So.. They are giving us choices by limiting us to only one tree, 3/4 of which we would have to fill up before we even have a chance of putting a point in another tree. Am i missing something here? Has the word "choice" suddenly had it's meaning changed to the opposite?
I'm not against simplifying needlessly complicated game mechanics, but this is clearly overdoing it. Yet they talk about depth.. Filling one tree almost completely before moving to the next is depth? Words quickly change their meaning when Blizzard is using them.
The funny thing is, they probably feel this will rid us of cookie-cutter specs, yet they don't realize that those kind of specs will be more prevalent then before. Cookie-cutter specs are usually a result of extensive testing of different talents by many people. When the the numbers are analyzed, you get a clear picture of the state of certain talents and how important it is to grab that exact talent.. With talent trees less bloated it will be even easier to figure out "that perfect spec" for a certain role. You can not make a perfect tree. Some talents will always be more favored than the others. That's unavoidable. If you want to raid high tier content you will need to put out max dps/hps/survival possible and you will only do it if you have a certain combination of talents and that is how a cookie-cutter spec is born.
The thing i do like is getting signature abilities early on. But i would gladly sacrifice that for the ability to pick talents from different trees. I can't even imagine how it would be like leveling a priest without spirit tap. And those 3 points in spirit tap were the only points spent in shadow until i hit 60 and switched to shadow completely. As i love leveling, i really want my leveling process to be as enjoyable as possible, and a great part of that enjoyment is the flexibility i have when picking talents. I guess that will be replaced by "signature ability"
One more thing. Blizzard should stop catering to beginners. Those who weren't interested in what talents do, and were just clicking them randomly after getting a talent point, wont change with less talents to pick from. I guess you are going with "no mistake whichever talent you pick" route. And i can understand that if it wasn't so already. I can't even remember how many times i've ran into a dude with 0/0/71 or 0/71/0.. So even now people are just putting everything into one tree without even thinking about it, so why are you forcing us, who actually know what we want and how to play, to play as someone who just bought the game and has no idea what's he doing.
I don't like the change but let's see what becomes of it.