Respecification

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Respecification (to respec or to respecify) in many MMORPG titles such as Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, and City of Villains allows a player to change the attributes of his/her character.

A player's character gains differing abilities, characteristcs, buffs, armor, powers, weapons and combat actions as the player/character advances through the levels of the game. Sometimes a player may realize that a certain power is no longer useful to their character, may want to get a power that is more fun to use/play, or even find that a certain choice earlier in the game has now restricted the player from powers or choices that they would like to explore. By respecing, players can save valuable game time by revamping their character to gain certain powers that may be otherwise unobtainable, or to revive a character that may have been considered unplayable.

[edit] Respecification in City of Heroes/Villains

In City of Heroes and City of Villains, character respecs are acquired by completing special trials at certain points in their leveling. In City of Heroes, to respec, players must complete the Terra Volta Trials. In City of Villains, players must complete the Thorn Tree Trials. In each of these cases, upon completion of the trial, players have the option of choosing between a traditional experience point and enhancement reward, or the respecification (which grants no experience or single-origin enhancement). Respecs are also occasionally granted with the release of new issues, as new costume parts, areas of play, and power sets are introduced. Sometimes the developer team will see fit to weaken certain power sets that are deemed too strong. At this point some players may want to reset the powers that their character had previously chosen. Players may simply want to play around with the power sets that are available.

Characters in City of Heroes begin with introductory level armors, or attack powers that are vital at the beginning of the game. About mid-way through the character's advancement of the game several new options for attacks, armors, and player buffs become available. The introductory powers become much less useful, even obsolete, to the player. Using a "respec" allows the player to pick up the stronger power, at the same time dropping powers that are no longer useful or needed.

During a respec players can also re-assign their Enhancements (Enhancements are otherwise permanent during the course of City of Heroes.) This allows the players to decide which of their powers will have the most emphasis without the necessity of buying all new Enhancements for their character. Thus a moderately advanced character can take advantage of a new and more powerful attack and drop appropriate Damage buffing Enhancements into it, and get rid of the lower level attack.

As characters near the end of their playing arc and reach the final levels they may find it necessary to respec again, sometimes to prepare for a specific challenge or to take advantage of some of the most powerful attack/defenses/buffs and powers that are available.

[edit] Respecification in World of Warcraft

In World of Warcraft, talent point respecs are acquired at class trainers. The first time a player respecs, it costs one gold. The second time, it costs five gold, and for every time after that it increases by five gold until it reaches 50 gold, where it will stay for every time the player wants to respec. If a player does not respec for one month, however, the respec fee will go down five gold per month that he/she hasn't respeced. When a player respecs, all his/her talent points are taken out of the talents they were in and are given back to the player so he/she can choose a new build (a configuration of talent points.)

[edit] Respecification in Star Wars Galaxies