New Mists of Pandaria Talent System.

[Wifeyberk]

http://eu.battle.net/blizzcon/en/blog/3167724#blog

Take a gander and give me your opinions. I'm not sure it'll do Blizz any favours considering that soon a good percentage of their members are going to join the ranks of the Jedi in SWGTOR.

I just think they're making more of a mess of the situation and a lot of players are calling for the vanilla system to come back.

Opinions please. (Felt like saying answers on a postcard for some mad reason there!)

[Joose]

How odd. So, they are improving your choice by removing choices?

Seems like they are trying to fix something that wasn't broken. Or, maybe more accurately, they have something that was only slightly broken, and rather than fix it they have entirely replaced it with something that may or may not be just as broken, just in different ways. Bizarre.

Also, they say:

Even after players have activated their talents, they won't be completely locked into their choices as they are now. If at any point a player feels that another talent may be more appropriate or fun, he or she can simply select that talent from their tree and click "Learn" again.

but then they say

re-talenting will most likely be disabled during combat and will incur a small fee (either in the form of gold or a reagent)

So....how is that different exactly?

[Wifeyberk]

I don't think it is different. You can't respecc mid combat now anyway.

And although it doesn't cost g's to respecc, it does cost mana or the like. making it take g's or something seems a bit unfair.

[Fred Woogle]

There's a better look at it here - http://www.wowhead.com/guide=5.0&talents and the Talent calculator here - http://www.wowhead.com/mists-of-pandari ... calculator
All subject to change or could be wrong though I guess?

As a Tankadin, if you look at the level 45 selections, there a 3 skills I use all the time, the first I can live without which is Blessed Life
Blessed Life - Gives you a charge of HP whenever you get Stunned, Immobilised, Feared, ect. Can happen every 8seconds.
Sacred Shield - When reduced below 30% Health, you gain a shield which absorbs about 18k damage and increases healing received by 20% for 15seconds. It can happen every 60seconds.
Ardent Defender - Reduces damage by 20% for 10seconds, while it is active, the next attack that would kill you, heals you for 15% of your maximum health. It is a life saver which a few times on boss fights has been the difference between a kill and Death. 3minute CD

So out of 3 talents, 2 are extremely helpful and I will be losing one of them... Overall Sacred Shield can have more uptime, which makes life a little easier for the healers, but AD really can be a life saver. Grrrrrrrr

[FatherJack]

I like the idea about making talents toggled, so you can respec fairly easily, as I'm particularly guilty of just clicking talents that sound cool which turn out not to be very good.

I don't like that you don't get little upgrades every level, but only every six. I loved how with a DK you'd get new toys pretty much every level and thought that was the new model contrasting with the old one where you only ever got stuff on even-numbered levels, sometimes at bigger intervals.

I worry about the fact you might have to spend gold to change, though. What they say is a small amount is very probably a large amount to me.

[Wifeyberk]

I worry about the gold aspect of things too. Because I'm not rich, and i tend to pay overpriced for things on AH because i can't be arsed to farm shit.

I hope they don't fuck wow over. Again.

I can't see this ending well narf.

[Fred Woogle]

I worry about the fact you might have to spend gold to change, though. What they say is a small amount is very probably a large amount to me.

But gold really is that hard to come by nowadays, I haven't really played except for raids for the past few weeks, just done the pilgrims bounty stuff and ruby sanctum 25man hc and obsidium sanctum 25man, and a couple of dungeons yesterday, and I'm up about 1.5-2k, and have spent quite a bit 350g or something twice on 2rings, and making some leg armour today which probably cost me about 500g, and I'm respeccing 2-4items once or twice a week, sometimes more. Although I don't have to pay for enchants, most gems or any raid supplies.

I don't do dailies, but when I do I make quite a bit out of that, 25g or so each, can do 10 in less than half hour.

[Wifeyberk]

It's the principal of the thing, especially considering when i was levelling my first char, I never had much gold, i think that is normal for n00bs, and are wow taking that on board? If they are then surely they're making the new systems a deterrent for new people because they're making the new talent points significantly more unappealing, and the chance to earn a decent amount of gold whilst levelling even tougher, especially if you have different talents you have to pay for.

[Anery]

Theory #1: Blizzard are running scared now, Activision are wanting MOAR DOLLA NAOW! and the team is being forced to make another expansion. As the majority of their talent must have already been drafted into other projects (Titan, Diablo, Starcraft) they appear to have lost their edge in turns of originality. They have studied the trend of upcoming MMOs and are trying to shoehorn these ideas into a new expansion to keep Warcrack competitive against SWTOR and GW2. Problem is, they won't. Everything they are introducing (apart from the Pandas) is unoriginal and if not already done by somebody else (Pokemon, WAR, LOTRO) is being introduced in rival games (TSW, GW2) This flat talent tree system is their attempt to become as classless as possible as this is currently trending quite high amongst MMO players and designers. You will know they are truly desperate when they announce player housing.
Theory #2: Mike Morhaime is a cupcake.

