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, characteristics, 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 in three ways, completing special trials at certain points in their leveling, for having an active account for certain amounts of time, or after a significant change to the game's mechanics.

In City of Heroes, to earn a respec, players must complete the Terra Volta Trials. In City of Villains, players must complete the Thorn Tree Trials. In both 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). These are considered "Earned respecs".

"Veteran Reward" respecs are given to players for meeting certain paid and elapsed account time markers. For instance, after nine months of having an active, paid account, a player is rewarded a respec on each of her characters.

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 or strengthen others. At this point some players may want to reset the powers that their character had previously chosen. Players may simply want to experiment with the power sets that are available. For example, the introduction of new sorts of enhancements in the "Issue 9" update will likely lead to the distribution of a respec, so players who never had the choice of these new enhancements will be allowed to alter their characters accordingly.

Characters in City of Heroes begin with basic armors, attack powers, or control powers that are vital at the beginning of the game. Later in a character's advancement, several new options for attacks, armors, and other powers become available. The introductory powers while still useful, may no longer fit the character. The player may even consider them obsolete. Using a "respec" allows the player to make use of experience with the powers, judging which to drop and which new powers to try. These powers are gained and lost at a one-to-one ratio.

During a respec players can also re-assign their Enhancements and Enhancement Slots (Both 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. Furthermore, as Enhancement "slots" are a finite resource and unchangeable one earned during normal play during level up, then a "respec" allows for better resource management by allowing one to use hindsight to change the slot allocation chosen during the discrete leveling up process. For example, one power with six enhancement slots (Power A) and one power with only one (default) enhancement slot (Power B) into the various combinations of two powers: A has 5, B has 2; A has 4, B has 3; A has 3, B has 4; A has 2, B has 5; or A has 1, B has 6.

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. Other players, now finished with "regular" game-play and leveling, may be interested in [player vs. player] play. Since other player character act and fight differently than NPC opponents the player may want to alter the powers, enhancements, and enhancement slot allocations that they have available to them.

[edit] Respecification in World of Warcraft

In World of Warcraft, talent point respecs are acquired at class trainers.

Talent points are gained as a character advances past level 10, one point is awarded per level. The player assigns points to one of three separate areas of specialization (Talents.) The three talents vary from class to class. Points are specifically limited so that a player can complete one talent tree, but will not be able to fill the other two trees. Thus each separate characters will have a unique talent point build.

Players can respecify their character when they choose, but 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.)

Talent point "builds" reflect the differing ways that the character is used. Fighting against NPC characters (driven by the computer) is a different experience than fighting against other players. Because characters at level 70 can not gain any more levels, players may turn to player vs player actions such as Battle Grounds and raids where other players will me encountered. Players often want to choose spells and buffs that enhance their damage, or healing, during PVP play.