Talent/ability change proposals

[Akos1896]

Hey!

As usual, the article will be long.
I want to propose some talent changes to make certain specs either more fun or more viable.
Not all classes will be mentioned but most of them will be.

1. Prot Warrior
Prot warriors are in a weird place. At PVP they are useless. At PVE leveling a DPS warrior with a shield is usually more efficient even if the added threat from defense stance talent is skipped. When leveling, prot warriors are usually rage-starved. At raiding, they fail in comparison to fury warrior which has a much greater threat window.
The way to make prot warrior a viable choice, they need:
* Better rage generation to make it work at leveling, in dungeons.
* More synergy with shields to give an alternative to dual-wielding + threat.

Proposed changes:
* Changing shield slam CD from 6 sec to 4 sec.
* Increasing the rage generated via shield blocks by Shield Specialization.
* Improved Shield Bash getting a + threat modifier instead of the silence.
* Removing Improved Disarm and introducing a new ability which generates threat every time you block with a shield.

2. Arms Warrior
Arms warriors are declared as a PVP spec and are ignored at PVE changes. I would accept it if Arms were an S tier build in PVP. But as it stands, they are not that good in PVP and fail in comparison to fury in raiding. They can be used during leveling dungeons, though.

Proposed changes:
* Switch of place between Improved Disciplines and Impale. Impale is no longer dependent on Deep Wounds.
* Impale also gives a melee damage bonus on the target you've critted on.
* Weapon mastery talents also giving weapon skill.
* Adding an ability which gives you a haste bonus against bleeding enemies.

3. Holy Paladin
They are in a good place but playing the build is extremely boring.

Proposed change:
* Holy Shock is guaranteed to crit on a target with less than 20% HP. 30 sec CD changes to 10 sec.

4. Protection Paladin
I think that they undervalue melee hits despite the bottom tree giving bonus to melee hits. Ardent Defender is also lackluster. To solve both problems, I propose to change ardent defender in a way that it helps generating melee threat.

Proposed change:
* New Ardent Defender giving you 3% melee hit, +3% melee haste and +10% threat from melee attacks as long as your HP is below 50%. Would enable currently neglected prot talents which focus on melee.

5. Retribution Paladin
I won't talk about holy strike here in details. I believe it needs a nerf (higher part of the damage being melee, only a small portion being holy damage). In exchange, retribution paladin could see some buffs.

Proposed changes:
* Give them a threat talent. Retribution paladin's threat/damage ratio is currently really bad.
* 2H weapon specialization talent also giving 2H weapon skill.
* Replace Repentence with something interesting.

6. Restoration Shaman
They are mostly in a good place but some reinforcement at the bottom of the tree would be welcome.

Proposed changes:
* Make Restorative Totems more effective.
* Lower Mana Tide Totem CD from 5 min to 3 min.

7. Enhancement Shaman
This build needs more help.

Proposed changes:
* Move Nature's Guidance into the enhancement tree.
* Move Elemental Devastation into the enhancement tree.
* Add 2H weapon skill to the Weapon Mastery talent.
* Increase the mana bonus from Ancestral Knowledge to 10%
* Stormstrike giving you a buff, adding +20% spell crit chance on your next spell.
* Thunderhead adding a 3% melee haste bonus on the target who has your lightning shield.
* Bloodlust working both on your target and you.

8. Elemental Shaman
Good in PVP. PVE changes should take into consideration the effects at the PVP side of things.

Proposed changes:
* Elemental Focus also giving a threat reduction buff during the clearcasting state.
* Instead of Elemental Devastation, introduce a spell penetration talent. Elemental shaman mostly uses nature damage.
* Elemental Mastery also nullifying the threat of the spell you cast under Elemental Mastery.

Would give shamans a new level of Earth Shock which is learnable at AQ20 and which taunts. Would also give them an upgraded Earthgrab Totem for better AoE threat. Mostly for OT emergencies and to let tank shamans meme and have fun.

9. Discipline Priest
Some people state it's a PVP spec and to a degree it is. But with small changes it can be made into a very interesting PVE spec, too. PI is too interesting to be a niche at raiding.

