Official WoW Expansion Talent Information

smartidiotaz writes "Blizzard has finally released more information about the talent trees after leaks broke out over the internet. " As typical, every class thinks every other class got a better deal, but the Pallies get to mean it ;)

Comments

Why Are People Still Playing WoW?

[Anonymous Coward]

Serious question, not a slam.

I played through the 1-60 level grind on my free month, battlegrounds seemed a joke with the wait times, and WoW raiding doesn't seem very interesting(at least IMO compared to EQ raiding a few years ago).

I know a lot of MMORPG players and not one of them are still playing WoW - which is strange because the sampling of the people I know has pretty well tracked player populations for every previous MMORPG over the past six to seven years I've been playing them.

Where are all these WoW players and what are they doing while they are logged in all these months since the game went live?

Re:Why Are People Still Playing WoW?

[Generalisimo Zang]

I stopped playing WoW for four months or so, but re-activated my account when I heard about the cross-server battlegrounds and the upcoming revamp of the Honor system.

The wait times on Alterac Valley average about 2 minutes, across all hours of the day.

For Warsong or Arathi Basin, you might have to wait up to 8 minutes in queue in the off-hours, but during peak hours the queues for AB and WSG are less than two minutes.

Also, it looks like the upcoming changes to the honor system will eliminate DKs... so, more world PvP.

Re:Why Are People Still Playing WoW?

[alexgieg]

You shouldn't have rushed to get to level 60. I played for 4 hours a day at a slow pace, enjoying the storyline, getting to know the game world, learning (and changing!) professions, participating in roleplay events and PvP, helping other players inside and outside my guild, doing lots of non-experience rewarding quests (the gray ones) etc., and by doing so I reached level 60 after eight (yes, eight) months. It was much, much more enjoyable than going the "power leveling" path.

And since I reached 60 I'm still playing the same character, slowly acquiring gold to purchase my epic mount, trying to get some end game gear but not being obsessed with it, going in some raids with my guild, fine-tuning my addon collection, and so on and so forth.

So, I'd say that WoW is kinda like a Mac: an integral experience. If you focus on a single aspect of the game it gets boring pretty fast. If you try to do all it allows you to do, then there's almost no limit to what you get from it. I am very far from getting bored, that's for sure. :)

Re:Why Are People Still Playing WoW?

[Floody]

Serious question, not a slam.

I played through the 1-60 level grind on my free month, battlegrounds seemed a joke with the wait times, and WoW raiding doesn't seem very interesting(at least IMO compared to EQ raiding a few years ago).

I know a lot of MMORPG players and not one of them are still playing WoW - which is strange because the sampling of the people I know has pretty well tracked player populations for every previous MMORPG over the past six to seven years I've been playing them.

Where are all these WoW players and what are they doing while they are logged in all these months since the game went live?

Many of us are still there. Not necessarily with our original characters, but still ....

Myself, I played from beta onwards. Not continously, I've taken multi-month breaks. Early on I spent most of my time exploring the 1-60 content, most of which is soloable or doable in five-man groups. Then I spent much time exploring the pvp aspects. Most recently, I've taken to the end-game (i.e. "raid") content, which is more challanging, but only by virtue of there being little room for error (and learning techniques for getting 40 people to deal w/ some rather intricate encounter mechanics).

Why do I continue with a game that is considered rather pedestrian by the hard-core mmorpg crowd? Mostly, I suppose, because I don't like mmorpgs, and wow doesn't "feel" like one (in the traditional sense). It's fast paced, you kill quickly and you likewise can die quickly. But more than that, buried behind the accessibility of the game that has made it so popular is a rich and sophisticated set of mechanics. These mechanics were originally designed to create as much diversity as possible between the different classes (although I fear those responsible for this design are long gone, as the trend has definitely been towards homogenization). Each class has a significantly different feel to it and requires a different playstyle in order to excel, while simultaneously retaining class-specific complexities. These traits don't usually become fully apparent until one has reached the higher levels with a given class.

While these sophistications certainly exist in WoW, the other edge of the sword is that, quite obviously, mass accessibility was a primary design concern; meaning that while you can become very good at the intricacies of a particular class and playstyle, it's not exactly required in order to experience all the content. The fallout from this is that the majority of the (very large) playerbase isn't terribly good at playing the game (and there exists little incentive for them to improve). Similarly, with a small group of proficient players who have mastered these intricacies, one can easily move through late/end-game content that most players would consider very difficult (without high-end "raiding" gear itemization).

Re:Why Are People Still Playing WoW?

[Bob9113]

I know a lot of MMORPG players and not one of them are still playing WoW - which is strange because the sampling of the people I know has pretty well tracked player populations for every previous MMORPG over the past six to seven years I've been playing them.

Where are all these WoW players and what are they doing while they are logged in all these months since the game went live?

I play WoW in a decent sized guild. A solid 50% of them are not gamers. My brother is the perfect example. He plays two games on the computer - WoW, and a poker tutorial game.

Which may suggest the answer to your question: You know a lot of hard-core gamers, to whom WoW may not be attractive. It is EQ easy-mode, after all. But, to a great many people like my brother who grew up with video games but were never hard-core about it, WoW is a pleasant distraction for an hour or three a week.

