talent-trees
Latest
WoW Archivist: Patch 3.0 -- Echoes of Doom
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Patch 6.0 is finally upon us. Like all pre-expansion patches, it has been both invigorating and chaotic. Almost exactly six years ago, a similar patch went live to begin a new era in WoW. Blizzard called Wrath of the Lich King's pre-expansion patch "Echoes of Doom." On October 14, 2008, this third version of the game gave us the brand-new achievement system, inscription and glyphs, 51-point talent trees, the zombie plague event, and TO THE GROUND, BABY. Read on to see what WoW was like for those turbulent few weeks before Wrath of the Lich King's launch. Dalaran, where art thou? Through all of classic and The Burning Crusade, Dalaran sat in northern Hillsbrad, but players couldn't see it. An opaque purple dome walled off the Kirin Tor from the world at large. At the time, the enormous structure was one of the most striking landmarks in Azeroth. Although a few quests hinted at what lay beneath it, players new to the WoW universe had no idea what was there. And then it was gone. All that remained was a city-sized crater. I remember making a pilgrimage to this site during the 3.0 prepatch just to see it for myself. We couldn't go to Northrend yet to see the city first-hand. We had to wait for the launch of Wrath to do that. But looking at that crater certainly fired the imagination. I couldn't wait to find out what had been lurking under that dome for the first four years of the game. I have to say, the city lived up to my high expectations.
Warlords of Draenor: Understanding Draenor Perks
What's the point of a Draenor Perk? It's a question that seems to be fairly common among players, ever since the bonuses were mentioned in the patch notes for patch 6.0. As players level from 90 to 100, each level will bring with it a perk. Each class and spec has nine perks, and by the time you hit level 100, you'll have them all. However, the order that you receive these perks is completely random. You can't choose the perk, the perk chooses you. Wowhead dug up the full list of Draenor Perks for each spec and class, and the perks themselves seem to be pretty much the same -- bonus damage or a boost to specific player abilities. In many cases, it's just a flat percent damage boost. This seems all well and good, but players seem to be confused about the point of the perk system, since it looks a lot like something that was deliberately culled from the game a few years ago.
WoW Archivist: Talents have come full circle
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? The Warlords of Draenor patch 6.0 notes have revealed the latest changes to WoW's ever-evolving talent system. Talents have remained a core system in WoW since its earliest days, the primary method that allows players to make their characters distinct. In the beta for WoW and throughout vanilla, talent trees were a bit of a mess, as Archivist covered. Today, we'll examine how those early trees came to be expanded, refined, and then scrapped for a very different system. We'll also look at how Warlords is bringing back the earliest version of talent trees in a brand new way. The golden age of hybrids Talent possibilities exploded during The Burning Crusade. Ten more levels granted players ten more points to assign. Players could now combine abilities in ways that vanilla's trees had never allowed, opening up exciting new gameplay paths. Players didn't choose a specialization like they do today. Instead, they assigned points to three different "trees." Each tree represented a spec, but each also had talents that helped the other two specs as well. So players could pick and choose just how far down they wanted to go in a given tree, and thus how much to commit their character to one spec. "Hybrid" builds were not ideal from a min/max perspective, but they were popular. And TBC was the golden age of such builds.
Hyperspace Beacon: How do I play my SWTOR class?
I understand what some Star Wars: The Old Republic players are seeking when they ask how I play my class. They want to play the game better! If they ask me, specifically, then they want to play a Marauder better. I like these guys, and I welcome any questions they have. The other kind of SWTOR player who asks how I play my class looks for the faults in my playstyle. Well, there are many of them, but that doesn't mean that some of my choices are completely bad. And like most players, I didn't learn how to play my class completely on my own. I am, like most of you, an amalgam of several different teachers. Today, I'd like to take a moment not to look at the specific ways I play a Marauder (although I might use the Marauder as an example) but to examine methods for learning and elicit tips from players who are damn good at playing MMOs.
Arcane Brilliance: Talent Show
Every other week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week we're holding our breath to see what news will be revealed at Blizzcon! If I could have absolutely anything from Blizzcon this year specifically pertaining to mages, it'd be this: I'd like to know what the future of our tier 6 talents is going to be. It's already been acknowledged that they'd like to make changes to these talents. The devs know that the talents are an ongoing concern and really a major thorn in our side. It became clear to me just how I felt about the tier 6 talents as I was leveling my troll mage to 90 a few months ago. I went to do a dungeon as a fire mage and I evocated, and imagine my surprise when -- it triggered a long cooldown. I got some mana back. Nothing else happened. My invocation buff tracker remained at nothing. I happily did the rest of the dungeon without ever using evocate at all unless I needed mana. Then I realized that it was more fun to be level 88 than it was to be level 90.
