Talents remain a staple in World of Warcraft: Forever, and they’re back to the OG format, just like much of the game’s mechanics. This means Talents lock down as you choose them, and you’re stuck with the spec you choose unless you respec or dual spec throughout your leveling journey
For the casual adventurer, your choice of Talents usually boils down to how you can enjoy your stay in this revitalized Azeroth. But if you’re gearing up for the endgame raids and for a much smoother adventuring experience, you’re going to want to pay extra attention to how you spend your Talent points. Talent Trees are naturally going to be different per Class, but there’s generally some common advice you can follow for each.
What are Talents?
As with other MMOs that have skill trees, WoW: Forever also has a Talents system. Unlike today’s system in Retail (the Midnight expansion), which has a dual-tree for the Class and the Specialization, Forever uses a traditional talent tree system.
Simply put, these are abilities that help a Class gravitate toward a specific playstyle. Classes have three available Specializations, and you get to choose one when you reach Level 10. This is where the terms “Feral Druid” or “Shadow Priest” come from, where the prefix or first word describes which Talent Tree you’ve chosen.
Talents can be passive or active in nature, and you can add up to a certain number of points in them. As a result, you can create different kinds of builds based on Talent Point allotments, which may stack on top of ranking up your spells and abilities with your Class Trainer.
Gaining Talent Points in WoW: Forever
You can get 1 Talent Point per level after you unlock Talents in WoW: Forever. For every couple of levels, it will be like this:
| Level | Talent Points gained | Talent Points total |
| Level 10 | 1 | 1 |
| Level 11-20 | 10 | 11 |
| Level 21-30 | 10 | 21 |
| Level 31-40 | 10 (capstone Talent unlocks at Level 40) | 31 |
| Level 41-50 | 10 | 41 |
| Level 51-60 | 10 | 51 |
You can get up to 51 Talent Points in total, while you unlock your spec’s capstone Talent at Level 40. The “capstone Talent” is simply the Talent/s at the very end of your chosen talent tree, which are often the “strongest” offerings that spec could offer. Since the game’s leveling caps at Level 60, you can have up to 21 more points to spend.
Hate your setup? Restart with Respec
If you don’t like your current Talent Point spending, you can go to your Class Trainer and reset your current allocations via Respecialization, or respecs. When you respec for the first time, it only costs 1 Gold. However, the costs will start to scale for every subsequent respec. In Classic, the cost increases to 5 Gold for the second respec and by 5 Gold for every succeeding respec, up to 50 Gold.
But as opposed to Classic-era respecs, Blizzard said in a TechRadar interview that respecs will decrease once per week.
Unlock your second Talent Tree with Dual Spec
When you reach Level 40, you can unlock something called Dual Specializations or dual spec. You can visit your Class Trainer and spend 50 Gold to unlock a second Talent Tree. You will start modifying that second Specialization from scratch with the same number of Talent Points you already possess in your first spec.
This might seem on the expensive side, so strategies to earn include questing, selling loot while leveling, or even selling materials gathered and items crafted through Professions.
The Classes that might need Dual Spec
There is merit in building a toon properly to have a more convenient leveling experience, and even more so in choosing a second Specialization to accommodate the needs of different situations. This is where decisions such as leveling as one spec, then dual-speccing into another spec for dungeons or even PvP would come in.
Most Classes can take advantage of dual speccing, but some players prefer to prioritize dual speccing for these Classes specifically:
- Paladin: A Paladin can usually start leveling in the Protection spec, as this already gives them a solid foundation to become a tank in early dungeons, then dual spec into Holy to prioritize becoming a raid healer and a sub-tank or vice versa.
- Druid: Already known for their flexibility, a Druid often goes Feral to level up then transition to Restoration for potent proactive raid healing. They can transition to Cat Form for base DPS and Bear Form for pure tanking regardless of spec, and that’s just two of their many forms.
- Priest: Even in Classic, Priests are a nightmare to level if they go Holy from scratch, as they have poor DPS at base. Instead, they level up via the more aggressive Shadow spec before dual speccing into Holy for pure healing or even Discipline for the additional defenses.
- Shaman: Similar to the Priest, Shamans prefer leveling up as an Enhancement Shaman first, as this enhances (pun intended) their overall damage potential. It’s only when they dual spec that they can enjoy Restoration for raiding, then go back to Enhancement to finish up the rest of their leveling journey.
When do you dual spec?
