouldn't change there's not much of a difference between bear and cat stats to put a giant damper on switching roles. Some players might even gear and gem to make the transition easier. But it would make druids really unique. While there's nothing wrong with unique there has to be some basics that all roles share. And there's no other class that's both tank and dps in one role. And for those who like bear but can't cat for the life of them it would make finding a tanking spot a little more difficult because they're neglecting half of their new role. And for those who just like to dps they might find themselves pigeonholed into being a tank because their spec supports it. Now that's a rather grim view of it and probably hyperbole. But to be the best feral you would need to have some idea how to use your other side.

But why should druids get 4 specs when the rest get 3? Because they always have had 4 specs. Nothing new was created. They didn't build this spec from the ground up. And would creating 10 new specs from the ground up be worth the time and effort? And how would they decide which ideas to run with. The biggest call I've seen for is to take pure dps classes and give them abilities to tank and heal. But people aren't quite agreed on what they want. There are those who would like hunters to be able to tank and they want it to be like beast mastery. I suppose that's simple enough but how do you make it so that they don't feel the same. Do hunters actually tank or do they use their pet to take damage? If so doesn't that make it just the computer tanking? I know that's a little rough but have you ever tanked dungeons on a hunter or warlock? I've done so and fairly recently. I've also gotten whispers that my minion was doing a better job then the previous or new tank that we get. But it's not difficult. You send pet to attack and just sit back and dps. Maybe though out a pet mend if the healer is slacking. But your not engaged in the tanking.

There have been calls to change one spec into tanking or healing specs. Such as turning affliction locks into healers rather like the green drake in Occulus. We all know how much we love Occulus. But the idea sounds cool of stealing life from bosses and giving it to everyone else. If you want to try that idea gather a bunch of level 79s in questing greens and go do Occulus and take the green drake. Then forget to reapply the dot. Or be late with it and have to spend time rebuilding that stack. It sucks. And I'd hate to try to be a healer in pvp. Sure you can steal a lot of health but I can image you'd get your butt interrupted, stunned, and silenced if you tried to channel your healing on anyone. But you would have your stacks keeping you alive. Unless you don't get much from stealing health from players. Afterall things have to be balanced.

But what about the people who love those specs as they are? Would that mean loosing what they love about the class forever? Yes, yes, I can now hear angry frost tank and blood dps death knights screaming at me from the background. For every person who loves it there will probably be a person who hates it. And hate lingers a lot longer then love.

So build something new entirely from scratch then! 10 brand new spanking spec would be awesome right? But I can't see Blizzard putting that much time into creating and balancing that. They already decided that creating a new class is difficult enough and that's just 3 specs. So do they just introduce a few at a time then? Who goes first and how do you keep the rest of the world from nerdraging that their class wasn't first? It'd really just be easier to create a new class. Look! New shiny class! Horray! And keep working at fixing and balancing the older classes.

That reminds me, which class do you think will get overhauled for the next expansion? In Cata it was Pallys and in Mists it was Warlocks. So do you think another class will get an overhual? And if, so, which one?

What would I buy from the Blizzard Store?

This week the WoWInsider Community Blog Topic asks What would you buy from the in-game store?

My first answer was nothing. Then I gave myself a mental kick because I have bought stuff from the Blizzard store before. The answer isn't so much what would I like to see in the store because I would really prefer not to see stuff there that I absolutely want. The answer to the question are things that if they were ever part of the store I'd want so much I'd eventually break down and buy them.

I figured the best place to start figuring out what I would break down and buy is to consider what I've already bought and think about what's already announced for the store and if I have any plans to buy those items. I decided to include in already bought items anything that was extra from the basic game, expansions, and subscription.

Extras I have bought
1. Realms Transfers - Back in the days of Wrath I only had one max level toon. Transferring servers once didn't seem like such a nightmare to do. I was still really hesitant about it but I had a friend on the new server who really wanted to play with me and I no longer knew anyone on the old server. At the time it was a decision that made sense to me. So I paid to have my druid transferred from Aegwynn to Korgath.

Image from Blizzard Store

2. Collector's Editions - I have the collector's edition for Cata and the digital one for Mists. I figured if I passed up on the pets I'd be really mad at myself.

3. Mounts - I bought a sparkle pony. It's sparkly and a pony. Enough said about that. I also bought a Heart of the Aspects because I thought it was gorgeous. But I was a little disappointed when I tried to ride it with one of my toons. The up and down motion makes me feel a little sick. Not my best use of 25 bucks but I also didn't realize it would make me queasy. I haven't felt much like buying mounts since.

4. Pets - I'm a sucker for a half-price pet. Panda monk for $5 - sold! The last sale was for a Moonkin hatching and even though it's really not my favorite pet model I ended up getting it. But I have since learned that it can really boogy. That bird can dance! I've fallen in love. It's adorable.

So what new stuff would I buy?
1. Pets. I would buy pets. I'd do my best to wait until they're half off but I would buy pets.

