Ever since it was first announced, World of Warcraft’s next expansion, Mists of Pandaria, has been quite controversial. From the new race announced, to the new systems that will be added, many players have voiced there disappointment with a certain aspect of the game. One of these aspects is the radical new Talent Systems that Blizzard will be introducing in Mists of Pandaria. This talent system will change the game, and in my opinion add more customization to ones character. However, many people do not agree with this, but nevertheless, it seems Blizzard is sticking to this new Talent System, as they released a new update for the proposed Talent System on February 16th.
This update included many things, and something new for almost every class. That being said, it would be very time redundant to simply list all the changes. Therefore I will only talk about some of the bigger changes and how they fit into the game.
One of the first changes included a new ability for Death Knights called Soul Reaper. Basically this ability deals a very small amount of damage instantly, and after five seconds, if the victim is still alive and at less then 35% health, then it will deal a large amount of damage. This ability will fit in nicely with Death Knights, as they lack an “Execute move”. That is, they do not have an ability that is extremely effective on enemies with low health. This ability grants Death Knights that, while having a unique twist.
Another change included a new ability, Glaive Toss, for Hunters. This ability allows the Hunter to throw a pair of glaives in front of them. Any target hit by these glaives will receive damage as well as a 50% movement reduction. The glaives will also return back to the Hunter, and anything that is hit by the glaives on there return will also receive damage and this time be snared. This is a very interesting ability to say the least. The idea of hitting the same target twice makes this ability sound very good, however, it is a move that will be avoidable if the opponent is paying attention, so it will be interesting to see how this ability actually works in Mists of Pandaria.
A third change related to the Shaman class. This is a new ability called Ascendance, which grants the Shaman a benefit relevant to the specialization they are playing as. For Elemental, it removes the cool down of Lava Burst; for Enhancement, it allows Stormstrike to be used at a distance of up to 30 yards; and for Restoration it doubles the amount of healing done, as well as divide the heal up among all friendly players. For all three Shaman specializations, this is a very big ability which will be very useful in Mists of Pandaria
These three updates to the Mists of Pandaria Talent System are very interesting, yet there are many more that I did not mention. However, these updates demonstrate that Blizzard is hoping to add something new to every class. This increases the anticipation that many players feel for the new expansion tenfold. Sadly, there is no release date yet for this game, so our anticipation will keep building as we find out more about what should be a great expansion.
