Making the decision to level up and where to Burning Crusade Classic Gold place that 1 talent point and the new spells I could acquire was a major decision. After a subsequent expansion I was astonished to find that the agency in which I could invest one talent each... 10, was the only option I had. 15 levels. Each level was gradually learned and there was never a rush to master the skills. Sadness. For meat least.
I'm not disagreeing with their logic on trying to change the tree of talent (too standard that most people just searched for a build and chose that one, and the reason was the 1% increase in damage to targets, aren't "exciting") but then they removed them and replaced them with other options that... ended in being cookie-cutter or mandatory to make the spec be pleasant and made it feel more restrictive.
Too diluted even for a noob. Back them it seemed that they wanted to appeal to a more informal player base. It was a failure for casual players.
I believe it's a losing situation for developers. Many players, as you are, are addicted to the false sense of power and control in putting their points in exactly the same places as everyone else. They feel depressed, confused and restricted if you narrow it down to a few viable decisions that are balanced and have no the right answer.
Talents were a horrible mechanic. People who were smart searched for the best levelling spec and then followed it with a mindless. Casuals and noobs were screwed. The smart folks looked up the most effective raiding spec and did not think twice about it, casuals and noobs were injured again. Raids filled with abso-fuckingly identical warriors, warlocks, mages and rogues following the identical BiS sets and with identical rotations, led to raids that had identical specs. Absolute homogeneity for the proficient, a million ways to screw up and get known as a fool for everyone else . And then pay a gold tax to fix it.
Yes, you're able experience a false sense of mastery and agency when you place your fourth ability in "Do +1% more" or your thirty-first one in "This ought to have been a included level forty capability". It's just a lie. You're not developing any ability or mastering something beyond a five year old's book of stickers. (But then again, I'm assuming that the majority of cheap WOW TBC Gold Classic's most passionate fan base are the kind of players who attempt to boost their ego by thinking that winning a fifteen-year old solved game playing the children's book-level minigames makes them a hardcore gaming god.)
