Hey guys. I justed wanted to start a post talking about the talent changes in store for us when path 3.02 hits which I believe will be on October 14th. What looks good? What looks dumb? I know for rogues there was a lot of reshuffling of talents, moving some things further up in trees, some down, and some even moved trees completely (relentless strikes, I'm lookin at you!). I've also heard we'll be able to "save" two different talent specs. I'm not sure how that mechanic will work or whether or not it will be introduced in the upcoming patch, but how do you think you will use this extra talent slot? One for groups and one for PvP? Or for healers, one for questing/dps and one for groups? Here's you chance to weight in!

This is a good thread to have up. I haven't spent much time analyzing the rogue trees yet. Putatively, because they may change a lot, but really because I'm lazy and don't want to have to do all the theorycrafting for my build all over again!

However, you are correct that we need to start discussing it now, so I guess I better get started.....

For Texian, I know if he can have two it will be PvP and 25-man-raid builds.

I've looked at the new trees several times over the past few months, but they've changed quite a bit, so I haven't made any final decisions. I have 5 to figure out pretty shortly, plus another 5 in a later patch when the second spec support is added. I don't think Blizz has finalized their plans for how the specs will be handled, but they've verified that they do plan to have it.

When last I looked, Gama, Daph, Mornwood, and Bubon were all likely just to go deeper into their current specs for the most part. I'm not so sure about Al. Some beta testers are reporting that a Holy/Ret hybrid spec or even a Ret/Holy spec can heal as well as a pure holy, so I'm considering taking my first points in Ret ever. I might even try out a fairly Ret-heavy spec.

The trees should be very close to the form they'll be in when the patch hits next week, so I may spend some time working out specs this weekend. I've always gone with my gut feelings about what seems likely to work well for me, and that usually works out to be close enough to the theorycrafter ideals developed later. I'm likely to do the same thing this time. I've been doing mostly dailies lately, so I can afford to respec a few times if I blow it or just don't like the feel of my first guesses.

As far as second specs....

Daph's main spec is basically considered a PvP spec anyway, so her second is likely to be Fire, Arcane, or some min/max hybrid to deal with frost-resistant or frost-immune fights (stupid Hydross).

Bubon's in a similar boat -- his raid spec isn't too bad for PvP. I might make his second spec a deep Destro spec to help in fights that are pet-unfriendly. After the patch, the whole sacrifice pet to maximize damage is going away because it was never intended by Blizz in the first place, but keeping an imp alive at my side will probably be easier than keeping a felguard alive right next to the boss in some fights.

Mornwood has to try Titan's Grip. I don't know how well it will work, but he's going to try it out. They're adding some PvP viability to Fury, so I won't have to have an Arms spec to get on an arena team, which means his second spec will probably be for tanking.

Like I said, I'm not sure about Al yet. His primary spec will be some sort of healing spec, whether or not it's a hybrid, because I'm sure we'll be short on healers again. His second spec may initially be for tanking because it will take Mornwood a while to catch up with Al's tanking gear, but later I might go with a Ret dps spec, just to try something different.

I'll make a DK, but I don't know what I'll do with him yet. I haven't even followed the DK development closely because it was changing so much and because I haven't had my hands on one yet to see how I feel about them.

Finally have Sheeld's and Texian's specs figured out, and some commentaries on various merits of the new trees. I will post them in the appropriate class-specific forums for easier reference.

I spec'ed all of mine based mostly on gut feeling. Most are not dramatically different from before, except that Al dropped all of his tanking talents. All 5 toons just went deeper into their primary trees. I just need to take a break from exploring, weed picking, and leveling Bubon's inscription to see if any of them are any good.