This game is talented.

Last week, Blizzard revealed a new talent calculator to preview the revamped talent structure we'll be seeing in Mists of Pandaria. There's no denying it represents an unprecedented change in the talent system. Today, I've decided to take  you all on a stroll down memory lane and go over the basic design of the talent system past and present.

 Originally, all classes had 3 talent trees that went 31 pts. deep, and by level 60, players had 51 points to spend. Your first talent point was earned at level 10, and every level thereafter. This meant that players typically spent roughly 31pts. in a primary talent tree and then either spent 20 in another tree, or split those remaining points between the two remaining trees. One of the most basic properties of the talent trees were that the talents consisted of mostly passive buffs, with active abilities at 21 and 31 points, respectively. This meant that one of the meaningful options for a player was to invest 30 points into their primary talent tree, and 21 points into another if they preferred that 21-pt. active ability over their primary tree's 31-pt ability. However, the option also existed to make hybrid talent builds where a player could invest points more equally - although such builds were arguably never truly viable for anything. The only way to change your talents was to visit a class trainer and pay a sizeable fee. Click here for a talent calculator from patch 1.9





Then came The Burning Crusade, and 10 more levels meant 10 more talent points. Many talents were shifted around, some talents became base-line abilities, and new, arguably less-interesting talents were introduced as fillers. but in the end, all talent trees were extended by 10 points to make them 41 pts. deep with very desirable talents right at the bottom. This worked out fairly well, in my opinion. The trade-offs remained largely the same although the trade-offs between 41-pt talents and 21-pt talents were skewed more in favor of the 41-pt talent in most cases. You still needed to visit a trainer to change your talents, but the cost remained the same, and due to inflation, it was considerably cheaper. Click here for a patch 2.01 (TBC) talent calculator.






The next major update came with Wrath of the Lich King, and represents the pinnacle of talent bloat. By this time, players had 71 talent points to spend at max level. To keep players firmly rooted in a single tree, most very desirable talents were moved DEEP into the 51-pt talent trees, and most of the points at the top of the trees were under-whelming fluff. For max-level players, it worked fine, but at low levels, players didn't really feel like they were getting much out of their chosen talent trees until much further into the game. In patch 3.1, a dual specialization feature was introduced for players who had reached a certain level. For a one-time fee, players could set up a second specialization and were allowed to switch between the two any time they are out of combat. This was a welcome change for hybrid classes, as well as anyone who liked having different specs for things like PvE vs PvP content. While I can't verify exactly which patch it's from, there appears to be a pretty decent WoTLK talent calculator here.

With the launch of Cataclysm, the talent trees were pruned significantly to address the problem of talent bloat. Gone were the hit talents, range talents, any pretty much any talent that stated simply, "increases damage done with x ability by n%". Talents no one wanted were either cut, or combined with a more desirable talent. However, trimming talent trees back meant players wouldn't get as many points to spend. In fact, at level 85, players currently have fewer talent points to spend than ever: 41. Meanwhile, the introduction of the talent system to players reaching level 10 was vastly improved as well. Previously, a player reaching level 10 would earn a single talent point to spend in the talent tree of their choice, but that choice was just not very meaningful. In cataclysm, players are presented with the three talent trees and offered passive bonuses and one signature active-ability for each specialization. For example, a level 10 destruction warlock would learn Conflagrate, which means they are able to melt faces much earlier than ever before. One down-side of the current system is that players are now locked in to their talent tree of choice until they've spent 31 pts. (This kills the hybrid builds.) However, dual specialization still exists, and players can always visit a trainer to unlearn their talents.  The current Cataclysm talent calculator can be found here.

Now, if you're like me, you might have thought the pruning that took place in Cataclysm was a signal that going forward the talent trees would be allowed to grow once again as leveling players would gain more talent points to spend. And if you did, you would be wrong. At Blizzcon 2011, developers announced and previewed a new talent system that is nothing like anything the game has ever seen. For starters, the talent trees are gone. In Mists of Pandaria, the choice players make at level 10 will largely determine the set of abilities, both active and passive, your character will learn  as you level. This results in a couple of different effects. First, you'll be learning abilites that you may have traditionally skipped as talents. Second, your spellbook won't be cluttered with off-spec abilties you just don't need. Does an affliction warlock need to learn Incinerate if he'll never cast it? Blizzard's answer is "No."    

But wait! That's not all. The talent system itself has been transformed into a series of SIX choices a player will make starting at level 15 based on their class. Every 15 levels, you will be presented with 3 talents to choose from which share a common theme. The level 15 choice may be about survivability, while at level 30 you may be choosing from 3 different forms of crowd control. It's important to note that most talents won't increase through-put, but rather are focused on utility and adapting to different types of content. In fact, developers have stated that they intend for the new talent system to be much more dynamic than the old talent trees - in that players would commonly go weeks or months without changing their talents for a given spec. Developers point to the way in which players currently swap glyphs as a model for the new talents. I personally suspect we'll see players swapping talents when moving from PvE to PvP content, and in raids I wouldn't be surprised to see many players swapping talents on an encounter by encounter basis. That's what I call compelling game-play. You can check out Blizzard's preview of the Mists of Pandaria talent system here.

Be mindful that the MoP talents and skills are still in development. In fact, they are pre-alpha. This doesn't mean they might change or they might not be finished. It means they WILL change and are NOT finished. Having looked over the ones for classes I play, I can tell they've still got quite a ways to go, but overall I'm pretty happy with the direction.

Share your thoughts about the WoW talent system - past, present, or future in the comments below!