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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsNew Mists of Pandaria talent calculator live
by Chase Hasbrouck 
Oct 23rd 2011 at 2:00PM
Now, I'm not sure how much calculation you'll actually need to do when you only have six choices to make, but congratulations to the Wowhead team for getting this put together so quickly. Fore more information on talents, check out our liveblog of the Class Talent System Panel.
The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!Filed under: BlizzCon, Mists of Pandaria
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
lifebinder Oct 23rd 2011 2:13PM
hooookay, now how do we go about describing these? 31/7/3 ect. doesnt exactly work anymore, does it?
Literaltruth Oct 23rd 2011 2:18PM
My guess would be something like BABBCA (with A being the first choice on a line, B being the second, and C being the rightmost choice).
Diop Oct 23rd 2011 2:27PM
I'm sure some standard will emerge, the easiest just being a string of 6 numbers of 1-3, each number being a different tier, so 111111 would be if you took all the left hand talents, so you'll just see stuff like "for this boss fight use 233131"
However I usually get this stuff wrong, and now there's so few options maybe we won't need a short hand for it.
mem0ryburn Oct 23rd 2011 2:39PM
obviously 6 letters or numbers. probably simpler than the "31/7/3" notation of old
NO NAME Oct 23rd 2011 2:15PM
This is really confusing me, this talent thing.
mem0ryburn Oct 23rd 2011 2:33PM
Pretty sure this is as simple as it's gonna get; what is there to not understand?
Mitch_b_666 Oct 23rd 2011 2:44PM
Exactly the same.
I don't get what happened to the old talents? Are they all being removed in favour of these 6 choices? Are they still there but the accepted builds for each spec being worked into the spec as baseline? Or are these not actually talents like we know them, but just an extra bonus to our builds?
For example, as a shadow priest am I going to lose my haste bonus and reduced fade/shadow fiend CD on the first level of my talents, to make way for one of three abilities?
Darkmagezxz Oct 23rd 2011 2:58PM
What this new talent tree does is take the current talent tree and remove all the useless or damage modifier talents that people take/skip 100% of the time and leave you with a choice for each tier... You basically pick the utility spells that would fit your play style without having to lose a big deal of dps just b/c you didn't pick a talent. In other words... it works like the new hunter pet system " a pets do the same amount of dps but you get to choose what buff you bring"
Hob Oct 23rd 2011 3:00PM
I believe they've said that all the prior talents you'd have selected for your spec will be included as part of your training. So, instead of a balance druid "choosing" moonkin form at level 40 (or, I guess 39 in Cata?), it's either automatically learned, or you learn it from your trainer.
These talents should probably have been called something else, since they don't really work as "talents" ~ I mean, I can see displacer beast being useful as an "oh shit" button for my moonkin, but I have a feeling everyone will probably leave some of these "talents" off of their toolbar.
On the other hand... the level 75 talent for warlocks? Summoning "improved" demons such as Shivan and Beholders?
/sploosh
Mitch_b_666 Oct 23rd 2011 3:17PM
I'm hoping that's the case that we learn them as passive abilities as we go up the levels. The impression I'd gotten was that they'd basically wiped the talents clean and given us 6 abilities or spells. Obviously this wouldn't happen but I couldn't find any indication as to where all the old talents were going.
Boobah Oct 23rd 2011 6:27PM
The devs specifically mentioned Fury warriors learning abilities like Flurry as you level. Similarly, you can expect Frost magi to learn Shatter, and Discipline priests to get Atonement.
cyanea85 Oct 23rd 2011 6:51PM
I think the sooner that we, as a community, stop thinking about these as talents in the old way and think of them more like glyphs the better...because that's kinda what they are. They change an ability or give you a new one that's based on your particular playstyle.
I'm pretty sure they mentioned that the old "key" talents...the ones that you pretty much had to take to be able to play your class with any kind of effectiveness are going to just be baked into the spec and automatically given to you whenever you hit the requisite level.
Sarog Oct 23rd 2011 2:14PM
This while save me having to count all the way up to six on my fingers. Ah, the wonders of technology.
Sarog Oct 23rd 2011 2:19PM
Balls, I typed while instead of will. The shame burns. Downvote into the abyss please.
Hih Oct 23rd 2011 2:30PM
It's a shame there's no edit button! :p
Whyisretgimped Oct 23rd 2011 2:17PM
Yay... almost no paladin abilities that do damage in any way or affect damage in any way. Ret gets screwed again. Thank goodness this is an early first draft although my hopes aren't all that high if this is the starting point.
Ianmis Oct 23rd 2011 2:22PM
Well, they did say that these are not suppose to be damage mandatory. So if anything, I would say pallys are the best representation of this. Meaning you are the best for once......
dmberreth Oct 23rd 2011 2:43PM
I would keep in mind that this expansion is probably at least a year away yet, and I am willing to wager that most of the talents they plugged in were filler. Expect many, many changes before live. Even before beta.
WoWhead is a great group, don't get me wrong. But I do not understand the motive behind putting out something that will without a doubt be completely innacurate in a couple months.
Jack Mynock Oct 23rd 2011 3:03PM
@dmb
The point is to get the framework in place. Applying changes to individual talents is comparitively easy.
Boobah Oct 23rd 2011 6:32PM
Almost no talents for ANYONE are directly damage increases. And any one of those you choose, you're giving up two others that should be roughly equivalent by the time it goes live.
You'll also notice very few of those talents are direct survivability increases. Or boosts to healing.
You'll get what you need to be a retribution paladin from choosing retribution, not by the talents you pick.