I really, really like the idea of hero talents, and I’m looking forward to playing with them in TWW. That being said, I think there is design room to accommodate for players who don’t necessarily want to change the core thematic of their class.
I don’t think it’s reasonable or within scope to expect this to be changed before TWW, but for Midnight or later I would like to see the option to opt out of using hero talents and being able to put that power elsewhere on my character.
Gw2 handles this fine with elite specializations, you just use a different build path where you would spec into your elite tree that can better enhance your playstyle and your character remains the vanilla class.
I think getting talent points refunded to our vanilla trees would be in many cases outright broken, but I would like to see some way to provide the option to opt out of class-warping Hero Talents and enhance the “core” class experience moving into future xpacs.
I’m no designer, but maybe something simple like a seperate “core” hero talent tree that focuses on the base fantasy and power. Kind of like legion artifact trees. Or even just an even simpler stat bonus or something.
What I don’t like about hero talents is that it forces your character into a very strict class fantasy. It’s a bit like the Legion overhaul but on steroids.
If you don’t want to force your character into a fantasy or feel your character doesn’t really identifies with a certain hero path you’re basically SOL for the whole expansion or likely the whole trilogy of expansions to come.
I miss the talents being open ended with enough room for your own interpretation.
I don’t want to be an Unholy Death Knight or a Frost Death Knight… I just want to be a Death Knight… Why can’t I opt out of choosing a specialization? Give me the option to just be a Death Knight without any talents.
Is essentially what you are saying. If you don’t like it don’t play it
I don’t have a problem with spec trees at all. They’re core to the game. I have a problem with enforcing a strict interpretation of class fantasy. Some people DO just want to be an Unholy death knight, not a San’Layn or Rider of the Apocalypse. I would like the option to opt into being an Unholy death knight while still budgeting in power.
For sure some of them do. Like lightning shaman seems to force you into the sithlord fantasy where the other elements are just for flavor.
But like Colossus warrior is still pretty generic fantasy wise. It doesn’t feel like their forcing me into plate armor to clank around, it’s just making me like a warrior +1.
Idk I also kinda view it as a player problem when they feel “forced” do something.
But, more to the ops point and request:
A “generic” tree (for lack of a better term) would defy the entire purpose of the hero talents which are supposed to be expanding our fantasy and playstyles. Sure. It sucks that my Colossus warrior won’t have any thunderclap buffs, or that taking shockwave feels pointless on slayers. And I hope they fix that going forward.
But a generic tree would just encourage people to ignore the hero talents all together, especially if it was even a little viable.
I’m good without a generic tree, but I also like all my classes hero talents so
None of the hero specs i’ve played have felt like they’ve overwritten my spec fantasy. Only enhanced it and gently leaned in a general direction with it. Some you could barely tell were there.
Take ret for example. Your options are “sometimes orange beams fly out of me” vs “sometimes i drop a massive hammer of light on somebody”
Doesn’t really rob you of the fantasy of just playing ret.
I agree. I know that engagement with these talents is fundamental to their goals of the expansion. I literally said as much in the the text you quoted.
Moving forward, as in literally two expacs from now, I’d like more options.
I get what the op is saying, some people just want to be a basic adventurer, and hero talents kinda dimish that feel your not a basic adventurer your a practiacally a god.
Im also not a fan of hero specs being locked to 2 of the 3 specs, i want the lightning hero but with just the one two hander for more of a orc lightning blade fantasy not a duel wieling lightning that would go more to the dwarf fantasy
Oh, well thanks, Ion! Considering the whole idea and most of the good ideas in modern WoW are ripped off and polished from ArenaNet, I’ll hold my breath on this one.
I fully expect Hero talents to survive through the end of the Last Titan. We’ll get 20 more levels of them through Midnight and the Last Titan, they want it to be an evergreen feature. There’s no way they’re introducing them for one expansion and then scrapping the idea. They’re here for the Saga.
I’m sure not, I just hope they end up adding more hero talent tree options if the system sticks around. For a lot of classes they are fine as is, but I do see it as disappointing for a lot of the more generic classes that aren’t heavily themed by default and people could theme them a variety of ways as they pleased. Now hero talents come along and push them into a very specific theme in some cases.
I think Hunter is probably the worst offender, especially for MM.
Think about that first WoW NPC we ever saw back in vanilla during the opening cinematc; that dwarven hunter with his rifle and bear companion out in the snow outside of ironforge. Which of the MM hero talents is he supposed to pick? Does he want to call upon the power of the elven moon goddess to summon a magic arcane owl? Does he want to become a emo elven archer shooting shadow arrows and summoning dead dogs? I’m guessing probably neither of those are appealing to quite a few hunters out there.
Reading 
intelligence 