Power Auras Effect, Welcome the Machine, Blue Posts

Removing prereq talents
Designing as a player typically means trying to change the game’s design in ways that make your character more powerful. "Hmm. I have to get talent X in order to get talent Y. But I don’t want to get talent X, because then I couldn’t get these other talents I want. Therefore, Blizzard should change the talent tree so I can get Y without X." I would say something like 95% of the posts in the role forums are from players wishing their character was more powerful, or other players arguing against those sentiments. I wasn’t saying anything about whether designers or players are better people. Just consider your forum suggestions as to whether they would benefit the entire game or if you’re really just making them to better your dude.

Players wanting to remove the prereqs is almost always because they want the bottom thing but don’t want to also have to get the top thing. In essence, the talent tree design is cramping their style and not letting them just cherry pick whatever talents they want. But that isn’t the intent of talent trees. The intent is that you make some choices, and sometimes that means having to spend extra points to get a talent you really want. (Source)

[…] You can take the cynical point of view that every time a player complains about a talent prereq then the prereq is actually accomplishing something. If they don’t complain about it, it’s probably because it isn’t really affecting their decision — perhaps they would have gotten both talents anyway.

Yes, sometimes talent A is needed for B (because B affects A), but to be honest, we face the same issue when we want to talent an ability that you get at higher level, and what we do in that case is just bundle the talent with something else. It isn’t strictly necessary to link the two with a prereq arrow in those cases.

Some of you are sounding defensive, but it wasn’t my intention to insult anyone here. I was just trying to challenge you to think about *why* those arrows are there. They aren’t random or arbitrary. If they are forcing you to think about things differently, then they are doing their jobs. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Volley removed from the game (And of course when I don’t report a missing skill because I think it’s a bug, it’s actually gone for real)
It’s gone. We want to make Multi-Shot the spell hunters use for AE.

Channeling a spell that makes arrows fall out of the sky doesn’t feel like a hunter ability and doesn’t even really match the name of the spell.

Only class with a minimal range and now without volley only class without an aoe /shakes head
You realize "only class" claims are viewed as a success by the developers. The classes are too similar as it is. (Source)

Most seem to think they simply removed it & that we will be using multishot instead.
Yep. Volley was edging out Mult-Shot, even though we think the latter is the more interesting ability. Volley felt too much like a magic spell and not something a hunter was doing with her bow or gun. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Holy Paladin Talents
We do think the Holy paladin tree has a few too many mainstream (meaning as apposed to situational) healing-focused talents. The next build or so should have a tree with more freedom. (Source)

Eye for an Eye
Eye for an Eye will only reflect direct damage spells, not dots. […] We want the talent (Eye for an Eye) to be situational or at least subjective and not a no-brainer. As an active ability, every paladin would feel compelled to take it, which then gives you fewer points to spend elsewhere. (Source)

Optional Talents
Talents like Eye for an Eye, Selfless Healer and Acts of Sacrifice are designed to be choices. No half-decent paladin is going to skip over a major talent like Sanctified Wrath. But we are trying to design the trees so not every talent is Sanctified Wrath. If part of what attracted you to the paladin class was being able to occasionally throw out a heal to save your friends in a 5-player dungeon, then Selfless Healer might be attractive. If you like having lots of utility in PvP, then Acts of Sacrifice might be a better choice.

It’s okay — intended even — that some of you would skip over these talents. It’s only a problem if everyone does so. We imagine a cookie cutter Ret build would tell you to absolutely take Sanctified Wrath and Zealotry, but to spend a few points where you want. (Source)

Templar’s Verdict with one Holy Power
This would be a pretty big dps loss under most circumstances. A 3 charge Templar’s Verdict hits so much stronger than a 1 charge, that it’s not worth it using Templar’s Verdict to fill holes. (Source)

Holy Power generation and skills rotation
It seems to me you are saying there are these abilities that sometimes grant you a charge of Holy Power, but that in order to get Holy Power as fast as possible you need to get lucky several times, so therefore the abilities should just always give you Holy Power.