Spec and Talent design likely to remain unchanged in 6.0
You can't blame anyone for wondering, really, given that with Cataclysm and Mists, the talent system has changed substantially. But, Blizzard Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has tweeted, indicating that the system is unlikely to change: @jabulaniguy While I can't talk about future expansions, overall we are happy with the current spec and talent design. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) October 14, 2013 It's definitely not set in stone, and there may be other peripheral changes, but I for one am pretty happy with the talent system. I have mentioned before that I would have loved for there to be more handed out every level, but that is mitigated by just how fast you go through the early levels, so it's hard to argue that that's a big deal. The removal of the "boring" talents has gone pretty well, but the cookie cutter builds do rather remain. What that requires, though, is further work to make the talents themselves work for everyone, especially hybrids. The prevalence of cookie cutter builds doesn't mean the talent system needs another rework. Frankly, a lot has changed in Mists, both for the better and for the worse -- it's been an expansion of experimentation. I, for one, would really appreciate some consistency. What about you?
LotRO's new trait trees to 'stand out' from each other
It's safe to say that Lord of the Rings Online players have many, many questions concerning the upcoming class overhaul coming to the game with Helm's Deep. Turbine's devs took to Twitter and the forums to answer a few of these and give us a better idea what to expect when the expansion hits. Replacing the current trait system will be trait trees in much the same vein as the mounted combat trees. Players will get a point to spend every other level, although they will be able to get additional points through deeds. Early on, players will choose a specialization that will affect how points are spent, such as a Hunter's Bowmaster or Huntsman specializations, and by fully investing in a tree will a player be able to purchase a legendary skill. Players can save multiple builds; the studio is providing the first two saved build slots for free with additional ones available for purchase. So why the decision to overhaul the trait system? Turbine explains: "We wanted to design the trait trees in such a way that as soon as you leave the intro, your trait line starts to play as it was envisioned instead of later on down the road when you began to collect traits. We really wanted each trait line to sort of stand out from the rest and reduce some of the class homogenization that had slowly occurred over the years."
Patch 5.3 and more with Ghostcrawler
In case you hadn't heard the news, patch 5.3 is set to hit live servers tomorrow. While 5.3 doesn't include a new raid, there are a host of different new activities, including four new scenarios, heroic scenarios, a ton of pet battle changes, and of course the advancement of Mists of Pandaria's storyline as the heat ramps up between Alliance, Horde, and an outlier faction of Horde rebels. It's back to the Barrens again -- and this time, Crossroads isn't the area of contention. But on top of all of the new content comes a ton of different class and content changes as well. We sat down to chat with Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street about patch 5.3's changes, as well as some upcoming changes for patch 5.4, response to subscription losses, Vengeance changes, that big unannounced feature we've all been dying to hear more about, and much more.
No talent overhaul likely
If you're interested in WoW design and discussion, but don't yet follow twitter, you might want to reconsider. A lot of the developers are regularly active there. For example, yesterday our own Adam Holisky had a nice little chat with Ghostcrawler, Bashiok, and some other folks about WoW's talent design, and wondering if there was another big overhaul being considered for the next major expansion. The answer, bluntly, is no. Blizzard seems content with the current system. @bashiok @djtyrant @adamholisky The *current* talent design feels pretty solid to us. We'll iterate but no overhaul plans. #famouslastwords - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) May 9, 2013 Player Mihaly Ducz replied that three choices every fifteen levels feels kind of thin, but I have to admit that I kind of agree with Bashiok's response on that one: there are already plenty of spells and abilities in the game; I am perfectly content to have fewer of them, or at least more passive options so I don't have to agonize over how to redo my bars again. How about you? Are you content with the current talent system? What might you like to see changed or modified in the future?
Mists' talent system revamp: Hit or miss?
