What do you think of the Cat talent announcement?
Blizzard has peeled back a few more layers on what will be Cataclysm. Today we get a peek at what they are planning for the talent trees and what will be the mastery system.
Reviewing some of their upcoming changes, it sounds like Blizzard is trying to teach people to level. Focus on a talent tree and build it up. Picking a tree will immediately come with new core ablities. Once you've hit 70 or used 31 talent points, you can spawn into the other two. At 85, you'll have a maximum of 41 talent points to spend, so possible 10 points in another tree. Smaller talent trees, so at 31 you should have reached the super cool talent specific to your specialization. They're also hoping the trees will be so simple, that you won't need to run a different PVP talent spec.
Mastery won't come into effect until approximately 75, when you train for the passive talent. You'll find it on level 78+ items, probably only in cataclysm zones(?). We'll stack it like hit on our gear, heck, maybe instead of hit.
Personally, I like what I hear. Remove the Grim Reach-type talent points and make them passive specialization buffs. Remove the Improved ____(Corruption/Fear/Life tap) type spells to thin down the tree. PVP-ish skills like Fel Concentration could easily be removed as a buff. It also sounds like (IMHO) that they'll remove some of the "must spend 5 points in affliction to get ___" limits. Leveling up a new lock should be easier as once you choose a tree, you'll focus on it. No longer spreading into Destro to get improved shadow bolt or demo to get better health stones.
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| Review of Aff tree: black = improves green = pvp blue = boring |
Mastery won't come into effect until approximately 75, when you train for the passive talent. You'll find it on level 78+ items, probably only in cataclysm zones(?). We'll stack it like hit on our gear, heck, maybe instead of hit.
Personally, I like what I hear. Remove the Grim Reach-type talent points and make them passive specialization buffs. Remove the Improved ____(Corruption/Fear/Life tap) type spells to thin down the tree. PVP-ish skills like Fel Concentration could easily be removed as a buff. It also sounds like (IMHO) that they'll remove some of the "must spend 5 points in affliction to get ___" limits. Leveling up a new lock should be easier as once you choose a tree, you'll focus on it. No longer spreading into Destro to get improved shadow bolt or demo to get better health stones.
It all sounds like a nice tidy up, but I'm more interested in how the changes affect my choices.
ReplyDeleteAs a raiding demo lock I feel pretty locked in to a 0/56/15 build. At times I've shifted a point from ImpDT to suppression if I've struggled for +hit, but that's pretty much the limit in terms of decision making (unless you count decisions that are just wrong).
Blizzard are saying they want to bring some choice back, which I'd love to see. It would be great to be able to choose between 2 or more possible specs which do equal max dps but bring different utility benefits for example.
These changes may well be laying the groundwork, but for me it's not the number of points or the order I fill them in that matters, but what I'm able to do with them. Can't wait to see the next beta release!
Yeah, I totally agree. That is what it sounds like reading the post from Blizzard. Their example lists some 6 basic skills (for warrior class) that will automatically be granted when you pick a specialization. Reviewing the current affliction tree, if you remove the "improved.." talents and the talents that only add spell damage to another spell, I have 11 affliction talents. (uploading screenshot).
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