Since BFA launched back in 2018, so many talents have been completely useless. I can’t remember the last time I used talents outside of the “cookie cutter” build on any of my characters.
There are some that I’d love to be able to use, Flanking Strike on my Survival hunter for instance. But the balance is so unbelievably poor that it’s not worth using anything outside of the meta.
Why haven’t talents been looked at even a little over the last year and a half? I know Blizzard is just a small indie company but come on… this is just lazy.
3 Likes
Depends? How much of a difference is it between ST, AOE, Cleave and their sustained or burst variations? And how does it change with Azerite Powers?
There are many talents where that question wouldn’t even matter. Talents that, regardless of the fight, build, or special circumstances, are not at all worth taking over the ‘meta’ build.
Can’t speak to other classes, but shaman talents over all are pretty well balanced.
Elemental is the closest thing to my “main” spec right now. I am not even sure there is an over all “meta” build. There definitely isn’t a build you take regardless of fight, build, or special circumstance.
I don’t pretend to know everything about my Outlaw talents and where they excel the best at in situational or not.
But man Slice and Dice is worthless.
1 Like
talents like whirling dragon punch for windwalkers are the types of talents that should be 100% baseline. it smooths out the gameplay and make the spec flow and be extremely enjoyable.
Babs who is the monk god who runs the monk website peakofserenity. com has run the numbers and the other talent on the tier serenity will need to be buffed by over 250% to compete with whirling dragon punch for windwalkers ( and thats just on ST, thats not even balancing it for aoe ). if that doesnt scream blizzard not doing there jobs and actually balancing talents i dont know what other evidence i can give.
the other thing about WDP for windwalker is the fact that if blizzard ran over the talent with a bulldozer in nerfs it would still be the only talent on the row worth taking. i personally like the serenity playstyle despite how weak it is, but its never worth taking compared to WDP because it just outright makes the spec function.
the irony of a talent like WDP existing as a talent instead of being baseline to the spec is that a couple of our talent rows are how ALL talent trees should work. our tier 30 and tier 75 talents is how all talent rows should work for all specs. its picking your poison on how a base function of the spec works. the talent trees shouldnt be plugging holes in the specs, the base specs should be working on there own. the talents should be augmenting your playstyle how you want to play it.
the flipside of this is our tier 15 talents are a trashfire and honestly it basically doesnt matter what you choose, they are literally less than 0.5% effective in there functions. it might as well just be a blank row of talents. and then our tier 60 row is just a mishmash of things that blizz didnt know what to do with. and again, the tier with WDP on it ( tier 100 ) is an instant lock talent that is taken in all situations always. it eclipses the performance of the other 2 options so easily its a joke, but not only because of its effective power, but also how it makes the spec function. its just a part of the gameplay that should be existing in the spec for it to work. theres no choice there. even if blizz did buff serenity by over 250% it still likely wouldnt be taken. the other talent might as well be a blank slot. blizz made it up a week before BFA went live and just ignored it since. it never got tuning.
i look at the talent trees in GW2 and salivate. they beat the everloving snot out of the terrible trees in WOW. so many basic functions of this game are so ignored by blizzard these days, its a wonder what the blizzard staff do on a daily basis. because nobody is looking after pvp, professions, classes, tuning, talent trees etcs. they are just left to rot. and when blizz keep lumping on a million casino RNG systems on top to gloss over the TERRIBLE job they did with the base classes, its no wonder tuning is out the window.
and now that hulinko is in charge of classes, i know they will be a trainwreck next xpack just like they were this xpack. the guy is a joke.
1 Like
I’m still waiting for Fervor of Battle to be nuked from orbit.
I absolutely hate that talent for Arms.
1 Like
Yeah, you ask a good question.
If we look at the Protection Warrior, the level 45 talent slot is “Unstoppable Force” full stop. It got nerfed since I was able to keep up with a DPS Havoc DH in AOE DPS with the first iteration. Even after the nerf, the other 2 choices “Best Served Cold” and “Dragon Roar” still can’t seem to keep up. I am unsure if the other choices would even be chosen with a re-balance since the Thunder Claps have a strong synergy with the Azerite Trait Deafening Crash.
1 Like
The game has become overly complex. To the extent very few have a firm grasp on each layer and what works / what doesn’t.
Simpler class design doesn’t always mean boring. The bulk of the complexity in BFA class design is spreadsheet complexity. The worst kind as it adds nothing to gameplay. Of course people have been talking about this for 2 years. It’s the wrong direction.
More engaging gameplay is welcome. Simpler itemization is as well. Baseline complexity and well defined specs are what people want. A highly deterministic power gain as well.
The typical RPG loop provides you with beef on the bone right away and then progressively fattens that bone up as the gameplay goes on until the player is well fed and done.
The BFA loop is like a bone with a lot of useless fat that progressively fattens the bone up as the gameplay goes on. Oodles of garbage loot, more garbage loot, oh more useless things and some other things I have no idea what it is. It’s not satiating and actually turns people off. Like too much fat on the bone it just takes too long to digest the little nutrients that exist. Most are giving it a pass until they see what beef Shadowlands is going to have.
The beef if you were wondering is a clear trajectory of levels, loot and talents that empower the character. Not a sea of useless garbage which is the fat.
1 Like