Cataclysm Class & Mastery Systems Update

[sleekit]

*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, yet Blizzards stock has never been higher, 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

number 7 in the top read storys no less.

which means it'll be all over the UK papers tomorrow probably.

concerned parents will ban kids from playing it (the details won't matter to many) and someone is bound to bring up the data protection act (which depending on interpretation makes this new use of personal information possibly illegal under UK law)

the world isn't california (where im sure this is all considered de rigueur) and isnt all on facebook and blizzard really needs to realise that.

its still off topic in this thread particular tho.

[ShellPhown]

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.

If you read the whole post you can expect boomkin to come at level 10, and if you get 2.5% instead of 1% per point the talents are becoming MORE VALUABLE omg, not so hard

[Sammonoske]

Glad I am leaving a few classes to level for cata. Some of them just don't feel like what I am spending talent points into. En.Sham for one.

[Tankbound]

The talent point spread, I'm pretty positive is going to be like this:

1 talent point every 2 levels until level 80, then 1 talent point from 81-85.

Something like:
10 = 1 talent point
20 = 6 talent points
30 = 11 talent points
40 = 16 talent points
50 = 21 talent points
60 = 26 talent points
70 = 31 talent points
80 = 36 talent points
81 = 37 talent points
82 = 38 talent points
83 = 39 talent points
84 = 40 talent points
85 = 41 talent points

As for the changes themselves. I'm disappointed we're going to have less talent points than we did even at level 60, it somehow makes it seem like we'll be weaker. Although I'm sure if it's put together correctly it will be a good change. As for forcing people to spec 31 points before branching out... it'll force people to not be so bad, or not realize they have talent points for 40 levels or whatever.

[Nicola]

OoH, can i has bladestorm at lvl 10 pls??
Ok this is just lame, really i dont want a priest at lvl 10 with penance outhealing every1 but a warrior that pwns every healer in game at low lvl.. I guess I no longer can kill anyone in the lvl 10-59 bgs with just auto atk now every class is going to get a handfull of high lvl skills at low lvl...

[frott]

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.

It already is that way... they can't change that with every 1 point you spend there is an ideal place to put it depending on what you're doing.

What would be amazing is if spending 31 points in, say, shadow gave you all of the shadow pvp + pve talents. But then they wouldn't have the illusion of "choice" that some people pretend exists.

bottomline is if i'm dpsing, i take dps talents. i don't take some garbage that doesn't affect my dps. the interesting bit is if # of points in a tree effects your multiplier for mastery, which would have people potentially stacking 1 tree instead of going to a diff one for minor dps boosts that don't scale as well.

as it stands if you take your current spec at 80 and dump points back into the main tree you have, the dps should be similar. so even if you're losing points, the points ought to be relatively stronger (people will not enjoy levelling with 1 talent point per 2 levels as it is). So cata launches and hooray you're pretty much exactly the same strength even though you're missing some talent points. If you get 1 a level with cata that's only a whopping 5 more to spend.

---------- Post added 2010-07-07 at 09:41 PM ----------

If you read the whole post you can expect boomkin to come at level 10, and if you get 2.5% instead of 1% per point the talents are becoming MORE VALUABLE omg, not so hard

hi, not so hard:

double the power, 1/2 as many points = same value.

[tusker]

To the people constantly asking questions which are CLEARLY answered in the blue post; do you even come back to this thread to read the answer, assuming someone is nice enough to reiterate it for you?

[Paranitis]

Idea: Good
Execution: Awful

The reason I can judge the execution before it ever happens, is just the fact that you are forced to spend points in only one tree until you get 31 points in it. Blizzard wants us to be able to feel like we are customizing our characters, but when we are being forced into choosing talents in one tree while we are looking at other trees and not even having a choice anymore, then it is a sad day.

They might as well just say "Pick a specialization" and then have the game automatically fill the talent points in themselves.

So at this point it is seeming bad things are happening.
For one thing, we will not have the freedom of choice for our characters for the most part.
Secondly with the RealID thing, while it does make sense as far as making people really be forced to decide whether they want to troll or not when we have their real information, the whole idea of privacy is blown out the window.

