It is my opinion A New Talent System is necessary in order to implement more classes in the future. I can spend a long time making my case for this but first I just want to explain the system as this is only a concept and there are a lot of moving parts and room for misinterpretation. So let's get into it.
There are three sets of Talent trees, each set has two trees. A set of trees will be assigned to four classes. This may seem confusing at first but I hope the examples later will help illustrate this in your mind. They'll be explained in more detail when we get to them. Right now we are going to explain Tome Essences because of the potential negative connotations of the term "Essence" but that its not the same thing as in BFA. I have a more grandiose yet simplistic approach.
Tome Essences are part of one of the Talent Trees each Class gets. Tome Essences are rewarded by leveling/quests/who knows, this is not set in stone after all, just a concept.
What I want to drive home here is that, these Tome Essences are upgraded simply by using the ability, like Weapon specialization in Vanilla so to speak, hopefully it won't be as tedious but please keep that in mind.There are four power levels of the Tome Essences (not including the default level when unlocked or Essences that will automatically upgrade from character levels), take note that these upgrades can happen at any level. Take a peek below to get an idea of where i'm going.
You will notice that each set of talent trees has a different number of Tome Essences, this is actually to be done for several different reasons. The most important one is actually balance, each class requires a different approach in order to express their pros and cons. And of course this is also keeping other future classes in mind.
Below is a concept of the Rogue Talent trees, the layout of these trees may be shared with Death Knight, Druid, and Warlock.
Rogue (And Death Knight,Druid, Warlock Layout)
So you'll see that Achievement Points will unlock these rings that are chained up, this is to give a different form of progression not exclusive to level.
You can only have 3 rings active at a time. meaning you'll have a total of 9 Tome Essences active.
Each ring has a fixed "talent" that you cannot change.
Each ring contains a PVP talents that will be on during Warmode only, for now anyways..
Here is a concept of what an unlocked ring can look like, but nothing is set in stone.
The Primary ability in the center is fixed and cannot be swapped(
Each ring has a fixed "talent" you cannot change).
The Tome Essences can be swapped and not necessarily each tome is unlocked through quests but it may serve as a speed bump every once in awhile for all classes.
Note that these things can be upgraded despite your character level.
So Rouge would retain some of the current tree as well... its a bit lack luster I suppose but familiar.
As the previous tree was not level based, this one is.
Monk (And Paladin, Priest, Demon Hunter Layout)
So you'll see that this is very Artifact-esque however these cost 15 achievement points each to tally these up.
Only three of them things for war mode... like the rest of the classes(that's my preference atm)
Also this tree only allows a maximum of 3 Tome Essences.
So this is the Level based tree, nothing too fancy.
Warrior (And Hunter, Mage, Shaman Layout)
Yes. What you are seeing here are some actual trees, still a work in progress.
Costs 30 experience points for each talent point.
You start at the top of either one at any time and work your way down all three of the columns if you want to, but you can reach the bottom of only one.
If I did my math right(probably not knowing me) you can probably sacrifice some of the stuff at the bottom the trees just to get extra Tome essence slots.
The idea of Warriors, Hunters, Mages, and Shamans having this layout gives me good feelings.
This is a level based tree, and if you can't tell by now I have gathered inspiration from systems that have been in the game already.
Just a concept...
I know theres things on the right hand side of the screens like "Player Housing/Garrison" haha, this is just concept screens, don't get too bent out of shape over the minor details please but try to take this in as a beginning stage and it is still waiting to be fully realized.
The different number of Tome Essences in each tree concept is balanced through yet another system I have deemed Armor Glyphs..
So classes with the Rogue trees will only get one Armor Glyph Slots
Classes with the Warrior trees will only get two Armor Glyph Slots
Classes with the Monk Trees will only get three Armor Gyphs Slonts
The potency of the Armor Glyph effects will vary some will be different than other classes of the same tree because of the talents. Most of which I figured could increase the item in the designated slot to the current average ilvl but could do something else. Also you can swap these around a bit more easier lol...Its a lot to describe let alone balance. But keep in mind this is not simply for balance but to introduce new classes without a homogenization that I think this gets fairly close to doing. Either way this is a lot to take in and I can't blame people who want to keep the same system. I think this is a new approach that shows some promise but I know it requires a lot of work still. I'm sure there's a lot of unanswered questions or concerns so feel free to share your thoughts.