#0 - July 14, 2010, 4:47 p.m.
The idea for reducing the talent trees to 31 points to make "each choice seem like it matters" or something like that, has made it so you have to choose almost everything to advance.
There really aren't any choices. The only choice you might run into is whether or not to put one point into one thing, or a different one, because it hardly matters.
For example, on the Affliction tree, you have to put a point in Imp. Drain Soul to advance! What a waste! There's no way around it, either.
I know this is still beta, but I have a hunch that these small trees + having to put 30 points in one tree = Blizzard choosing everyone's spec.
Oh, he's going affliction? Well, we know what his spec is down to the last talent point.
The smaller amount of points is also limiting what you can get in other trees. At this point in time, it is impossible for Arms warriors to get Piercing Howl! That's such a huge ability for PvP that you wonder what Blizz was on when this went through.
Some examples for other classes:
No more improved silence for non-arcane mages.
No more aimed shot for non-marksman hunters.
No more insect swarm for non-boomkin druids.
The list goes on and on, the classes are getting really simplified, I wouldn't be surprised if 1/3 of my keybinds disappear due to the abilities no longer existing. It's like dropping down 20-30 levels and not having enough talent points to spec into another tree a little bit.
TL;DR: Blizzard is dumbing down the talent trees like crazy, and a lot of the abilities we are used to having will go down the crapper to be replaced with a cheap meal of passive talents.
