Expansion: Mists of Pandaria

[ROFLBRYCE]

If you still pick a single class tree…. And can only spec into that specific one, and only get a single point every 15 levels- and they’ve taken many abilities away- how does that offer any spec diversity? It seems that having 3 trees and the ability to spec into all 3 would make for the most diverse range of builds. Like when I started, my lock was half destro and half demonology. You are one or the other now which to me, equals less diverse. Each of the 3 branches of the tree had talents that could help or harm you if you chose the wrong one. So if by more diverse you mean: instead of each tree having multiple abilities that you get to use all at once, you now have multiple abilities that you can’t use all at once, but you can now focus on a specific few…. then yes, I suppose that means more diversity…. but at the cost of losing abilities.

Even according to Blizzard about the old skill tree:

“In Cataclysm, we made some pretty radical adjustments to the talent trees. We really liked offering players a choice of class specialization at level 10, for example, and how streamlining each of the talent trees made room for meaningful choices and greater character customization. But it remained possible for players to "miss" really important performance talents.”

About the simplified MoP tree:

“We want players to gain access to important class performance abilities easily while ensuring that the more engaging utility abilities are front and center. Each talent set is comprised of three talents which fall into a clear "theme”. Currently, the goal is to avoid making any particular talent mandatory or to have them play a role in ability rotations directly.”

Basically summing it up, in their own words…players were missing important abilities so we are changing it all so it’s nice and clear and impossible to choose anything incorrect. And don’t worry what talent you chose, it’ll work regardless because there is no longer a need for a thought out spell rotation.

I’m not sure how that’s *not* dumbing it down since Blizzard pretty much, only in nicer words, said that easier and clear was their goal.

I will admit, that the one time I think the trees will be beneficial is in PvP… Instead of knowing what spec a player is and knowing exactly what talents they have, you don’t because now instead of them having every talent they used to, they only have a few.

From this I read: "Blizzard cut out important spells and abilities." as the main focus.

You still get the important and beneficial talents that aren't in the tree as passive abilities in your spellbook. I believe if you go to the WoW website and click the Mists of Pandaria talent calculator, it will show you a skill/ability guide that goes along with your spec. So important talents like your DW bonus for Frost DK's are added as well and won't go to waste.

Also on your PvP talent tree note, it'll make things kinda interesting, it makes me giggly to think about it. All of a sudden there's 3 rogues on you....with 3 totally different skill sets and playstyles specc'd Assassination. All of a sudden there's a lot more thinking to the spec, as there's different moves they may or may not know, and you've got about 4 seconds to figure them all out. The PvP will be getting a lot more interesting in the game for sure. I don't think they're dumbing it down though. And there's still a ton of things they can tweak and fix with the game, too. We're still months away from release. I'm still expecting another race/class that has the same "Horde or Alliance!" thing the Pandaren does. Which is a kind of neat addition to the game imo.