Had an idea on talents and wanted to get some opinion just for fun.
There’s no argument that talents in their current state are a bit stale. Sure they’re great for switching on a whim when necessary, but they don’t really add much depth beyond that. Let’s not forget the issue with leveling. One of the best carrots on a stick when leveling was getting a talent point to spend every other level. Sure, those 5+ levels you had to grind to get +5% crit rating was a bit dull considering the length of time it took to level, i’m with you. But hear me out.
Talents would be laid out in their same current iteration where you have different talents unlocked at certain level thresholds. What i would recommend is a system that lets you put multiple talent points into a particular talent. And as you do so, the talent improves, changes, etc. This would also mean having the ability to place points into all talents in that row. Yes i get it, having every talent would be ridiculous, etc. Not the point. The current talents we have would likely not work, they would need to be adjusted.
Lets take a look at affliction lock just as an example.
First row has:
nightfall – chance to proc an instant shadowbolt
drain soul - causes damage over time, +dmg at 20% or lower health
deathbolt - 30% of remaining dot damage.
Okay, right now, nightfall and drain soul would overlap and cancel each other out, since drain soul would replace shadow bolt. For the sake of this exercise lets say that Drain Soul its a stand alone spell that you can cast in addition to Shadow bolt.
Lets look at nightfall first. We put 1 point into it and it gives us a chance for proc +damage. initially that could start out at a 10% proc and 1% +dmg. Each additional point into this talent though would increase your proc chance and/or your damage. That’s a simple example. Same principle applies to Drain Soul and Deathbolt – start the damage off lower, each point gives you increased damage. Lets just say you get 15 points (point per level) to put into these – you could drop all of your points into nightfall and be a proc lock (just thought of that clever name), or drop all your points into deathbolt for a heavy nuke. The balance here would be natural and of course with some numbers tuning, but on the surface if you had even distribution of all 3 talents, you would get a small percent and +dmg change on shadowbolt, a kind of weak but maybe useful drain soul, and a somewhat potent deathbolt.
The point is possibilities are endless. In using these three talents as an example, lets say rank 1 of deathbolt made deathbolt have a cast time. Each successive point gives your +dmg and reduction in cast time or even reduction in cooldown. Whatever the case may be. There might even be opportunity to reach an end rank and get a new effect such as deathbolt heals you for a percentage of the damage done if you have all 15 points in it. You weigh whether you sacrifice procs and drain soul for that added benefit or whatever the benefit is – stun the target, knockback, slow, etc.)
Each talent point would have meaning and would add that ever sought after choice. And yes, before you go there, there will always, always, always, be a build that sims better and with higher dps than another. There’s no way around that. The point is you get the freedom to play the class how you want and it opens up many many opportunities for playstyle customization without even adding any new talents or spells to the game.
Take a look at your classes talents and see if what i explained makes sense. Let me know your thoughts as well, i’d be interested to hear them.