wow-talents
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Wowhead Profiler tool updated with talents, glyphs
The Wowhead Profiler tool has now been updated to list talents and glyphs for characters, both in main and secondary specs. This is in addition to the massive amounts of information it already provides -- mount and pet tracking, transmog information, quest information and much more. I have to admit I hadn't given the Profiler much of a look until today, and I'm shocked at what I've found. Wowhead is known for its massive database of everything under the sun available to be found in World of Warcraft. Quests, achievements, items, NPCs, armor, pets, mounts, you name it -- if it exists in game, Wowhead has it listed. But the Profiler is a little different from Wowhead's usual style of database tracking. Players can look up their character, or other characters, and load them into the Profiler for an in-depth look at what that character has done, and what they've yet to accomplish. So how exactly is that useful? What makes the Profiler, in some cases, a better alternative than the armory?
Everything you need to know about WoW's talents and specializations
We're going back to basics today to talk about talents and specializations in World of Warcraft. If you're pretty new to the game, you might not know what these are at all, but anyone over level 10 has at least seen the terms thrown around. We're going to explain just what talents and specializatons mean for your character and well as how to get the most out of your talent choices. What are specializations? At level 10, every character (save death knights, who start at level 55) is prompted to choose a talent specialization. While many spells and abilities are core to the class -- meaning you'll get them no matter which specialization you choose -- there are also abilities that you only get if you've chosen a particular specialization. Each specialization focuses on a slightly different playstyle, so you should pick the one that most appeals to you.
Mists of Pandaria says bye-bye to cookie-cutter builds
I had no idea that talents existed in vanilla WoW. I wasn't really stupid -- I just didn't know what talents were or that they were something I should be getting. I expect they were detailed somewhere in the instruction booklet that I didn't bother reading before I started running around Azeroth. I was finally clued in to their existence around level 40 or so on my first character, when a friend asked what spec I was putting points into. My blank "... points?" response garnered an immediate lesson on talent trees. Talents received a massive overhaul between Wrath and Cataclysm, one that saw a vast majority of talents culled and the trees themselves shortened considerably. It took a little time to get used to the changes, but in the end, the changing of talents wasn't really as huge a deal as I thought it'd be. Choosing talents on a character is still just as easy as it used to be. Don't worry so much about what you pick while you're leveling, and when you reach 85, you'll find plenty of sites online that will tell you the best stuff to grab at max level and why. Which is sort of the problem, isn't it?
Cataclysm Beta: New talent trees for paladins
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?
Cataclysm Beta: Warrior talents and specializations
The Cataclysm beta has dropped a new talent build, and with it we have both the new talent specializations as well as the new talent trees. As you can see from the screenshot above: Arms warriors get Mortal Strike, Anger Management and Two-Handed Weapon Specialization for picking arms as their talent specialization. Fury warriors get Bloodthirst, Dual Wielding, Dual Wield Specialization and Precision. Protection warriors get Shield Slam, Vitality and Vengeance. What this means is that each tree will have a rigorous, defined role, and only that tree will make use of certain key abilities. As an example, only fury warriors will be able to dual wield at all. No more arms and prot dual wielding of any kind. In addition, we can now look directly at each talent tree with the new redesign and look at what you'll be spending those 31 points in. However, just because it's in this beta patch doesn't mean it will make it to live; we already know Impending Victory is not likely to survive.
Cataclysm Beta: New 31-point talent trees, spec bonuses and more
The latest build of the Cataclysm beta has the much-anticipated 31-point talent trees for all classes -- in varying degrees of completion, anyway. The UI elements for selecting your specialization are also in the game, and each tree has a sentence or two that describes the way it plays. Even the bonuses you get at level 10 for selecting your spec are in this build! We've got talent calculators, spec bonuses, and more after the break, courtesy of MMO-Champion. Bear in mind while reading that this is only the first pass of this talent overhaul and several trees/classes, including death knight, druid, paladin, warlock, arcane mage, and assassination rogue, are nowhere near done.
Cataclysm class and mastery systems explained
Everything we knew about talents have changed. Some highlights: You choose one tree at level 10 and then can only add talents to that tree until you have put 31 points in it. Then the other trees open up. At level 78 and above, items will start dropping with Mastery as a stat. Once Mastery is learned from your class trainer, the stat will give bonuses based on the tree specialized in. The Mastery bonuses will be flat percentages and will no longer be based on the number of talents spent in a tree. Talents will alternate with skills when leveling. So you will get a talent point "about" every other level. The full blue post is after the break.