Proposed changes:
* Force of Will also giving crit to healing spells. That way Holy is working with more +healing but Discipline is working with more spell crit chance.
* Change the custom Reflective Shields talent. Instead of damage reflection, make shields 20% cheaper and reduce their CD by 2 sec.
* Slightly buff Improved Power Word: Shield (+25% shield instead of +15%).

10. Holy Priest
Mostly in a good spot but some nitpicking can be done.

Proposed changes:
* Reduce Holy Nova base mana cost.
* Buff Searing Light added damage from 10% to 15%.
* Change some Holy Champion options:
- Champion's Bond: Create some kind of Spirit Link effect where damage is first reduced a bit and then redistributed between the target and you.
- Empower Champion: Slight buff on the numbers.
- Champion's Resolve: Make it Fearward CD (in exchange you can still only cast it on the champion).
- Revive Champion: Enabling a battle rez on the champion by the priest for 10 min. 1 hour CD.

11. Shadow Priest
Great at PVP, good value in late raiding but somewhat lacking in PVE before having OP items since they are very gear-dependent.

Proposed changes:
* Reduce the threat generated by Vampiric Embrace so it can be safely used in dungeons.
* Improved Mind Blast also putting up a new SWP on the target if it crits.
* Changing shadow mend, it doesn't feel right flavor-wise at the moment. Give shadow priests a reverse pain spike which gives a fast heal whenever needed but also puts a dot on the target with the same amount which was healed. To delay damage spikes.
* Considering a small CD spell cleave here but not an AoE.

12. Feral Druid
Bear is mostly fine, cat needs some love, though.

Proposed changes:
* Improved swipe: increasing swipe's threat ratio in bear form, enabling swipe in cat form.
* Make Tiger's Fury much cheaper.

13. Balance druid

Moonkin mostly needs more mana.

* Make Insect Swarm reduce the target's chance to crit also.
* Give Moonkin Form a 10% mana regeneration continues while casting addition.

14. Restoration druid

Most people agree that the 2 things resto druids need are HoT stacks and out of combat rez.

* Make tranquility cheaper and reduce the CD to 3 min.
* Allow 2 stacks on HoT on a target.
* Give druids an out of combat rez, too.

15. Affliction warlock

Currently all PVE locks look the same. Wanna change this by making affliction locks focus more on curses.

Proposed changes:
* Buff Improved CoW and Improved CoA.
* Change CoE into a haste reduction curse and decrease it's numbers. Make it go from 5% to 10% instead of from 10% to 30% but make it affect haste. Would become an incredible raiding curse addition.
* Create a new bottom tree talent which enables you putting down 2 curses on a target.
* Buff Shadow Mastery to 20% damage but move it to the bottom of the tree (Dark Pact can move up a bit). DS will also be moved down, the 2 talents cannot be combined anymore.

16. Demonology warlock

I want to see two archetypes. The ones sacrificing the demons and the ones keeping them alive.

Proposed changes:
* Master Conjuror talent affecting Soulwell cookies.
* Reduce the numbers under Master Demonologist but make those party-wide buffs.
* Unholy Power giving a pet damage scaling based on the warlock's stamina+intellect instead.
* Improved demon forms also give a 5% haste to the related demon.
* Change DS Felhunter to give spell crit. The talent should allow you to summon demons as long as it is not these 4, for example, an Infernal.
17. Destruction warlock
I see the potential in this tree but I think it needs more push.

Proposed changes:
* Improved Shadowbolt changed into Improved Destruction Spells: any desctruction spell crit applying the effect and it focuses on destruction spell bonuses, not shadow spell bonuses.
* Bane reducing Soulfire cast time to 3 sec not to 4 sec.
* Improved Firebolt and Improved Lash of Pain also receive a crit chance bonus and they count as desctruction spells, able to trigger 'Improved Shadowbolt'
* Emberstorm giving 20% bonus on fire spells, not 10% but requiring 30 talents in Destruction to avoid combo with DS.
* Improved Searing Pain also reducing the added threat of the spell.
* Conflag not consuming Immolate.

