#0 - May 10, 2007, 6:50 p.m.
Q u o t e:
We only give free respecs in cases where the shape of a tree changes, meaning actual talent placement and/or point cost. Meaning if a talent changes names and effect, but retains its position and point cost it doesn't warrant a free respec.
(edit - I think my initial paragraph was a bit vague in what in relates to, and that's the changing shape/point in relation to breaking builds. My next post clarifies a bit more: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=98642215&postId=985641050&sid=1#54 The below paragraph does go into the actual issue. I'm not sure if most people skipped it or just took the first paragraph out separately as the main statement, I'm sure I would too.)
The reason being if you were to spend 5 talent points on a talent that was then reduced to 3 points, you would me missing 2 points which you could have spent elsewhere. On the opposite end if we were to say put in a new pre-requisite for a talent you already have, you would have more points to spend elsewhere than you're intended to. Or the possibility of any number of unknown side effects.
There aren't any free respecs in 2.1 for any classes, unless of course some new changes were to go in that required it before the release of the patch. At current though none of the changes being made would result in one.
[ Post edited by Drysc ]
Hogwash. Druids are receiving a change in 2.1 that *should* warrant a respec, as it will decrease threat from all of their balance and healing spells, instead of just healing spells. This changes how someone who *has already paid* for a respec left the talent out since it was useless to Balance. It is now useful for balance. In this case a talent was added; you just tacked it on to an already existing talent. This should warrant a free respec.
Q u o t e:
The consensus seems to be throughout the thread that free respecs should be given based on the importance of the changes being made, and not just if the change breaks a talent build or not. I think my original post was a little vague in the first paragraph as well, I didn't hit on a key point immediately which is "if it breaks a build".
So, as far as changing based on importance, does changing a talent from a 1/3/5% to 2/6/10% warrant a free respec? What about 4/12/20%? Do you feel that change is important to that class, does everyone else? What about when a talent with the same numbers for a different class is increased in the same way, but the talent is considered unnecessary by a lot of players. Does it still warrant a free respec? It's entirely subjective what constitutes an important change.
That wouldn't work, it would be a mess, so it's really all or nothing. Free respecs all the time for everyone every time, or choosing to only do so when necessary to avoid buggy/broken builds. It sounds awesome, hey I don't want to spend gold either, but respecs do factor in to a player's expenditures, and continually pumping money into the economy isn't something we would take lightly. Offering a class a free respec every time anything is changed isn't something we agree with. It may seem heartless, but we do need to curb the influx of unsubstantiated monetary gain in the game economy as much as possible.
And so we only provide free respecs in cases where if we didn't the talent builds would break, it's a clear line and it's what is required.
Correction, Drysc. If you can't comprehend why you *owe* players a respec whenever you change the way their class is paid, then nothing players can say here will be beneficial.
Essentially, you designed a class, designed talent trees and every other patch you change them. Players who have paid for a respec based on old talents are being told they now need to pay the price for the developers to make and remake their talents. You can't justify this, and it doesn't really matter what excuse you pin on it. Fact is: you change the way characters play TOO OFTEN. If you weren't nerfing/unnerfing classes so often, this question of free respecs wouldn't even be an issue.
So basically what players need to learn from this is that devs will change the way their talents work. And they will have to pay coin out of their pockets *again* in order to adjust and cope with the changes, so they can continue to play their characters how they intended.
It's understandable to be concerned for your economy, but cutting corners on your honest players because you can't figure out how you want a class to be played is cheap. And it's not worth it.