We've had the new talent system now for eight months, and it's had time to settle in, so it seems that it's an appropriate time to see whether it has been a success in its objectives, to assess the pros and cons of the new system. In case you forgot, Wrath of the Lich King featured 71 talent points, which were distributed over three trees, resulting in some entertaining builds, and no requirement to place the last talent in the tree. The Burning Crusade was similar, but with 10 fewer points, and slightly smaller trees as a result. By the time Cataclysm rolled around, adding an additional five levels, there was concern about this system being bloated, daunting, and unnecessarily complex. So, with Cataclysm came a simplification: 31-point talent trees. At the time, Zarhym explained the change as follows: Zarhym We'd rather have a simpler design with a lot of depth, than a complicated but shallow design. The goal for Cataclysm remains to remove a lot of the passive (or lame) talents, but we don't think that's possible with the current tree size. To resolve this, we're reducing each tree to 31-point talents. source Cata also added a requirement that you get to the end talent of your main tree before moving onto the next, effectively removing the hybrid builds that had occasionally surfaced. But that change clearly wasn't enough, as most readers of WoW Insider will recall, there was a further revamp at the start of Mists, moving to the current system. It was a far more drastic change, too, with the disappearance of the talent trees we'd grown used to seeing. But was it a change for the better?
The Road to Mordor: The coming LotRO class apocalypse and how you can survive it
Out of the four primary goals that the Lord of the Rings Online team has stated for 2013, the promise of class revamps has proven to be the most nerve-wracking -- and intriguing -- among the populace. After all, when you say that "significant changes" are coming to classes and don't follow up with any sort of significant details, speculation and worry is going to run amok. Last September I argued that classes did need a shakeup. While the whole structure isn't without its redeeming (ahem) virtues, I believed that it wasn't intuitive for new players, that there wasn't really any growth in the abilities or builds of characters post-Moria, and that much of the deed system was simply too grindy. That's why I'm cautiously optimistic about the "coming class apocalypse" in 2013 -- I'm tired of the status quo. LotRO has an opportunity to cut the dead weight and make leveling interesting all over again. Let's take a look at a few statements by the dev team to deduce what we'll be looking at when it happens.
WoW Archivist: Strange choices behind WoW's earliest talent trees
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? It's strange to think that players who first start playing in Mists might have no idea what the old talent trees looked like. To them, the new talent system is simply the status quo and the image above conjures no memories. The status quo has never lasted very long for talents in WoW. Through the years, talents have changed possibly more than any other aspect of the game. It's a good thing, too, because the earliest talent trees needed a lot of work. Let's take a look back! The first beta talents It's not easy to find solid information about the first iteration of talent trees from early beta. From what I can gather, WoW's original talents were more like spell ranks (which have also since been removed). You could invest talent points into particular spells to give them more damage/healing, longer range, etc. These talents were also tied to stats. By investing talent points, you gained stats relevant to your class. These talents were generally considered workable but lackluster. They were removed from the beta in patch 0.6. Blizzard promised to "make them even cooler than before," and players speculated heavily about what the new trees might look like.
Borderlands 2 skill tree calculator now online
Posting about skill tree/talent calculators is really more of a Massively jam, what with such things typically being the fare of massively multiplayer online orc/spaceship simulators and everything, but in Borderlands 2's case, we'll have to make an exception.Calculators like the one seen above are now available on the game's official site via each character's individual page, which can be accessed by surmounting the age gate and clicking on "Characters." We went ahead and spec'd out our siren, and we don't mean to brag or anything but that build up there is 100 percent guaranteed to be the most efficient, powerful build for the class.Either that, or we randomly slapped it together in about 12 seconds.
What to expect from patch 5.0.4
Patch 5.0.4 will be here on Tuesday, Aug. 28. As with other pre-expansion patches, 5.0.4 will include some important changes that will reflect gameplay in Mists of Pandaria. To be perfectly clear, while this is a pre-patch for Mists, it is not Mists itself and shouldn't be confused with the game we'll all be nabbing on Sept. 25. While there are some features from the beta that we'll see go live with this patch, others will not be released until the new expansion goes live in September. This is a confusing time for some players, because they're not quite sure what to expect when it comes to the pre-expansion patch. Will new features be rolled out? Will we see new instances or profession changes or playable pandaren? To avoid confusion, here's a short primer on what you will and will not see in patch 5.0.4.
