Patch 3.1 Interface changesFollow

Just seen on the news page some great changes incoming, including some info regarding duel specs and the equipment manager.

Official WOW page
Alla news item

Personally I can't wait for these changes, all of them look like something that should have been in already!

What are your thoughts?


Summary for the lazy:


Talent Dual Specialization
As we've continued to develop the dual specialization feature, we've made a number of changes in response to playtesting and feedback. Highlights:

• The minimum level to use this feature has been lowered to 40.
• Lexicons of Power will not be necessary for switching between saved talent specs and glyphs. Players will be able to switch between their chosen talents anywhere.
• Switching between talent specs will take 5 seconds, and all mana and resources will be reset to zero when doing so.
• A talent preview option can be activated within the user interface as an advanced option.
• When respeccing talents, whichever pane is active will be reset while the other remains unchanged.
• The cost to purchase the dual spec capability is 1,000 gold.
• Players will not be able to switch between specs during combat, Arenas, or Battlegrounds.

Equipment Manager
Another new feature in the upcoming patch is the equipment manager. Once turned on, players will be able to save sets of gear by simply equipping them and creating a hotkey with the currently equipped set. Switch easily between PvP gear, PvE gear, or even your fishing gear for a quiet time next to your favorite lake. Equipment can be switched out from within bag inventory or personal bank inventory. Players will need to be at the bank when swapping between sets if the gear is located in the bank. Should there not be enough room in the player's bags, the equipment will be placed automatically in the bank. Should neither the bags nor their personal bank have room, the transition will not occur. Highlights:

• Easily swap equipment between saved sets.
• Pull items directly from your backpack or bank.
• Create a hotkey to switch between sets.

Objectives Tracker
Quest and achievement tracking can make your travels a bit easier, and we've made some improvements to the system that will help players track multiple quests or achievements at once. Highlights:

• Track multiple quests and achievements at once after activating this feature in the options menu.
• Use items needed for quests without searching through bags.
• Move the objectives window wherever it's most convenient for you.

Looking For Group Improvements
The looking for group feature has also had some slight updates that allow players to choose the role they would like to take in a group. When players open the window, they will be able to choose which roles they are willing to fulfill in a group (damage, tank, or healer). Players will also be able to choose whether or not they would like to be a group leader. In addition, the matching system will now allow sorting players in the looking for more pane by roles. Highlights:

• Select from new damage, tank, and healer role options.
• Choose the leader role option.
• Easily sort results in looking for more.

Battleground Queue From Anywhere
Players will now be able to queue for Battlegrounds from anywhere in the world via the Battleground tab in the PvP section of the interface. Once the match is complete, players will be returned to the location where they entered it from.

• Queue for any available Battleground from anywhere in the world.
• Players must be out of combat in order to enter the Battleground.
• Automatically return to the location you left when the Battleground ends.

AnywhereBGqueueyay

This will save a few minutes when I'm pugging raids I guess.

There is an icon next to the tracker that looks like Hodir's Horn. I am guessing you can click this icon and it uses the Horn to save you having to keep putting it on your taskbar or looking for it in your bag. That's nice in my book although I don't use the in game tracker atm as it only allows me to track 5 quests which sucks.

I can't wait for duel spec and the other changes look nice as well.

amirite?

OMG!!!! This is such a cooooool feature. Sucks for those with inscription I guess, but it opens a great deal of possibilities which I hope will, at least eventually, be used. Variable needs in a raid for instance, say an encounter where only one tank was needed but required much more healing or dps. An encounter with NO healing at all (just a blammo dps race, last man standing literally). For instace an encounter where healing was only possible through devices that would also burn out the users of such devices whilst healing everyone else, for instance. Group composition could be 3 tanks, 7 dps, taking shifts of two people every 15 secs or so to use the healing devices which in turn get more and more "unstable" and do increasing amounts of damage (enrage, short of XD) ...

Also great for achievement runs, where you might want to speed things up between bosses (less healing, less tanking, more dps) ...

Can't be done in combat but only takes 5 seconds?

Feign-Respec anyone?

I wonder if there will be any restrictions on using it inside an instance or BG?

Speak for yourself, that update was issued the same time they stated Dual Spec being available at level 40, which was over a week ago.

Thank god, no more getting hosed in battlegrounds because teleporting scrubs are cluttering up raid spots. It’s not uncommon to see dozens of “X entered the BG” “X has left the BG” within seconds of each other during BG matches in my battlegroup. Another great step to keep selfish, thoughtless people from spoiling others’ fun.

Question about the equipment manager.

Will it save us bag space by storing the equipment for different setups somewhere else?

Sorry just looked a bit further and read that it won't do this.


Edited, Mar 18th 2009 8:52pm by Symic

Some aspects haven't really changed much, like tracking multiple quests, but multiple achievements is new.

Here are the big changes:
WHen you track a quest that requires the use of a quest item, there will be an icon next to the quest on your tracker that lets you use the item without opening your bags and putting it on your action bar (more space for moves/normal items)
You can move the tracker box somewhere else on your screen if you want, instead of it being anchored on the center-right of your screen.
Dont know if they'll let you track more than 5 quests at a time, if not, keep the old system and download Carbonite/Quest Helper.

LFG improvements are pretty nice, cant tell you how many times i want to scream to the queued people "PUT YOUR GOD-DAMNED SPEC UP, MULTI-FUNCTION CLASSES!!!"

Dual Talent is awesome, not sure if my warrior will partake of it's awesomeness, Fury is good for dailies, and is a good heroic/raid spec (still not sure if i will be doing BG's except on the rare occasion i am bored and have forgotten why i hate BGs so much), and i am a pretty bad tank, cant hold aggro on more than 3 mobs (getting insulted in-game works wonders, caused me to fix my fury dps a lot); mostly looking forward to the save-on-accept talent relearning function, now i dont have to kick myself everytime i accidentally click the wrong talent.

Equipment manager is meh IMO, but i dont really tank, so i have little use for it. Others will, so i cant really complain about it.

Again, dont really BG, so the queue-from-anywhere feature is meh to me as well, but it will probably be vaguely useful to other people, so again, i cant complain.

The full changes to how dual spec work are also listed on the interface changes preview page - http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/ui.html