Blizzard will likely offer free respecs before Wrath
Aug 19th, 2008
I finally logged in to the Wrath beta for the first time last night, and frankly, was a little disappointed. Like a lot of players, I really enjoy seeing content live, and playing around on the beta feels like I'm somewhere i'm not supposed to be -- things are not done (it's a little unnerving to see a Blizzard game without impeccable amounts of polish on it), and there's no flow yet from the old world to the new -- you're dropped into Northrend and it's like you've jumped forward a few months in game continuity. Something is missing.But having been to the strangely buggy future, I can tell you one thing so far. Blizzard will do something they haven't done for almost two years now: every character will very likely get their talent points back around the Wrath of the Lich King release. Sure, it probably seemed obvious to most, but this is a bigger deal than you might think -- free respecs used to be a pretty common occurence, as almost every patch, Blizzard would refund talent points to at least one or two classes. But that was changed right around the last expansion, as Blizzard has opted for smaller class changes rather than content patch revamps. We haven't seen a talent point refund in a long time.
If this release is like last time, we won't necessarily see our talent points refunded upon installation, but rather around a big content patch right beforehand. If you were planning on respeccing for Wrath, you might want to wait a bit -- while respecs still aren't free all the time, we are apparently getting one done for us.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
8-19-2008 @ 4:09PM
Nick S said...
well, that'll save a couple of hundred gold. yay!
Reply
8-19-2008 @ 4:10PM
Ryan said...
Of course they will refund talent points. With all the changes to the talent trees, it would be impossible for you to be able to keep the spec you currently have without arbitrary reassignments from deprecated talents to newly implemented ones, or from talents that went from 5 points to three or two.
Reply
8-20-2008 @ 4:29AM
Sef said...
Spot on, Ryan. Blizzard only ever refund talent points when the new tree is incompatible with the old one. Obviously that used to happen with every class revamp and with the release of Burning Crusade. The new WotLK tree is the same, so of course a free respec is in order. It's not that they're being generous, it's because there's a serious technical reason why the talent data won't carry over to the new content.
8-19-2008 @ 4:10PM
luchifer said...
It is a beta Mike, you are supposed to test the content in the beta and find bugs.
Reply
8-19-2008 @ 4:11PM
Ichthus said...
Last freebie was the ret paladin revamp, wasn't it?
Reply
8-19-2008 @ 4:13PM
Bill said...
Umm...don't get me wrong, I appreciate anything free but...this would have been a big deal pre-bc but with 70's getting 10g a pop for daily's I don't think I'll put off any respec's hoping for a free one.
Just my .02
Bill
Reply
8-19-2008 @ 5:10PM
Jensaarai said...
This. A saving of 100g is not really noteworthy anymore, if ever :/
8-19-2008 @ 4:13PM
Jay said...
Wow, has it really been two years already :s
Reply
8-19-2008 @ 4:24PM
Dammerung said...
I doubt that I will hold off on respeccing either. Even at the cap of 50g the cost is easily made up after an hour of dailies or even less. Not worth waiting even a week for a free one.
Reply
8-19-2008 @ 4:25PM
Andostre said...
It's unclear why you're predicting that we'll get a free respec. Because of something that happened in Beta or because they did it before TBC?
Reply
8-19-2008 @ 6:53PM
Ella said...
I am wondering this as well.. Mike, why are you announcing this news without any source to back you up? I want to see a blue poster confirming this. Getting a free respecc just for logging in to the beta doesn't say a thing about the live version. However I do believe we will be getting 1 free respecc due to major talent changes. But that's just me "guessing".
8-19-2008 @ 7:27PM
Malkeior said...
He's basing it off of significant changes to talents, talents have been removed, some have been increased/reduced in cost and new ones have been implemented. Blizzard would probably like to save themselves a headache and wipe everyone's talents than trying to cram their current talents to the right(wrong) places.
8-20-2008 @ 9:44AM
Kaylek said...
Common sense.
Because there's no other possible alternative. The trees have gotten such a significant overhaul (with many existing talents removed completely in favor of new ones) that it wouldn't be possible to keep your current spec.
Thus, you'll be given your talents back to spend on the new trees.
8-19-2008 @ 4:26PM
Hurode said...
I've always thought that resetting the respec cost when Wrath hits would be the best idea. Doesn't matter how many times you've respecced or how much it costs for you to, reset the cost of it for all characters back to 1g and then let it work back up over time, just like a new alt.
Reply
8-19-2008 @ 4:27PM
ironblade said...
what talent window is that for arms warriors wow beta? or is it the new wotlk talent window... looks confusing :S
Reply
8-19-2008 @ 4:29PM
Rihlsul said...
Mike,
As man in charge, shame on you for failing to cite *anything* to support your good news.
Reply
8-19-2008 @ 7:05PM
Thander said...
It is not "news". Just a blogger's opinion on what he thinks will happen. This is a blogging website.
8-20-2008 @ 8:42PM
Vidi said...
When has Mike ever done anything the right way?
8-19-2008 @ 4:35PM
Froosh said...
"Impeccable amounts of polish"
What games are you playing?
Also, with all the pretty substantial changes to alot of current talent trees they pretty much have to refund some points, mainly some talents just being taken out and replaced with something.
Reply
8-19-2008 @ 4:36PM
Lightning4 said...
One theory is that there is going to be a huge world event to break into Wrath. This is evidenced by a certain thing Garrosh Hellscream happens to mention over in Warsong Hold.
Reply