Arcane Brilliance: Good and Bad in patch 3.2
Welcome to another edition of Arcane Brilliance, the weekly Mage column where you can find all the latest issues that are important to those of us who can alter the molecular structure of our enemies, conjure great missiles of entwined flame and ice, and create delicious pastries from the very air around us, but can't seem to negotiate the mysteries of wearing anything more substantial than a fancy bathrobe into battle. Mages: masters of the arcane, failures at dressing. Let me begin with a few nice things. These are things I like--things that do not, in principle, infuriate me. We'll get to things that do a bit later. I'll hide them after the jump, I suppose, so as not to annoy those of you who cannot stand to see even the most minor of complaints from any class but your own. For now, we'll be positive and cheery, and illustrate that--as it ever has been and ever will be--there are aspects of this game that I love, and aspects that I simultaneously do not. Such is life on the class-balance carousel. As a Mage with a pulpit from which to preach, I will never cease to celebrate the changes I agree with, and decry those which I consider to be affronts to Magekind. Preamble aside, let me tell you what I love right now: our mana gems no longer share a cooldown with Warlock healthstones. Yes, though it wasn't in the patch notes, this seems to be an undocumented change that has made it live, and one that Mages have been lobbying in favor of for a very, very long time. For far too long, we've been largely unable to take advantage of the one good thing Warlocks have to offer, for fear that we'd use one and then not be able to pop our own mana returning item when the need arose. No more! Dying? Need a few thousand health in a hurry and can't wait for the healer to notice you're on death's doorstep? Ice Block on cooldown? Use that healthstone with impunity, my fellow Mages! More good stuff after the break. Also bad stuff. If you dine on Mage tears, feel free to wring the second half of this column for whatever sustenance it might provide.
World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 Mage Guide
WoW.com has covered patch 3.2 extensively. Everything from the surprising changes to flying mounts, to the latest and greatest loot, and all the changes in between. In our patch 3.2 class, raiding, and PvP guides we take a look at exactly what changes and how the changes will affect your playing. So...a patch happened or something? I guess it's a big deal. People are excited or whatever. I'm way too cool to show any kind of positive emotion, so...meh. Meh, I say.Ok, I can't keep that up. Patches always make me happy. I've been known to break into song and engage in impromptu yet highly choreographed dance routines on patch days. This time around it was a little number called "Living Bomb is Castable on Multiple Targets Now...Yay!" The lyrics are actually quite clever. They go like this: "Living Bomb is castable on multiple targets now...yay!" repeated several times, and sung to the tune of whatever Wiggles song my kids happen to be listening to in the background at the time. Or sometimes to the Knight Rider theme. Don't ask me why. I'm a musical genius and I don't have to explain myself to you.Anyway, let's take a quick look at the ways this patch will be affecting Mages. Here's a five-word preview: Living Bomb Multiple Targets Yay
Ghostcrawler: Okay with Titan's Grip not being an optional talent
One of the founding points in WoW's talent system, or any game's talent system, is to allow players to customize their characters based on their personal preferences. Want to play a healer with your Priest? Great, here's a few dozen holy talents. Your Paladin needs to crit some face off? Retribution is your key.Within each of these talent trees are many, many choices. And while cookie cutter specs eventually develop, the option is still there to allow for whatever spec or combinations of specs you decide works best for you. The rest of the world be damned, it's your choice.However there are some exceptions to this. These occur in talents that we all need to play, more or less. Or in more specific terms there are talents that the rest of the tree is designed around. One such talent is Titan's Grip, and according to Ghostcrawler Blizzard is okay with that (for now).
Essential addons for Patch 3.0.2 [Updated x6]
Let's take a look at what addons are working for patch 3.0.2. First a simple rule taken from the UI forums post done by Kaydeethree: "Any 'Wrath beta' compatible mod will work in 3.0.2." With that said, there is a long and comprehensive listing of 3.0.2 compatible addons over on WoWWiki. But the fun doesn't end there. The next step is obtaining all those new addons. I've compiled a large set of the essential addons and linked to at least one direct download source after the break. Each download source is either trusted beyond doubt – or tested and confirmed to be virus free. Finally, you'll want to combine the addons into a nice looking UI. Check out our special edition of Reader UI of the Week for a look at five complete 3.0.2 compatible UIs. We're posting this list now, and will continue to update it throughout the day. Begin your addon downloads as quickly as possible to avoid hangups later in the day when download servers become overloaded.
