Quest Rewards: Spec-Specific Loot

Offering quest rewards this way is a change for us, and the kind of thing for which we could definitely use feedback.

For the players that level as X spec but want to also collect gear as Y spec, we have a few solutions:

-- Several of the zones have vendors with decent gear that isn't quite at the quest item level. These help provide coverage if you miss a reward, say gloves or shoulders, since questing is less linear now. However, these vendors also help you gather off-spec gear.

-- Several quests, especially those that offer blue rewards, weapons, trinkets and most of the level 90 quests, offer you a choice of gear for all of your specs instead of just your current spec.

-- Because the questing in zones isn't as linear as Cataclysm, and because there are two zones per level in some cases, you'll have the option to hit some quests as spec A and some quests as spec B.

-- There are still other sources of gear, such as crafting, the AH, dungeons, faction rep and so on.

Also remember that if, for example, you level as Arms but want to tank a few dungeons as Protection, that the level-up dungeons are not so brutally difficult that you need full tanking gear. A Prot warriors in DPS Strength gear would do just fine. As you get into endgame content, especially normal raids, you'll want actual tanking gear.

I like the concept, but I'd think at level 85+ we wouldn't need hand-holding as to which quest rewards we can use, especially if they've already been winnowed down to ones appropriate for our class. It seems kludgy to run around and swap specs just to see if there's a good upgrade (or alt tab out to WoWhead), particularly if my other spec's gear isn't as good as the one I'm using to quest.

We don't players to have to feel like they should do this. Keep in mind that you would need to be pretty min-max focused to agonize over whether you want the healing or the DPS legs when you'll probably get a new set of legs in an hour or two. It starts to matter more as you get closer to level 90 and the rate of upgrade slows down, but as I said, you'll generally get options on those quests.

There's also the issue with trinkets. Some trinkets do silly things like summon a medic or get your character drunk or shoot a rainbow. While not that great for every clsss in combat, having these toys to have fun with is always a nice option. That staff will last two hours, but the trinket is priceless.

If there is a fun trinket, we will make sure it is available to everyone as a choice for precisely this reason.