Custom-tailor your character with Guild Wars 2's traits and attributes
To many people, character customization is an incredibly important part of MMORPGs. We're not just talking about cosmetic customization, though; many of those players also want the freedom to customize how their characters play. The Guild Wars 2 team is well aware of this, and in fact the devs have released a new dev diary detailing just how players will be able to tweak their characters through the use of traits and attributes. Players who have been following GW2 up until this point may already be familiar with the game's four primary attributes: power, vitality, precision, and toughness. But the team decided that four wasn't quite good enough, so five more attributes were thrown into the mix. While these five new attributes (three for offense, two for support) offer new and exciting ways to customize your playstyle, the catch is that players can only gain points in these attributes through trait lines or gear. Each profession also gets a profession-specific attribute. For instance, Rangers get the empathy attribute, which increases the attributes of the hunter's pet. Traits, on the other hand, operate more like traditional MMO talent trees. Each class is given access to five different trait progression lines; each of these trait lines matches up to a pair of attributes that will be improved each time the player puts points in the corresponding tree. The trait lines also unlock major trait slots that can be filled with -- you guessed it -- a major trait to further customize the character's playstyle. But there's a lot more to the system than we can fit here, so click on through the link to the ArenaNet dev blog below and give the full blog a read.
The Daily Grind: Should MMOs offer respecs?
MMOs last for so long that you're almost guaranteed to get bored or make a mistake at some point during character development. Most games know this and allow you a do-over, be it through unlearning skills in sandboxes like Glitch and Ultima Online or respecing talent point choices in World of Warcraft. Lest your choices be trivialized, certain games insist on making respecs prohibitively expensive; City of Heroes and Champions Online even charge real money for respecs should you deplete your in-game allotment. But other MMOs simply provide no outlet for a do-over at all, like Star Wars: The Old Republic, which currently locks you into your advanced class choice at level 10, long before you're really capable of making that kind of decision. While the devs are still debating respecs as a post-launch addition, a surprising number of players are vehemently opposed to the entire concept on the grounds that it makes character choices irrelevant. What say you -- should all games have respecs, or are do-overs just another form of "easymode"? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Blizzard talks Mists of Pandaria talent tree tweaks
Blizzard lead systems designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has penned a small novella on the official World of Warcraft website. The subject of the text dump is talent trees, and more specifically, how they'll be affected by the game's upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. Street addresses 10 of the most common concerns that players have voiced regarding the changes, and some of his answers are more interesting than you might think. As an example, many WoW players have said that the talent revamp will result in fewer choices across the board. Street admits that this sentiment is "ultimately correct," though he does qualify that with an assertion that players will have more choices that matter. Head to Battle.net to read the rest of his explanations.
Raid Rx: Checking out level 90 talents
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. That new Mists of Pandaria talent calculator is out. Had a chance to look through it? You might've been alarmed at the fact that several key spells appear to be missing from the list of skills and such. Not to worry, though, since Bashiok clarified that it was still under development. Anything missing is (hopefully) unintentional. A few classes are given previews of new skills trainable past level 85. The classes that don't have their stuff created yet are presumably still being worked on.
Mists of Pandaria: The myth of the talent tree choice
Blizzard played up the Cataclysm expansion as a groundbreaking expansion that would change everything, but the truth is that the Shattering was nothing compared to what is happening to class talent trees in the new Mists of Pandaria expansion. Those giant talent trees we visited every two levels are gone, replaced with six separate choices spread across the course of 90 levels. To be fair, there are a lot of terrific ideas in what Blizzard is planning to do with our talent trees. Removed are the choices that everyone should make. And yes, Blizzard did say that in Cataclysm, but this time, the designers mean it. What shadow priest doesn't take Vampiric Touch? What balance druid doesn't invest that crucial talent point to take Moonkin Form? But ultimately, if the goal here is to make things easier on the players, to make this a choice that players don't need to extensively research, Blizzard totally missed the mark.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Zero-sum game
Ever since I started following RIFT, I've been entranced by the wide-open -- but not limitless -- class system. After all, the virtual world and everything populating it is only half the game; the other half resides in the avatar that sticks with you while you explore it all. Many MMOs have interesting ways of letting you build and grow your character, but sooner or later they come to a point where there's little more to be done other than incrementally increasing your stats by gaining better gear. Not so with RIFT, as even a level 50 can drop a few coins to shape a completely new build from scratch. No longer are we bound to a rigidly defined creation; we are free to experiment, tinker, and try out these roles to our hearts' content. With RIFT's soul system, there are a few ground rules that everyone learns early in the game. You can have up to three souls in your archetype active at any one time; you can only spend as many points in a build as you have in levels (such as 10 points at level 10); and you'll end up with 66 points at level 50, which means that you'll at least dabble in a second soul tree with every build. And while you can certainly spread soul points across all three trees, today I wanted to look at the benefits of a zero-point soul, the "third wheel," if you will, of builds.
