Comments on: [Last one on Blizzcon] Always in motion the talent system is

By: clockw0rk

clockw0rk — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:42:26 +0000

But couldn’t this be said about almost any of the talent vamps they have done so far? Even going so far back as to vanilla and the first patch-by-patch passes. I think it is possible that this talent revamp has been on the board for a long time; I mean the Cata “revamp” primarily just involved consolidating 41 points into 31. This may have been intended all along. Really at this point it comes to a matter of personal philosophy on balance as to whether this was worthwhile. If you don’t mind the game being somewhat unbalanced and would prefer new systems then yeah, it sucks. It comes down to a quality v. quantity argument which each person will view differently.

By: Goodmongo

Goodmongo — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:19:12 +0000

Newegg had Skyrim $12 off over the weekend. So deals are out there, you just need to look and be fast. And of coursre getting a game 2 months later means even more deals.

And Blizz doesn’t get $60 for D3. Therefore, even if this is a deal (which it’s not) the ones taking the hit are the other sellers.

By: spinks

spinks — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:02:42 +0000

I probably have worse battle.net prices than you due to being in the UK and that we always get screwed on the exchange rates.

By comparison, SC2 is £44.95 on battle.net and can be bought for £32.95 on amazon. I put in my preorder for D3 on amazon as soon as it was announced (ie. ages ago, since I knew they wouldn’t take the money until release) so got my copy locked in at £22 — but even if you buy it new here, there’s a good chance that battle.net will be the most expensive version. (But fwiw, if you preorder really early on amazon they often do offer good prices.)

By: Jonathon Barton

Jonathon Barton — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:30:42 +0000

The more I hear about the once and future status of Warcraft, the happier I am with my decision to quit playing in favor of a Lord of the Rings subscription, where I’m still playing in ‘the good old days’.

By: Utakata

Utakata — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:22:30 +0000

One of things I used to look forward to each expansion was building options in talent trees. They defined who my character was in RP sense as much as the story I developed behind her. It was wonderfully complex and creative. Now half of the that story telling system went “poof” at BlizzCon. No questions asked. Thus I won’t be returning to WoW for the next expansion…even if it where TBC epic. Part of the magic that was the talent trees is now gone from the game and replaced by quick and easy meh.

By: Wilhelm Arcturus

Wilhelm Arcturus — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:55:24 +0000

“That argument only makes sense if you were planning to buy D3 at release from Blizzard directly. Just about any other route would make it cheaper.”

I have to ask, where are these cheaper routes?

In the past, Blizzard releases, like any popular, heavily promoted title, have traditionally sold at list price from outlets at launch and for a significant period of time thereafter.

As a comparable, I checked Elder Scrolls: Skyrim on Amazon.com and they are offering a 1% discount, a full 45 cents off the list price. That isn’t enough of a discount to change Tobold’s 8 dollar a month calculation.

It depends no the title of course, but I recall Burning Crusade selling for full list most places months after launch, when Vanguard was marked down to 75% off of list.

By: Telwyn

Telwyn — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:32:35 +0000

I can sympathise that there can be too much ‘choice’ especially for players who ‘just want to play’ and not have to mess around with builds. But this talent massacre is several steps too far for me. Already leveling has lost some of its shine with gaps between talents and abilities. I’d rather they’d have added a ‘recommend for me’ button to hide the complexities of the original pre-Cata system than take it away step by step.

As for the annual deal, well I see nothing I want to renew my subscription for at present and Diablo 3 is just not my style of game anymore (D1 was but that was a long time ago). I agree with other bloggers that I find it staggers belief that they still haven’t considered adding housing to the game yet they’re talking about a Pokemon system…

By: Goodmongo

Goodmongo — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:22:36 +0000

So if you get a new talent every 15 levels and in 5.0 you hit level 90, and each expansion is 5 levels, does that mean we have to wait till 8.0 before we get another talent?

Somehow I don’t see this being the end of talent changes. After all do we really expect that the expansion after pandas will give no new talents to players? I expect every expansion will have a new talent system incorporated into it.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:49:00 +0000

I think they wanted to try a half measure because large changes can be alienating. But the half measure didn’t work, so they’re biting the bullet.

I like the new system for several reasons, including: (1) no more need for a separate PvP spec (so in effect we get tri-spec without the need for 3 specs), and (2) there is the possibility of adding fourth, fifth, etc. “trees” for a class without huge impact. Druids are getting a fourth tree, apparently.

By: scotth

scotth — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:50:57 +0000

It is easy with hindsight to say we should have thought of this earlier.

I like the new talent system, it is probably the announcement that has me the most interested in the new expansion. It really has the potential to make the game more fun for me, and I am really looking forward to it.