Had a shorter discussion back in T14 about the Tier 1 talents.
For reference, that thread can be found here.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...nd-discussions
I will not cover the talents again in terms of how the work and their strengths and weaknesses, instead I plan on taking a look feautring the T15 boss fights, using normal modes as a baseline to fit a broader audience. Anything that works in normal mode works in LFR. Most fights are the same in heroic mode, and for those fights that differ in heroic mode, I will assume heroic mode raiders are clever enough to realise this and reflect their choice of talent accordingly.
My plan is to cover all talent choices for each fight, give a brief comment and then a score for each talent on each fight.
The scoring will be as follows.
0 - Absolutely no reason to use this talent over another.
1 - You should really use another talent, but if you are really stubborn about liking this specific talent, "it feels better", it can work, but will be sub-par.
2 - Got some niche uses where it can be superior, but most likely will be weaker than other options
3 - A strong choice for some niches, but generally not the stronest. Pretty much same as 2, only stronger.
4 - A very solid choice. Very likely to be the best talent choice for a given fight. Depending on strats maybe this one / another one clearly pulls ahead.
5 - Without a doubt the strongest talent choice.
So lets get down to fight to fight basics.
Jin'Rokh
Movement: Jin'Rokh features very low movement. Arguably the only time you need to move is after being tossed. For this SoL will be the far superior choice. LAotL comes in a strong second for that purpose. The other movement you can consider is that you need to move the boss to a pool so melees can stand in a pool while dpsing. SoL is arguably strongest here aswell, with LaotL again coming in a (distant) second place. In the end, movement in this fight is not very important.
Talent Score
SoL - 4/5 Movement does not play big enough role to justify a 5/5
LAotL - 2/5
PoJ - 0/5
Horridon
Movement: Movement is not a huge part of this fight aswell. The little movement you have involves moving the boss, moving from (or to for vengeance whores) the double swipe, running between gates, picking up the adds, moving from the shit on the ground and the orbs. SoL is obviously the strongest for moving between the gates, but that is not really important in this fight, it can also work as an "oh shit"-sprint in case you need to move from something quick. LAotL provides a strong overall movement speed increase which is obviously weaker than SoL, but provides coverage for all events on the event, which on a fight like this, where you got a lot of minor movements, but none is really a matter of life or death is nice to have.
Talent Score
SoL - 2/5
LAotL - 4/5
PoJ - 2/5
Council
Movement: Again a very stationairy fight. Movement is limited to moving from the quicksand and the charge. or the sand, paladins have the unfair advantage of having Hand of Freedom. Nerf! The other part that may involve moving is kiting bosses from the healing add, if dps is low, bad stuns, bad slows. If you are using a ping-pong tactic and you are on the frost king malak, running around kiting / taunting off eachother to avoid getting stunned, SoL is a very solid choice. For other purposes, LAotL wins hands down just for the overall effect on the tiny movements.
Talent score
SoL - 3/5
LAotL - 4/5
PoJ - 1/5
Tortos
Movement: What movement? Jokes aside, SoL is very strong for avoiding the rockfall rain. LAotL is strong if you are kiting the bats.
Talent score
SoL - 3/5
LAotL - 3/5
PoJ - 1/5
Megaera
Movement: Moving between heads for rampages. In the end, you can do this with 0 downtime and no movespeed talent so talents irrelevant there. Secondary movement is turning the head away for breaths, if you are helping dpsing the 'kill' head while you are on the head that is not focused. Which you really should be doing. Movement is extremely lower either way.
Talent Score
LAotL - 3/5
SoL - 1/5
PoJ - 1/5
Ji-Kun
Movement: Other than moving to/from pools, down draft. Don't think this needs much more commenting.
Talents Score
SoL - 5/5
LAotL - 1/5
PoJ - 0/5
Durumu
Movement: Moving from the gaze. Colorblind phase is kinda irrelevant as tank. Other than that, just the maze. I heard some people prefer SoL for the start of the maze to faster get into position. Personally, I like LAotL more as it also helps more when inside the maze, for example if someone placed a bad purple pool allows you to cross it faster. I guess both points have their weight and in the end, movement speed talent on this fight is kinda mute.
