22 August 2010

Less Talents Means More Variety.

At the time of this writing, this is the most current beta build of warrior talents. Notice anything? Everything's changed. There were twenty-seven talents in the protection tree, now there are twenty. Even with just seven less talents, the whole tree looks a lot less cluttered. We effectively have our actual available talents roughly halved, so the changes about even out. However, a lot of people are complaining about not being able to dive into another tree until their 31-point talent is picked. A lot of people will complain about anything. The reason behind this is two-fold. Most importantly, mastery bonuses. Blizzard doesn't want people double dipping into both trees to receive large mastery bonuses before they are supposed to, part of why you can only get into the second tier of your secondary spec. The other reason is to not confuse new players, who are often overwhelmed by the talents and may make poor choices speccing into all three trees as they level. Sticking with a single tree helps a player create a cohesive character that can stand on its own without the need for outside sources to learn. In effect, this means players not involved in theorycrafting or min-maxing their characters will still be able to find a viable spec. Sure dps roles will always find a way to create the most "ideal" spec, but healers and tanks really are free to experiment. Once a base tree is put together, one is able to mess around with their remaining talents as they see fit, more so than in previous builds. In effect, Blizzard is preventing players from building crappy specs. This basically means any spec chosen will most likely be viable for it's intended purpose.

Ghostcrawler himself has stated that some talents won't be strictly required to hold threat. From the sound of it, Blood and Thunder, Thunderstruck, and even Vengeance the deep protection Mastery bonus will in a way combine to create easier AoE tanking situations. I feel that no one ability is good enough on it's own, however I also believe not having every ability won't hinder a tank's job. Or, if a tank needs, he can take a couple and use the rest in survivability talents, or even threat talents. The ability to do so much more with so much less has really shone through in these recent builds, and I couldn't be more excited. If you have alts, take a look at their specs as well, you'll see you'll easily be able to pick up most of the things you need, with free talents for things like utility, survivability, or just plain fun. Even newer players will be able to enjoy a viable spec that's competitive, but different, from more experienced players. More variety in choices means not everyone will have the same cookie cutter spec, something for which I am grateful for and quite happy to see.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned next entry for: Hit Rating, Expertise, And You.

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