Talent Calculator for Cataclysm

[Amokk]

On first glance I am not impressed. Less talents. Have to spend 31 points in your chosen tree before points can be spent in another tree. Looking at the trees I see nothing much making me want to spend more than the 31 points. I feel like I have had my choices severely cut down. Overall while it may not be true my feeling is I have lost a lot of choice and ability in the new talents. Classes will be more and more cookie-cutter. She the talent trees we have now don't offer a lot of differences between the same two Druids but at least there was a difference. Now you will pick a tree and then you are done. Going down the tree I see very little in the way of picking different talents. Very constrained.

Cataclysm Talents

Also have to remember it is beta so take with a grain of salt.

[Ashenfield]

Yeah, I agree with the cookie cutter statement.

There is essentially no room for any sort of hybrid build.
Being forced to spend the initial points into a single tree which takes you up to level 70 is certainly a step in the wrong direction.
Next step is to just pre-allocate the points for you and eliminate further any potential thought that could go into the building of a character.
meh.

[Amokk]

I was hoping for an expanded set of trees. I like the three distinct trees they have now and the fact that even in said trees you can be different. More DPS for Cat, more Tank for Bear. My idea would have been to see that go further and have a couple of levels in the tree where you had a choice of even two talents that once one was picked the other could not be taken. So I could take a skill for my cat that deals AoE damage or perhaps one that deals single target damage. So first I could specialize in the Feral tree then tweak further to be an AoE or single target cat. So each tree would have three levels where you picked one of two or three talents to suit you. But you would still be able to take talents in other trees instead of having to fill out one tree first.

I want to see 6 Druids in a room all tweaked slightly different. Sure there would be the 'ideal' builts but you would also get the weird hybrid builds and the 'works great for me' builds.

[Ashenfield]

Now, aside from what I've said before, ther are some interesting dynamics being added.

Mana Adept: Arcane will deal damage based how much mana the mage has. For example, Arcane mages will do much more damage at 100% mana than at 50% mana. If they begin to get low on mana, they will likely want to use an ability or mechanic to bring their mana up to increase their damage.

This is interesting and will add a bit more of a dynamic nature to my mana management and dps potential.
Now boss fights are basically a matter of unloading until I'm empty and then topping up just to keep going.
But with this system I may need to balance my mana regeneration with the added dps potential.

Arcane Missiles is being redesigned to become a proc-based spell. Whenever the mage does damage with any spell, there is a chance for Arcane Missiles to become available,

This should definitely change up the favoured arcane mage high dps spell rotation. How much will depend on the proc rate, but we'll see.

It will be interesting if nothing else.

[Amokk]

Interesting about the mana. Balancing a high pool of mana with the rate of recovery will add some depth and choice.

[Amokk]

Balance Druids get:

Eclipse: We are moving Eclipse from a talent into a core mechanic of the class and making it less random. Balance druids will have a new UI element that shows a sun and a moon. Whenever they cast an Arcane spell, it will move the UI closer to the sun, and buff their Nature damage. Whenever they cast a Nature spell, it will move the UI closer to the moon, and buff their Arcane damage. The gameplay intention is to alternate Arcane and Nature spells (largely Starfire and Wrath) to maintain the balance.

So we have to alternate spells to keep a balance. But if we just do Nature for a few rounds then launch an Arcane spell would it not deal a lot more damage? Or visa versa. Do bosses have more resistance to certain spell types? I don't see much benefit from doing either or.


HoT Scale Healing: HoTs will do increased healing on more wounded targets. The mechanic is similar to that of the Restoration shaman, but with HoTs instead of direct heals. In Cataclysm, we anticipate druids using a greater variety of their spells so there is a distinction between healing and HoT healing.

This is kind of neat, HoTs heal the wounded for more.

[dizzarian]

ok counterpoint time

I looked through mine and honestly don't see a difference, fewer points for the fewer talents I really use. Basically they've removed all the crap that no one used and skipped or only allocated points into to get the real talents they wanted so i'm not seeing a loss. The only possible loss I see is putting points in another tree early on but honestly no one should be doing that as it pretty much gimps you from the get go. I'm all for specialization and building cool characters from a set of talents but lets face it this is wow. It's not a skill based game like say AC, UO, AO, FE, etc if you want true customization you have to go to those type of games. Wow has a small set of classes and a small set of specs per classes it's just the way they want it.
From this I gather they want to basically enforce that, so per class you have 3 specs and those 3 specs you can basically build out for PvE or PvP, It's basically what everyone does anyways. If you look at someone else who is 80 now and the same spec chances are very high that you will have a very very similar build if not identical, most of the time it's only 1 talent separating them.

[Amokk]

You are probably right, most specs are simply exchanging one talent for another. It just feels like they are pigeonholing us into 3 specs and making us all the same. And yes they did get rid of some useless talents but looking at my Druid I still find I have to put points in useless talents in order to open up the next level so I don't see the benefit here. I still think you need diversity in the trees even if it is small.

[Ricochet]

Wow .........removing your choices since 2007.. 1 at a time

[Nidous]

It just feels like they are pigeonholing us into 3 specs and making us all the same.

You didn't realize this the moment you returned to WoW? It's been going on since TBC was released. This includes gear, specs, and playstyle.

[Ashenfield]

ok counterpoint time

Fair enough assessments.

It would also seem that with some of the new skills and dynamics they are looking to make the fights a bit more dynamic so that some of the "mathematically correct" talent rotations that people are using in fights to attain the highest possible DPS.

Moving toward a more analogue and dynamic fight that is based on realtime talent decisions as compared to the current system.

[Amokk]

It just feels like they are pigeonholing us into 3 specs and making us all the same.

You didn't realize this the moment you returned to WoW? It's been going on since TBC was released. This includes gear, specs, and playstyle.

Nope, never crossed my mind. I have respecced a many times, tweaking this or that, making by build a little different each time. Never felt pigeonholed. Looking at the new talents it seems like You pick a tree and take pretty much all the talents. Not much in the way of doing something different.

Then again all the other times I have played WoW I have soloed which likely changes my perspective.