LAGWAR | GAMING'S BEST IN TOP NOTCH MEDIOCRITY

Only one day after the final wing of Icecrown Citadel opened Arthas was killed.  As WoW players we are now officially entering the post-Arthas era (for witty insightful commentary on this monumental achievement I will direct you here).  But what does that mean for us as a WoW community?  It’s now officially time to begin obsessing over Catalcysm.  Just like the day after Thanksgiving starts the Christmas season, Arthas’s death brings Cataclysm to the forefront.  So in celebration of Arthas being served up with a side of cranberry sauce, you (loyal readers) will get a few hefty helpings of Cataclysm flavored articles for the next few weeks…Bon appétit!

Cataclysm will remodel old zones, create new ones, add new instances, and of course, add two new races to the game.  But in the midst of all this upheaval many players will notice that their talent points have changed.  This is a perfectly normal occurrence and will happen to everyone when they enter Cataclysm.  There is a lot of rumor circulating so I wanted to take chance to explain exactly what (I think) is happening to talent points and what you should expect from Cataclysm.

Cataclysm is n yur points messin dem up

Let’s get down to business and drop the extended metaphor.  Here is the deal.  Cataclysm will raise that max level to 85.  With the increase in levels comes five new talent points we can spend in trees.  That’s pretty straightforward right?  Ok, hang on because the next part has people a little confused.  Blizzard has stated that there will be no new talents – but wait on that flame post for a moment!  What they mean is that the current talent trees will not get any longer!  Right now 51 points is all it takes to reach the end of any talent tree and that is staying the same.  There will be no 52, 53, 54, 55, or 56 point talents, however the talents that each tree currently possess are getting a Joan Rivers magnitude facelift, hopefully with some better results!

Oh no where is my 5% to crit!

Oops, there goes shadowform...

The big changes come inside the trees themselves.  While we are not getting any “new” talents, existing talents are getting heavily reworked, changed, or even completely removed.  The goal is the simplification and revitalization of talent trees.  Blizzard wants there to be fewer “cookie-cutter” builds and more room for creativity in specs.  And the first step is getting rid of the mandatory talents – the 5% to crits and 10% to healing type talents are gone!  But don’t despair!  They are not completely removed.  Instead these types of passive must-have talents will be bonuses accrued automatically for spending points in a specific tree.  For example, instead of shadow form being a talent in the shadow talent tree it might instead become an ability that you learn automatically after spending some number of points in shadow.  Rogue and shaman critical strike enhancing talents could also be removed from the trees and added as bonuses granted for spending so many points in a particular tree.  (Note: before you run off and tell your friend/guild leader/grandma that shadowform is going to be a passive talent point ability I should state that all those examples are fictitious but realistic)  Once the talent trees are pruned of these mandatory talents it will give Blizzard the space to add new talents (that’s right “new” talents).  The second change in the tree is in the form of linked talents – namely those sneaky little arrows from one talent to another.  “Oh, you want silence?  Well then, you are going to have to put points in crappy improved psychic scream, why? Because we drew an arrow there – see that arrow, hah!”  Those arrows are gone, at least in a large part.  The tiers will remain intact, you won’t be able to access a 51 point talent with one talent point (that would be silly), but a lot of the linked talents are going to unlinked or removed.   So for shorter attention spanners that want the bullet point summary here we go.  Changes – removal of “must-have talents”; fewer linked talents, “new talents” will largely fill the gaps where the mandatory talents used to be.

Scarlet is cautious optimistic about the new talent point changes

So what does this mean for players?  It seems like these changes will make the talent point system a little more like glyphs in terms of character alteration.  They will give you a chance to customize your character to your favorite play-style while retaining their viability in a group or raid.  Hopefully we will see less “cookie-cutter” builds and more guides that recommend spending X talent points in a tree so you gain the passive bonus.  Hopefully now more than ever before your talent point choices will be a matter of preference and not necessity.  Don’t get me wrong I am sure that there will still be talents that are infrequently used, but now speccing these talents won’t destroy your build; you will still accrue the passive bonuses from having points in a particular tree.  Done well the talent point revamp could completely change the way we view them.  Rather going online and googling the most popular spec and copy-pasting it into our talent tree players may actually decide how many points they want to spend in each tree and pick talents based on their own play-style – which I think is how talent points were always meant to be used.