Are you happy with the current talent tree system?

Community General Discussion
1

I feel like I am performing some kind of sin by going to the forums to ask people for their opinion on something, but I feel like I need to ask, since I don’t see the talent tree to be the topic of discussion at all when it comes to how WoW can improve in the future/next expansion.

Ever since I started raiding in MoP, I’ve always hated the talent tree. At least for a raider who also does open world content, there is always 1 cookie-cutter build and most of the time, the talents are passive and don’t change your gameplay at all (some even take away from gameplay, like DH’s Demon Blades and Prot warriors Devastator talents) and a lot of the time, the talents don’t even work in your rotation or are simply mathematically inferior to the other options for literally months, but that’s more of a balance issue on Blizzard’s side.

My biggest issue with the talent tree is how little variety it really offers. I’ve played nearly every spec since MoP. Doing dungeons, PvP, PvE, leveling, open world and mythic raiding. And I have yet to find a spec that has at least 3 specs that both work and are fun. I’m not including viability in here, because how a talent works and the numbers blizzard give them are two different things.

So, my big question is: Does the community actually like this talent system?
I’ve watched countless videos and read loads of forum posts before an expansion is announced and people are describing what they want in the next expansion, and I’ve never seen anyone talk about the talent tree.

Here are my gripes with the current system, but keep in mind that my mentality is of a mid tier mythic raider who always wants 95-100 percentiles and an altoholic

Cons of current system
• Too simple.
• Doesn’t allow for flexibility in any kind of content and there is always a cookie cutter build for every spec for every boss and people rarely ever have to change talents in an entire raid tier.
• Leveling feels boring because you only get a talent choice every 15 levels.
• Some talents are often so niche, that you never pick them or even remember they exist.
• Was created around a PvE AND PvP game. Now with warmode, Blizz has the opportunity to start making a talent tree that actually makes sense in PvE.

Pros of current system

Very easy for blizz to create content around them. No weird talent builds that break things. Which is one of the reasons they changed the old talent system into the current one.

So TL;DR: Are you happy or unhappy with the current talent system in the game, and what would you like done with it?

6 Likes
2

I think they’re fine like they are now, but there are too few Tiers.

Add another 120 Talent Tier and maybe a 110 Tier and i am fine with the system overall.

2 Likes
3

I am happy it wasnt like before when I got ganked in the open world just because I had pve spec

On my dh it doesn’t feel like there is a cookie cutter build for everything, sure if I single target a boss I will always use the same talents but I sometimes go for a cleave spec for mythic+ or healing spec when I solo questing

4

For DH there is definitely a cookie cutter build. I raid with 2 top tier DH’s and even coach one that is nearing cutting edge and my main alt is a DH who is just above 370, and from data on Warcraftlogs/Wowhead, EVERYONE is running the demonic build and really only swapping out Trail of Ruin for Fel Barrage.
But again, I’m a perfectionist and I get my enjoyment from doing the top DPS, but at the moment there is really only 1 viable spec for DH when it comes to raiding if you want to be near the top of the meters

5

Yeah deffo need more tiers. God know’s why they couldn’t be arsed to add one this expansion…

they all so need to buff dead tiers. Like on my outlaw rogue there’s literally 1 build, then best for everything (deffensive/aoe/ST). So there’s no variation, which makes it dull. Same as my DK, same as my fire mage (change 1 talent for AoE/ST), same as my monk, same as my DH.

Basically blizz need to put some effort into it.

2 Likes
6

It’s been like this for basically every raid tier for 90% of the specs.

7

I’m OK with the system, but they’re maintaining it poorly at some points. We Paladin Tanks have had dead talents for years and nothing has changed with them. I’m looking at your ret aura…

1 Like
8

Yes but that’s something that will never go away, a cookie cutter build for raiding that everyone will use

There are still a lot of talents that you can use outside raiding for various situations without feeling as gimped as in the old talent system

9

Yes, there will be, but at the moment it’s a bit extreme. One talent system for ALL scenarios simply says blizzard have either failed to balance a talent tree, or design one. There are a lot of talents at the moment that are “targeted” at single target, but still outdo the aoe talent in that row in aoe scenarios.