These would massively change the warlock PVE gameplay. SMDS and SMRuin would disappear.
The new archetypes would be:
* Better curse-utility, +20% shadow spell shadowbolt spammers.
* Party-buff warlocks with more pet damage but worse shadowbolts.
* DS-Ruin warlocks with an infernal chilling nearby.
* Big damage warlocks putting up destruction spell debuffs here and there.

18. Assassination Rogues

Vigor is bad. A very interesting, mostly crit-based tree but Vigor is too bad.

Proposed change:
* Get Fan of Knives from a later iteration and replace it with Vigor. You can get an AoE but only if you give up Adrenaline Rush.

19. Subtlety Rogue
Mostly a PVP spec but with some good team-utility, a 1-off could easily be imagined at raids.

Proposed changes:
* Hemorrhage also reducing the target's hit chance by 2%.
* Premeditation adding a debuff to the target, increasing energy recharge for each energy users attacking it.

Would also give rogues a 'Curse of Nature' poison for added utility.

20. Arcane Mage
A very interesting utility build but could still benefit from a little push.

Proposed change:
* Arcane Potency also giving you a leech effect after arcane spells, giving you back some mana after the damage you dealt. Helps with the mana regeneration theme.

21. Fire Mage
Very potent late but fire rez raids shut it off. A spell penetration talent can somewhat help but it's useless against the BWL fire spell immunity.

Proposed change:
* Add some spell penetration for them to make them more useful in some instances.

22. Frost Mage
A very good PVP+PVE spec but falls off at late-raiding. Needs a utility to be a 1-of even in Naxx.

Proposed change:
* A big CD, big radius AoE stun (2 sec) during which the mage can't do anything, either. Enemies receiving this stun become immune against it for 5 minutes to avoid spamming this by multiple freeze mages. Could enable some quick heals and repositioning in a losing situation.

23. BM Hunter

They are in a weird spot. Good for PVP, good for leveling, bad for raiding, but every buff they receive could make them toxic in PVP.

Proposed change:
* A new, bottom tree talent which reduces your ranged attack power but in turn seriously buffs the pet's attack. Buff scales based on your agility. Damage received by the pet also damages you. Wanted to make this way to turn those pets into real beasts but not breaking PVP. Hunter damage becomes almost negligeable and hurting the pet hurts the hunter, too. My goal is to create a good DPS spec at raids which wouldn't be oppressive at PVP.
* A new ability towards the bottom which makes Improved Predator Aspects party-wide for utility.

25. Survival Hunter

Some regard this tree as a utility one to where hunters come and cherrypick some talents. Others, however, want to melee as a hunter.

Proposed changes:
* Superior Strikes also increasing Raptor Strike's and Mongoose Bite's damage.
* Savage Strikes also giving your pet attack bonus after a Raptor Strike or Mongoose Bite crit.
* Survivalist increasing Stamina and Strength by 10%.
* Killer Instinct giving the 3% crit not only to you but to each pet (including demons) in the raid.
* Would move Deterrence to the bottom (Wyvern Sting goes up) and would give them an Agi increase instead.
* Since Survival Hunter's agi is off the charts, would add them a new bottom tree talent which increases their strength by 25% of their agility (not base agi).

Would give hunters taunt to 1) help them during an in-combat kite 2) help them OT in case of emergency 3) to let hunter tanks meme and enjoy the game.

[Mezzomixx]

Yes Vigor is a terrible talent, i agree

I think the assassin talent tree in vanilla is a complete waste. only the first 4 rows make sense and CB

They could make it a lot more interesting with some changes regarding poisons

[Akos1896]

I've considered suggesting the 'Curse of Nature' to replace Vigor but it would feel weird to have a bottom tree talent which mainly helps others but not the rogue.
(Btw we talked earlier, I remember you maining feral. Would you agree on an increased swipe threat modifier for bear and the ability to swipe for cat?) - There is another guy with a very similar profile pic, nvm