Mastery System Preview

[santoslhalper]

This sounds awesome!!! ;D
Also, the fact that it's going to start showing up on gear makes it seem like Cata will be coming somewhat 'soon' or am I mistaken?

[Honeyprime]

Hmmmm. Very interesting indeed.

I am very curious to see how this all pans out. It will be really nice to not have to always chose certain talents and have more flexibility within the trees.

[Magnett]

If you can fit three of <filler spell> in between each of your <insert cool spell here> instead of your usual two, it qualifies as a rotation change, no matter how trivial. It's possible they have something planned for Frost Mage that will make Frostbolt filler, you know, and it's an example that applies to other classes (think SPriests and fitting Mind Flays between Mind Blasts, or Surv Hunters fitting Steady Shots between Explosive Shots). Don't focus on the literal to make them look stupid.

I understand what they meant, just pointing it out that their example was pretty much the worst they could have given. They should've given a less silly one, but then again it's such a huge post, it's not inexcusable.

[Karnige]

sounds a lot more like the pet talent trees. more flexible

[Rivin]

wat

He must've gotten it confused with the night elf racial of the same name.

[sealdonut]

I hope this doesn't just dumb down the game...they have to implement it right.

[Magnett]

He must've gotten it confused with the night elf racial of the same name.

Feh, good point. Didn't even remember that thing's name.

I hope this doesn't just dumb down the game...they have to implement it right.

What I hope is that they manage to make it so it's not either terrible or extremely overpowered.

[Leftineus]

Thumbs up. Although I think this will make some serious changes
to hybrids like druids. I am assuming balance mastery will focus on
+damage, Resto on +healing and feral on +AP. Since spellpower as we know it
will be going away, I think it will make hybrids a bit less flexible.
I don't think my moonkin will be able to crit a healing touch as big as
a starfire by the looks of this. Spellpower always applied equally to
everything in the spellbook, but I think mastery is going to greatly change
which spells benefit based on the tree with which they are associated.
The implications of that weigh more on PvP than PvE. I don't PvP, so I don't
care. I do think it might temper some of the complaints people have about
hybrids like Paladins and Druids being able to deal significant damage and heal
themselves in a DPS spec and kit. While as a moonkin I shift out and still cast a heal
it isn't going to benefit from the same +SP that all my DPS spells enjoy at the moment.

[sealdonut]

What I hope is that they manage to make it so it's not either terrible or extremely overpowered.

Blizz definitely needs to find a balance with them; I'm still looking forward to some interesting effects on the talent trees and possible shifts in dps specs. Seeing talents change is basically my favorite part of an expansion, along with the new spells.

[Awe]

Changes like these are good because it keeps the game fresh. You may or may not agree with them all, but it gives everyone a kind of fresh start. That way, things don't get stale.

This. One of biggest reasons why WoW is so popular is the fact they keep chaning and tweaking all the time. Other MMO out there are/were much more stagnant. I'm now on yet another break from WoW but I know I will be back at least to try Cataclysm. With other games it would probably be over for good.

[Magnett]

Blizz definitely needs to find a balance with them;

It took them ages to get ArP right, and I'm not sure they ever actually did, so I'm not very optimistic. They learn from their mistakes, though.

I'm still looking forward to some interesting effects on the talent trees and possible shifts in dps specs. Seeing talents change is basically my favorite part of an expansion, along with the new spells.

This is definitely what I'm the most curious about. If they want to remove stuff like passive +healing or +damage talents, how are they going to come up with enough gameplay changing mechanics for three trees per class?

[Silvaren]

I love it how people bitch 'n' moan about the upcoming changes being irrelevant or stupid yet they have absolutely no clue how the revamped talent trees will look like, how gear will be itemized and how current skills/abilities will be updated. You sound like senile old men - "back in the day, when I was a little boy ... yak yak yak"

It looks like total number of variables is being reduced, but they're working hard on a system where different stats combine together in a non-linear fashion, making talent, gear and (perhaps) rotation choices far from cookie-cutter paradigm we have now. New skills and tier bonuses will add a further layer as well.

[Nou]

seems clunky
especially since they want to not require you to spec into certain things...but wont having to spend enought points in a tree be the same thing?
kinda kills hybrid specs as well

hope they can pull it off, i like the idea just hope they get it done right

[Caradinist]

Looks great. Makes you wonder what exactly they are going to replace on all those talents that offer just passive bonuses, because there are an awful lot of those.

[phantomlink]

A couple other things to note: Currently, we’re not planning to retrofit the Mastery stat onto current level-80 gear when we roll out the stat-system changes prior to Cataclysm’s release

Awesome, which means I can keep my ICC gear and keep my passive ARP cap until lvl 85 heroics kick in

[Deleted]

Of course a pure dd can put points everywhere they want because the main mastery thing will be +dmg for them, but what will hybrids do??? I can't put any points in other trees for a raid because it will decrease my dps anyway (same for heal / tank / melee / caster). If I'm an elem shammy how could i put any points in resto, that will give heal instead of damage. Oh wait i want enhancement instead? But thats can't fit cuz it gives melee dmg. So all the hybrids will stuck in their main tree and prue will chose as they wish? Share if u have any better ideas.

[Offhand]

so basically 76 talents in one tree will be the shit in cata

Not really, when you compare the disc vs holy talents, you get 2/3 of the same bonuses either way. Not to mention, bigger shields is still useful for holy and HoTs off direct heals are still useful for disc. I could definitely foresee some situations where the mastery bonus of one tree outweighs the the gain via talents of a different tree but that's reliant on there being 76 strong talents in a certain tree, so subspecs will still exist.

I'm willing to bet the mastery talent for blood will be a passive ArP increase of some kind, whereas the unholy would be either a disease coefficient or an increase in magic damage (I honestly couldn't think of a good one for unholy, those sound kind of silly).

Additionally, I don't see how they're going to implement the difference between tanking and dpsing in the same tree. It was announced that mastery bonuses would be tied to presences/forms but we don't know how yet.

[Eleri]

Of course a pure dd can put points everywhere they want because the main mastery thing will be +dmg for them, but what will hybrids do??? I can't put any points in other trees for a raid because it will decrease my dps anyway (same for heal / tank / melee / caster). If I'm an elem shammy how could i put any points in resto, that will give heal instead of damage. Oh wait i want enhancement instead? But thats can't fit cuz it gives melee dmg. So all the hybrids will stuck in their main tree and prue will chose as they wish? Share if u have any better ideas.

Do you honestly believe that (to use your example of an Enh shaman) someone wouldn't spend 16 talent points in Ele to get large boosts to fire totem damage, double Maelstrom Weapon crit damage, and 9% melee crit just because it would translate to 1% lost melee damage over spending those talent points on irrelevant crap in the Enh tree?

[Doddilus]

so basically 76 talents in one tree will be the shit in cata

easily solved with diminishing returns

[ohshift]

Awesome, which means I can keep my ICC gear and keep my passive ARP cap until lvl 85 heroics kick in

they are taking arpen away from gear afaik