Now
Right now, I have 1 set of gear for each spec on my dual specced toons.
Disc/Shadow Priest: I really thought that I would have more overlap in gear between Disc and Shadow. However, with the set bonuses, hit cap, and different stat weights, I have very few pieces shared between the sets.
Resto/Elemental Shaman: Basically the same as priest. There’s a frightening amount of gear to lug around for specs with supposedly similar gearing requirements.
Resto/Cat Druid: I figured that if I went boomkin as my second spec instead of cat, I’d still be lugging about 2 gear sets due to slightly different stat weights – so I just went cat. I love cat.
I haven’t been able to avoid lugging about 2 sets of gear, and I can imagine that just about everyone with dual spec is lugging about 2 sets of gear as well. This makes the specs “mix and match.”
Cataclysm
In cataclysm, the stats on gear are being consolidated and simplified. They’re tellin us that basically boomkin and “trees” (cry) are going to have the same gear. I would imagine that the same applies to resto and elemental shaman, and all the priest specs.
Which is really cool, that you can have one gear set and be able to heal and DPS equally. No rolling offspec. One awesome set. 2 awesome abilities.
But does this cause certain dual spec combos to go the way of the dodo? Will any resto shaman decide to go enhancement as a second spec? Will it be viable or practical for me, a healing druid, to still have a secondary cat spec?
I could be stubborn and argue “you’ll take my cat spec out of my cold dead hands.” But really – as a responsible person in a guild, it’s irresponsible for me to be hogging 2 gear sets when I can DPS just as well in moonkin spec with 1 gear set total. It’s irresponsible of me, even if I don’t take any guild resources to do it – because I have limited game time already, and slaving away on a second gear set isn’t really justified.
I’m not worried, and I’m not upset. This isn’t something I have to “prepare” for now. However, I’m going to be interested to see if certain specs drop in popularity as a secondary spec based on gear overlap.
I still say the most important thing is to play the game the way you want to play it. Even as Bear/Cat specced feral, I only have a few pieces of overlapping gear right now. The sets are mostly distinct. I don't see that changing much in Cata.
My Shaman is Resto/Enhance, and I plan to keep him that way. I enjoy both those specs. Ele didn't really do it for me.
I'll continue to play by the same rules I do now. If anyone in a run I'm on needs a piece of main-spec gear that would be going to one of my off-specs (Cat or Enh), I pass. My off-specs may languish behind a little bit in gear at the beginning of a new Tier, but they've usually caught up by the end.
Personally I will probably continue as I am – Elemental Main spec, switching my off spec as my mood and guild takes me. Maybe I just play too much, but I've ended up with 2 sets of pvp gear AND an enhancement set, as well as an ICC capable resto set (that has a lot of hit gear it it, oops). I suspect I will continue using my second spec to experiment and fulfill needs as they arise – whether it's pvp, or someone able to heal in a pinch.
Maybe I just need an excuse to have 2 druids so I can play all 4 specs. Hawt.
Personally I will probably continue as I am – Elemental Main spec, switching my off spec as my mood and guild takes me. Maybe I just play too much, but I've ended up with 2 sets of pvp gear AND an enhancement set, as well as an ICC capable resto set (that has a lot of hit gear it it, oops). I suspect I will continue using my second spec to experiment and fulfill needs as they arise – whether it's pvp, or someone able to heal in a pinch.
(sorry about the duplicate comment ><)
Even with the consolidation of gear I have a hard time believing that you would enchant/gem the same pieces the same way on a dps toon as you would a healing toon.
I intend carrying on as I am. For example I prefer enhancement to elemental on my Shaman even though her main spec is resto. Certainly at the start of the expansion with craftables/heroic drops and rep stuff, I don't see it being a problem and as we progress, people will get used to whatever off spec you have, so it shouldn't become a problem (fingers crossed).
Besides if I only had to carry one set of gear around with me, I wouldn't be able to cope with the bagspace. At the moment my priest has shadow gear/disc gear/holy gear plus a PvP shadow and PvP disc set. If I got rid of all that, I'd be so light I probably wouldn't need levitate to float.
I know I'm going to stick with a Resto/Imaginary Balance Spec on my main. Primary alt is a mage and so I don't care; secondary alt, a Prot pally that I've been debating gearing as an offspec Holy rather than Ret. But then I'd definitely need two sets and I'm not sure. Still it seems more flexible than Prot/Ret.
2 Druids is nice, my husband has two and we can do interesting experiments on his baby bear versus his ICC bear.
I would absolutely love it if I could dps and heal in the same set as a Priest or Druid.. even a Shaman. It would be much more flexible for players.