2. Mounts. I think if there was another horse mount in the Blizzard store I would be very tempted to purchase it. For pets I'm in love with cats but for mounts I like ponies. I am a little more leery of mounts though because I don't want another one like the Heart of the Aspects. It's gorgeous but I actually can't stand using it. Which irritates me to no end.

3. Shapechanging items. I love being able to change what my toon looks like temporary. Dartol's Rod of Transformation, Iron-boot flask, the orb of the Sin'dorei, love them all. If there was an item that was from the Blizzard store only but would affect what a character looked like for say half an hour and had an hour cooldown or something I would want it. I'm not sure what it would turn you into. I don't have a specific item in mind. I just like to occasionally look different.

I'm not too certain what else will tempt me to buy but would be something added to the Blizzard store. While I sometime play other games I don't look at the stores because I don't want to be tempted into purchasing something for a game I doubt that I'll be playing very long. WoW is different because I've been playing it for several years and I don't currently see any reason to quit. But that's very different from dabbling in other games. I'm certain there will be other items to tempt me but I just can't currently think of something.

Items I have no interest in:
XP boosts or max-level characters - I like to level. That seems really odd but I enjoy running through old dungeons and getting into the stories of the zones. Heirlooms work well enough for an xp boost. My toons will reach 90 or they won't but it's while playing at lower levels and working towards the cap that I learn what specs and classes are fun for me and which ones I just can't stand.

Transmog gear - OK, this is a bit of a lie. If the item was cool enough and I just had to have it for a specific transmog I would get it. But I'm not interested in the helms. They're cool. It's hard to deny that. But I would never use them. I rarely ever show the helms on my toons. The ones that I do tend to be bandannas, or helms that don't cover the hair and face. I recently made a transmog for my night elf rogue that was built around the Stealther's Helm of Second Sight. I think she looks awesome. But having the helm on bothers me. She's no longer my toon but just a night elf. I can have her sitting around looking awesome but when I want to play I have to turn the helm off. Helms don't do it for me. Right now I can't imagine any cool chestpieces or boots that I would have to have but Blizzard could always surprise me.

Random items - I suppose you could call them the cool toys. But I just don't use them. Those cool items that you get while leveling in Pandaria? They just sit in my bank taking up space. The awesome items from archeology? Buried in the bank somewhere. I just don't really use those items. Maybe someday I'll change my mind but right now they just don't interest me very much.

Community Blog Topic - Favorite Playable Race

This week's Wow Insider Community Blog Topic is what is your favorite playable race?

So what's my favorite race? In the Alliance my favorite is the Night Elves!

My Night Elf Monk - Gorgeous for a level 60 isnt' she?

I mostly just play female toons. I keep trying to make a male one but then I always end up deleting them. I think I've come to accept that I just like looking pretty :). But what I like most about the night elves are the hair, hair color, and tattoo options. My first, second, and third toons were all night elves. I told myself I should stop making them so I could have some diversity and eventually started to enjoy playing some of the other races. The night elf monk is one of the first night elves I've made in over a year and I've really enjoyed being a night elf again. Makes me wonder why I felt I needed diversity XD

Alright fine, if I want to play all the classes than I would need more than a bunch of night elves. When I bought the Burning Crusade expansion I wasn't certain what to think of these weird blue creatures. I didn't really enjoy playing them at first. The horns really bothered me but they had some really awesome hair styles. But I've found that they've been growing on me. I did a look the other day and was surprised to realize all my draenei have the same style of horns. It wasn't so much that I had learned to live with the horns but that I found a style that I liked.

When I first started playing WoW I was determined not to play a human. What's the point of playing a fantasy game if you spend your time running around as a human? But I eventually changed my mind. While the human's don't have any really wild haircuts or crazy hair colors they do have a nice range of styles and colors to choose from. I started with just a human warlock because I couldn't make a draenei or night elf one but she really grew on me. So I wanted to have more humans which is how I ended up with a human death knight. It doesn't hurt that humans have one of the best racials for dabbling in pvp :)

Recently I've made a switch from Alliance to Horde and I've been trying to determine what races are my favorite over there.  My main is a Blood Elf and I've always enjoyed them.

I really wanted my death knight to feel familiar to my human one. I felt that the blood elves were the closest to humans. At least if you just look at their hair XD. I think I might just have an obsession with hair.

One of my recent favorites are the goblins. I haven't liked the gnomes much and I didn't really expect that I'd like the goblins very much. But I was surprised to realize while leveling my warlock that I loved the goblins. They may be small but they are sassy. And that hair! I love their hair! So many awesome styles and a nice range of colors as well. So I'm leveling another goblin. I don't plan to level her very quickly or to replace my death knight with her. I just like to level.

I'm hoping to get some more experience with playing Horde races so that I can have even more favorites. I'm really looking forward to playing a troll because of the rainbow of hair colors. But I didn't feel that I could claim a troll as a favorite race to play when I haven't played one yet. I do plan to give a troll druid a try when I feel like leveling another druid.