05-03-2006, 05:58 AM
MongoJerry,May 2 2006, 05:43 PM Wrote:The trouble is that if you have a talent that is so over the top amazingly good, you effectively force the majority of players to get that talent and thereby effectively limit the variation within the class that talents are supposed to encourage.
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The counterargument to this is that if you take all the "amazingly good" abilities out of the talent trees and make them class abilities, so you aren't "forcing people to spec a certian way," then all you are left with for the talent trees are talents that increase spell XYZ by 10% or give you a somewhat useful ability.
For example if IAE and Evocation and Presence of Mind were made core mage abilities since they're so good, the whole arcane tree is a bunch of passives that marginally increase the effectiveness of arcane spells. Where is the fun in that, and where are the meaningful, character-defining choices?
In the end there must be a line drawn somewhere. Tactical Mastery is pretty crucial, but is Evocation really "essential"? I don't know. Also, I think with mages you have the added complication that the fire and frost trees are kind of mutually exclusive, so many mages go arcane, making some abilities seem more crucial than they may actually be.