I’ve noticed a lot of the Hero Talents work around talents that are supposed to be optional (New Moon, Fury of Elune, Holy Prism, Wake of Ashes, etc.).
If we choose to not use these optional talents for our builds, do we just get punished in our Hero Talents not giving us a boost unless we fit these optional talents into our builds?
Yes. You’ll use them or you miss out.
It’s essentially the same problem that currently exists with tier set bonuses. It does very much undermine the concept of the talent trees being all about choice.
That said, with the hero talent trees being static and not changing every season, they can and should be designed around talents that are, if not fundamental to a spec, at least a very safe bet.
Yeah I’ve seen complaints about Tier Set bonuses having similar problems before. When I choose my talents, I tend to choose talents that enhance buttons I already have rather than add more buttons to my bar. So when the Hero Talents are previewed to be buffing talents that are new abilities that I have to select on the tree over my preferred options, it kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
It’d be one thing if they buffed core talents that are in the beginning of the tree that have to be chosen to get to the lower tiers and are things that specs are designed around you having. But stuff like Wake of Ashes, which sits at the bottom of the tree that competes with three other sections, I don’t want to be forced into just to get a boost from my Hero Talents.
I mean no offense, but I’m genuinely surprised that that’s the one you singled out. To me, wake of ashes is a no brainer. I love the absolute crap out of that ability. Ret doesn’t feel complete to me without it.
If you don’t take the optional talent for a certain set of hero talents, you probably won’t be taking that set of hero talents. Pretty simple.
My favorite iteration of Ret was back in Mop/WoD. It’s come a long way since then, but Wake of Ashes just never clicked with me. I’ve always been more of a fan of the holy themes of ret rather than the fire themes.
Thus the point being made: it’s like tier set bonuses that force you down a certain path. In this case, you don’t really have a choice. You either ignore the existence of one of the Hero specs or you have to change your talents.
So there really isn’t a choice and this just backs up my opinion that they should have just been new rows added to the bottom of the current trees.
Both Herald of the Sun and Templar Hero Talent trees rely on you having Wake of Ashes. So choosing a different set of Hero Talents doesn’t change that. And what if I like the flavor of one over the other? They are also attaching a cosmetic change to the choice.
No different than a tierset forcing you use use a talent.
I don’t think they should work that way, either. They market the talent trees as a mechanic of choice then add new systems that make certain talents mandatory. Seems kind of backward to me.