Switching Main Specs in Legion

[Twistedelmo]

He're an example, Legion launches and I level my Paladin Prot while upgrading my artifact sword/shield and then at max level and the first raid is about to launch and we have too many tank classes. I do not mind swapping to Ret and tanking as a back up. What can i do to boost my weapon back up to catch up with my Prot artifacts? Can I get the AP Refunded?

[Malic]

No. This is why the system is bad. You can only wield your weak off spec artifact or not pump 100% of your AP into your main artifact during leveling.

[Twistedelmo]

Maybe i should just roll an DPS only class...

[Deleted]

No. This is why the system is bad.

I think it is good that people are pushed towards focusing on one spec/role, increase the quality of their performance.

[Gelhiss]

So in other words, you're actually going to have to spend some time preparing an off spec. Doesn't seem dramatically different than how things currently work.

[Twistedelmo]

I think it is good that people are pushed towards focusing on one spec/role, increase the quality of their performance.

I could agree with you but in the example in reverse if I started off as ret and we were short a healer or tank for our raid group i'd be gimp in comparison to other Healers / Tanks.

[Dietrik]

How could it be a surprise at max level you have too many tanks, they would have to have leveled as tank too.

Level as ret if you have too many tanks, you don't need to pick a dps only class.

[Twistedelmo]

So in other words, you're actually going to have to spend some time preparing an off spec. Doesn't seem dramatically different than how things currently work.

It wouldn't be much of an Offspec as i'd be changing specs to become a DPS instead of tanking.

- - - Updated - - -

How could it be a surprise at max level you have too many tanks, they would have to have leveled as tank too.

Level as ret if you have too many tanks, you don't need to pick a dps only class.

It's probably not the most accurate scenario but I'm just wondering if I change my mind or other reason that I main a different spec.

[Delekii]

I think it is good that people are pushed towards focusing on one spec/role, increase the quality of their performance.

In theory, fine.

In practice, there has not ever, and will not ever, be a patch in any MMO ever where every spec and class is balanced, or even close to as such. Someone _will_ get screwed by choosing the wrong spec that gets left behind in the balancing.

[Dzartovian]

So I don't know if it's been confirmed, but can I for example pick up my Holy Artifect and level it up while leveling as Shadow? Or my Guardian Artifect in Feral Spec?

[Feuerbart]

So I don't know if it's been confirmed, but can I for example pick up my Holy Artifect and level it up while leveling as Shadow? Or my Guardian Artifect in Feral Spec?

Since most AP comes from clickable items the grant AP to your current artifact. YES you can. Just switch to the desired spec to assing AP and then switch back to the spec you want to use.

[Niwes]

even if they have catch ups, this system is bad as hell. as soon as Legion is live for 2-3 weeks, the masses will check that, and the outcry will be furios.

the whole thing to link this system to an active item, and foremost an important like weapons, is horrible. why ?

linking a system like this to waepons means:

1) transmog horror
you have no chance the whole xpac to get a weapon that is transmoggable to your beloved style. lets say you are a shdow priest and like the style of staffs. whole Legion no chance for you and a staff. ppl slowly realize this (look at all the existing threads). it is horrible.

2) early descissions
you have to make descissions at some point in the game, were you cant make that descissions. its absurd content/time stretching by blizzard, to let you level your artifacts for every spec of your char. even with catchup. at the same time they make triple spec possible. what is even more absurd and totally goes straight in the opposite direction. imo they just want to stretch things and let farm ppl as long as they could, to save effort, time and money. long term goals and stretching is ok. but not this way. its horrible.

3)
boredom
you will burn out if you ever try to max a second spec. you never will max a third. and you will loose all your interests in gettin a second high end alt or alts in general.

4)
alts
even with catchups, you will hate alts in Legion. if you ever thought "oh noes, not ALL that legendary shit again" while gettin a second alt to max power, you will simple not have any alts in Legion. its brutally horrible.

5)
pure dps
with artifact weapons, pures become totally useless. the most interessting fact in pures, is to be ultra flexible and customizable in raid fights. since your other specs have max 80% artifact weapon power after catchup (like blizz said 1 week ago), its useless to play a pure. you are even MORE pure, when you play i.e. a ret paladin, because this is his only dps spec, so blizz have to look that he is all around working. an example: lets say you are a frost mage. and frost sucks on 70% of the fights ? what you do ? ofc, blizzard will say (as always) "but you have fire and arcane as alternatives.". they cant say that to a ret or a shadow. so, rollin a pure is gambling in Legion. thats horrible.

6)
cause of 5, blizzard push themselfes into a situation, where they have to look at balancing and balance specs way more often and carefully. thats the opposite what they want. so its also horrible for them. ofc they will not do when the managment decides "no time". and the players are the fucked ones. totally horrible.

7)
raid organization
every flexible raid aspect you had in the past, like players with 2 mains, players with 2 maxed out specs etc, to be flexible in your raids, are lost. horrible.

there are another 4-5 points, but i stop here.

the whole thing of linking a system like this to a weapon is the worst idea i ever saw. if you think about for 2mins into the future, you realize that. in my oppinion blizzard wanted to do something "cool" and also save money and thought "lets do 1 cool wpn for each class so we can blend with cool looking items and have nit to design 100s of wpns". they started and didnt look further.

longterm it is horrible. you can quote me, if Legion is over. if more than 10-15% liked the artifact weapon after Legion, you get all my gold

[Nihilan]

After two weeks there is no reason you wont be running level 4 or level 5 artifact knowledge unless you are lazy. You will be seeing tokens drop that yield 1k+ Ap from world quests on a fairly regular basis. You can get 10k Ap tokens from Suramar. Ap gating is the least of your worries. More of an issue is finding good relics to keep your Artifact ilevels at parity.

