One of the biggest, and arguably most controversial, changes announced is the talent tree revamp. Gone is our branching mass of abilities separated into three distinct specialisations, replaced instead by one 'path'. I've heard many different opinions on the matter; Some people feel that this is dumbing the game down to ridiculous levels, others think that this is a fresh and exciting new series of choices for our characters. Still more are unsure on what to make of the system and are waiting to see it in action before judging.
For those unaware, or confused about the details, here's a brief summary of the new system (As I understand it myself, I may have some of the details wrong):
Come patch 5.0, your character will be able to choose from one of three (or four, in the case of the druid) talent specialisations which will govern the role you will take, not unlike the system currently in place. What is unlike the current system is that you will only be able to pick one 'talent' every 15 levels from a selection of three, with six 'tiers' of talents in total. These new talents will be shared among each specialisation with the goal of having each talent be useful to each specialisation in some way. You will only ever be able to pick one talent per tier, but swapping between a talent you have picked has been stated to be no more difficult than swapping out a glyph.
A preview of the new talent system can be found on Wowhead here.
As you level, you will automatically gain access to specialisation abilities. These are spells and powers only available to your chosen specialisation, akin to the ability-giving talents currently in place. (An example would be Aimed Shot for Marksman Hunters, or Stormstrike for Enhancement Shaman.)
This site has a lot of people with a pretty good head on their shoulders and is less prone to, shall we say, overly emotional outbursts. There have been the few exceptions, but in general we're a pretty smart and cool bunch. Certainly less rabid than many other forums out there. As such, I'm very curious to see people's thoughts on the new talent path and I would like to encourage an open discussion and debate on the subject.
Do you think that this is yet another nail in the coffin of World of Warcraft; a desperate attempt to dumb down this aspect of gameplay in order to appeal to the lowest masses? Or do you think that this is an innovative idea, one which has the potential to make the game that much more compelling?
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As for myself?
I've thought long and hard about this new system. Initially, I was quite confused by this new change. Not particularly angry, but I had to wonder why this was necessary. I've been playing the game for a good number of years now and this is the most radical change to our talent system to date. Gone was my familiar branching sprawl of coloured icons, replaced with a rather boring looking set of eighteen abilities with a set, linear progression. "Why was one of the most identifiable systems of World of Warcraft changed?" I asked myself.
Then I stopped to consider our current talent setup.
To quote from some very, very smart people:
In simpler terms, outside of a few specialised builds, our current talent trees have little real choice to them. There is one, maybe two builds for each talent tree, with a few points here and there that you can spend freely. We had a little more choice in our system pre-cataclysm for more outlandish builds, but in general there was only one correct way to talent yourself for maxiumum DPS/Heals/Survivability and deviating from that would have you branded as a noob.At first glance, the talent trees are full of tough choices. But, ask any experienced WoW player and they'll tell you that there are a few best builds for any given class. [...] Anyway, the reason there are best builds for any given class is that, rather than being fundamentally different, all of a player's decisions regarding a talent tree can be related to the same question. "Does this raise my Damage per Second?" or "Does this raise my Healing Output?", etcetera. By putting a common currency behind all these choices, they cease to be choices and become problems with definitive answers. Calculations.
Moreover, were talent trees ever really that much fun? I'm not a math geek. I don't theorycraft personally. Every so often I head over to Elitist jerks, find out the optimal talent specialisation for my class, copy it and then promptly forget about it. That... doesn't sound like engaging game-play to me.
I want the difficulty of my game to come not from the coloured icons I choose to make on my talent selection screen (or have other, smarter people choose for me), but from the encounters I have to face and the strategies I have to pull off. I want to make my own decisions towards how my character plays, rather than rely on others to tell me how. This new talent system has the potential to actually give players choice in how their character plays, if Blizzard manages to do it right. I doubt it'll be perfect, nothing ever is, but I am very hopeful and can't wait to try it out in beta.
This is exactly why I'm excited about the new system! (And why I keep hoping pet talent trees will go the same way.) The new talent options are the thing I'm thus far most excited for in the expansion. Every choice is interesting and feels necessary. Each tier is a treasure trove of appealing options that can be arranged to the player's liking. Sure, I'm sure there will be favorite cookie cutter choices for certain situations, but there's going to be a lot more room for personal preference to factor in.
It helps a little with Berserk but if thats on cooldown, eh....