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As our last newsletter came out, there were a few interesting developments from Blizzard. Starcraft II was less than a week away, Beta keys were going out by the dozens, and a few videos started going up from lots of different users, showing off the new talent calculators, and starting area reviews.
Being a fan of Tankspot, and the Weekly marmot, I have been catching up on the zone changes provided by Alieana and her partner, Ciderhelm. Whether or not you like them, the footage in their videos are definitely exciting for those interested in seeing the changes to the many realms.
Talent Calculator Changes
The new talent calculators, however, are even more exciting.
For players who have been around since Vanilla, and hoping for a real consolidation to the ever-complicating talent system, or just players tiring of the same old experience, the new talents for Cata are looking very interesting.
Some players are very concerned with the implementation of the new talents and their respective mastery systems, however. For instance, all those other Warlock players will remember the days when Sm/Ruin was an extremely viable spec—but those playing in current WotLK builds will have noticed that a metamorphosis, Chaos Bolt, or Haunt Warlock are simply too powerful in comparison to the old hybrid builds.
So for quite some time now, any Lock who didn’t go 51 points into their trees, well, they probably got a lot of flack for it. So how bad is it that the trees have been trimmed to a mere 7 tiers of talents?
Since, the trees have been slowly edited to favor deep 51 point specs, the reduction, and limitation, of each tree to 31 points, comes as little surprise to those who have been closely watching the development of talent trees.
Now, instead of filling the trees with a myriad of useless talents, each tree can feature a lot more interesting and powerful skills and buffs for each player. For instance, IS IT a bad thing to ensure a Destruction or Demonology lock actually take their now 31 point talents (metamorphosis and Chaos Bolt, respectively)?
After running Daily Randoms with troupes of newer players and trying, desperately, to explain to them just why Living Bomb, CB, metamorph, Chimera Shot, etc, are ABSOLUTELY essential… has been a bit annoying. Even more annoying has been trying to do the same thing to guildies, and realizing the ensuing embarrassment that resulted.
Now, the only thing players truly have to worry about is which tree will be the filler. If one goes Affliction, Destruction fillers will amplify damage quite a bit, while Demonology will amplify player health, resilience, and demon survivability.
I expect the difference between PvP and PvE specs to lie in just such a difference. But, even with the limitation, there also seems to be plenty of room for weighing the already high cost and benefit of taking certain talents, since each point is that much more important.
Case in point, a Demo lock will more than likely use Destro as a filler, but go between two different points as they progress through end-game content, Improved Immolate, replacing the glyph, for early boosts to damage, and then later to Improved Soulfire, for an extra kick to their haste rating.
Personally, I cannot wait for the near-final trees to go live in patch 4.0 prior to release of Cata. For players mainly interested in getting their high-level characters through the new talent trees and into the newest and coolest abilities, the updated talent trees are a sight for sore eyes.
What About Newbies and Rerolls?
But for new players, and those who want to roll Worgens, Goblins, or any of the new race-class combinations, the new mastery systems are definitely more exciting.
Starting now at level 10, every class will be awarded not only one talent point in Cataclysm, but also be prompted to pick their specialization, and being subsequently locked into that talent until 31 points are spent, and then rewarded with what used to be deep-talent tree abilities.
Resto Shamans get Earth Shield, Arms Warriors get Mortal Strike, etc. This really means that every character will now feel even more specialized right at level 10, and will be a lot more interesting to play. Added to the fact that each talent point will be much more important.
There are now more 5 point talents, and most have been reduced to 2 points. The major talents are still 3 points, but there really are very few if any worthless or unwanted talents. This consolidation and reduction of complicating filler talents are a welcome addition to the ever-changing WoW experience.
The lack of hybrid-builds seem a little disappointing, and they will definitely be missed, but the power of the early-tier talents in filler-trees will more than likely give players plenty of room to individualize their rotations, and play-experience. And play-experience is a heavy focus for Cataclysm.
Questing is a Changin’
Actually, it has always been a focus of Blizzard, but the length at which Blizzard goes in Cata to give players a memorable, meaningful quest-experience, rivals that of the Death Knight starting area.
Review after review is coming in from the Beta, and everyone is saying the same thing,, I love the quests. Anyone who has ever played WoW knows that the grind of questing is good for two things, power-leveling, and gear, whether you are equipping them, or selling them.
Now, questing for the sake of questing and enjoying the experience while you do it, getting doses of lore and enjoyable stories seems to be the order of the day. Improve the grind, players called; and Blizzard has answered.
Now, if only they could improve Outland… Thanks for reading, tune in next week for another update, this time, as the voice of WoW players sounds through the empty echo left by the release of another of Blizzard’s attempts to empty our meager checkbooks. That’s right; even I will be hunting down Kerrigan in the latest iteration of the epic Starcraft franchise. See you next time.
Til Next Time,
~The Cataclysm Frontlines Team
Dateline 10-07-10:
That’s right – it’s 
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