I was once a hard-core gamer, but I got distracted by other shiny things along the way. Now I play WoW a bit, and it's fun. Hard-core me probably wouldn't have liked it much - there is too much chance, not enough reward for mad skillz. Casual me finds it to be just about right.

Leaks

[rackhamh]

leaks broke out over the internet

Well, that explains it. I *thought* the Internet was running a bit slow today...

Re:Leaks

[gsn]

Well you know the internet is not a dump truck. Its a series of tubes. And if you put an enormous amount of material... an enormous of material those tubes will be blocked up and if my staff send me an internet yesterday it'll get stuck in the tubes. But its much worse if the tubes are leaky. Your internet may never get to you if you have leaky tubes. If your tubes leak get them tied up.

(ducks)

Re:Talent?

[skoaldipper]

I have a real talent for sitting on my ass while snacking on a can of Pringles in front of a computer, fantasizing I'm King Theoden making sweet snoo snoo to Liv Tyler on my cold castle marble floor. I've never played WoW before, but what talent tree class do I belong to?

Re:Horde Paladin?

[Kesch]

It's ver simple really. The Blood Elves are a kickass race. When a kickass race wants divine power, they don't ask for it; they just take it. In the Blood Elves' case, they made a Naru(being of light) into their bitch and their paladins tap into divine energy siphoned from it.

So blood elf paladins' holy power does not come with any EULA saying they have to have a +5 stick of morality up their ass.

Because you never played the game.

[Shivetya]

You got it right, you did the grind.

As such you would be clueless as to why people continue to play the game. See, they are playing a game. You were in a race, with what no one knows, but obviously you did not come to play. First and foremost, you cannot win at a MMORPG, so where is the rush?

Apparently the MMORPG crowd you hang with is a minority. Then again people with your mindset normally are. Do you jump from game to game? If you only spent a month in WOW I can't see how you spend more in any other.

Yeah this borders on bashing but if I had a PENNY for everyone who claims WOW is dieing or that everyone they know doesn't play it I would be so rich it would be silly.

Re:Because you never played the game.

[aafiske]

Mighty high flame setting on your stove there, boss.

No, WoW isn't dying, but the grandparent had a point. You seriously run out of things to do in the game at a certain point. Maybe he races through things and reached it early.

I played for about a year, took my time, levelled up a warrior and a priest (one horde, one alliance). And you know what? It got real tedious, real grindy, and real pointless. I sat and thought 'Why am I logging in? To grind to get a better item/new skill. So I can get better items/new skills more effectively. Huh. Waitaminnit.'

WoW is not at all unique with regard to this problem, but it's not immune to it either.

Marvel's gonna be *pissed*

[shigelojoe]

From the Paladin talent calculator:

"Avenger's Shield
Hurls a Holy Shield at the enemy, dealing 270 to 330 Holy damage, dazing them then jumping to nearby enemies. Affects three targets."

Why not just change the class name to Captain America while you're at it?

Re:Horde Paladin?

[alexgieg]

I beg to differ. While the Horde isn't clearly Evil, it's nonetheless slightly "more evil" than the Alliance.

Take the Orcs, for example: they allowed themselves to be near completely corrupted by demonic powers. They are now free from this corruption, sure, but in the end they lose in comparison to the Alliance, for the member races of the Alliance did not become corrupt, they fought against the Burning Legion's corruption so fiercely that they managed to avoid the corruption.

Now, look at the Undead (Forsaken): they, like the Orcs, managed to become free from the corruption. But a lot of the evil influence from the Burning Legion remains, just look at the biological experiments they do.

The new Blood Elves are addicted to magic, and their culture revolves around the idea that totaliarianism is A Good ThingTM. For instance, see how did they manage to get Paladins: they captured and enslaved a holy entity that would have given holy powers to them had they simply asked! But no, Blood Elves don't ask, Blood Elves take!

And the Trolls were cannibals that only gave up on cannibalism because the Orcs told them that they wouldn't be allowed to join the Horde if they kept doing that.

From the entire Horde, the only race that is clearly and plainly good are the Tauren. They're with the Horde due to their sense of duty, because the Orcs for having saved them, but that's it.

Now, let's look at the Alliance:

The villest thing the Night Elves did was to go around in a killing spree against Furbolgs, thinking all of them were corrupted and thus killing the minority that wasn't. They also built a new giant tree when their gods told them "no" (the shock! the horror!).

The Gnomes messed up badly and ended poisoning their own capital after being invaded by trolls. Now they have to live with the Dwarves.

The Dwarves dig big holes, what the Night Elves think violates "Mother Azeroth" (or something like that).

The Draenei had bad luck and ended in a forced landing in Azeroth while fighting the Burning Legion.

And the Humans, ah, the Humans! The most horrendous thing they did was not to pay the masons that rebuilt their capital, these masons now being pretty revolted with the nobles...

So, all things considered, I don't think both are equal in the moral level. The Horde is clearly, at least, a "bad neighbour". Were not for the existence of the much more evil Burning Legion, in comparison to which the Horde is made of saints, and the moral difference between the Alliance and the Horde would be really undisputable.