Breaking News: Details on Dual Specs

Blizzard just released a Q&A Session on Dual Specs. If you're not familiar, this is the long hoped-for capability to have and switch between two talent specs. This is currently in development for the 3.1 patch, and the Q&A between Nethara and Ghostcrawler reveals the details as they exist today.

First, keep in mind that this is all under development, and could change along the way. My biggest fear is that some problem shows up that keeps it out of 3.1. Hopefully unlikely, but definitely possible. The details can change too with testing. I'd say that it's unlikely there will be wholesale changes from this setup, but that there will probably be some changes.

Key details from the Q&A:

• You'll be able to have two specs: your current active one and a "saved" spec. You can toggle between the two. (Old news.)
  
• Switching between specs will also change your glyphs and action bars. (Old news.) I get tired of pulling Typhoon, Starfall, and Insect Swarm back onto my bars when I respec for Balance, and this will eliminate that.
  
• We'll also get some kind of gear manager that makes it easy to switch gear sets. This won't be tied to spec switches but instead complements it. (New news.) Probably eliminates one of my addons - cool!
  
• Switching specs will happen in cities (old news) at the Lexicon of Power (new news). There will also be an Inscription ability that allows Inscribers to summon a Lexicon of Power, much like a Warlock can now create a summoning stone. (New news.) So, you'll be able to switch specs if you're in a city, or if you're in a group/raid with an inscriber.
  
• We'll also get a better respec system, so that we can play with specs (much like you can on web sites today) and then 'commit' them when we like what we've got. (New news.) This makes mistakes a lot less likely, and probably eliminates another of my addons.
  
• The feature will only be available to level 80 characters. (New news.)
  
• Some hunter details that I won't analyze. (Mostly old news.)

This will inspire me to make my first ventures into the PTR, and I'll report back what I find. But in the meantime, my first impressions are: DROOL!

PS. Anyone who calls it "Duel Specs" is immediately banished to Goldshire.

Updates

I have a few posts I'd like to follow up on.

Inscription: What will it take?

WotLKWiki now has a good starter Guide to Inscription available. It's more advanced than what I cobbled together, but only goes up through 300 skill right now. Here's the list they came up with:

• 3-5 stacks of Alabaster-giving herbs
  
• 2-4 stacks of Dusky-giving herbs
  
• 6-8 stacks of Golden-giving herbs
  
• 5-7 stacks of Emerald-giving herbs
  
• 5-7 stacks of Violet-giving herbs
  
• 6-8 stacks of Silvery-giving herbs

Based on this, my estimate of 5 stacks looks a bit low but in the right ballpark. Watch the WotLKWiki guide; I'm sure they'll update it fairly quickly as more information is released.

Current WotLK Questions

Most of these are still unanswered. We did get a bit of an update to the Resto Druid questions. So says the ever-communicative Ghostcrawler:

Here are the changes we're making next patch. See how they feel.

Wild Growth: Coefficient and healing increased. Mana cost decreased. Cost should be about the same as Circle of Healing. It doesn't heal instantly, but will heal for about double what CoH does over its duration.

Nourish: Reduced mana cost by somewhere between 15 and 20%. This is supposed to be your Flash Heal, but we recognize that it doesn't have the same versatility -- you can't just drop one on a wounded rogue or something since you need the hot up first. Hence the lower price.

Druids have quite an arsenal of healing spells now, and it can be tricky to find niches for all of them. :)

That's starting to get some usefulness into these spells. I'm provisionally confident that I'll have to find space for them now, which is a good thing.

Wild Growth looks like it will be our best bet for fighting AoE damage. It's both less powerful and less costly (less mana, no cooldown, no time channeled) than Tranquility, so it will be a less-panicky panic button. I see using it for example when a boss Whirlwinds and starts cutting up the melee.

Nourish will be interesting; it's less costly and faster casting than Regrowth. Nourish will do more instant healing but less overall healing compared to the full run of Regrowth. It will probably be best used when a non-tank's been gibbed, quickly pulling him back from death's door with a Rejuv+Nourish or even a naked Nourish. It'll also be potentially useful when the tank is getting low, to get to a more comfortable zone where you can let your HoTs tick.

So I think both spells will prove to be useful; it just remains to see if they're extremely situational or if they become staples of our healing arsenal. The biggest open question is how hard Lifebloom has been nerfed and whether they'll un-nerf it a little bit.