If you see Pandas jumping sharks in the game then you know that the devs agree.

[Wifeyberk]

Have you seen the new 12 months sign up thing?

If you agree to play WoW for 12 months (no contract, no fee up front or anything) you can get :

Tyrael's charge mount on all chars,

Free Diablo 3

To beta test Mists of Pandaria.

They're trying too hard to keep people on board, and it's showing.

[Killavodka]

You pay up front, I checked. Therefore not signed, Cataclysm is probably the last WoW expansion I will pay for...

**edit: But you can choose to pay it monthly**

[Dr. kitteny berk]

You don't pay anything extra as such, you just agree to a contract where you maintain a sub for 1 year.

[Killavodka]

You don't pay anything extra as such, you just agree to a contract where you maintain a sub for 1 year.

[Wifeyberk]

yes but if you're subbing anyways and want to play the game for a yr then you're not paying extra.

[Jimmington]

Out of interest, anyone ere quit playing WoW for a long period of time and thinking of going back to it?
I quit playing as Cata hit - short version is I got the hump that they reset my quest done in zone tally. I cancelled there and then, and pretty much did not look back. I then remembered I had children, and enjoyed spending time with them rather than being a grumpy beast due to overplaying, so was very pleased to have stopped. Around a Octoberish I was very tempted to sign up again, I still was in my old guild, and I was very tempted with the transmoggy thing with a bit of raiding thrown in - then Pandagate hit, and in that instant, all thoughts of a return drained away.
I was taking the piss something rotten on the forums, yet they were loving the panda thing, and I just could not see it.
Am I just being miserable, are pandas in WoW the greatest thing ever, or is it a bit wank really? .....going to go with as my final answer so I think I may just stick with Shotgun Challenge 3, or maybe even a poke on when it comes out.

[Dog Pants]

I'm maybe as cynical as you, but I'm going for option B too. There was something interesting I read about Blizzard trying to break the Chinese market with almost F2P accounts and of course pandas, which might make sense. Personally I've no intention of playing it again, or any other MMO of that generation. Rift made me realise that no matter how well put together it is, it's all pretty much the same game. Roll on the next generation MMO.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I quit wow quite willingly for a few months while I was unable to play, have now gone from hardcore raiding 5-7 nights a week, and chatting with guildies most of the evening, to maybe 2 hours in an evening with wifey and mobslug, when I'm in the mood, I'm enjoying the game a bit more now it's not a chore, though I miss the challenge of raiding (and making popcorn before raid leaders boot me)

Pandas look pretty interesting as a race, and monks as a class, by no means amazing though.

[FatherJack]

I've got a month's time on a play card I've never used, but I'm kind of saving it for when there's something I really want to see. Pandaria isn't it. Also, I'd have to pay for the expansion anyway.

I would very much like to explore a big "Chinese"-themed area, akin to Jade Empire - not really actually Chinese, but inspired by the mythology, and I'd very much enjoy playing a flailing-fist-punching Monk character, but I'm very doubtful the expansion would deliver anything like what I'm imagining.

The "Kung-Fu Panda" angle kind of fits, despite my initial reservations of it being entirely derogatory - since the art style of WoW has always been cartoony and the humour's alway been there - they've never been shy about nicking other people's ideas. Lore purists may squirm a little, but Blizzard do have form with other fourth wall-breaking content, like the Plants v Zombies mission and a few other nods to popular culture. (Area 52, Haris Pilton, etc) With this mantra, I've shrugged off my indignation about this expansion's unoriginality, but still cannot shake the suspicion that the devs are totally taking the piss.

Cataclysm, I was super-excited about, yet only bothered to play for a month, after exploring all the stuff that'd changed in the existing world and putting two or three levels into my 80's, I was stuck by the "is this it?" feeling, and shied away from actively completing either of the two new quest chains. Without many 5punkers actively playing, there wasn't really much impetus to push on. Quite the contrast with Lich King and Burning Crusade, where we had whole new continents to explore together and a real reason (DKs) to get those old characters who'd been languishing in the 40's for years levelled up.

I suspect, if in playing this new expansion, that any enthuasism I might have for Pandas, Monks and all the Chinese-themed stuff will last approximately as long as that of the new Goblin and Worgen races did in the previous expansion - enormous fun for ten levels or so, then rather than them being woven into the existing fabric of the game, becoming just like any other race but with their start towns turned into historical relics instead of new, exciting places other races can visit. Lich King did it better.