True.

When in Java, I've gotten into the habit of using the final initializer to mitigate these kinds of issues, like this:

    final T var1;
    if (cond) {
      var1 = x;
    } else if (cond2) {
      var2 = y;
    } else {
      var1 = z;
    }

In this specific case, the compiler will catch the lack of initialization in the second block. It's also very helpful with a complicated/nested conditionals to guarantee that you initialize the variable through every code path.