Do you think a talent system revamp is in the future?

[Wolfrick]

If you ask me we are going to get the "old Talent tree System From vanilla"

Some Signs that is is gonna happen are these:

1st, in BFA... we got the patch 8.3 that had the Visions Talent tree...

2nd, in Shadowlands we got the Soulbinds... that again are a version of the Talent tree

3rd, in the Patch 9.1 we will get a Torgast Talentree...

4th, Blizzard has been working on Classic Vanilla and Classic The Bruning crusade.... and one of the major things for all classes there are their Talent trees.

5th, when most of the current Devs worked on Classic Vanilla... most of them said that they where kind Shocked how changed World of Warcraft had become from its origin, and if you ask me a part of that is also the Old Talen trees for every spec of every class.

6th, One of the major reasons they changed from the Talent trees to the current was was because the levels... was getting really high... and the talent trees where getting super big... so since they even Moved the levels back to 60 so at this point the talent trees would be way shorter and would work perfectly as in vanilla.
(I am saying Perfectly as getting 1 point each level... not that in vanilla the talent trees where perfect)

So, my Theory is this:
we are going to get a compleat talent tree revamp in the style of the Old talent trees from vanilla... and having a talent system like this on the Classes is an ever green power progression that we would have with us each expansion insted of all of this borrowed power progression system

PS: I know that some of you will say..... but it was a illusion of choice... but everyone will just do the Min/max build... but you would want to pick 0.5% dodge as a skill point in a talent tree...
In a mmorpg... having more chioces is great... and many many people really enjoyed having the talent trees while they leveled up... it gave them the feeling of progression and the feeling of choosing a path and where to take that path each level...

PPS: This is just my theory and something I wish for, not saying its a 100% thing or that Blizzard has to do this... its just a Theory and some wishful thinking ^^

PPPS: And just to make things 100% clear... we could get New Talent trees with the Looks and feels of the old Vanilla Talent trees style.... ofc... we would get a newer version and something way way more balanced and focused on...

[bloodmoth13]

nah the current system is fine, having exclusive choices make them interesting.
The last 3 expansions have introduced secondary systems which were basically different talent systems and none of them would have worked as replacements to the talent system.

I would rather a class system revamp where they broke up the current classes into loose specs ordered by armor class and magic school and you could pick any 4 specs from either your magic school or armor class. Current class utility skills would be pushed into magic schools so arcane school would have all the teleports and you could access them through any arcane spec.

The current issue with adding in new classes is that most remaining options are nothing more than one spec wonders or trample already worn ground. A dark ranger spec would be awesome and very popular, but it wouldnt make sense as a class. In fact we could use a plethora of different archer themed classes (shadow hunter, dark ranger, priest of the moon etc) that wouldnt make any sense dumped into existing classes or worth building their own class but are thematically aligned with existing classes and magic schools.

The current talent system is perfectly fine for the existing state of the game, unless they really shake up anything else i dont see the point in changing it.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Maybe they will make it even simpler? Maybe a direct import function that links to icy veins or someting to copy the latest build?

[Lochton]

Oh, I can imagine a revamp in the future, and I can imagine, it'll be turned into a cookie-cutter like all talent systems.

[Sondrelk]

I think if anything we are going ot get a talent tree that is similar to the one we have now, but with extra small choices that don't affect much.

The game has changed immensely since MoP when the developers were rying hard ot make WoW into a raid or die ARPG, and that rigid system was already outdated in Legion which is likely why we got Artifact talent trees to give players something more meaty to chew on to give the feeling of an old school RPG.

as @Wolfrick has pointed out, each expansion since WoD has added something similar to the old talent trees, in spirit if not in practice. So clearly the developers know there is a portion of hte playerbase that wants it.

[justandulas]

Title pretty much sums it up.

Classic and BC have had me recently browsing the talent systems though the years. In LK we got glyphs stapled on and Cataclysm was the first big change when the number of available points were squished. Then came MoP where we switched to the proto version of what we have now but you could borrow from each of your class specs fantasy powers. Then finally WoD brought the version we still have today. My point being every few expansions we seem to get something new, I'm wondering if after what's being suspected as an 'interlude' expansion(before some weird changes happen to the wow universe) we aren't due for a different take on talents again.

well, on the bright side, it'd be hard to make them worse than the unimaginative generic D3 inspired crap they have now. Classic-TBC talents were, and felt, infinitely better than today's every 15 levels new skill, but forget about new skills at max forever attitude of theirs.

besides, with this generation of WoW players? they'd be more likely to cut it down to 1 choice period rather than open it up more. They don't have the talent at blizz anymore, or the passion needed to fix this and any "fix" they would do would likely just streamline it further and cement it as an ARPG, not an MMO RPG

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Oh, I can imagine a revamp in the future, and I can imagine, it'll be turned into a cookie-cutter like all talent systems.

this. they will further mobile phone dumb it down, not enhance it.

[Lochton]

this. they will further mobile phone dumb it down, not enhance it.

Doesn't matter if mobile dumbing or not, it will all become cookie-cutter and time invested in it will be wasted anyways.

[ThiagoTorres]

Title pretty much sums it up.

Classic and BC have had me recently browsing the talent systems though the years. In LK we got glyphs stapled on and Cataclysm was the first big change when the number of available points were squished. Then came MoP where we switched to the proto version of what we have now but you could borrow from each of your class specs fantasy powers. Then finally WoD brought the version we still have today. My point being every few expansions we seem to get something new, I'm wondering if after what's being suspected as an 'interlude' expansion(before some weird changes happen to the wow universe) we aren't due for a different take on talents again.