Trinkaholic

After looking at my list of trinkets, I was able to delete 7 of them, as well as a [Cache of Mau'ari] I'd been holding. But I also ended up grabbing two trinkets I had missed: [Airman's Ribbon of Gallantry] and [Skyguard Silver Cross] They're both available at Exalted with the Sha'tari Skyguard. They're both great for solo dailies or leveling, either for casters (ribbon) or for physical DPS (cross). The key is the proc: with every kill (giving honor or exp) there's a 50% chance to get buffed with either +80 spell damage or +140 AP for 30 sec. Not quite as good as most on-use trinket bonuses, but this will be up a lot more often. So I'll use other things for instances but this for solo work. It's a good excuse for me to start running Skyguard dailies with Sali.

Current WotLK Questions

I've read a lot about Wrath of the Lich King. I'm pretty sure I've seen most of the info that's available, but I still have questions. Here's what I'm wondering about, in no particular order:

• Where should I start? I like the concept of two starting areas in Northrend. I'll probably switch back and forth a bit, and eventually level in both areas. But I'd like to focus on one or the other initially, and I'm not sure which to choose. That will depend partially on which one is aesthetically more pleasing, but I'm also concerned that there will be quest chains that give must-have items.
  
  
• How will Inscription play out? I've talked about this more in an earlier post. My main questions at this point are around the specific mats needed (will they change?) and how we will learn recipes. I might want to level Inscription, but I'd like to know more first.
  
  
• How will Resto work out for Druids? The Balance tree looks well set, but Resto is still a bit dodgy. Phaelia at Resto4Life is (as always!) your best source here. My main concerns are around the utility of our two new heals, Nourish and Wild Growth. Right now they look a bit useless. I'm also concerned about the Replenish talent. Right now it looks vastly underpowered. I have hopes that these will still be tweaked, but as it stands these all look like they'll go unused.
  
  
• How will Lake Wintergrasp work out? In concept it looks extremely cool and fun. I'm a big fan of the epic nature of AV and this looks like it could go to the next level. On the other hand, it could be a mess. The resets and timing will be a major concern. I have hopes and fears in equal measure for this zone.
  
  
• How much will the new honor items cost? Honor and marks are being reset for WotLK. I totally understand why that is necessary — the players who complain "but I farmed 75k honor!" are exactly the problem that's being addressed. But I'd like to know how much the new items will cost. I play battlegrounds because I enjoy them, so if my honor and marks are lost, I won't mind. But I'd like to put them towards something of value if possible.
  
  
• Will fur linings be useful? I know about the fur linings for bracers. They sound OK, but I can't imagine using them instead of a 'real' bracer enchant based on what's available now. They are all resist gear, which might be kind-of handy but won't compare with +spellpower or whatever. So I want to know if there will be really useful fur linings that would be a real advantage for leatherworkers.
  
  
• Will leatherworking specialization matter? So far, there's no patterns that are specific to Tribal or other leatherworking specializations. That's a shame, considering that my Windhawk set lasted me through my whole level 70 career. Some of the normal items look pretty good so I know there will be useful stuff. But I'm not sure yet if it will match Windhawk.
  
  
• Will my machine handle it? Blizzard is amazing at its ability to do wonderful games with relatively minimal hardware requirements. But I look at the new detailed models and I'm concerned that my Macbook Pro will be at its limit. It does fine now, but will that continue?
  
  
• When will 3.0 hit? We know the WotLK date: 13 November. But I'd like to know when the interim patch will hit. That will obviously have a huge impact, but I'm most concerned about auction house prices and honor points. I guess my preference/expectation would be in a couple weeks, around 7 October. We'll see if I'm right.
  
  
• Can I get the Collector's Edition? I really want it!
  
  
• Will they get some good features in quickly after WotLK? There are a couple things that won't make it in that I'd like to see. One was the option to have different skins for druid forms. The other is the ability to switch between two specs without paying a big respec fee each time. Everything I've read indicates that those are in the works, but won't be here for the launch. I'm very hopeful that they'll get there soon.

That's a pretty decent list for now. I'll update if/when we learn more!

Inscription: What will it take?

I'm debating whether I'll take Inscription as a profession in WotLK, so I've been researching it. I've heard a lot about the products: glyphs that change your spells, regular scrolls, other scrolls that allow enchanters to package and sell enchants at auction, and a few other special things. The WotlkWiki section on Inscription is a great resource, as is Wowhead. I think the Glyphs will sell quite well, and the extra Glyph slot for Inscribers will be nice. It's easy to understand the benefits.

The tough part has been understanding how to level Inscription. I'd like to bank the herbs I would need to level (except for the Northrend herbs, of course). But... how many do I need? I spent some time looking that the recipes known today, and the processes required. I have some very tentative conclusions.

Disclaimer: I'm not in the beta, so I'm going completely from what's available on Wowhead and WotlkWiki right now. The data is still pretty rough, and I'm sure this will all change. So the specifics here should be taken with a major grain of salt, particularly the required mats.

