QuickArmory's Stats tool lets you browse and inspect popular talent builds
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 27th 2009 at 6:00PM
We've been covering quite a few different ways to see what players are up to in terms of talents after dual specs have been released (both 3D Armory and TalentChic have good information if you're looking for it), and here's another: Erorus at QuickArmory sent us some info on how to pull some talent demographics out of his site as well. He's created a Talent stats page that needs a little explanation, but is actually full of great info on what kinds of builds players are choosing. First, choose a class at the top, and then you'll be taken to a screen where you can see, in percentage points, the given percentage of players of that class who took those points on the tree. In other words, if you look at the Mage page, 62% (as of this writing) of Mages surveyed by the application took at least one point in Inceneration (and 61% took all the points), but only 1% of Mages put any points in Blazing Speed (probably because it sucks -- oh snap!). You can also see the percentage points by spec (by clicking the tabs at the top) and even some general distribution statistics on how people chose to spec within the dual spec system. And the main page for each class includes some percentages on glyph choices as well.But it gets wilder -- you can even compare populations by clicking on the talents, so you can look at, for example, all the Warlocks who specced Felguard (they're using Glyph of Felguard, duh), or all of the Hunters who specced both Explosive Shot and Aimed Shot.
Very impressive. Of course, keep in mind the population here: these are only level 80 characters already in the QuickArmory system (about 12k as of this writing), so it's far from a representative sample of the entire WoW population. But then again, they're also self-selecting -- people who have put themselves into QuickArmory are likely to be more on top of good talent and glyph choices anyway. At any rate, even with the small selection, there are lots of fascinating ways to look at this talent data.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Talents
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kakistocracy Apr 27th 2009 6:42PM
Blazing Speed is great...
...For running through stocks to kill everyone at once.
Idomis Apr 27th 2009 6:52PM
Fabulous find, but I will take issue with one comment of yours, Mike.
"People who have put themselves into QuickArmory are likely to be more on top of good talent and glyph choices anyway."
While you safely qualified your statement with the inclusion of the word "likely," if you take a look at the Protection Warrior grid, you'll find some seriously disturbing statistics.
100% taken, but only 99% 3/3 Vitality?
100% taken, but only 99% 3/3 S&B?
I could POSSIBLY, in some crazy corner of the theorycrafting universe, see a reason to only take 4/5 Anticipation/Toughness/1-handed/Deflection, but it's absolutely ludicrous not to max out S&B and Vitality.
All the more reason to be thankful for sites like this. Tank failure!
darthginger Apr 27th 2009 7:25PM
the tank we had in a voa pug the other week had no points in s/b, no devestate, infact the bottom half of the tree was empty but for shockwave.. the rest of the points im guessing he just slammed his face onto the keyboard and landed them all randomly around the fury tree..
as a former raid tank (vanilla + tbc) i was slightly sickened to my stomach to see this. there was also a dk in pvp epics gemmed with honour hold gems. Moral of the story dont pug voa...
Mike Schramm Apr 27th 2009 11:38PM
Yeah in general, I'd think that people who know about sites like QuickArmory are more on top of things than the usual player, but then again I should learn never to underestimate ignorance.
grayrest Apr 28th 2009 11:08AM
The population of QA isn't entirely self selecting. There's a group of us that use it as a general purpose armory site because it has the highest information density out of all the third party armory sites, so the selection set is people who use QA and the people they look up.
MyrddinE Apr 27th 2009 7:13PM
Awesome. 'Popular specs' doesn't cut it... I want to be able to drill down to specific types of specs. For example, if I select DKs that have all 3 tier1 tanking talents (Blade Barrier, Toughness, and Anticipation), then I'm pretty damn certain that all the specs listed are tanking specs. I can see that about half the tanks choose to be frost, 30% are blood, and 20% unholy, as well as being able to examine specific talents that other tanks believe are important.
This is the best talent analysis tool currently available (beyond actually trudging through hundreds of pages of ElitistJerks threads). Thank you very much QuickArmory.
ninjasuperspy Apr 27th 2009 7:18PM
To: the 22% of "ret" paladins who didn't take the Glyph of Judgment
Re: Glyph choices
Are you insane? 10% scaling damage to a button you press every 8 seconds? Which dang glyphs are you using?
Janaa Apr 27th 2009 7:24PM
Fantastic site! Thanks for the heads-up. Verifies most of the talent choices I made for my feral druid (eg, up to and including OoC and Master Shapeshifter) and certainly will encourage me to re-look at talents I've put points in which are very unpopular (eg, Nurturing Instinct, Brutal Impact, Primal Tenacity).
PS. In case anyone's wondering "Nurturing Instinct.. WHYYYY!?" its because I wanted my quick self-heals while PVPing in cat form to actually have some effect. Maybe this is the wrong way to go/unncessary.. hmm. I had felt that it'd increase my rejuv by 70% and then the ticks would increase when I was back in cat form, by a further 20%.. more investigatin is needed!
Maxilimus Apr 27th 2009 7:34PM
Remember, thats pvp and pve combined. Nurturing instincts is a GREAT talent for pvp.
Janaa Apr 27th 2009 7:24PM
I lol'd.
Janaa Apr 27th 2009 7:25PM
argh.. I have when my reply ends up in the wrong place. >< Better not happen again.. :O
smiley Apr 28th 2009 7:53AM
I love the aimed shot 100% any pvp or pve hunter who doesn't take a whole nother shot that shares a CD with no other shots need to have thier bow/gun broken, told to wear leathr only and given a pair of dagger and told "you're now a mut rogue, you weren't even smart enough to be a huntard >_< hit mutilate and rupture there's your rotation.
renork Apr 28th 2009 10:54AM
Aimed shot shares a CD with Multi-shot. It's still a good point to take but not quite as mandatory as you make it out to be.