Talent score
SoL - 3/5
LAotL - 3/5
PoJ - 1/5
Primordius
Movement: Kiting the boss, running around killing adds and getting mutated. SoL is fine for picking up the mutations, but LAotL does a much finer job at it, aswell as for the boss kiting. One could argue that movement speed talents during the actual kiting of the boss is irrelevant as you are not exactly moving at full speed. Which is the reason that SoL gets 2 points in the scoring. If your tactic allows your tank to get mutated within the duration of the SoL and get back on the boss, fine, but if that is the case, something is clearly wrong in your tactic, as that means your wasting DPS on the boss by having mutated dps killing adds or your tank is hogging dpsers buffs.
Talent score
SoL - 2/5
LAotL - 5/5
PoJ - 1/5
Dark Animus
Movement: Gathering up adds 1 by 1 in the first phase, running around positioning adds correctly making sure the anima gets into the right golems. Tank switches, if you use them aswell as anima rings. Getting ported away with anima swap duo to bad positioning. LAotL just works very well on the small movement adjustments and anima ring on this fight.
Talent score
SoL - 1/5
LAotL - 5/5
PoJ - 2/5
Iron Qon
Movement: Stacking up in P1, moving from the tornadostorm in P2, Getting a good positioning with the dead zone in P3, P4 pretty much standing still. Moving from the spear in P1, P2, P3. SoL works wonders on the storm, however if you have another tactic that makes you require no movement, for example warlock portal / priest uses warlock portal + grip, then you obviously do not need it. LAotL is more well rounded for the other abilities in the fight. So, if you are having issues with the storm in P2, go for SoL, otherwise LAotL. PoJ is just way to weak for the storm aswell as weaker on the other abilities to even be considered.
Talent score
SoL - 4/5
LAotL - 4/5
PoJ - 0/5
Twins - Btw, off-topic, why does every large raid have to include twins + council? Why never triplets or Board of Directors?
Movement: First phase really shouts lack of movement. The later phases is pretty much only moving the fire bi... fire lady... to the icebergs and not standing in the fire.
Talent Score
SoL - 3/5
LAotL - 3/5
PoJ - 1/5
Lei-Shen
Movement: First phase, I guess decapitate, never bothered to move from that, but others do, aswell as moving between pylons. Moving to your designated pillar for the transition phase, maybe you are in the complete other side of the room when transition starts. Moving into the balls. Moving back to boss after being knocked away in P2, again same as above for the second transition. Then ofc the winds in the last phase. Overall, LAotL performs the best on most abilities, but it has the drawback that you can't use it in the second phase unless you have adds spawned. Making it lose some ground there. If it was not for that fact LAotL would take the win here by a mile. Now it is more even. I still prefer SoL here though, most because of the oh shit factor. For some reason you can't soak the Decpitate and need to run, sprint! You lost track of the energy on a pillar and must move boss fast to keep it from overcharging, sprint! Great for getting into position in for transition phase, and if you have bad positioning it helps you reaching a bouncing ball. Also great for gap closing after being pushed back in P2 and the winds in P3.
LAotL provides a better overall effect in this fight, but I feel like SoL can be a bigger life saver if you lose focus for a second or so, so I would almost argue that it is the stronger choice here. PoJ is okay in the transition phase, but really shit in the rest of the fight
Talent score
SoL - 4/5
LAotL - 4/5
PoJ - 2/5
Overall:
Most fights seems to boil down between SoL and LAotL. Some fights have a few niche uses where one ability pull ahead over the other, so consider the tactic you are using and one talent can obviously pull ahead.
Movement is not really a big issue this tier to be honest. And most talent choices is pretty straight forward. Fights like Ji-Kun screams SoL, or the fights that do not scream after SoL, use LAotL is a good general strategy. To summarize suggested talents for fights. PoJ really falls insanely short this tier, it is just so inferior to the other talents. Other than the "feel" of it, it provides no benefit over the other talents. SoL have the drawback of requiring an additional keybinding which neither of the other talents require.
Bolded The important ones
Jin'Rokh - SoL
Horridon - LAotL
Council - LAotL
Tortos - LAotL / SoL
Megaera - LAotL
Ji-Kun - SoL
Durumu - LAotL / SoL
Primordius - LAotL
Dark Animus - LAotL
Iron Qon - SoL/LAotL - Depending on strategy / issues as mentioned above, SoL for tornado phase, LAotL for rest.
Twins - LAotL/SoL
Lei-shen - LAotL / SoL - Again, depnding on issues as mentioned above. SoL nice for 'oh shits', while LAotL is more all-round for that fight.
Now this thread was put together quite quickly. Any discussion is welcomed and encouraged aswell as questions.