A new
WoW blog made its first post yesterday, and it was a magical moment as always. Over at
Green Chocobo, Mirrand proposes to chronicle the adventures of a 61-point Fury warrior named Breakpoint (someone's a Final Fantasy fan, it seems), inspired by our very own Beast Mastery-loving Dan Howell, AKA
BigRedKitty. I actually met a level 60 51-point Fury warrior shortly after the BC launch, rampaging along Hellfire Ramparts, and he seemed to be doing just fine for himself, so the concept apparently has some viability to it. Most classes, in fact, seem to have enough flexibility to them that they wouldn't be missing too much by just going all the way to one tree. And that got me thinking: what extreme talent builds would work surprisingly well, and which ones would be hilariously catastrophic?
My own opinion is that Fury may be one of the best, and Discipline is certainly going to be one of the worst. Whether that means the Disc tree is badly designed (
which it is) is an open question, but I don't think a 61/0/0 priest is going to be doing much good anywhere, any time soon.
Tags: blogs, breakfast-topic, talents
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Features, Talents
Oct 22nd 2007 at 8:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Johan Forn Oct 22nd 2007 8:09AM
Are you kidding me? The warrior class has the worst 41 point talents by far, compared to any other class. This is total rubbish. If there's any class that is forced to spread its talents along multiple trees, its the warrior.
Your post is total rubbish.
Oh and I have both a paladin and druid, so stop right there.
Matt Park Oct 22nd 2007 8:15AM
resto shamans frequently do 0/5/56 builds - putting 5 more points into resto would only mean 5% less mana.
Baluki Oct 22nd 2007 8:25AM
Couldn't do it as an Elemental Shaman, I don't think. Well, you COULD, but it'd be mostly foolish. Tidal Mastery's +5% lightning crit is pretty much essential, and Totemic Focus (25% reduced totem cost) and Healing Focus (70% chance to resist pushback on heals) are pretty nice too.
Chai Oct 22nd 2007 8:35AM
this is what most tree druids do.. probably the only kind of druid that would do it. Feral needs at least 11 in Resto for OOC.. and there's not enough in Balance to warrant a 61/0/0 build.
p3ngu11 Oct 22nd 2007 8:38AM
there are too many worthless talents in all 3 hunter trees to justify putting all your talents into just one
Doug DeJulio Oct 22nd 2007 8:44AM
So, the paladin protection tree is pretty heavy as it is. Well, in patch 2.3 a few prot talents get buffed more. On the PTR, my prot paladin is actually 0/61/0, and taking any single point out of prot would make him a worse 5-man tank.
Which blows, because putting 10 in to ret would make him a better *raid* tank... (more parry, dontcha know)
nav Oct 22nd 2007 9:01AM
When it comes to putting all your points in one tree, discipline doesn't fare too badly. You get a reasonable amount of good talents and it's only in comparison to shadow that it looks poor, and you also lose out on the improved heals of holy, although you benefit from good mana regen and a decent mana pool, along with improved shields.
Now a 61 point holy priest would be poor, lacking in mana regeneration and threat reduction, all for heals that would be too big, and probably a few useless smite talents thrown in too.
BenMS Oct 22nd 2007 9:02AM
A shaman can also benefit from going 0/7/54 - the lower cooldown on grounding totem is pretty good for PvP.
Theory crafting mages have also expoused the virtues of the 61/0/0 spec - it only works at a very specific gear level, but does a great deal of damage. Look it up on elitist jerks.
BenMS Oct 22nd 2007 9:02AM
By which I mean 61 Arcane, in case anyone didn't know.
Jess Oct 22nd 2007 9:30AM
I think that druid could probably do a 61 for any of their trees except that the resto tree has some good talents like Omen of Clarity that a Moonkin or feral would like and of course a resto might want to put a few points into balance or feral so that soloing isn't as painful as pulling teeth.
Fireflash38 Oct 22nd 2007 9:18AM
I have seen many a mage go 0/0/61 (full frost). There are many goodies in the tree. Also note, most 5v5 arena mages go 0/x/5x. And THE Arcane build is 50/11/0.
Kryz Oct 22nd 2007 9:19AM
Full frost for a mage is very doable. I used to dump everything in frost back when I was still leveling.
It just seemed right.
For The Pie Oct 22nd 2007 9:20AM
BUT BRK isn't a 61 pt. Beastmaster Hunter. Not sure how he inspired anyone to go all in to one tree.
Will Oct 22nd 2007 9:37AM
Frost mages, Resto shamans, Resto druids all work as 61 points. Anything else is not going to be very effective. Although Discipline truely is one of the worst trees overall.
Kryz Oct 22nd 2007 9:23AM
BAH. Beat me to it Fireflash
Lanth Oct 22nd 2007 9:26AM
The main problem with single-tree builds is often you miss out on the neccesary low-tier talents. Back in the old days, most mages had to go about 18 points (I think) into Arcane to get Improved Arcane Explosion and Evocations. Now it's been changed, but a lot of classes still suffer from extremely good low tier talents (Improved Corruption and Demonic Embrace for Warlocks, that one in Enhancement for Shamans that gives you extra mana (why is that in Enhancement?), Blessing of Kings for Paladins).
Clairedelune Oct 22nd 2007 9:37AM
I have to agree with nav on the futility of a pure Holy spec for a priest, having lived that way for quite some time. While it rocks for groups, as your mana efficiency for heals is excellent, you can't do anything by yourself. Having tried all 3 main trees, I'm liking full Reflective Shield with a minor in Holy talents.
Fyxie Oct 22nd 2007 9:54AM
I can't comment on other classes, but alot of raid-only tree druids do a 0/0/61 build. Thats what I was rocking until recently when I put 5 points into balance for imp wrath to help with Leotheras.
Satarus Oct 22nd 2007 10:17AM
Feral druids would be a fool to put all the points into Feral tree. 11 points are almost essential in the resto tree and you can pick up more and still be fine. Tree druids can do pretty good with all points in resto, but they sacrifice some versatility they could pick up in balance.
Lord of the Ming Oct 22nd 2007 10:19AM
A don't know, a 61 point Marks Hunter would be pretty evil in PvP, it might be worth a try... Also, it's impossible to go 61 points into BM, there are only 60 points worth of talent in the tree...