Dual Speccing: Why I love it; Why I Hate it.

Patch 3.1 introduced us to a totally new way to play WoW with Dual-Speccing. This feature allows players to set up two completely different specs, glyphs, and action bars with the abily to change between the two as the player needed. Blizzard saw that many elite raiding guilds were swapping specs out mid-raid just to help out the raid, and because this took time out of actually raiding, they felt this was the most optimal solution to this dilemma. While there are some great pros about this new feature (and yes, i know this feature isn't the newest feature in the game but it is still fairly new), there are some features about Dual-Speccing that really make me wanna /exit everytime I see it happen.


The Pros

Being a paladin, I love having the option of just switching from tanking to healing. It gives me the option of being 2 of the 3 roles in the game. Plus, being the only plate-wearing healer, I'm usually the only Pally-healer (if not, then 1 of 2 or 3), meaning when I do raids, chances are there's gonna be some loot for me. Even in 10 man raids, if I am 1 of 2 healers, and the other is a priest, I get top priority on any leather or mail healing items (which I never pick up unless they are serious upgrades. It's not like it was back in Vanilla WoW, clothadins are a rarity now). As a tank, it changes the game for me, and keeps me from getting bored of "SHIELD, JUDGEMENT, SPAM HEALS" rotation of pally-healing. New gear, new strats, new roles; it keeps me into the game.

My favorite thing about Dual-Speccing is how many groups I can get as both a tank and a healer. When most groups are LFM on my server, there are mainly 2 things people are looking for: Tank or Heals. Luckily for me, I can do both. This doubles my usefullness within the game. LF HEALER H VH? You got it. LF MT OS? Lemme switch specs and I'll do it. More raids = more emblems of conquest = more gear for me.

Even as my mage, it is awesome to be able to switch between my PvE arcane spec and a viable PVP spec. Sometimes I feel the need to pick up some extra badges, and sometimes I feel the need to melt someone's face off. Either way, variety is what keeps me going in this game.



The Cons

Not so much a bunch of cons, more like one HUGE con: gear. Now that everyone is 2 different specs, mroe and more people are rolling on the gear my at-the-moment spec could use "because I'm dual-specced DPS/Tank" or "need for off-spec". Now I know that you're going to read this and say, "Hey, you're dual-specced, are you telling me that there hasn't been a time where you pulled that kind of crap just to get a piece of gear you could potentially use if that specific spec was needed?" Yes, I could understand where you're coming from, had I had no ethics. If you're a Paladin Tank/Healer (in Tank spec), and your healer is also a Tank/Healing Paladin (in his healing spec, duh), there should be no fighting over who gets the Helm of the Bested Gallant. You weren't healing for the instance; it's not your loot. It's that simple. Maybe if the healer already has it and it's an upgrade, then I'd say it's fair game. But you'd be surprised on how many epic tanking pieces I've had to roll against (and lost to) a DPS warrior or a Ret pally whose "main spec is a tank". I just cannot stand it.

So what you do think about Dual-Speccing? Has there been an instance where you lost an upgrade to someone who wasn't even specced to use it at the time? Tell me about it!


~TheGuan