Last talent revamp were cataclysm.. and really need a change.. Like they classic system? Maybe, maybe not.. but not the way it is now..

[paxen]

Current talent system is extremely solid, I hope they keep it. It's a balance challenge, as it always is in every case where gamers get choices (too often they're 'choices' with only one correct answer).

I think the biggest question about the current talents is if the developers should design in "talent paths", several talents that combine to form a playstyle, or design each row independently and let the players find the synergy. The latter is extremely vulnerable to talents only having one correct answer with more synergies than other choices, while the former limits specs to only playing whatever the devs think they should play.

I think they're mostly on track with the system for now, you can tinker with your spec by adding more buttons (or even removing them in some cases), choosing between more cooldowns for bursts or passives for constant throughput, or adjusting the time between your burst windows.

[Weeps]

I just want MoP rotations back.

[melzas]

Why fix something that isn't broken?

You want illusion of choice talent trees, go classic servers and pretend you are unique because you put 1 point into meme talent unlike everybody else who goes for cookie cutter copy pasta talents.

When I look at those "reduces mana of instant spells by 1% 5/5" talents on tbc, i can't help but roll eyes on how pointless those trees are.

[ceall]

i still stand with my opinion, that pre-MoP trees were better than what we have now.

Why? because pre-MoP I had my spec's entire toolkit at disposal. Now, i need to be sub-optimal on one aspect of the game, in order to be optimal in another. that's just bad design. I've recently picked up elemental shaman, and in order to do good aoe damage, i need to be literal trash in single target.

[Hastis]

nah the current system is fine, having exclusive choices make them interesting.
The last 3 expansions have introduced secondary systems which were basically different talent systems and none of them would have worked as replacements to the talent system.

I would rather a class system revamp where they broke up the current classes into loose specs ordered by armor class and magic school and you could pick any 4 specs from either your magic school or armor class. Current class utility skills would be pushed into magic schools so arcane school would have all the teleports and you could access them through any arcane spec.

The current issue with adding in new classes is that most remaining options are nothing more than one spec wonders or trample already worn ground. A dark ranger spec would be awesome and very popular, but it wouldnt make sense as a class. In fact we could use a plethora of different archer themed classes (shadow hunter, dark ranger, priest of the moon etc) that wouldnt make any sense dumped into existing classes or worth building their own class but are thematically aligned with existing classes and magic schools.

The current talent system is perfectly fine for the existing state of the game, unless they really shake up anything else i dont see the point in changing it.

in 7.0 it was great, you lvl up weapon while lvling, doing anything and everytime you checked class halls you got some upgrades. I rly miss old talent tress and rpg elements which were scrapped

[Razion]

Maybe they will make it even simpler? Maybe a direct import function that links to icy veins or someting to copy the latest build?

Simplifying even the current method of talent trees may be something they could do. There are quasi "suggested synergies" in terms of where the left, middle, and right all seem to follow respective themes from top to bottom that are on some level intended to work together in that line. So instead of people being able to choose any combination of left, middle, and right each time, instead you'd just choose left, middle, or right path initially and then at the given levels you would be awarded with the ability or passive that path gave you.

There's a ton less choice and combinations to customize play here, but "only three builds" per spec would drastically simplify the combinations of builds to a point where they would be able to add a TON more specs and classes into the game.

If anything, simplifying the choice of the talent trees down to just "three paths" would allow them to add more original specs and classes into the game, without even necessarily deleting any beloved existing passives or abilities from the trees.

[paxen]

Keep the 7x3 talent system, dump every kind of borrowed power, let expansion live or die on their content, not the shiny new abilities.

[Azerate]

The talent system has been working really well. If anything, they might add a row to it, but I don't see a reason for reworking it. You choose only meaningful stuff, not +1% stats like in the old trees, there's fewer choices technically, but in practice they matter much more and it's also easier to switch. I only started switching talents around at all once the new talent menu was made available because of how easy it is.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I'd like a full class revamp, thanks.

[Bloodyleech]

Snip

Ah, you mean the "just copy paste the best talents and never touch your talent tree again, till another combination is stronger"? Just as it is right now? We just don't have stupid "1% crit" talents inbetween.

[Kokolums]

While I'm not any happier with the current expansion(I didn't touch it or classic for 4 months and just dicked around on Swtor out of boredom) I'd like to point out that as long as it makes money it will continue to get expansions. I mean Ultima Online doesn't have a tenth of WoW's subscriber base and it's still getting updates.

I've refuted this one a few times. Corporations sometimes will close a business division within their own enterprise if it merely falls below a profit margin % threshold. For example, they might have a policy where if the net profit margin falls below 10% at any time, they will shutter the division. This is typically done if it is a high priority to avoid ever falling into the red. There can be various reasons for this. Ultima Online may have a different policy than Blizzard's on this, so it is useless to compare the two. Also this command can come from beyond the division itself, so the top execs at Blizzard might be in "operate as normal" mode where they keep planning out 2 expacs in advance, blissfully unaware of what Activision is planning. Maybe a few top execs at Blizz get wind of it and bail early, but for the most part they keep working on 10.0 and 11.0.

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The last report had a ton of new players joining wow and an earnings increase, there is no chance it will be the last expan.

Obviously, there is a huge change taking place right now with a slew of WoW players moving to ff14, and this is happening AFTER the last report.

[Crimson Spears]

Ah, you mean the "just copy paste the best talents and never touch your talent tree again, till another combination is stronger"? Just as it is right now? We just don't have stupid "1% crit" talents inbetween.

This is the fate of any talent tree... even at the high end talents break down to AOE talent, ST talent, and sometimes movement talent.

There isn't really ever a choice.