I'm in... gunna post stuff tomorrow (probably) after I get to play around a bit; the installer is downloading and installing and w/e at home right now... I can hardly wait!



SWEET TAP-DANCING CHRIST... check this noise out!

Okay... this is all relatively new information, but here is what I am understanding about this change (31-point builds):

1) You will gain a talent point every other level, or thereabout, giving everyone exactly 41 talent points to spend at level 85.

2) Each talent tree is being COMPLETELY redesigned (read: redesigned in this case means many talents are getting scrapped or lowered in cost... they aren't changing "Feral" into "Bear" for instance or "Prot"... it'll still be Feral-centric, but the talents will be redesigned/changed/dropped/added).

3) Each talent tree's best talent tier will be 31 (again). That is... 31 in Feral means you will have Berserk.

4) Once you spend 1 talent in a tree, it is your "specialization" until you have spent 31-points in it. This means that from 1 talent point until you have 31 points in a tree, you cannot spend a talent point in another tree (if you put 1 in Feral, you cannot spend another point in Resto UNTIL you have spent 31 in Feral...)

5) Most of the abilities in the talent trees are going away in favor of learned skills. That is, Mangle will no longer be in the Feral tree; instead, when you put 1 point into the Feral tree, you will train the ability Mangle from the Druid Class Trainer at level X, and if you respec to Balance/Resto specializations, you will lose Mangle from your spellbook until you spec back into Feral.

6) Mastery is no longer gained by spending more talent points in a given tree; instead, you train "Mastery" at level 75, and depending on your specialization, you ... okay I don't get this bit.

The blues have JUST announced this system, and say it will be implemented (or mostly implemented) in another Beta build or two... so you can bet that I will have the skinny on that as soon as it's up. Let's talk about the implications of this for a moment:

This change REALLY makes me feel like Feral is going to be the strongest of all the hybrids.

Why?

While every spec in the game is going to be forced to specialize into a single role, Feral is actually going to be forced to specialize TWO roles: Cat and Bear. Unless Blizz changes everything around and makes WAY more talent choices in the Feral tree than any other tree and allows a full Bear build vs. a full Cat build, we are going to run into the situation where Cat/Bear largely overlap and provide their own benefits to the maximum.

The other interesting aspect here is the Mastery Bonus... unless Blizz implements some way of discerning a Cat from a Bear via talent specialization, we will get both Mastery bonuses, making Bear Form a viable tank as a Cat spec. I really cannot see anyway Blizz can implement this without cries for nerfs going out far and wide for Ferals... we're getting the ONLY 2-for-1 deal in WoW, it seems at this point.

Again... I will have more info about abilities and what-not tomorrow (if everything goes to plan)... but take it with a grain of salt, as the Cataclysm is ripping much more than the world asunder.