With Season 4 coming to a close on Tuesday, most are under the impression that 3.0.2, the Echoes of Doom, patch will hit. I don’t disagree and I in fact hope it does release. But until that day I’m taking my characters to pick flowers.
Not being a big PVP’er I’m not pushing for my arena ranking title and not being that awesome at Zul-Aman, pushing for my Amani War Bear. Instead I’ll be stashing herbs in preparation for Inscription, the new profession. With this addition free of ties to WotLK, we’ll be able to be putting enchants in the auction house, and filling up our inscription slots in under a week (I hope).
Personally, I’m curious to see which inscriptions used the most pre-WotLK as I’m sure we won’t have access to them all. With the nerfing of some raid bosses, guilds will be pushing to finish off their current conquests like finishing BT. Knowing raiders as I do, they will be pushing for every advantage they can get their hands on.
And with only a month from estimated 3.0.2 to WotLK, I’ll be trying to mess around in Kara with my guild and enjoying the new talents. Which brings me to the new talent trees. With the addition on 51-point talents, it makes some classes happier than others. For example, Holy Priests. A staple talent for a Holy Priest is Meditation, which with the new patch requires 13 points in Discipline to obtain its full 3 ranks. But at 70, you don’t have enough points to obtain Meditation and the new 51-point talent, Guardian Spirit. Personally, I’d have to go with Meditation or I wouldn’t last through Prince, especially with the changes to potions.
If one looks closely at 3.0.2 talent trees, you’ll see that at 70, hitting the 51-point talents which people are so excited about, will only leave you with 10 talent points for your other trees. A few examples, other than Priests, are Feral Druids who want the new Beserk, and will have to sacrifice Omen of Clarity, Beast Mastery Hunters will have to give up Aimed Shot or Scattered Shot and Enhancement Shamans will give up Elemental Focus.
While early talent trees are great for people getting used to them for leveling once WotLK hits, they do give that “Do I go for the new 51-point talent or cross spec” decision. Obviously it will be different by each person and class but it’s still an interesting quandary.
Additionally, with the removal of Blessing of Salvation among other buffs, the buffs to tanks, the nerf of Heroism/Bloodlust, Retribution Paladins, Replenishment among other things, raid composition will change greatly before and after WotLK. But how greatly and will people keep their old stigmas and discriminate against certain classes and specs such as Retribution Paladins and Survival Hunters?
With the changes in talents, buffs, classes and Inscriptions, it seems WoW could quite possibly be stuck in a funky, awkward transition where neither inscription or the talent trees can reach their full potential.
So at last, I ask, what will you do after 3.0.2 hits?
I will euhm, euhm, dunno… :p Get a haircut!