Honestly, the people making the most noise about offspecs are people who dont seem to be in beta. Its not the best idea to take their word as gospel and assume that the sky is in fact falling.

(Its not)

Also, people really need to stop suggesting that you bank tokens for your offspec at L110. Its poor advice and only slows down your levelling. I will say this slow so its easy to understand.

AP
Is
Not
Hard
To
Get
At
Level
110

[Deleted]

In theory, fine.

In practice, there has not ever, and will not ever, be a patch in any MMO ever where every spec and class is balanced, or even close to as such. Someone _will_ get screwed by choosing the wrong spec that gets left behind in the balancing.

It is a roll of the dice then, whether you picked a viable class/spec. Seems to fit blizzards MO since they have shown so much love for RNG.

[Gelhiss]

It is a roll of the dice then, whether you picked a viable class/spec. Seems to fit blizzards MO since they have shown so much love for RNG.

And it's not any different (nor less frustrating, I grant you) than choosing a class or spec that seems to be working fine at launch and then gets nerfed into near-uselessness a patch or two into the expansion. I don't see how the artifact system makes any difference in this situation.

[Delekii]

And it's not any different (nor less frustrating, I grant you) than choosing a class or spec that seems to be working fine at launch and then gets nerfed into near-uselessness a patch or two into the expansion. I don't see how the artifact system makes any difference in this situation.

The artifact locks you to the spec harder than most other gear has in the past few expansions; its much easier to get gear than to get a fully upgraded artifact. This is especially true of classes that share gear between specs, such as most non-hybrids.

If you change spec at any point after release, you will never catch up to someone who didn't until you reach the hard cap on the artifact, all else being equal. That's not the case for any gear previously, including previous artifacts.

[PessimiStick]

Maybe i should just roll an DPS only class...

That's not going to have the effect you are looking for. We only have one role, and need to level two artifacts. Hybrids that don't hybrid are actually in the best place, artifact wise.

[Maudib]

After two weeks there is no reason you wont be running level 4 or level 5 artifact knowledge unless you are lazy. You will be seeing tokens drop that yield 1k+ Ap from world quests on a fairly regular basis. You can get 10k Ap tokens from Suramar. Ap gating is the least of your worries. More of an issue is finding good relics to keep your Artifact ilevels at parity.

Honestly, the people making the most noise about offspecs are people who dont seem to be in beta. Its not the best idea to take their word as gospel and assume that the sky is in fact falling.

(Its not)

Also, people really need to stop suggesting that you bank tokens for your offspec at L110. Its poor advice and only slows down your levelling. I will say this slow so its easy to understand.

AP
Is
Not
Hard
To
Get
At
Level
110

I am in Beta... and it isn't that AP is hard to get... it just takes time... it's that the curve jumps STEEPLY. Currently point 13 takes 1000ap.. point 14 takes almost 7000ap... perspective:

I have 13 points in now... it will take another 83,970 to get just my second Golden Dragon. For only 4 more points to get third cost 185,800.

From where I am at now will take 4.4 million to fill out the weapon. 4.4 MILLION. That is JUST to get the specs full abilities which to me is like reaching max level and having all your talents available. This isn't getting into the infinite level stuff yet... this is JUST filling out the weapon spec.

This doesn't have ANYTHING to do with iLevel of the weapon which involves dungeons and raids to significantly increase weapon stats.

At BEST... Artifact research will increase AP gains by 300%.. after an Order Hall resource grind.

Then ANOTHER huge resource grind to get the third socket opened up (which is a HUGE iLevel increase.)

- - - Updated - - -

Keep in mind that the first 13 points cost a total of 6500 AP and the 14th point costs 6880 alone. SO you decide then if you would rather have ONE more point in your main weapon... or COMPLETELY even out your alt spec weapon with 13 points.

From that point on though... you will simply not be able to justify putting ANY points in the alt spec weapon until you max out the main spec.

[Nihilan]

Blizzards stated intent is that you have to decide whether to buy one trait for your mainspec or five for your offspecs.

As far as the AK research, its
+0%
+10%
+40%
+75%
+125% (at L5, highest ive gotten so far)

I do not know how many levels there are or how high it scales however. Having said that, keeping your OS weapons within a few traits of your MS weapon is very easy. Relics are more of a roadblock in my experience.

I will readily admit however that this is not going to be an alt/respec friendly expansion. Contrary to what all those naive threads in Legion topic would have some believe. I just dont think its going to be as bad as some are trying to make it sound.

[Maudib]

Currently, there are items in game that MAYtrigger adding 30k AP:

http://legion.wowhead.com/spell=2268...ther:50+1+17+2

But these may be in there to cover the 10k x 300% bonus from research. They will be rare, and still take MANY, MANY to fill up 4.4 million AP.

- - - Updated - - -

Blizzards stated intent is that you have to decide whether to buy one trait for your mainspec or five for your offspecs.

As far as the AK research, its
+0%
+10%
+40%
+75%
+125% (at L5, highest ive gotten so far)

I do not know how many levels there are or how high it scales however. Having said that, keeping your OS weapons within a few traits of your MS weapon is very easy. Relics are more of a roadblock in my experience.

It is easy up til point 13... from that point on it is NOT easy at all, nor will it be prudent to do so until you at LEAST have your 3 dragon traits unlocked.