World of Warcraft has removed important information from the game. Newcomers simply have no chance to understand their talents.
The new talent system in World of Warcraft has been live for a few weeks now and the changes have been well received by many players. However, there is still quite a bit of criticism because in some respects the talents seem underdeveloped. Particularly frustrating: sometimes the descriptions are completely missing, so newcomers cannot even know what it’s actually about.
What descriptions are missing? In the World of Warcraft subreddit, some players have pointed out that with the overhaul of the talent system, important information has entirely disappeared. Some classes are missing details about abilities and mechanics – which are simply nowhere to be found.
The most prominent example is probably the Fire Mage. It has had a mechanic for years called “Hot Streak.” The idea behind it is: If the mage scores 2 critical hits in a row, the next Pyroblast or Flamestrike will become an instant cast and deal more damage. There are a number of talents that relate to this Hot Streak, enhancing it or interacting with it.
The problem: Nowhere in the spellbook or talent tree of the Fire Mage is it explained what Hot Streak actually is. What used to be a passive effect in the spellbook has simply disappeared.
For veterans, this may not be a problem since they already know this mechanic – but for anyone new to World of Warcraft or simply wanting to try another class, they have no chance to get this information in-game and have to rely on other players or websites.
Are there more examples? Similar difficulties exist with many other classes as well. For instance, the Affliction Warlock receives some talents that also enhance “Shadow Bolt.” However, the game forgets to mention that Shadow Bolt is replaced by “Soul Harvest” for the Affliction Warlock. This leads to some confusing moments when flipping through the spellbook and simply not finding what has been enhanced.
Ambiguous talents ruin decisions: Equally frustrating are talents that are simply described too vaguely. While often a precise chance or percentage value for improvements is given, this is not always the case. Here the Shadow Priest stands out, as “–Pariah” in the WoW subreddit explains:
“As a Shadow Priest, it is impossible to assess the final talents that influence your build so significantly without doing a lot of research. The worst example:
“Avatar of C’Thun
Mind Flay and Mind Blast have a chance to create a Void Tendril or a Void Lash that channels on your target for 15 seconds, generating 3 Insanity every 1 second.“What is the chance? How often does it proc? Is it the same value for Mind Flay and Mind Blast? Is it higher for one of the two? Is it an AoE or single-target talent? Does it generate Insanity in both cases?
Void Tendril or Void Lash? What the hell are they? What do they channel? How much damage do they deal? What is the difference between them? How do they choose their target? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS HERE?I know what they do because I played when they were introduced in different forms. But those who do not have these years of knowledge have to search for precise explanations on various websites.
The community demands a revision: While there are voices that say not all details need to be explained 100%, there is at least a unanimous opinion that fundamental class mechanics must appear as passive abilities in the spellbook.
Blizzard will still have to improve here because newcomers currently have very little chance of grasping different specializations in the game if important information simply does not exist in-game.
How are you managing with the new talents? Does your specialization also have such problems? Or is everything clear for you?
