The hero talents in WoW: The War Within are well received. However, some are afraid that it is only “Borrowed Power”. We asked.
The hero talents are one of the new major features of World of Warcraft: The War Within. They allow for even more character customization, providing new abilities and powers. However, many are concerned that this is just a new “Borrowed Power” system that will be lost at the end of the expansion. Therefore, we asked Blizzard and received a clear answer.
What are the hero talents? You unlock hero talents in The War Within starting at level 71. They grant your character new abilities but are separate from the existing talent system. Each specialization can choose between two different sets of hero talents and can also make several decisions within those sets. This leads to characters of the same specialization often differing significantly from each other.
What does Blizzard say? At gamescom 2024, our author Benedict Grothaus had the opportunity to ask Blizzard some questions. George Velev (Game Producer) and Michael Nuthals (Senior Encounter Designer) were present to answer them. They also addressed the question of what happens to the hero talents at the end of The War Within and whether it is Borrowed Power
:
We treat hero talents, along with many other features from The War Within, as an evergreen system. When I say evergreen, I mean that it will be active for longer than just one expansion. So yes, hero talents are not just going away.
Regarding their expansion, we can’t say anything yet. Right now, we are just trying to make them as good as possible for launch and season 1.
But I think if you look at Dragonflight and what we did with talents there, there were many redesigns. And I believe there will definitely be such things over the course of the rest of the expansion.
What is Blizzard alluding to? Blizzard is referencing the numerous reworks of the entire talent trees that occurred during the course of Dragonflight. Some classes, such as paladins, underwent massive reworks that fundamentally changed and updated the entire talent design. Such things could also be on the table for the hero talents if it turns out that they do not meet the expectations of the developers or the community.
That said, it seems clear that the hero talents will initially remain as a fundamental concept and will at least be active throughout the entire World Souls saga. What comes after that is still up in the air, even if Chris Metzen is already planning more than 6 expansions ahead.
