However, I thought it would be best to get my thoughts on the change out in a separate post. Personally I really like this change, the sense of specialising low level seems really awesome: there is now a massive incentive to get to level 10. It also gives direction for newer players. I remember levelling my first character, a mage, and being like: "Well I use frostbolt alot for slow, so want cast time reduction on that and fireball so i want cast time reduction on that.." and I basically ended up with some weird ass 2/7/5 build or something similar before somebody in the deadmines dungeon said I should really put all my points in 1 tree for easier levelling.
I mean, it's something that is overlooked by alot of the community, but personally this specialisation change is SOOOOOO good for the new player, clearly explains the role of each tree, locks you into that tree for 50 levels, 31 points, w/e it is.
Now, I'm not going to look at the trees individually with an analytical eye here tbh. 1) because all the trees seem pretty rough and 2) I haven't played some classes enough to be able to comment on them.
However, with this 1st pass of trees I do have some issues. My first Issue is that really "important" talents take up 2 or 3 pt talents in a 2nd tier of an opposing tree. I really don't like this because it feels like you are forced to put 8-10 points in this tree and you don't really have much freedom, something they want to advocate. Personally I would like to see popular subspec points (Improved Inner Fire, Deep Wounds) all moved to the first tier so you could get alot of freedom with those "extra 10 points".
My second Issue with these trees, aren't really to do with the trees themselves, it's to do with the feedback people give about them. Alot of the feedback is like "OMFG I JUST GOT NERFED QQQQQQQQQQQQQQ" and I'm like... what... When it comes to feedback about a class, I will never comment on the specific numbers of a damage/healing spell, unless there are certain thresholds that could improve the spell. Why don't I do this? Because commenting on a number game is foolhardy and pointless, especially in a beta. Wow you lost a talent that increases your strength by 20% O:, maybe you will be balanced without that 20% increase. Numbers are almost certainly the last iteration of any beta testing process. It is easy to go into whatever program they use for spell costs/damages they use and change a number. The importance is about design intention.
Like for example if we take the qq about Unbridled Wrath which was on the forums today, If we look at the talent itself it is like "Gives you a chance to generate an extra rage point when you deal damage with a melee weapon".
Now there are 2 ways to look at this: 1) The community way: Test it in game, find some numbers about it, and qq that the talent is useless because the numbers aren't right. Generally this leads to droned out boring debate.
2) The Testing Way: First look at the design intention of the talent, see what the talent is trying to give you, is there any synergy with other talents? etc. Then look at other talents and see if it is filling a satisfactory role, are there 2 talents basically giving you the same thing? Finally look in-game and find some numbers out for the talent, but only to see if the current talent is performing it's function or whether it needs tweaks.
In the example above: the first way leads to random posts on the forum like "I CANT BELIEVE UNBRIDLED WRATH MADE THE CUT, IT IS AN UTTERLY AWFUL TALENT" etc etc because at the moment it is 1 rage with a less than 100% chance to proc.
The second way, the way I would analyse it, says first: Ok, the general idea is to get more rage when hitting things, theres no real other talent providing this exact thing for fury, there are talents like booming voice and Intensify Rage that help Fury Rage generation through the applications of certain spells, however Unbridled wrath is unique in granting extra rage on hitting things. Secondly, this obviously has synergy with talents like Flurry and Single-minded Fury, these talents making you hit faster are of course going to increase the usefulness of Unbridled Wrath. Then I would go, look at numbers and probably be like. Well the way I would make this talent provide its functionality would be to either a) Have it 100% chance at 3/3 and grant 1/2 rage every time, or b) Continue for it to be rng and say 20% of the time but make it grant alot of rage like 10-20 or something like that. These 2 ways are wildly different but they are ways for the talent to have a purpose.
Ok, Sidetracked T_T. However, personally I love the direction these 31pt talent trees are taking. The 51 pt trees were far too big and overwhelming, especially for a newer player, most new players will only look for short term benefits, the worst cases being stuff like a priest going for improved smite early on in levelling because you use it over shadow spells. Now if you want to dps and level as a priest you get mindflay and pushback resistance immedietly as Shadow, that's so awesome.
Even me, a relatively experienced wow gamer, will almost always double check talents with some online cookie-cutter build from elitist jerks or somewhere, to make sure I am getting the right talents, because often-times they are confusing. The fact that GC has stated that the overall intention is that you can get every damage dealing ability in your specialisation then have 5-6 points to just decide what your utility will be and then 3-5 points in your sub trees is awesome. At the moment some trees are closer than others to achieving this goal, however I have faith that this will happen :).
Of course I am not sure Blizzard's definition of Utility co-incides with my own though, they might consider something like "Skirmisher" or "Heroic Fury", both basically increasing mobility rather than direct damage, as Utility talents, whereas I would consider them mandatory pve talents since less time moving->more time doing damage. I would much rather they have utility talents such as Furious Attacks (MS) and Piercing Howl (Slows) for me to choose between than Mobility talents vs. other talents, because the Mobility will always win.
Anyway, plans for today are probably to finish Durotar later, maybe I won't have time to put in the blog entry. Hopefully I will have all the screenshots and the Durotar area will be slightly less awesome than Echo Isles were and will require less video footage so I can get it done, regardless however the Troll starting area was awesome, great for new players and packed full of immersion and lore.
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