A while back there was a blue post somewhere that asked us to tell them which talent tree we think they did the best job on and why.
At the time I was still trying to assimilate the changes to us warriors and hadn't really had enough time to poke around to find out more, but now that I have I wanted to share my opinions on this.
In my opinion the best upcoming talent tree re-design is the paladin trees. Now, in terms of feel of filling it out, it's approximately the same as the others, but what really distinguishes it is their better overall design when compared to current talent trees.
Let's look at a couple comparisons to understand why I say this. Let's look at the holy tree now and then.
Right now the "pinnacle" of the holy tree is beacon of light. Beacon is something that no holy paladin can really be effective without, so this makes sense. Currently you can't learn beacon of light as a holy paladin until you hit level 60, but once you do, you've got a wealth of options as to how to proceed from there.
In Cataclysm, you'll be able to get beacon of light at level 39. Admittedly, healing will be working differently, but this advancement has the effect of making you "FEEL" OP whether you are or not. I mean, you get to have the current "pinnacle" talent at 39. In fact, going one step beyond that, the next several tiers of the tree just feel like they're improving on that whole tree. A talent to improve how well beacon works (Tower of Radiance) an extra heal buff (Conviction) and a completely new "pinnacle" for the talent tree, the AoE heal that paladins are still talking about (Light of Dawn).
In fact, if you look at the other trees, you'll see this kind of careful redesign at work there too. Hammer of Justice is now an 11 point talent. You have so many new chewy things in the protection tree above Hammer of Justice it just makes it feel like it's shiny and new. The one criticism I have with the upcoming protection tree? Ardent Defender being made the new "pinnacle" talent. However, there were some critical changes to how Ardent Defender works that might make it better, but it's a tough call right now. Personally (since warriors have 0 automatic cooldowns) I'm fine with other tank classes also having to hit a button instead of relying on a strange rng or hidden cd to maybe save them from death, but I don't know how the paladin community feels about it. Regardless, I feel like this ultimate talent spot could have gone to something more, I don't know, "epic" I guess.
The ret tree also is seeing some of this redesign love, with the former pinnacle talent "Divine Storm" moving down to it's 11 point resting spot, and the new Zealotry replacing it. The thing I like about Zealotry is that it plays directly on the new Holy Power mechanic, just like the 31 point talent in Holy does (although I notice the protection tree ultimate talent does not). Even if Zealotry is not as epic as it could be, this still makes the talent itself seem shiny and new and gives this air of Blizzard trying to help players find direction with this new system they've designed.
I compare all of this to trees that I feel like were kind of "phoned in" by the developers more than the paladin's. In each of the remaining talent trees, I think the ones that look the best were the ones where the devs decided that the current "pinnacle" talent should become the level 10 baseline ability for that tree, which forced them to redesign the top tiers of that spec.
Unfortunately, the others are suffering. let's look at our talents (as examples, not as QQing). Currently, we can get to shockwave in protection, TG in fury, or bladestorm in arms at level 60. These are the "pinnacles" in our classes as it stands, and outlands leveling is made so much more enjoyable since we have these. (tanking in outlands or early Northrend without shockwave? It makes those initial seconds in a pull that much more crazy and difficult to control.) How does that compare to the cataclysm version of these same trees? Well, the 31 point talents aren't available until level 71. That's right, level 71, a full 11 levels after they're available now.
I think the general comparison for how the trees feel is somewhat stinted just because of that. Instead of reworking the trees to make something that fits everything right, we're stuck with the same talent tree, but postponed 11 levels, making them more expensive and less exciting all at the same time.
Suppose we were going to make something for, say, Fury that mirrored how the paladin trees were overhauled. Well, for starters, TG and SMF would both be 11 point talents. No protection or arms spec would be able to spec into them, so they're safe, and warriors would be able to make a decision immediately about whether they're going to be using 2 2 handers or 2 1 handers as they level up through their 40's. Of course, that would also mean they'd have to come up with some better idea for a pinnacle talent for the Fury tree, but I think they can do it if they put their minds to it.
Shockwave (and quite possibly Bladestorm), then, could be similar to beacon of light. Move it a little down from the top (even if only to the 26 point talent) and give a 2 point talent somewhere that improves upon it, and maybe a cool new epic tanking talent that still gives us the nice stun for those first few seconds of a fight when things go bad by 60-ish, but something even more epic to work up to by 71.
Anyway, that's my opinions about which talent trees I think were done right.