The rotation is designed around 3 Crusader Strikes. Sometimes it takes fewer than that and you get to use Templar’s Verdict sooner. You’re not balanced around a maximum efficiency that is dependent on the stars randomly aligning. You’re balanced around average efficiency that corresponds to the averages generated by the appropriate random numbers.

I think there is some tension between Exorcism potentially generating Holy Power such that you’re not sure what to do when you have 3 charges — use the Templar’s Verdict and potentially waste the Exorcism Holy Power, or use the Exorcism and delay the next Templar’s Verdict — but that seems like an isolated problem (and perhaps not even a major one) and not a reason to make Holy Power generation more consistent. Consistency is what we’re trying to downplay in the Ret rotation because it doesn’t allow great players to outperform merely good ones. (Source)

Using every GCD
This specific feedback is a tricky thing to handle because a lot of Ret paladins are used to mashing buttons every GCD, and any time they aren’t in that state they are going to feel a lack of "rhythm" (as you put it). Yet if you look at rogues and Feral druids, they can’t hit a button every GCD because they don’t always have the energy to do so.

We don’t want classes / specs to use every GCD. We don’t think that’s good for the game, as I’ve mentioned before. (Casters do their waiting while casting rather than in between abilities.) The trick is to fill "enough" holes with something. For some players, especially some Ret players, that "enough" is going to feel weird for them unless it means every single hole. That’s not what we’re going for though. Wasting every other GCD is too extreme and isn’t what we’re going for either. (Source)

Words of Glory
I usually reget getting into the "what is my role supposed to be?" discussions because players then feel like they’re supposed to use that as a constitution to interpret whether their class is performing correctly or not. Let us worry about that. If Word of Glory is so weak that you’d never consider using it, then that’s good feedback. If it needs to heal for 50K before you’d ever consider using it, then that’s good feedback too (because it either means we’re barking up the wrong tree, or you personally aren’t the correct audience for that talent). The fact that you have talents that affect a heal should be ample evidence that we want you to situationally cast it. The fact that you have only a couple of talents (and one really aimed at Holy sub-speccing) should suggest that we want to keep it situational. (Source)

Hammer of Wrath
Hammer of Wrath hits too hard to be a rotational ability. We’d have to make the proc really rare or nerf the Hammer of Wrath damage. You might notice we dropped Execute from the Arms warrior rotation for the same reason — it actually neutered Execute rather than making it a fun ability. (Source)

Retribution mana usage
Ret is designed to be able to hit basic abilities with enough mana. You don’t have infinite mana. You’ll find that casting heals other than WoG will be really difficult and Consecrate is probably not going to happen unless you situationally find yourself with a lot of mana. In that environment, being able to do something other than dps might be attractive. I think it gets way overplayed on the forums, but it’s often nice to offer something other than "I bring damage!" to a group, because everyone brings damage. (Source)

Seals
We’re going to add a little bit of damage to Justice just because there are several talents that improve Seals in the trees and we don’t want those to be completely unattractive to a PvP Retribution paladin. I think it’s far too early however to be able to place judgement [sic] calls on whether damage or the movement limitation of Justice is the obvious choice. You can’t do much damage if you can’t get to melee and typically autoattack-based damage isn’t nearly as valuable in PvP. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Restorative Totems
Restorative Totems isn’t long for the world. It’s a poster child for the kind of talent we’re trying to prune. We just haven’t finalized a suitable replacement yet. (Source)

Telluric Currents
We want Telluric Currents to be optional. It won’t be an effective way to restore your mana, but it might make you feel less guilty about throwing out a Lightning Bolt in a world where mana is more precious. (Source)

The shadow of Icecrown Citadel grows longer, and the armies of the Scourge prepare for battle on a new front…. We’re pleased to announce that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will be released in mainland China on August 31! For more information, check out our recent press release.