Even in other versions of World of Warcraft, dual spec is almost always advisable to anyone who can afford it. But given the cost of dual spec versus, say, Apprentice Riding (100 Gold) that you can also buy at Level 40, then you’re going to have to decide where you want to invest your resources. As a rule of thumb, prioritize dual spec if you’re in the following situation:
- You want a more specialized build: These are often for Classes where one spec offers a vastly different playstyle than the other
- You need to accommodate a party role: Some specs are better suited for some party roles than others, such as tanking, support, or DPS
- You want to do dungeons early on: Some of the game’s best gear (and usually Gold earnings) are locked behind dungeons, and the right raiding spec can get you into more parties
Get the Talented Legacy Perk
The cost of Talents is one of the few common denominators every Class shares when it comes to their progression. By default, you can earn a Talent Point per level after Level 10. That might be inconvenient at first glance, but it’s certainly a good way to make Talents feel like a milestone you achieve with your character.
This changes when you buy the Talented Legacy Perk. For each Legacy Point invested here, you can get a Talent Point for one less level. Here’s a quick rundown:
- Unlocks after spending 5 Legacy Points in the Adventure Tree
- Unlocks after achieving 5 Ranks in the Well-Rested Legacy Perk
- If you add a Rank in the Talented Legacy Perk as you’re leveling, you get +1 Talent Point per Rank added
For a new character:
- It lowers your starting Talent Point acquisition by 1 Level per Rank in Talented Legacy Perk
- Achieving 5 Ranks in the Talented Legacy Perk lets you unlock your first Talent Point at Level 5
- You unlock your capstone Talents up to 5 Talent Points earlier, at Level 35 instead of 40
However, even if you have the Talented Legacy Perk, this doesn’t affect your total spendable Talent Points per character. You just get to earn the 51 Talent Points much earlier.
Is dual speccing too expensive?
WoW: Forever players took to forums like Reddit to remark on the requirements and costs of dual speccing.
Some state it might be too expensive and inaccessible to most players, which can make pre-60 raid dungeons challenging, as some Classes level up with DPS builds before dual-speccing to heal.
“50g heal tax,” said u/TheMatinow in one Reddit thread.
While those Classes (say, Feral Druid) can heal with DPS specs, they’re still a far cry from how a healing spec could perform at the same level. But the catch is that healing specs are a pain to level from scratch, hence the preference to start on DPS.
“Healing in total offspec works, but it’s like a 5x difference in healing output,” u/Accomplished-Day9321 said in another thread. The “5x” figure is unverifiable. “It slows the entire run down. I’d be down to heal and I tried, but I’m oom (out of mana) after literally every pack. And if something goes wrong, the group basically wipes.”
Cheaper might be the answer for healer shortage
Some say the current shortage of healers, or tanks who could heal, might be solved with a more accessible dual speccing feature. Instead of grinding to Level 40 and then grinding again for the dual spec cost, DPS levelers could switch to a healer spec and get to dungeoning in no time.
“My dear brother in Chris, have you seen how many groups have Shamans/Paladins/Druids that go DPS instead of healing? That’s literally why we want dual spec,” said u/snubb in a thread.
“Making dual spec easier would solve the healer tank shortage faster than any of the other suggestions,” u/ghst343 said in another Reddit post. “Healing as a DPS spec is miserable mana-wise, and questing as a healer is miserable damage-wise.”
Others are not so agreeable to the sentiment that there aren’t many healers or tanks in dungeons yet.
“Do you guys understand that the game has been out for 4 days?” u/SalvationSycamore said in a thread last November 8, four days after launch. “Like, no [wonder] it was faster for DPS to get there. Give the healers time to level up! The casuals are days away, so [it’s unsurprising] you’re stuck with sweaty optimizers that refuse to touch any spec that levels them slower.”
Cheaper might break immersion
On the other hand, some players argued lowering the cost of dual specs can ruin immersion. Dual speccing should feel like a privilege for an adventurer, as they allotted the time and the effort to save up for it.
“People who actually play the game are rewarded for it. If you don’t want to take the time to earn something, you won’t earn it,” u/Amygdalla said in a comment to a post. “The game is about creating an immersive world that feels like a world, a.k.a. you need to do stuff to progress, not be handed everything.”
Others believe lowering the dual speccing requirement might not make sense mechanics-wise.
“At Level 20 you have 11 talents,” u/DonChanchi argued in another thread. “You are not yet a ‘Restoration Shaman’ or whatever, you’re just a ‘Shaman.’”
Other ideas include dual speccing as a reward after a long quest chain to fit the game’s new motif of adventuring “forever.”
