Originally Posted by
Pojodan
I like this for the following reason:
In a given class' talent trees currently there are 3-5 talents that actually alter the way the class is played. I'm a Combat Rogue, so I'll use that as an example.
Adrenaline Rush, Blade Fury, Killing Spree, non-dagger, fast off-hand/slow main-hand. Those are what define combat rogue.
31 points means 7 tiers, if they keep with the 5-points-per-tier model.
With 5 talents that define the class, that leaves only 2 tiers with filler talents, making each step up the talent tree all the more thrilling.
Also, it opens up the realm for a lot wider talent trees for more 'filler', but lots of possibilities.
I can see there being three different groups of 'filler' talents that populate every tier: Damage Mitigation, Damage Evasion, Utility
Say I'm in a guild with 3 other combat rogues. At present, only one of us is bringing anything unique to the raid, the rest are just plain DPS. I perform average in dealing with boss encounter challenges, one other rogue dies constantly, and the other is flawless.
I would thusly spec myself for Damage Evasion, talents that make me move faster or let me escape one insta-death per boss fight, or talents of that nature for my occational slip-ups. The second rogue would spec in Damage Mitigation, talents that reduce AoE damage, lessen big damage hits so they aren't insta-death, and slow DoT effects, letting the healers keep them alive a lot more easily despite their poor performance. The last rogue would spec utility as, since they can be trusted to move to the right spot and do the right things, they can be the one that improves the raid with extra physical damage debuffs, extra threat redirection, extended smoke cloud duration, things of that nature.
Of course there will be min/maxing by selecting all the utility talents, but it opens up extra leway for less skillful players to survive better, as well as giving options for guilds struggling with boss fights to re-spec into survival-oriented talents across the board so that learning a difficult fight is less stressful.
Here's hoping it works that way.