Mastery & Talents in Cataclysm

There are five more talent points in World of Wacraft: Cataclysm, and the talent trees have been completely redesigned. There are several things to consider. On the one hand, you have to decide at level 10 for a talent tree in which you want to put at least 31 points, on the other hand the number of talent points is reduced to 41 at level 85. This means that you only get a talent point about every 2 levels and you have to put 31 of them in a tree. The remaining 10 points can then be distributed at will. Another significant change is that by choosing the primary talent tree, you now get several things from level 10. This includes 2 passive traits, mastery and a skill specific to the tree. The passive properties were mostly included before the talent trees were redesigned and are now granted regardless of the talent points. For the Furor warrior, for example, these are the two-handed specialization and the precision . The talent tree-specific ability is, for example, Bloodthirst for the Fury warrior. It is therefore a particularly important skill for this talent specialization.

The Mastery is probably the biggest innovation here. It gives you a passive ability, which you can improve by means of the championship rating, which you get on objects, through enchantments or with gems. To stay with the example of the Fury Warrior, whose mastery is the Mastery: Unshackled Fury One of the main goals of the Mastery is to give players more flexibility when it comes to deciding between fun or useful talents. In other words, you don't want to give players the feeling that they have to choose the mandatory but less interesting talents like passive damage or healing bonuses. In a way, mastery ensures that every talent in a villain talent tree (just as an example) has another invisible point, next to which is written "... and increases your damage by X%". If you now choose a talent like volatility, you will no longer feel like you are losing damage that you have exchanged for something useful. There are of course still talents that increase your damage, but these talents will also affect your way of playing. So you can still find talents like Frost mastery , which reduces the casting time of your Frostbolt; this talent increases your damage, but also affects the rotation of your magician.

The system has of course been developed in such a way that it also appeals to new players. The championship attribute can only be seen when you have reached a high level anyway. It will probably only be fully effective at level 85 and the necessary equipment. Blizzard admits that adding passive bonuses to all talent trees complicates the talent system a little. By omitting many values (MP5, defense, etc.), the new system should be easier to see through and counteract the dangers of killing.

Enjoy the new Talent and Mastery system in Cataclysm through the various of different Cataclysm Servers available.