Cataclysm Class & Mastery Systems Update

[elcher]

wooooow, no comment really.

too buffeted by this blast to think... anything..

[Umbrokill]

Why not choosing your specialization at lvl 10 and then watch your tree fill up automatically without you choosing ANY talents? That would make Blizzard's job at balancing much easier imo.

Seriously now, I am expecting to see a homogenization across classes. E.g. all warrior tanks with the same spec etc. I am playing this game for the (narrow) window of ability customization it offered me. I 'm feeling quite disappointed now.

Did you even read the blue post? it they are removing the boring talents, this way the talents can help you customize your talent tree to the playstyle you prefer!

[ScorchHellfire]

no moar cooky cutter specs....YEEY!!!

Doubtful...

[Snoogle]

The talent trees have 31 points EACH and you gain 41 talent points TOTAL

Next thing i see will be "pay to ding 80"

No, they don't, they have 38-42 points in total.
Stop being silly.
31 is the amount you have to put into the tree to get the last talent point, what's the difference in that from before?
There's atleast as much diversity as before, you need a total of 31 points in the tree, and you can choose among a bunch of talents which to choose, because you can't get everything and still go into another tree.

[Vasz]

No, they don't, they have 38-42 points in total.
Stop being silly.
31 is the amount you have to put into the tree to get the last talent point, what's the difference in that from before?
There's atleast as much diversity as before, you need a total of 31 points in the tree, and you can choose among a bunch of talents which to choose, because you can't get everything and still go into another tree.

Please calm down. I posted that over 2 hours ago before more information came to light.

Crabman said: "They have 38-42 or so points in them. You could spend all 41 points in one tree, though often you'll want a 5/5/31 or a 0/7/34 build instead. Every talent is 1, 2 or 3 talent points. Earlier levels have about 8 points on them (typically a 2, 2, 3) and deeper levels have about 5 points on them (typically a 1, 2, 3)."

[JohnnyElvis]

lvl 10 shadowstep...


WOW.

[sleekit]

with skills all scaling with level and a talent point only every couple of levels i think this is gonna take the fun out of dinging and getting new skill upgrades and talents at least some of the time.

[Joshlin]

So much for Omen of Clarity at those lower levels as Feral. :C

what low lvl feral would actually get OOC... r u kidding me?

[CaptainClaw]

Brilliant changes. As things stand I hardly feel I have a spec at all until lv40, maybe higher. This will change all of that and make leveling a new toon awesome.
Cutting back on the shitty talents also gets a big thumbs up from me. As a Priest, I can only pray that Lolwell finally gets dumped.

With such a massive subscription base it would have been so easy for Blizzard to do nothing and stick to what they know has worked in the past, however to have to courage in their convictions and implement such a massive change just shows why they lead the world in game design.

[Jaronicity]

So basically. "Welcome to WoW SWTOR edition."

This was exactly what I was thinking when I read the post by Blizz haha. Still, if it proves interesting enough, it might persuade me to reactivate. Looks interesting and possibly exciting to be sure.

[AlarStormbringer]

I'm curious about having to "learn" Mastery. Does this mean that the Mastery bonuses (the passive benefits we get to our skill trees through investing points in them) will not actually work until that level? Or does it simply mean we are unable to get extra points through Mastery stats to increase it beyond what we're already given from the amount of points invested?

[thayn33]

The original passive Mastery bonuses players were to receive according to how they spent points in each tree are being replaced by the automatic passive bonuses earned when a tree specialization is chosen. These passives are flat percentages and we no longer intend for them to scale with the number of talent points spent. The Mastery bonus that was unique to each tree will now be derived from the Mastery stat, found on high-level items, and Mastery will be a passive skill learned from class trainers around level 75. In most cases, the Mastery stats will be the same as the tree-unique bonuses we announced earlier this year. These stats can be improved by stacking Mastery Rating found on high-level items.


So will the first two flat percentages scale? So say its 5% crit or 5% defense. is that 5% of what you current crit or defense rating is?

[sleekit]

blizzard: we are going to give you more choice by giving you less choice.
one half of the playerbase: \o/ yeh !
other half of the player base: wait wut ?!

So basically. "Welcome to WoW SWTOR edition."

was thinking that too tbh.

[AlarStormbringer]

Sorry I didn't ask this in my first question, but it seems like they're severely cutting back on talent points we're receiving. Does this mean that, by the end of Cataclysm, we will see roughly half as many talents as there currently are? Or simply that we will not be given enough talent points to invest as far as we currently can? Right now, as the state of Cataclysm is, we will have 76 talent points to spend on a myriad of talents. Lots, and lots of talents with lots of choices. We would be getting shoehorned into only taking the MOST ESSENTIAL abilities for our specs if the number is reduced but talents aren't.

[frott]

NOT INTERESTING.

I'm level 80. I have little or no interest in how 1-80 has changed.

[Arc-lance]

*sigh* Chances are this game won't even make it to Cataclysm. BBC is involved with this forum business, and now its rumoured CBC is preparing an article, and now this abomination. Don't they realise social games DON'T work? I used to play a social game, and they ruined it aswell due to the fact you needed to pay - noone wanted to subscribe to what basically became a forum.

And the sad thing for me is, Blizzards stock INCREASED, by 2.83%. That being said, if they go through with the forum changes, they will be bankrupted by civil suits - its already been proven that with a persons name there is nothing to stop a person with the know how, from finding out everything about someone.

"Mr Brand said that one Blizzard employee posted his real name on the forums, saying that there was no risk to users, and the experiment went drastically wrong.

"Within five minutes, users had got hold of his telephone number, home address, photographs of him and a ton of other information," said Mr Brand"

(Quote from the BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10543100.stm

[sleekit]

NOT INTERESTING.

I'm level 80. I have little or no interest in how 1-80 has changed.

you under some kind of delusion that you are going to keep your existing talent tree or something ?

[Maklor]

NOT INTERESTING.

I'm level 80. I have little or no interest in how 1-80 has changed.

Thanks for that useful info.

[frott]

blizzard: we are going to give you more choice by giving you less choice.
one half of the playerbase: \o/ yeh !
other half of the player base: wait wut ?!

was thinking that too tbh.

exactly.

blizzard: we're removing all the boring things but now requiring you to go deeper with useful things and giving you the boring things passively.

also, we're lessening the total number of points you get so you can't hybrid, but also requiring how many points you spend in a tree before putting points elsewhere.

so basically a bunch of changes for the hypothetical people who haven't played the game yet, while those of us who just want new abilities and content get the truffle shuffle.

[Devia]

Some of you are so daft. Don't you get it? They aren't making talents LESS valuable, they are just compacting them. So instead of spending 5 points in a talent to get 1/2/3/4/5% more damage, it's more like spending 2 points to get 2.5/5% more damage(yes I know they are taking out talents like this that are considered mandatory, it's just an example).

You're still going to get boomkin at level 40, it will just take you ~15 talent points to get there instead of 31.