making play styles from past expansions accessible via talents

[Frolk]

Every expansion we run into the same dilemma. A spec gets overhauled by Blizzard and some players love the new version, while others prefer the old one.
Whenever they change a spell drastically or remove it completely, they should put the old version of it in the talent tree.

An elemental shaman, for example, should have the option to play his elemental the exact same way he did in MoP. There should be a talent build, that brings back the play style of MoP elemental.

good luck ever balancing that nightmare holyshit

[WintersLegion]

good luck ever balancing that nightmare holyshit

Yeah that is what I'm thinking. Just one ability could of had say 4-5 iterations that would mean there is that many talents for just that ability not including any normal talents that just adjust the ability.

[Schattenlied]

Yes please, hate current Ret and Feral designs.

[Lamora]

I'll go with vanilla frost mage.

To the Molten Core! - level 120 talent

You are no longer able to cast Frozen Orb, Summon Water Elemental, Flurry, Ebon Bolt, Ice Lance, Ice Nova, Ray of Frost, Comet Storm, Frost Bomb, Glacial Spike, Ice Flows, Icy Veins or Time Warp.

You gain Arcane Power, Presence of Mind and your Frost Bolts deal 250% increased damage.

[ComputerNerd]

No, because some would not be possible to be balanced against current talents.
Plus mechanics-wise the game has changed.
Stats have changed in behaviour and scale which is why any attempt to re-create something from the past has failed with timewalking.
No number tweaking will ever replicate the experience, and even content at lower levels due to game changes isn't the same was it was.

[Twdft]

good luck ever balancing that nightmare holyshit

To balance it they could just make a permanent debuff "deals 50% less damage overall".

OP wanted just the play style back, it should never be even remotely competetive to the current class designs.

[Deleted]

No, because some would not be possible to be balanced against current talents.

there are 2 knobs Blizzard can tune on any given talent:

- direct/indirect damage increase
- probability of the corresponding proc

ANY talent can be balanced with these 2. there can be 100 different talents for frost mages and you can still balance them just as well as you can balance the current talents.

[Restors]

Every expansion we run into the same dilemma. A spec gets overhauled by Blizzard and some players love the new version, while others prefer the old one.
Whenever they change a spell drastically or remove it completely, they should put the old version of it in the talent tree.

An elemental shaman, for example, should have the option to play his elemental the exact same way he did in MoP. There should be a talent build, that brings back the play style of MoP elemental.
If a fire mage liked the play style of Cataclysm, then he should be able to spec into talents that allow for exactly that play style now in Legion.
Instead of removing the hunter survival play style completely, they should have just made a talent build for MM hunters that feels exactly like survival did in WoD.

...

You get the point. It just feels like a waste when they simply trash a spec that players really loved to play.

If they advertised the next expansion with "play your class the way you loved to play it in any previous expansion" then LOADS of people will come back.

Balance won't be an issue, because number tuning is always the solution. A spec is over-performing because of gear scaling? Nerf some of the coefficients and it's in line again with all the other builds.

Oh how I would love to play WOD - Blackrock Foundry Demo Warlock again, Demon bolt build with that tier were so much fun and enjoyable.
Or wotlk / cata affli, wotlk destro, MOP Fury...

To hell with balancing!!! I second this opinion!!!

[Shahad]

Thats the thing you think it's the MoP incarnation others think it's Cata others Wrath and so on.

Wrath was still mostly rotation-based, which I think we can get the majority to agree wasn't the best. It's true in some cases the Cata designs had some strong points, and I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard to integrate them. But in a lot of cases the MoP design is indeed the best, and it would be difficult to argue otherwise.

[Deleted]

I was in love with the WOTLK fire mage.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Oh yeah, because they don't already have enough of a hard time balancing everything...
As much as I'd love to have my SV spec back, times change and things move forward.

[Deleted]

I'll go with vanilla frost mage.

To the Molten Core! - level 120 talent

You are no longer able to cast Frozen Orb, Summon Water Elemental, Flurry, Ebon Bolt, Ice Lance, Ice Nova, Ray of Frost, Comet Storm, Frost Bomb, Glacial Spike, Ice Flows, Icy Veins or Time Warp.

You gain Arcane Power, Presence of Mind and your Frost Bolts deal 250% increased damage.

Haha yes! I remember the damage meter stats!

97% frostbolt
1% arcane explosion
1% fireblast
1% wand

[Dhrizzle]

Wrath was still mostly rotation-based, which I think we can get the majority to agree wasn't the best. It's true in some cases the Cata designs had some strong points, and I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard to integrate them. But in a lot of cases the MoP design is indeed the best, and it would be difficult to argue otherwise.

Late TBC prot. warrior and mid WotLK Destro-lock were the best iterations of those specs (in my opinion) but the game would have to be rebalanced to take a lack of AoE tanking into account.

[Baelic]

Dark Intent Warlocks + Surrender To Madness Shadow Priests...

That's why this won't happen.

[Dhrizzle]

Dark Intent Warlocks + Surrender To Madness Shadow Priests...

That's why this won't happen.

Wouldn't they all be specced for Shadow Bolt spam and Shadow Weaving?

[FelPlague]

That would be really cool but unfortunately all the elitist players would just play the same old boring cookie cutter builds, no innovation

this all of this, i would love like diablo us to have choice of multiple sets to choose from, but the elite would choose all the same best set so..

[Baelic]

Wouldn't they all be specced for Shadow Bolt spam and Shadow Weaving?

Well, the idea is that players would pick the "Expansion" and Talents they want. So it stands to reason that at least some would pick Cata and have Dark Intent (I think it was a baseline spell anyway?)

[A dot Ham]

Every expansion we run into the same dilemma. A spec gets overhauled by Blizzard and some players love the new version, while others prefer the old one.
Whenever they change a spell drastically or remove it completely, they should put the old version of it in the talent tree.

An elemental shaman, for example, should have the option to play his elemental the exact same way he did in MoP. There should be a talent build, that brings back the play style of MoP elemental.
If a fire mage liked the play style of Cataclysm, then he should be able to spec into talents that allow for exactly that play style now in Legion.
Instead of removing the hunter survival play style completely, they should have just made a talent build for MM hunters that feels exactly like survival did in WoD.

...

You get the point. It just feels like a waste when they simply trash a spec that players really loved to play.

If they advertised the next expansion with "play your class the way you loved to play it in any previous expansion" then LOADS of people will come back.

Balance won't be an issue, because number tuning is always the solution. A spec is over-performing because of gear scaling? Nerf some of the coefficients and it's in line again with all the other builds.

I'm not sure I see that working out logistically.

But I wish shit wouldn't change every xpac, change of the sake of change is not fun.

Its like fucking apple changing how itunes functions. You guys are morons, and now I can't find anything. Why are subscription based on demand music services beating apple? Hmmm... I wonder.

[Dhrizzle]

Well, the idea is that players would pick the "Expansion" and Talents they want. So it stands to reason that at least some would pick Cata and have Dark Intent (I think it was a baseline spell anyway?)

Yeah, but the TBC combo boosts each other's damage and provides free raid healing and mana regen.

[lolbubble]

They would spend more time balancing than developing content.