talent-system
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Five features I really want from the next expansion
So everyone's handily speculating on just what the next expansion will be, and what it will have and not have. That's pretty awesome. I love speculating. So in the spirit of things, I've decided to throw my hat in the ring and natter on about what I'd love to see from the next expansion, whatever it ends up being. Let's just jump right into it. What stuff do I think would be awesome? An overhaul of the leveling/alt process I definitely think we need to reconsider how we deal with alts. I'd love to see a system that reduced the time you had to spend getting them leveled once you got the first one to max - heirlooms work for that, but that long-rumored heirloom tab would make it a lot easier. Another thing which would definitely help are more heirlooms like Hellscream's Decapitator - our current heirlooms don't take us all the way to max level the way it will, and it's also useful now as a raid-level item an alt can make use of. It's an experiment I hope they continue. I've seen some arguments that we should be able to start a high-level alt to skip over a lot of the leveling process, especially as we get closer and closer to the likely new level cap of 100. If that was implemented, it would need to be done carefully, but I'd definitely support some way to preview a class at or near max level so you could figure out if you'll like it or cut down on having to do the full 1 to 100 (or whatever it ends up being) march again.
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?
Lichborne: Reviewing death knight talents for patch 5.4
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has indicated that Blizzard is pretty happy with the new Mists of Pandaria talent design, and I have to agree with him. While it does suck to wait 15 levels between new talent choices while leveling a new alt, otherwise the new talent system allows real flexibility and interesting, meaningful choices, arguably more than we had under the 51 or 31 point talent systems, where almost every tier had a clear best choice for whatever role you were playing. That said, there's always room for improvement, and the devs have mentioned they plan to use patch 5.4 as another opportunity to go over talent trees and bolster talents that see less use or otherwise feel underpowered. With that in mind, this week we'll look at the death knight tree and pick out some candidates for a patch 5.4 redesign.
Patch 5.0.4, the new talent system, and you
In a little more than a week, we're all going to be experiencing patch 5.0.4, also known as the pre-expansion patch or Holy heck everything is different now aaaah panic aaah riot in the streets aaah. We here at WoW Insider are dedicated to preventing rioting in the streets when it is related to World of Warcraft, and we can do so without actually leaving our homes -- hence this post, which explains the new talent system to you. Remember, unless you wake up and your pets are wearing clothing you have never seen before, do not panic. The new talent system may seem daunting at first glance. But it's really not as complicated as all that. Let's cover what is and isn't changed. For starters, while you no longer have to train abilities as you level, your class trainers do still provide several services related to talents. For a fee, your class trainers can completely reset your talents, allowing you to pick again from every talent tier you have available. They can also completely reset your glyph selection, allowing you to reselect your glyphs, and they still offer Dual Talent Specialization for 10g. They also allow you to reset each of your class specializations. The various reset services cost you gold up to what appears to be a cap of 59g, although that may change before the game goes live.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm post-mortem reflects on success, failure, and lessons learned
World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion is over a year old now, and Mists of Pandaria is looming just over the horizon, which means that it's time for a Cataclysm post-mortem. The infamous pony-promiser Greg "Ghostcrawler" Streets took some time out of his day to set aside the nerf bat and answer some questions regarding World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. What worked? What didn't? Where the hell is the dance studio, anyway? Just kidding, we still don't know that last one. One topic that's frequently revisited throughout the post-mortem is the talent system revamp. In a nutshell, Ghostcrawler says that the team (and the players) were largely pleased with the ability to choose a spec and gain powerful, useful skills right at level 10. What didn't work out as planned? "Everything else!" says Ghostcrawler. The team realized that "the talent tree model where you pick up tiny performance increases here and there (and where there's, mathematically, nearly always a 'right' answer and a 'wrong' answer) is not a great model." He goes on to add that Mists of Pandaria's talent system "should fix this problem once and for all." Well, third time's the charm, right guys? At any rate, there's more on the discussion table than just talents, so head over to the full article and see what lessons Cataclysm has taught the devs.
BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes
If you wanted to look at the new talents that will be debuting in Mists of Pandaria, I would hope you followed our liveblog of the talent system overhaul. The short version is you get to pick 1 talent from a pool of 3 talents every 15 levels. By the time you hit the new level cap of 90, you will have 6 talents. Each set of talents does the same thing, more or less, in different ways. Now, for your perusal, we present a class by class gallery of the new talent system as it stands today. Remember this is subject to change, alot, before Pandaria, launches. Make no mistake, this is a significant game changer for everyone. This is the dawning of unparalleled flexibility in personal customization choice. Arms warriors with Shockwave, fury warriors with Bladestorm. This is the biggest change to the game since reforging. There are no tree examples for the upcoming Monk class yet. Galleries of each class's talents after the cut.
BlizzCon 2011: Blizzard reveals new talent system
Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street got on stage at Blizzcon a few moments ago to unveil an entirely overhauled talent system for Mists of Pandaria, the next World of Warcraft expansion. After four expansions of "cookie cutter" talent builds, Blizzard has broken and reconstructed the entire talent system in order to put the choice for talents directly into the hands of the players. They strove for this in Cataclysm and made some good advances, but ultimately fell short of the goal. Like the current talent system, players will choose their specialization at level 10. This specialization chooses what abilities you'll be gaining as you'll level up, rather than there being baseline talents. There will be a few baseline class abilities, but not nearly as many. According to Ghostcrawler, these spec abilities will be "anything your spec requires." Spec abilities will be learned out in the field when you level; you only need to visit the trainer to choose a new specialization! In the preview at Blizzcon, the holy specialization for paladins received staple holy abilities, such as Holy Shock, Holy Light, and Beacon of Light. Some specialization abilities will be available to two specs, such as both ret and prot getting Hammer of the Righteous. The other part of the talent system is that there is now one talent tree for every class. At every 15 levels, you get one talent point, which can be put into one of three talents for that level. You can't go back and take previous talents. These talents are looking to be abilities, not boring things like passive healing or damage buttons. There are no ranks for these talents. The goal is for there to be no mandatory talents, and that you should choose what you want on a per fight/per content/per choice basis. Retalenting should be as accessible as reglyphing is right now. So, for example, a paladin will choose holy for her spec, and as she levels up will gain all her core holy abilities. When she hits level 15, she will gain her first talent point, which will be usable on either Speed of Light, Long Arm of the Law, or Pursuit of Justice, which all sound like a speed boost to me. Once she makes this change, she won't be allowed to choose the other two talents when she gets her next talent point, though she can later choose to retalent if she feels she chose poorly. The three choices you have to take at any level will all share a same theme in common. In the previous paragraph, you have three talents that will be mobility based. (Warriors also get mobility talents at 15, their choices being Juggernaght, Warbringer, and Double Time.) The idea is that you don't forego a mobility ability for a dps ability, or a cc for a survivability cooldown. An important point to note is that even though these abilities have the same names as current talents in the game, they will not have the same effect. They are being redesigned to try to appeal to all three specs in a talent. The point of new talents is to offer a form of utility that you can customize for your playstyle, and not mandatory choices for maximum DPS/HPS/Survivability. All in all, it's looking to be a simplified, better, and ultimately more choice-driven take on talenting, and I couldn't be more excited. Turn to WoW Insider for all your BlizzCon 2011 news and information. Look for our liveblogs of the convention panels, interviews with WoW celebrities -- and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
Blizzard discusses Mists of Pandaria details
The big day-one BlizzCon announcement is that Mists of Pandaria is going to be the next World of Warcraft expansion, and we've got some new details on what players can expect from the new content. For starters, Blizzard is once again reworking the talent system, as the studio feels that the current system hasn't aged well and has been plagued with cookie-cutter builds. Instead, each class will have a single talent tree, and every 15 levels players will choose one of three available talents. Talent builds can be changed as easily as glyphs, meaning it's possible to customize your talents mid-instance in order to tune for a specific fight. Outdoor raid bosses are making a return, and Blizzard is aiming to allow players to choose their own paths through the content rather than forcing them onto a set path. For more details, head on past the cut!