What about younger kids playing? What about people who are just trying to ask questions and get answers without having to put their information out there for people? What about people with unique names that ask a question, then all of a sudden getting people messaging them on Facebook or something about being a noob or whatever since nobody else has their name?

It's just not thought through at all on Blizzard's side of this.

[rkoehorst]

bb hybrid speccs

[Guenhwyvaria]

Well definitely a bit of nice news in-light of recent "events"

[frott]

Idea: Good
Execution: Awful

The reason I can judge the execution before it ever happens, is just the fact that you are forced to spend points in only one tree until you get 31 points in it. Blizzard wants us to be able to feel like we are customizing our characters, but when we are being forced into choosing talents in one tree while we are looking at other trees and not even having a choice anymore, then it is a sad day.

They might as well just say "Pick a specialization" and then have the game automatically fill the talent points in themselves.

So at this point it is seeming bad things are happening.
For one thing, we will not have the freedom of choice for our characters for the most part.
Secondly with the RealID thing, while it does make sense as far as making people really be forced to decide whether they want to troll or not when we have their real information, the whole idea of privacy is blown out the window.

What about younger kids playing? What about people who are just trying to ask questions and get answers without having to put their information out there for people? What about people with unique names that ask a question, then all of a sudden getting people messaging them on Facebook or something about being a noob or whatever since nobody else has their name?

It's just not thought through at all on Blizzard's side of this.

No, pick a spec and game type: PVP (Arena), PVP (BG), PVE

Then cookie cutter your spec. zzz.

[Recoverus]

Not impressed. Not impressed at all. This game is not evolving - it's devolving and disintegrating.

[Devia]

If you read the whole post you can expect boomkin to come at level 10, and if you get 2.5% instead of 1% per point the talents are becoming MORE VALUABLE omg, not so hard

Um...that's what I said? Reread it.

[MIQ]

Me likes :-)

[Erudus]

TBH I dont like this idea, I enjoyed leveling a character and getting a new point to spend each level. Between that and some new gear it always felt like I was progressing. New ability every 2 levels was bareable but still it meant you had to wait.
Of late I've been leveling a hunter and the pet doesnt recieve points each level and at times 4 levels before I got 1 more point. It left me rather bored with pets and not that greatly interested. To top it off it didnt feel like the pet was progressing with me as well at the same rate.
Who honestly wants to go large gaps in leveling characters with no feeling of progress and being more powerful or useful? The game becomes more boring and peoples interest wanes somewhat, I know mine does and I would imagine new players will feel it more.

You get an ability every 2 levels and a talent point every 2 levels... at level 10 you get a talent point... level 11 you get an ability... level 12 you get a talent point... level 13 you get an ability. Get my point? You're still going to feel like you're progressing since you're gaining something useful every level now instead of 1% hit for 5 levels... which TBH was quite shit, especially if it was a filler talent to get to the lower tier, nothing worse than leveling up and not gaining anything from it.

[xnickybx]

Some of you need to redirect your nerdrage away from blizzard and back at your lack of reading comprehension. Never once does it say a tree will only have 31 spots to put the 31 points you need to move to the next tree.

[Duster505]

I think this is a huge mistake and takes alot from the the game. Forcing ppl to spec into just one tree is potential game killer. How many healers? You are litterally forcing ppl that want to play healers to spec something else for long portion of the game. Instead of allowing them to spec healing and pick some decent dmg hybrid combos.

From my perspective... it makes WOW even more of a themepark... Its not like devs needed to control the first 40 levels ? The control is needed in the latter 40....

The potential of damgaging the balance of healer - tank - dps balance is huge IMO. Blizzard is forcing ppl to play DPS for the start. Its not like dps ppl were needed in this game?

[Lionhearte0]

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

It's still beta, which means they could change ooc to another tree or even make it passive, or hell an innate druid ability. I'm hoping for the last.

[Anya]

Sorry if this sounds like a silly question, but does that mean that previewed Talent Trees should now be considered obsolete ?

[Dryade]

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.

What are you talking about? What do you mean having enough points by the end of Catyclysm, did you actually read the Blue post?

Instead of getting 1 point per level you get 1 point per 2 levels, at level 85 you will have 40 points at your disposal. The talent trees are being cut from 51 Points to 31 Points, cutting out all the filler talents that 90% of talent trees do not need.