The basic approach, however, is pretty clear and should be set. There are a few variations, but the key cycle is:

Herbs -> Milling -> Pigment -> Ink -> Glyph

Everything begins with the herbs — the same ones used for alchemy. They're processed using milling which is analogous to prospecting for jewelcrafters. Each milling operation consumes a small stack of herbs and creates pigments, sometimes along with useful byproducts. The pigment is then used to make ink, which is a universal key ingredient for every glyph.

So to walk it back: you'll generally create glyphs to level up. You'll need ink to do that, and you'll need pigments to make your ink. For pigments, you'll need to mill stacks of herbs.

Today, you mill a stack of 5 herbs and get 2-3 pigments in return. The herbs are sorted into what I'll call "tiers". Basically, if you mill herbs from the same tier, you'll get the same pigment. The tiers are about what you expect — you'll pretty much find herbs of the same tier in the same zones. Here's how it breaks down:

Tiers of Herbs
Azeroth 1: Sliverleaf, Peacebloom, Earthroot, Mageroyal, Bloodthistle
Azeroth 2: Briarthorn, Swiftthistle, Bruiseweed, Stranglekelp
Azeroth 3: Wild Steelbloom, Grave Moss, Kingsblood, Liferoot
Azeroth 4: Fadeleaf, Goldthorn, Khadgar's Whisker, Wintersbite
Azeroth 5: Firebloom, Purple Lotus, Arthas' Tears, Sungrass, Blindweed, Ghost Mushroom, Gromsblood
Azeroth 6: Golden Sansam, Dreamfoil, Mountain Silversage, Plaguebloom, Icecap
Outlands: Herbs harvested in Outlands
Northrend: Herbs harvested in Northrend

Rare herbs can't be milled. These include: Black Lotus, Deadnettle, Fel Blossom, Fel Lotus, Fire Leaf, Fire Seed, Glowcap, Netherdust Pollen, Nightmare Seed, Unidentified Plant Parts, and Wildvine. Usually they're the herbs with names in green text.

So you gather a stack of herbs from some tier and mill it. Each 5 herbs milled gives 2-3 pigments, which you then use to make ink. (Just to make it more complicated, sometimes you'll get a rare pigment instead of the regular pigment. These aren't used to make glyphs; I'll skip them for now but maybe talk about them in another post.) The inks change at different levels of the profession. Here's a table, with the general skill level that each ink corresponds to.

Basic Inks

Skill lvl   Basic ink:     Pigment:   Milled from:
  0 -  30   Ivory, Silver  Made directly from Silverleaf or Peacebloom
 30 -  75   Moonglow Ink   Alabaster  Azeroth 1
 75 - 100   Midnight Ink   Dusky      Azeroth 2
100 - 150   Lion's Ink     Golden     Azeroth 3
150 - 200   Jadefire Ink   Emerald    Azeroth 4
200 - 250   Celestial Ink  Violet     Azeroth 5
250 - 300   Shimmering Ink Silvery    Azeroth 6
300 - 350   Ethereal Ink   Nether     Outlands
350 - 425   Ink of the Sea Azure      Northrend

So, for example, you'll be using Midnight Ink to make the glyphs that take you from level 75 to 100. (All very rough and subject to change.)

So, how many herbs will you need to level? This is where the uncertainties of Beta come in. The biggest one I'm worried about is that most glyph recipes today look like this:

• One ink of some kind
  
• One Magebloom
  
• Four Parchment (one of each kind); these can be purchased from vendors

These are going to change for sure, but I don't know to what. My best guess is that there will be multiple inks required for most glyphs, instead of that single Magebloom. The other alternative is that they will require unprocessed herbs — but of course these won't all be Magebloom. We just don't know yet so that makes any specifics difficult. Also, I'm not sure that we really will get 2-3 pigments for every 5 herbs we mill; that might be adjusted either for everything, or for specific herbs or tiers of herbs.

So things are still a bit unsettled and I don't see any value in being too clinical about it. But I'm willing to do some handwaving based on the skill point gaps. If you need Midnight Ink to get from 75 to 100, let's assume that you'll need 25 vials of Midnight Ink along the way. Given that, it looks like you would need about 5 full stacks — 100 herbs — of each tier to level up. The exceptions are the Northrend herbs, where you'll need 8 stacks. You'll also need a couple extra stacks of Silverleaf or Peacebloom to get from 0-30. That's ignoring the 5 or so skill points you'll get from making each type of ink. But I fully expect the ink requirements to go up too, so think of this as a floor for getting started.

I'll keep watching for more data, and post updates when I know more.