28 April, 2006

Lack of talent tree synergies. Um?

Is it me, or do our trees horribly lack synergies between them? Tseric grants Mages with:
In 1.11 there will be ... talents that support mutiple spell schools, which will assist in the balance and playability between trees. Overall, the retooling of the talent trees looks to free up talent points and tighten the effects on talents to allow easier point expenditure throughout the three trees.
Oh boy. Where's our stuff that's similar to that?

Druid trees for example got Omen of Clarity (tier 3) and Moonglow (tier 5) in Balance, Heart of the Wild (tier 6) in Feral, though Restoration is lacking beyond Furor (tier 1). Moonglow gives a bonus to Balance in healing, whereas Heart of the Wild gives a bonus to Feral so they don't have zero mana out of Feral forms.

Priests are much fuzzier because there really are only two things to do: healing or damage, so many talents that benefit one thing (for example, Mental Strength) benefit all builds. Examples of talents are Force of Will (tier 6) in Discipline, Spiritual Guidance (tier 5) in Holy, however Shadow is lacking, but that makes a bit of sense considering Shadow Form locks out casting non-Shadow spells. Spirit Tap is fun with a Spirit-build though.

Where is this for the Pally? Talent tree synergies exist so that you shouldn't be punished that much for trying to invest many points in to a single tree. The best part about this is that it also increases the amount of different types of interesting and fun builds you can come up with. Try Spirit Healer/Damage dealer with Priests (Spiritual Guidance + Divine Spirit + Spirit Tap) or a speed critting healer build for Druids (Natures Grace + Improved Regrowth + Nature's Swiftness).

There's a huge lack of this, really, considering we've got three trees that do vastly different things; Holy damage and healing, Tanking and Damage.

The Protection tree should have some more utility and playability between trees as it needs the most work. Give One-handed Weapon Specialization in the Protection tree a bonus to +damage and +healing, put Blessing of Kings as the Tier 7 talent and add another talent around Tier 4 or Tier 5 that improves group and raid utility. Give the Improved Righteous Fury-talent a +1% dodge per talent or similar to make it more interesting and useful outside tanking. Talents that only benefit PVE give me a sour taste in my mouth.

Give Retribution a Tier 5 or Tier 6 talent that increases utility and aiding in raid groups. A talent that makes it so holy damage done is transfered in to healing for the group or whatever. Just like Vampiric Embrace for Priests. Needs something more to finish it off, but I can't put my finger on it.

Holy needs the least work. Healing a ton better is good enough for grouping and raiding. The best way to make the tree perfect would be a Tier 6 talent that increases healing slightly to give healers who go full Holy a stronger advantage beyond Healing Light or Divine Favor.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

In other news..McHammer is leaving us..

5:27 AM  
Blogger Mastgrr said...

Ouch. That's too bad. He was a good guy.

5:50 AM  

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