A system I’ve been tinkering in my head is basically the system we currently have, but there are 2 minor talents beneath each talent that modify the above talent in some small ways. The design flaw I currently see in this overall system, not just with specific specs, is that there’s very little synergy between the talents because they can’t be modified in any way, so blizzard HAS to create a talent tree that has a cookie cutter build. I’ve played plenty of MMORPG’s and RPG’s with talent systems and they are rarely ever as simple as WoW’s, thus they don’t corner themselves into this cookie cutter build every expansion/tier

2 Likes
10

This is spot on. Surely it can’t be that hard to make an AoE build and a ST build, then a deffensive build for cutting edge/harder content. At the moment 2/3rds of talents are useless in EVERY situation for most classes at the mo. Honestly it’s really bad. Look at Path of exile where there’s hundreds of builds per class, that constantly get balanced.

Then look at wow, literally years till they make a talent decent.

2 Likes
11

For resto druids, most talents have a time and place atm :slight_smile:, depending on what you are doing and your traits you’re choosing.

So overall I am satisfied :slight_smile:, don’t really play anything else enough to give a status of those spec.

12

I am unhappy.
My reasoning is simple.
The talent tree is nothing more then extra’s we used to have.
I miss being able to summon unique demons or summoning healing treants.

And if we got father back.
Talent tree’s used to help give your charater an idenity.
Modern day talents tree might aswhile not exist.

What i want is that blizzard makes every talent unique.
Make it so they effect how you play your game rather then minnor passive’s or crappy skills.

6 Likes
13

Well, it is better than having a bloated up talent tree, that’s for sure, and I like the system itself, because it enables you to adapt to the game mode or other circumstances.

However, quite some points I dislike about the talent system at the moment allready have been pointed out:

  • Baseline abilities stolen and presented as talent choice (Poor purple Warlocks…)
  • No Tier after 100, that’s pretty odd, at least there should be a 110 Tier for every class
  • The talent choices for some specs are measly, BM Hunter for example. As a restodruid I am pretty happy with my talents, as pretty much every tier has a valuable triplette of choice and there are quite some synergies…but as a BM Hunter (for example) not so much!
14

No, I prefer the one that Vanilla-Wotlk had, the problem with it was that there was one definitive cookie-cutter build, while instead, there needs to be a varying amount of different optimal builds depending on your situation, which would be pricey to reset. This would lead people to, if not rich, make a build that fits the fight they are needed at most while still adequate at dealing with other encounters they will need to face, this would then differ depending on their playstyle and/or raid composition.

15

Too bad we don’t get any new abilities after level 80 unless we pick a talent at level 100. If not that’s 40 levels of the same old same old.

16

Why call it tree ? Vailla to cata the talent system looked like a tree but now nope.

5 Likes
17

The sad part is, this is what Blizzard thinks the current system accomplishes. They’ve said they try to accomplish to create a talent system in both WoW and HoTS that allows you to make your character unique and play how you want to and have fun with them. Yet they keep adding talents that are 100% passive and you never realize its effect and for some odd reason, Blizzard think that talents that remove your filler (I.E, Demon blades and Devastator) is fun. Sorry, but multiple moments of complete downtime and then not even able to play the damn game is not fun.

I agree with you, the current talent tree might as well not exist. I rarely ever change my talents and often my guildies who I raid with forget that there are better talents for X scenario, but they don’t swap because the game only makes us change talents about once a month, so nobody remembers it.

5 Likes
18

In a word, no.

2 Likes
19

I’m fine with the stuff that its giving me, but having it be more regularly whilst leveling would be much better. Now you level up and have very long periods where you don’t get anything and that’s just discouraging.

As for max level, well… I’d definitely like a new talent tree or new tiers to be unlocked at max level where you can unlock new talents and powers instead of this stupid Azerite system we got.

1 Like
20

I blame Facebook.

I dont recall Blizzard actually calling them trees, that’s more a player moniker.

There’s nothing wrong with the system but the actual talents leave a lot to be desired in same cases. Rather than say Blizzard fix X talent people go overboard and say scrap the whole system.

Blizzard need to be quicker to fix talents and to hell with special snowflake raiders who get upset when their class is 10 dps less after adjustments.