Back after some time off

[Kelarese]

Well now, imagine my surprise when I came back from a 2 year leave from WoW. It's amazing how vast the world can seem when you are gone for so long. I'm still not sure what to make of the talent trees. But I'm going to reserve judgement. All I can say is that it is really nice to hug my pets again. Now I have to go back and tame those I let go so long ago.

[Rhyela]

Let me know what you think of the talent trees! I haven't played since they implemented them, but...at a glance they seem poopy. I'd like to know what another returning player thinks of them (an honest opinion).

[Lisaara]

I really like the new talent trees. Less confusing, you can change them on the fly per different encounters with the tomes, etc.

[Rhyela]

Hmm, it's the "less confusing" bit that worries me. When I see that, I hear "too simple". But I'm the type of person that really likes fiddling with talent trees and fine-tuning characters. I'm playing Rift right now, and I have THREE soul trees to worry about! But I enjoy looking at them all and figuring out what meshes well with what. I don't go with the preset roles either, I build my very own and often use some strange combinations. And I enjoy getting to spend points every level or every other level. So, when I look at the talent trees on wowhead or other sites, it just looks so boring to me.

But, perhaps it's something must simply be experienced first-hand for a decision to be made. I'm going strictly by how it looks compared to what I know and am used to.

[Kelarese]

The talent trees are simplified, there is no question about that. And yeah, I miss the pick your own multiple talents too. I play RIFT as well and I LOVE the choice. IF you gimp yourself, so what? You're the one playing the class. There's good and bad to what the talent trees are now. And WoW is the "raid or die" it's always been. So in that respect, I don't see a downside to the talent trees. But for those of us who are the individualists and spit in the face of conformity, yeah, it's a bit OVER simplified. But again, Blizzard is trying to cater to the masses. Not the individual.

[Lisaara]

When I first came to WoW back in BC, the huge talent trees were a big turn off. Most of the stuff was either A) Never used, B) Mandatory, or C) Nice but not very useful. You couldn't change them on the fly either so once you picked, you were stuck with it lest ye have to do the ENTIRE tree all over again and REMEMBER your talents. :/ I absolutely hated that.

So what they did was get rid of the useless ones, gave you the Mandatory ones automatically per level, and then give you the choice useful stuff that isn't mandatory and can be changed to fit the encounter at hand.

[Rhyela]

So it's kinda like, "We're going to do all this 'tedious' stuff for you; you just worry about the 'fun' talent"? I can see why that would be nice for a lot of people that don't want to have to mess with the nitty-gritty of picking which talent was better. And I know a lot of people, even given the option, used resources to pick out the "best" talents, therefore making them all the same cookie-cutter crap anyway. I completely understand that.

However, I'm the type of person that enjoys the tedium and the nitty-gritty. And I very rarely used raiding resources (maybe that's why I was a casual raider, hehe), I did whatever I wanted to do. So, given Kelarese's statement that WoW is still "raid or die", and your statement that they've taken out the mandatory and the useless, it sounds like they basically made it to where no one has to worry about which talents to get for raiding because you've already got the "best". The player just needs to worry about these other things.

That's probably great and all for most people, but I want to decide what's useless and what's mandatory - I don't want someone else deciding for me. It's all a matter of preference in the end. You either like it or you don't, and that doesn't make it wrong or right. Personally, I don't think I would like it.

[Silivren]

So it's kinda like, "We're going to do all this 'tedious' stuff for you; you just worry about the 'fun' talent"? I can see why that would be nice for a lot of people that don't want to have to mess with the nitty-gritty of picking which talent was better. And I know a lot of people, even given the option, used resources to pick out the "best" talents, therefore making them all the same cookie-cutter crap anyway. I completely understand that.

However, I'm the type of person that enjoys the tedium and the nitty-gritty. And I very rarely used raiding resources (maybe that's why I was a casual raider, hehe), I did whatever I wanted to do. So, given Kelarese's statement that WoW is still "raid or die", and your statement that they've taken out the mandatory and the useless, it sounds like they basically made it to where no one has to worry about which talents to get for raiding because you've already got the "best". The player just needs to worry about these other things.

That's probably great and all for most people, but I want to decide what's useless and what's mandatory - I don't want someone else deciding for me. It's all a matter of preference in the end. You either like it or you don't, and that doesn't make it wrong or right. Personally, I don't think I would like it.

You're right.. In a way.. This talent system is.. well to be honest much better to use. Some talents you can pick based off what YOU like or based off what works better in the fight you're going into.

I'm not saying you're wrong but the old talent system was pretty crappy to be honest >.<

I say this because some talents were downright useless and if you wanted to go to a talent above that sometimes you had to put a point in those useless talents and waste them. That always drove me CRAZY I hated it! Why should I have to put a talent point in a PVP talent if I don't PVP? I have a mild case of OCD so stuff like that just drove me insane. I myself like this system a lot better especially since some of these are just.. Well REALLY fun.

It's all down to personal opinion but I don't think I'd knock it until I tried it.

[Lisaara]

Agreed with Doctress.

As a guess, I'm willing to bet 90% of the playerbase used cookie cutter specs. I know I did, as did my fiance, and many others I've known through out the years. The new talents break you from that.

[Rhyela]

I'll give you that - I did dislike having to take PvP talents to either fill out that level or to take something else I actually wanted. At this point, I'm just saying I think I'd dislike it based on what I've read and heard, but I still wouldn't really judge it until I tried it. I may play again someday, and that will be when I decide if it's for me or not.