Do you go whatever?
Minimalistic?
Or based them around Meta?
I personally go for Minimalistic, having to deal with 5+ cooldown abilities is just a pain, i prefer to keep things simple and easier to handle, even if it isnt the absolute best.
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Whatever I feel like… really, whatever fits the theme I want for my dk…
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that is all
with a manual.
like how im working with legos or something i guess.
I put my points into the abilities I use all the time rather than things I don’t.
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I go for simplistic and ease. I don’t get involved with meta as I don’t group up usually so no need to.
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a sightly based on meta but I always read them all and make my own adjustments
for example in the hunter tree, some builds in icyveins and wowhead do not include trailblazer but it helps alot for fast moving in bgs and in the open world
I always go for some balance between aoe and single, you know, im not always in a dungeon or an arena, I prefer to have a solid tree for my activites so that i dont need to switch everytime
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Put in talents intuitively, go on the target dummy, see when gaps show up in the rotation, adjust talents, go back to dummy, see where gaps show up in the rotation, put on some haste pvp gear, go back to dummy, go back to talents and modify based on haste values.
For reference I don’t really use a damage meter until after all that’s done and I have a sense of where the 2-3 builds I come up with have a decent flow to the rotation at given haste levels. For example with the ww rework if you’re running low haste you can take emp capacitor because every 30 seconds or so there’s a glaring gap in the rotation due to energy. Once you pass like 20–25% haste that gap is missing, doesn’t necessarily mean they both have competitive output in a 5 minute sequence but in a pvp setting usually a 20 second window is all that matters, so optimizing around 20 second uptime 30 second downtimes can sometimes be a better option than just the typical pve route where maximizing uptime is 99% of the time optimal. Adding an extra global before downtime starts can sometimes be the difference between a kill vs. the benefit of just having 15% shorter downtimes with an alternative build, which is just giving into a dampen meta.
Pvp and pve are probably going to have pretty drastic gearing routes for optimal performance in the coming expansion, with how varied certain trees have become, like affliction and ww optimizing haste for pve and pvp will be a huge divide in the first couple seasons so the haste builds may not see as much play in pvp whereas in pve with less vers the haste builds will free up.
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I let other people smarter than me do the math, and then I use a build already made for me. Icy-veins is usually my go-to.
I used to be a meta slave.
Lately I go starter build in WoW and see if I can work with it for the content I plan to do. Then adjust according to the situation (take dispels if lacking, additional CDs on preservation if I get a potato tank, etc).
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When levelling: whatever I want.
When doing specific tasks in non-serious settings: whatever talents makes the most sense in those settings (my rogue had an open world setup that made them absolutely bonkers in terms of survivability and sustain).
When raiding/M+/PvP: an effective build that has been tried and tested, and then modified if I don’t like certain aspects of it. I know Shadowburn is a good spell, and one definitely should use it especially right now … I just don’t like it (changes like these are significant, but not oh so much that it fundamentally warps my performance for the level of play I am at).
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Does this ability passively buff a button I already like pressing? If so, take it.
Then pick whatever fits what the character’s RP.
It’s very rare that I ask myself “is this the mathematically optimal talent choice”. I’m more worried I might have forgotten to put a core class ability onto my toolbars than whether my rotation is meta.
I used to try to make any alts of the same class different, but i’ve sort of given that up because I already have enough variety to keep track of because of the number of different classes I play.
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I go to warcraftlogs to check out what the top 100 parses of the spec are using (for the content I am making the build for), pick everything that 90+% of them are using, strongly consider the ones 50%-90% are taking, and then fill the rest with whatever seems useful/convenient, and isn’t used by 0%, favoring passives.
A mix of WoWhead, Youtube, Subcreation (I guess is with Archon now?), and RIO.
Look to see what high skilled players are doing. Then just breaking it so I’m comfortable.
Dragonflight was just me going with the Pit Lord summon ability because I thought that was sick. But I also made sure my Wrathguard was still doing damage. Most just went with like. The middle and right trees.
I discern which abilities I want and start with that, sometimes integrating what good players are using.
i copy builds from players that i admire, then tweak em to suit my needz
Usually check top 100 on warcraft logs for the content im doing and adjust to suit my skill level by testing on target dummy. I have a slower response time than I used to, so i tend to lean harder into passives than actives.
For open world though, I make a simple build that gives me good AoE and ST without sacrificing survivability.
I just hit up Archon and swing at dummies.
Usually off the sites mentioned already, but if there is multiple build options I will usually go for the most minimalistic build.