Tri-Spec?

One of the funnier things to pop up on the 5.3 patch notes is the potential existence of a triple spec option, that would presumably work the way that Dual-Spec works now.

The implications of such an addition would, obviously, not be quite as profound as the introduction of dual-specs with 3.1 was, but they would still be quite interesting.

All classes other than the Druid have three specs, and Druids only got a fourth spec after the talent tree redesign made it impossible to make a distinction between Feral DPS and Feral Tanks. For those of you who might be very, very new players, one's specialization was once entirely based on the placement of points, originally gained every level starting at 10, into a "tree." Each class had three trees, and the way that it would work is that you would have access to 2-4 potential talents at first, but each 5 points you assigned to a particular tree (such as "Demonology" for Warlocks) would then unlock the next tier of talents. You were then free to either spend those points in the new tier of talents or continue filling out the first tier - either way, every 5 points into a tree would unlock the next tier down the tree.

It was in this way that two, say, Arms Warriors could wind up with a different load-out of abilities. One might pick up talents that improved survival and the ability to get out of crowd control while another might focus entirely on every last damage-boosting talent. This distinction was particularly important for Feral Druids and, during Wrath of the Lich King, all Death Knights, as one's choice of talents in the old system was what made a Feral or DK a tank or dps.

The point I'm getting to (slowly) is that there was a time when, for instance, Oterro had two Blood specs. This was in the early days of dual-specs (when it cost a thousand gold, up from, what? Ten silver?) but that doesn't really matter. The point was that back then, some Death Knights went for the increased Parry chance and the talents that let you use your Rune Tap more often - also Rune Tap, while others went for lots of Critical Strike and Dancing Rune Weapon, which was a dps cooldown back then.

Back then, the choice of one's spec was a gradual thing. It only evolved slowly, and anyone under level 30 or so really was pretty much just a "slightly tankier Paladin" or a "slightly burnier Mage."

Under today's system, even though it still takes a while to get all the necessary abilities and passives to truly feel like one's spec, the decision has no granularity. A Marksmanship Hunter is a Marksmanship Hunter. And with talents now divorced from specific specs and also very easy to switch out on a whim, there's really nothing separating two Elemental Shamans from one another other than gear and the skill to play the class well.

The introduction of the tri-spec is weird for this reason: A Paladin will be all Paladins. A Monk will be all Monks. Dual-spec was, I think, mostly introduced to allow tanks and healers to have a dps spec to make soloing less of a pain in the ass (and having leveled a tankadin from 1 (well, 10) to 80 without ever going Ret in that time, I can tell you it was not a picnic (it's probably not as bad now, especially with Dungeon Finder.)

Still, there is a certain degree of flavor to having chosen a spec. Even having two specs allows you to define your character by what they are not (my Warlock might consort with demons and blow things up a lot, but he's not going to start plaguing people!)

In the end, it's not the end of the world, but it does mean I imagine we'll be seeing far fewer people rolling alts of the same class. In Cataclysm, with the new races and the new race/class combos, my list of alts exploded, often to explore specs I'd never tried (my Goblin is a Survival Hunter. It's weird.)

Now, all of this said:

It's possible Blizzard is just messing with us. Just as there were sound files in the 5.1 PTR that had Jaina talking about how awful it was that Garrosh had killed Anduin, Blizz could be trolling us (though who knows? Maybe that's originally how the plot would have ended. You know, because the Alliance doesn't have a really solid reason to hate Garrosh yet...)

Am I looking forward to tri-specs? Meh, I might futz around with Holy just to see if you can do decent dps as a Shockadin (I'm guessing no) but I really won't be devastated if it's not actually happening. Don't get me wrong, I'm an enormous fan of dual-specs (even for pure dps classes) but I think we're already good on the "multiple specs" front. Besides, with the gold that's pouring in these days, it's not like changing specs is all that difficult these days. Visit your class trainers. They miss you.