Ghostcrawler to substantially change talent trees in Cataclysm

[Tim]

Ghostcrawler, one of the Blizzard employees responsible for the current design as well as upcoming changes in World of Warcraft, had this to say recently on the forums:

1) We are changing talent trees, in some cases substantially. The major focus is pruning out boring but valuable talents that passively increase say damage or healing.

2) A secondary focus is to fix the clunky areas (e.g. warlocks having two conflicting range increasing talents). We're not going to remove old favorites or radically change the focus of the trees. You will definitely have to rethink your builds however.

3) Because you earn passive bonuses just for spending points in the tree, those fun, niche or utility talents won't seem as expensive as they do today. We want to create a lot more choices where you are choosing utility vs. utility. We want to see far more "cookie cutter" build guides that say "Spend the last 5-10 points where you want."

4) In some cases, trees will flat out get new abilities. These are in addition to the new level 81+ abilities.

5) You will get 5 additional talent points for the new levels.

6) We are not deepening the trees. This actually unlocks some interesting opportunities. For the first time, you can reach a 51 point talent and a 21 point talent in another tree.

I'll also add that for Lich King we just brought Naxxramas back and adjusted the bosses for 10 and 25 raid sizes. The Cataclysm raids are new content with new maps and new bosses. We're just trying to hit the nostalgia button with mentioning old foes like Ragnaros. Ragnaros may be back, but he's not in Molten Core.

Notice where he says "We want to see far more "cookie cutter" build guides that say "Spend the last 5-10 points where you want."" I believe the whole concept of cookie-cutter builds in this game is something that needs to be done away with. Personally, saying cookie cutter builds are OK with a tiny amount of customization, is a bandaid at best, and a bad plan at worse.

What are your thoughts?

[Tim]

Part of me likes that they aren't deepening the trees, meaning you can now really start to handle 2 trees at once, HOWEVER...

And this is a big fat HOWERVER

Won't this lead to further imbalance issues between the classes?

Doesn't this sort of reek of low effort on Blizzards part to not further expand the game abilities of classes?

[lofblad]

I think this whole thing with only giving us 5 levels more, instead of the usual 10, is suspect. Of course, they are doing the Titan path and all that to develop and specialize your character, but I think that's a cop out.

To their defense, they are doing a remake of large areas of old Azeroth, which is something they have admited takes a lot of development time for the new expansion.

[Tim]

In their defense, they are only going to rake in around $400 million in the expansion sales. That isn't enough to build a quality expansion...

... LOLWHUT?

[trowabartan]

Ooooh

Theory crafting talent changes is the best part of expansion betas~

It also doubles as the geekiest

[Buddhachriz]

I like toitles!

[Iru]

6) We are not deepening the trees. This actually unlocks some interesting opportunities. For the first time, you can reach a 51 point talent and a 21 point talent in another tree.

Me likie.

And making Azeroth flyable is a MASSIVE amount of work so it's not suprising they're going light on new character abilities.

[Tim]

I am a bit excited at flying in Azeroth, but think about this. Won't that lead to even more camping of noobs by higher levels?

Sure, I'm totally game for this, I love camping noobs, in fact, I'm looking forward to that. But really, won't this just create an even larger gap for new players VS older players?

The ability to fly is a huge strategic advantage when it comes to world PVP.

[Smithnweson]

No, becaue with the new expansion will come more phasing as you level, so you see the damage as it happens Also mines/herbs etc will phase as well. So you wont see stuff just disappear from an invisible person.

[Ualaa]

No matter what they do with talent trees, people will try to min/max and get the most bang for their buck.

It doesn't matter if you are into PvE and want the best efficiency for your tank, dps or healer. Or if you PvP and want the best balance of survivability/killing power. Everyone will experiement to come up with the best combo.

And once someone does more damage then you or kicks your butt in pvp, and does it with the same gear or possibly lesser gear then your toon has, you'll armory them to see what they have going. You'll consider trying their spec for a while, and if it works that's your new spec.

Over time, cookie cutter builds will arise.

It doesn't matter if there are 15 optional points remaining after taking the "essential" talents for your class/spec/role. People will min/max those 15 points as well.