So, overall...
I think the Talent Trees are looking pretty good. But given the way Hero systems function as a mix between 2 specs, it’s got me wondering if there’s a way we could design the Class (and to a lesser extent, the Spec) Trees that feel less restrictive, both when designing the Trees, and when players are pathing through the Trees.
Looking at some Spec Trees...
Particularly, the Enhancement Spec Tree, the Left is more geared toward Lightning, and the Right side offers a Fire(+Ice) build, while the middle allows one to pickup some AoE talents, regardless of whether they’re more invested in Storm, or Fire/Ice. Besides a few minor personal preferences I’d like to see changed, overall it’s design is a really good template that would be suitable for most Specs.
So, the problem with trying to transfer that Spec Template universally to Class Trees...
Even for a binary spec Class like a DH, in theory your Class tree will be juggling between a spec offering dps abilities, and tonk abilities, and then you have aoe/st abilities. If you followed the enhance tree formular, it would make sense to just put the tonk/dps on either side, and then the aoe stuff in the middle. But what if you were wanting to build for single target with more surviability? That’s kind of an inherent flaw in the current Tree layout that contributes to the cookie cutter build ““problem””.
Problem?What Sword?
Now, because “Just Sim It^TM” optimizations, or just copy/pasting talents from the wolrd highest rank players exists, I think a lot of players at some level might potentially feel coerced into paths that are personally undesired. But I think if we were to consider a slightly different approach to Talent Trees, then even if there are still “optimal” builds that players feel obligated to look at, it might allow for these builds to have a bit more optional pathing to make it at least feel like there’s more player agency.
If we look at the Druid Class Tree, if you didn’t know anything about Druids or hardly anything about the game, you might not think there was anything particularly “special” about druids compared to other Classes. But one particuarly noteable difference about Druids is they have 4 specs; but more importantly their main ‘specialty’, is that they can be Tonk/Heal/Mdps/Rdps*(Paladins are also an honorable mention because they can Tonk/Heal/Mdps)*.
Sword? What's the point, here?
How do you juggle all of the possible builds for each spec, between 4 different specs into a Class Tree that’s essentially the same size as someone like a Mage, who has 3 Rdps specs?
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You’re bound to make a lot of compromises that inevitabley look a little clunky no matter what spec/playstyle you’re trying to build for. There really isn’t any way around that without completely shafting a particular spec/playstyle or 2(or 3 or 4), in favor of the others, right?
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Ok, sooo.....
What if we made the (Class?) Tree, into something that more accurately resembles a (upside-down) “Tree”? What if we could make the Talent Trees into 3DDD Trees?
If the Talent Trees were to use a 3D approach, this would enable more dynamic builds that could reach various talents in more creative ways that are currently arbitrarily inaccesible
*****For the tl;diyr’s *****
So,
If we imagine the current Trees are like a 2D map of the World, we’ll see they can be rather restricted as to what we can path to. But, if we turn that 2D map into a 3D globe, suddenly we can find ways to branch together 2 Specs that might have been isolated on either side of the middle spec(ex: Fire | Arcane | Frost). If we then moved it into a 3D model, then it would not be essentially restricted to a Fire/Arcane or This could allow different Specs/Playstyles to ‘interact’ between each other in a more dynamically fluid way
Or perhaps for the early iterations they could be more like “Pie Charts”, where
it’s sliced into 3( or 2/4 for D-H/ruids) and you start on the outside, and work your way towards the center. Or maybe it would make more sense to reverse that, and start in the middle, working towards the outside?
So...
Thoughts, comments? Upvote, downvote? Swipe L, or Swipe R? Subscribe and retweet?
Anyways, ty for reading my post, sorry it was starting to turn into a looongboi.
