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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsRetribution should branch out
by Zach Yonzon 
Mar 6th 2009 at 1:00PM
After admitting that Retribution DPS isn't quite where they want it to be in the current build of Patch 3.1, Ghostcrawler illuminates us a little bit about the direction they wish to take with the spec. He explains that the Retribution tree is one tree where players would go 0/ 0/ 71 if players could (if they put Divine Strength in the Retribution tree, he might even be completely right!). Blizzard would like to increase Retribution's DPS but are looking into making talents in other trees more attractive, essentially forcing the spec to branch out somewhat. This would be akin to how they slimmed down the Warrior's Protection tree, which turned out to be a good thing for the class. He feels that most trees in general are "too thick," making it hard for players to put points in another tree. Hopefully, we'll see some changes in the PTR that should reflect this design direction in the near future.
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Wulfhere Mar 6th 2009 4:50PM
In this game, being three classes in one MAKES YOU A HYBRID.
You're no different than a druid in this regard. Priests and Warriors are the poor bastards who aren't hybrids (can't do three or four roles, can just do two, the one every single class in the game has to be able to do in order to function at all and an off-role specifically designed for grouping) - Paladins and Druids are the only hybrids. DK's aren't hybrids because they're an entirely new design philosophy: a class that can perform a DPS or Tanking job without specializing in a tree.
You're hybrids. You can perform one of three roles. Suck it up, buttercup.
Ferarro Mar 6th 2009 4:53PM
If you have to change all of your gear and all of your talents to perform a role, you're not a hybrid. Learn the difference, sweetie.
lightningjynx Mar 6th 2009 4:56PM
I agree completely with this. Paladins get enough hatred as it is. Why do I need to have more flexibility, so the QQ-ers can ask for us to be nerfed, yet again. Yes we wear plate, yes we have bubble (and to be honest I just wish they would take that fucking thing away from us and save headaches), yes we can heal. But you know what, prot and ret can heal decently, and definitely not for an extended period of time. Our trees are supposed to be specialized and I feel that they have basically accomplished this. I just don't want to hear more QQ if they make us dip into other trees because we get more hybrid abilities. I thought the whole point of 3.0 was to get rid of the hybrid.
LOL, I hope that all made sense. My head feels like it is full of cotton, so thoughts are getting formed properly
Ferarro Mar 6th 2009 4:59PM
Also, both Warriors and DK can switch stances and Auras, respectively, and tank, just as Druids can shift forms.
Paladins can do none of those, and can't tank in a pinch. Nor can a Ret or Prot heal the way a Druid or Priest can change form and heal.
Figure out what a Hybrid is before you get mouthy, kiddo. =)
shisho2k Mar 6th 2009 4:47PM
Too thick? Is he serious? The problem is they're too long and not thick enough.
If you thin them down and stretch them out like they keep doing, you just end up with "click all these down to 51 and you're good".
If you made the talent trees thicker with more requirement branches that run parallel you could have a lot more build options and a lot more flexibility to design synergy between trees.
If they want to fix PvP vs PvE DPS for the jankety way they have it set up now they just need to force you to talent out some kind of holy damage increase in 15-20 points Holy and force the PvP talents into Prot.
Divine shield as a Prot talent for example.
It doesn't sound like much of a solution, but that's honestly all they can probably do with it without making people wait a year while they redesign it.
You either spend 20 / 0 / 51 that way or be pretty damn close to a spam click your way to 71 ret. They're both pretty lame, but the full 71 makes PvP and PvE talents completely shared and any kinds of nerfs they do to one will hurt the other.
TBH they way they have this designed there's always going to be a cookie cutter spec that is the best spec for a certain role, and there's only going to be X number of roles for that class.
So all they do is shuffle things around and it makes people retry and retest all the talents until they figure out the best choices and every starts using it. That's all that's going on here, so I never really get bent out of shape when they cut things up. There wasn't any real specialization beyond the basic roles of: (I want to Level, I want to Heal / I want to Tank / I want to DPS / I want to PvP Heal / I want to PvP DPS)
mike Mar 6th 2009 5:25PM
PVP is ruining PVE and PVE is ruining PVP. It's been this way for years and has forced all sorts of classes into way too many dumb compromises. We never had a solution before, now we do - called dual spec.
Despite what GC has said about ignoring dual spec, it's about time they gave up and built a PVP tree for each class, then we can stop fooking around with PVE class changes that break an otherwise excellent game.
Maolrubha Mar 6th 2009 7:02PM
All this fucking about makes me miss my shockadin. I liked my mediocre hybrid just fine. A helluva lot more fun to play than FCFS ret twitch.
But what do I care? I haven't logged on in two weeks.
Yawn.