Dual Specs in a WoD World

As we've heard, the gear changes coming in Warlords of Draenor are going to mean some very interesting things for those players with dual-specs.

To summarize: Armor pieces (meaning anything that is specifically cloth, leather, mail, or plate) will switch primary stats depending on your spec. The Holy Plate problem is finally solved by making all plate both Intellect and Strength (this also means you'll see some Paladin healers with scary DK-style gear or spiky Warrior-style gear.)

The second big change is that accessories, meaning necklaces, rings, trinkets, and possibly cloaks, will no longer have primary stats at all.

Finally, the old tank-specific stats of Dodge and Parry are going away, though there will now be bonus armor found on accessories. Likewise, Spirit will come in bigger chunks, but will only be found on those non-armor pieces.

The most obvious consequence here is that hybrid classes can switch roles with greater ease. A Ret Paladin can switch to Holy, and with the exception of his weapon, everything will be at least decently suited for his role as a healer. Sure, he might want to keep a few Spirit accessories, but all the stats he has for Ret will serve him decently for Holy.

However, I think the classes that will benefit the most from these changes are the only two classes that can be both kinds of DPS. Shamans and Druids each have a melee DPS spec that uses Agility as well as a caster spec that uses Intellect. It is kind of surprising that of all eleven classes, only these two have that kind of option in how they DPS (if they ever do consider giving other classes fourth specs, I'd recommend giving Rogues a ranged option or Hunters a melee one.)

But the reason why this is particularly exciting after the news about gear in WoD is that these classes will be able to switch between their two DPS specs with ease. Since Spirit is now a healer-only stat, the accessories a Balance Druid uses will be equally viable for a Feral Druid. Both Elemental and Enhancement Shamans tend to favor Mastery (though admittedly we are getting three new stats that could upset this tradition,) which means that really, all a 2-spec DPS shaman needs to do is get a second set of weapons.

While I believe that weapons will have a fixed primary stat, if they are similarly changeable, a Druid could literally just switch specs and go from perfectly-suited for Cat to perfectly-suited for Boomkin.

In many ways, it looks like these two classes will get to enjoy the kind of flexibility that other classes with multiple DPS specs enjoy. Sure, going from Assassination to Subtlety will leave you not all that optimized (last time I checked, Assassination prioritizes Mastery first and Haste last, while Sub is the opposite,) but it's nice to get that kind of flexibility.

Now admittedly, there's a downside to this, which is that people might feel even more compelled to switch to the flavor-of-the-month spec. On the other hand, this will make doing so feel like less of a burden.