Originally Posted by Adoriele

World of Warcraft is an MMORPG. Despite the fact that I don't play Ador as Balance for RP reasons, it would in fact be valid for WoW. The game is meant for you to play a character with a specific role. You have a class which you cannot change, a race which you cannot change, a faction which you cannot change, and talents which are intended to be semipermanent. Even more RPish, you cannot change your appearance (for the most part this will hold true in WotLK). Your character is intended to be static, which was not the intention of FFXI. Your dream of being Zehn the Multitalented Paladin is much the same as my wish of being Phil the Bestselling Cancer Engineer. Blizzard simply does not want one character to be good at everything at all times. You have to choose.

If every single person on earth had 1 Billion dollars, money would cease to be a viable form of currency (See Russia for a historical example). Similarly, if talents are easily swappable, they cease to have any function. You may as well give every talent to every character. In order to avoid this, there must be a cost associated with reallocating your talents. Whether this cost is in time or gold doesn't matter incredibly (although I personally believe gold is a much better deterrent).

And people seem to be overlooking the very simple solution to all of their respeccing problems, the one I've used myself a number of times, which removes the cost of respeccing entirely and can even be worth more money in the long run.

Alts.