new-talent-system

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  • Blizzard unveils Mists of Pandaria talent calculator

    by 
    Mathew McCurley
    Mathew McCurley
    11.23.2011

    Blizzard has just released its official talent calculators for Mists of Pandaria, in which the talent system is getting a major overhaul. Instead of talents being point placement decisions, this new system engages the player in one very important and specific choice every 15 levels. Skills from talents are now learned automatically as a player progresses through his chosen spec. The currently displayed talents are not set in stone and can (and will) change during Mists' development. If you click on a class' spec, you can also see its skill progression through the life of the character to see what skills you will be gaining. This new system is really, really slick. Check out Blizzard's official Mists of Pandaria talent calculators on the WoW community blog. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the next expansion, raising the level cap to 90, introducing a brand new talent system, and bringing forth the long-lost pandaren race to both Horde and Alliance. Check out the trailer and follow us for all the latest MoP news!

  • Cataclysm Beta: Mage talents and specializations

    by 
    Christian Belt
    Christian Belt
    07.14.2010

    Let me begin by telling you I had an Arcane Brilliance column about halfway done last week before a family health emergency intervened, preventing me from finishing it. The column was going to be all about predicting what the new revamped talent trees were going to be like. Now that Cataclysm beta build 12479 has dropped upon us like manna in the desert, the entirety of that now-ancient text is so outdated as to be worthless. Let me assure you that it was witty, and brilliant, and possibly mankind's greatest written work -- art of such singular value that small children would have been taught of it from textbooks with my picture upon their covers. But, alas, now it is gone, relegated forever to a remote corner of my hard drive, never to be seen by human eyes. The literary world mourns. Still, I was able to salvage one small fragment of it. It is but one of a batch of haiku I wrote about Improved Polymorph. I will reprint it here, because whatever else this monumental beta build has altered, my passion for this new talent remains. improved polymorph flaming warlock sheep corpses snuffleupagus On second thought, perhaps it's best that no more of that sees the light of day. Anyway, let's move on the rest of the awesomeness.

  • Cataclysm Beta: New talent trees for paladins

    by 
    Gregg Reece
    Gregg Reece
    07.14.2010

    With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge -- and soon, an entire flight of black dragons. Last night, Blizzard released the new talent tree system onto the beta realms for people to take a gander at and test out. Each class is at various stages of done-ness, with some needing pruning, others needing tuning and still others just need another iteration or two before truly being ready. Paladins fall into that last category, along with three other classes. Here are a couple of excerpts from the beta patch notes, with bold added for emphasis: Cataclysm Beta Patch Notes - Build 12479 While this is a first pass on all of the talent trees, death knight, druid, paladin, warlock, Arcane mage, and Assassination rogue trees are not as far along as other specializations. ... Paladins * We are in the process of overhauling many paladin talents, spells and abilities. Expect updates in upcoming patches. source Things like more healing abilities for holy, Holy Shield moving from a maintained ability to a tanking cooldown, and three new planned but unimplemented attack abilities for retribution are all in the pipeline, as well as a shakeup of the talents we've already been provided. So, without further ado, I present a first draft of the paladin talent trees. [ Holy ] [ Protection ] [ Retribution ] The Light and How to Swing It tries to help Paladins cope with the dark times coming in Cataclysm. See the upcoming Paladin changes the expansion will bring. Wrath is coming to a close and the final showdown with the Lich King is here. With Cataclysm soon heating things up, will you be ready?