Please allow dual spec or cap respec costs.

Your right, one requires minimum coding time, the other will divert the devs from fixing bugs and adding new features for a considerable time.

Dual spec was confirmed as something they wanted to add soon after release, a Mac client is a hmm maybe.

Your spec should be your role the majority of the time.

It's lucky enough you can switch them at all, but you should absolutely NOT be able to switch them at the drop of a hat. On the odd chance you want/need to, then BioWare has given you a way to do so.

Obviously the design intention is not to have players switching on and off 10 times a day. Why do you think they don't have this in the game already?

Dual-spec is as confirmed as a Mac version at this point.

Anyway, I have no doubt they are going to cave and add it in for all of the gimme-gamers. But I want to try to mitigate the damage if they do.

Give players who stick with their spec longer over time bonuses to some form of progression - experience, legacy, social or valor. The players who switch their spec frequently don't lose a thing and gain the flexibility they always wanted. The players who want to stick with their chosen role can get some perks for playing the right way.

Hmm...

I get Daily Flashpoint Quests...
I get Daily Warzone QUests...

Maybe BW wanted me to be able to engage in PvP and PvE content every day?

Lethality, I noticed you abandoned your own thread on this when logic was used against you. I guess you retreated here for more reinforcements

Personally, I'd love it if role were defined by GEAR like it will be in Guild Wars 2. It makes a lot more sense for me if my Trooper equipped:
- A Blaster Pistol, Diagnostic Scanner, and Medikit to Heal
- A Scattergun, Personal Defense Shield, and Reinforced Armor to Tank
- An Assault Cannon, Targeting Assist, and Extra Ammo for Damage Dealing

rather than the silly "Talent Points" we assign now, but that's not the game BioWare chose to design or code. They went "Holy Trinity" with Talent Specs and they put in separate Gear and Talents for PvP. Under the rules they made I want to be able to Heal in PvE and DPS in PvP on my Smuggler every day and I shouldn't be forced to pay Cr 100,000 to do it.

Look, regardless of whether you like the idea of dual-spec or not, the practical, in-game effect is this:

NO DUAL SPEC = FEWER HEALERS AND TANKS

Dual spec is *primarily* an issue that affects healers and tanks.

While there are some healers/tanks that are willing to stick with their one spec all the time, there are a lot of people that are annoyed by it.

As such, a lot of potential healers and tanks will stay DPS while leveling, and won't be available for healing/tanking.

Dual-spec is as confirmed as a Mac version at this point.

Anyway, I have no doubt they are going to cave and add it in for all of the gimme-gamers. But I want to try to mitigate the damage if they do.

Give players who stick with their spec longer over time bonuses to some form of progression - experience, legacy, social or valor. The players who switch their spec frequently don't lose a thing and gain the flexibility they always wanted. The players who want to stick with their chosen role can get some perks for playing the right way.

If they designed it that way, surely this feature would have been in from the start, no? It would have been a high priority feature, yes? One that would accompany their core design. But it isn't.

Totally agree, but we're getting more into skill-based design and/or sandbox mentality. I would much rather that. However, we weren't dealt any of those cards in TOR, so we're playing with the hand we got. So I'm trying to make the best of it.

I don't think anyone has answered this yet: Would you support free-style talent trees? Dropping points in and out as needed, wherever and whenever? Because if you don't, I need to understand why there's a line between "two" and "as many as we ever want all the time."

Hi Lethality,


While I can understand your concern with the dual-specs, you have to take into consideration a few more parameters.

• First not everyone is a hardcore gamer and has the time to level alts.
• Then not everyone is in guild nor at ease looking for more unknown players to group with.
• Also with the same character depending on your mood you might want to PvP, RAID PvE, Group PvE, Solo PvE with the same efficiency.
• Dual specs make it so players will need more gear for any characters.
• Dual specs will allow players to adjust their group needs on the fly if someone leaves or a role is difficult to fill in.

I know that BioWare team is divided on the Dual specs and AC respec. For now they are analyzing the data as it's easier to add it later on than because of the *forum rage* remove it after launch.

By experience, be it in Wow with dual specs of in Rift with five-specs, not only it does not lower your achievement nor makes your specs role less stellar but it promotes replayability, helps groupability and encourage players to grind more gear and you guessed so say subscribed longer.


Now would TOR be a sandbox game that would be another story.

No, because the Design Team is likely as divided as the passionate Forums Community is on this

As a few people have mentioned, it is much easier to add it Post-Launch than remove it.



I did answer it in your Thread. Guild Wars did support that "free-speccing" and I found it to still be both very immersive and very challenging.

BioWare in their design separated both Talents and Gear for PvP/PvE. PvP (especially on PvE Servers) is essentially a "Lobby Game" in addition to the "Main Game" (you could argue that Flashpoints/Operations are the same).

I want to be able to enjoy those mini-games. If BioWare implemented Dual Spec as [Warzone Spec] and [Operations Spec] so that those variants were only available in the chosen Content, even with the same somewhat insane Respec Costs we have today, I'd be satisfied.

If you were locked into a Spec for the duration of an Op/Warzone I'd be fine too.

I understand both sides (wanting Spec Choice to matter/Flexibility when playing with Friends) and if I were Lead Dev I'd try to find an acceptable compromise (assuming I didn't go with a Gear or Skill-based system ) but I do side a bit more with the Dual Spec camp.

Build Optimization is already happening making Hybrid Builds generally unacceptable to the Operations Raiders. I haven't done Hard or Nightmare Mode Flashpoints yet as I'm still "enjoying the ride" with all my characters, so I can't say how viable or detrimental having 2 Tanks is in that Content space, but beyond the initial Flashpoints I believe at least 1 Tank and 1 Healer is required. If that is the case, being able to have two Specs is a very nice "quality of life" feature for forming groups.

As an aside, where I found the 5 Specs of RIFT to be problematic to the game (no need or desire to level an Alt whatsoever), it is the quality of the leveling experience in SWTOR that makes me want Dual Spec here - I want to be able to level up 1 of each Advanced Class and they only give me 8 Character Slots per Server to work with, so I can't have a DPS and Healing Commando, a DPS and Healing Sage, etc. without having to give up other characters I really want to play!

/walloftext