Forever is a week old and there’s plenty of issues and topics floating around the community is discussing. One of the most recent ones is related to talent tree respecs and their costs. Specifically, whether players should get a free respec when big class tuning changes happen to their class/spec. There’s a lot to dig into here, so let’s get started.
Free Respec When?
Blizzard already had a policy on this very topic for retail/modern. Whenever there was a major class or spec rework, players would get one free respec right after the changes went live. Now, these were truly big changes, not just adjustments to the numbers, usually changing at least how multiple abilities work. In Classic, there haven’t really been any such refunds. This makes sense since there isn’t nearly as much to change for the classes. Forever is a whole new ball game then, it seems.
Even if we take it for granted that there should be free respecs for major changes, we’d then have to decide what constitutes “major”. The big debate started today over on r/classicwow. Feralica brought the issue up related to the recent Shaman changes. Enhancement Shamans got a major shift after launch, as their gear changed from wanting Intellect and Spell Power to wanting Strength and Attack Power. They also got a big buff to Windfurry at other weapon imbuements, as they could now stack with the same totem effects. So, a completely new stat priority and a major talent power change. Should that warrant a free respec?
A Particularly Relevant Timeline
This question is coming at a very specific time. The game is only a week old, so you’d think not that many players would have had the need to use the respec feature. However, leveling is usually when you learn your class and spec, and want to play around with the talents the most. The biggest influence the timeline has had on this issue is the lack of gold. With players still leveling and having a whole lot to spend on (hello mounts), they definitely don’t have any extra gold to throw around to the growing respec cost. On the other hand, after reaching max level, gold sources from quests are completely gone. And once raids start, those repair and consumable costs are going to skyrocket, so the gold situation won’t exactly be fine.
Free Respecs While Leveling?
Another thing that comes to mind when this issue is brought up is free repecs in general. The majority of the community is definitely against free respecs always, but could there be an exception? In Diablo 4, players can freely change their skills and talents around all the way up to max level, when it begins to cost. Would something like that work for Forever? In retail, this question is pretty moot, as the leveling process is extremely fast and the issue is just not relevant at all. So should this be a thing in Forever?
How Should It Work?
So, the questions then remain:
- Should there be free respecs at all, regardless of the scope of the class changes?
- What exactly constitutes major changes to the class?
- Should respecs be free while leveling?
- Is there simply a gold shortage at the moment/will there be one again when the raids arrive?
What do you think about all these questions? Where do you stand on the great “free respec” debate?
