World of Warcraft - Class Talent Systems Panel

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Talents 2.0
  • Major change to class talent trees, and this is a new phase of development for the talent system.
  • The goal is to have you sit to another next to another combat rogue, and this combat rogue will actually have different talents than you do!
  • Character customization was the original point of talents in the first place but overtime cookie cutter builds dominated the scene.

New Model
  • Class Abilities are available to all specs in the class. All warriors learn heroic strike for example.
  • Spec Abilities are available to certain specs. Only Arms warriors learn Slam. Retribution and Protection paladin get Hammer of the Righteous, etc ...
  • Talents are optional skills/bonuses available to all specs. Any warrior can choose Throwdown, and you will have to pick between 3 different crowd control abilities on this level of talent.
  • Level 15 - You pick your first talent. For example, warriors have to pick between Juggernaut / Double Time / Warbringer and players will have to pick which mobility ability they want to pick depending on their playstyle.

Talent Philosophy
  • Access to stuff you never could before. If you were a subtlety rogue you knew you weren't going to get something like Killing Spree. And because talents are going to be all in the same tree, you're going to be able to combine them in a way that you never could before. For example, any rogue can have Shadowstep!
  • Several new, overpowered (feeling) talents will be added to the game.
  • If you don't see a beloved talent in your new talents list, don't worry, it's probably something we gave your spec as a baseline. For example all Holy priests now have Circle of Healing.
  • No mandatory talents anymore.
  • Every choice should be hard but fun!

Talent Preview
  • Design will iterate a lot on individual talents
  • Don't obsess about the numbers

Death Knight
See screenshots of all tiers


Druid
See screenshots of all tiers


Hunter
See screenshots of all tiers


Mage
See screenshots of all tiers


Paladin
See screenshots of all tiers


Priest
See screenshots of all tiers


Rogue
See screenshots of all tiers


Shaman
See screenshots of all tiers


Warlock
See screenshots of all tiers


Warrior
See screenshots of all tiers


Change is scary!!!
  • Talents aren't set in stone yet.
  • Questions will be answered during the Q&As tomorrow.
  • An online developer Q&A will happen on October 27
This article was originally published in forum thread: World of Warcraft - Class Talent Systems Panel started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 244 Comments
  1. jonnyty14's Avatar
    I am nervous to see what they did to shaman
  1. swooshxx's Avatar
    Let me just say you guys rock!Semi-realtime coverage of slide-by-slide is incredible.
  1. Skurupu's Avatar
    WoW is a computer game, hence it's based on math. There will ALWAYS be a cookie cutter build, since one specc will always be better then the rest, based on the math behind them. No idea why blizzard doesn't see this.
  1. Lyese's Avatar
    Thanks for the info, folks at mmo-champion! I've been directing people to check the site on my server's Trade chat to get the details. I'm curious to see what will happen with these new talents.
  1. Eazy's Avatar
    I'm just waiting for the rogue... I hope they'll make the assassiantion spec for PvP.
  1. Yim's Avatar
    I think i'm going to have information overload lol. Great job on that though...Going to take a while to just figure out if I'm actually going to like it or not.
  1. Deatheryn's Avatar
    I am nervous for the changes they have made in general! I, for one, am tired of learning my main class over and over again! I wish they would stop being like prepubescent girls w/ their indecisiveness! Make up your damn mind BLIZZ!
  1. Lore Lord's Avatar
    No matter how much they try to get rid of cookie cutter builds there will always be the one combination that maximizes dps and that all serious raiders will eventually start using unless there is so much homogenation that all 3 talents you can pick from are truly equal but that defeats the point. This is a really dumb idea.
  1. Onagda's Avatar
    Cookie-cutter builds will still dominate the scene. There will always be a certain set of talents that will be better than the others, for dpsing, tanking, or healing.
  1. Bluedevill's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Oguobougo View Post
    WoW is a computer game, hence it's based on math. There will ALWAYS be a cookie cutter build, since one specc will always be better then the rest, based on the math behind them. No idea why blizzard doesn't see this.
    Ignorant. Utility decisions are not based on math, they are very scenario-based. Also makes it so you have to think about bringing more than one of a particular class, since 2 characters of the same class might have builds that give the raid unique buffs from each. You don't know what they are implementing.
  1. guineapig's Avatar
    New talent system is a bit like a mix between Talent Trees and the old Path of the Titans idea
  1. Smigel's Avatar
    Didn't all Warriors have heroic strike anyway?
  1. Nirosu's Avatar
    Just hope this talent iteration is a good one.
  1. mmoc1dea7d20e3's Avatar
    I just wanna give a shout out to Boubouille, and all people behind all this coverage and say THANK YOU ALL! - AMAZING JOB!.. You guys do so much for the community, Let's All bake a cake for Boubouille,
  1. mmoce3ffeea8b1's Avatar
    Warlock changes sound epic I wish they ad them in 4.3 :P
  1. Weiland's Avatar
    i totally agree with lore lord .. there will always be a dominate spec for all classes in the game. Blizz is in denial if they think this will change anything. It won't and you will get to sit around while patches 5.1a 5.1b 5.2 roll out with all new class balancing.
  1. mmocb372ace37b's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Smigel View Post
    Didn't all Warriors have heroic strike anyway?
    They used it as an example for Class Skills, They could have used Frostbolt or Eviscerate as well
  1. Buckwald's Avatar
    I don't know about how I feel about this.
  1. Vulryth's Avatar
    any rogue can have shadowstep? assasination is now viable in pvp!
  1. Strakha's Avatar
    What is 'Double Time'? The warrior talent they are talking about? Also shadowstep as assasination sounds amazing.

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