I'm here to talk about the recent changes to the Goblin Brainwashing Device. I would like to first clarify that the Goblin Brainwashing Device was never meant to allow people saving a specialization with only 1 talent point spent, essentially allowing infinite free talent resets. That being said, our reason to change the behavior of the item isn't simply "bug needs fixing". (We have frontstabbing for a reason)
The main reason is as follows:
While we encourage experimentation of different specs and builds for any class a good portion of players using this "feature" (read bug) were not actually doing any of the sorts. Players would reset their talents mid-raid, sometimes up to 10 times per raid to get specific benefits per fight. This is not something we consider healthy for the game especially if this trickles down to expectations that raiders should always pick the optimal min-max spec.
With the new edit of the item, aforementioned is still possible except it will have a cost bound to it by having to reset your talents. (At the cost of 5 gold per reset max as before)
However, there is nuance to the issue:
We realize that this has hit hybrid classes harder than non-hybrids as they are usually expected to fill different roles with different specs which was not the intention of this change.
Therefore we intend to do a second few edits on the Goblin Brainwashing Device:
- Changes already live:
- Specs will no longer be reset for characters who are not level 60 and level up. This was never intended and was a bug.
- The Goblin Brainwashing Device will start with 2 spec slots as before.
- Two extra spec slots are purchasable. Unlocking the third spec slot will cost 100 Gold. Unlocking the fourth spec slot will cost 200 Gold.
- Players who were hit by the reset due to the level-up bug will get 2 free talent resets.
- Players who have purchased the Goblin Brainwashing Device from the in-game shop in the past 6 months can issue a refund for this item by opening a ticket in the next 14 days.