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What Is a Talent in World of Warcraft?

As characters gain levels in "World of Warcraft," as well as the increases in base statistics and spell or ability ranks, they also gain "talent points," a set of abilities and buffs that are selected from a talent tree. Talents in "WoW," like the skill trees of "Diablo II" from which they evolved or the "Alternative Advancement" points of "EQ II," enable you to customize your character for specific roles in the game. The talent system has changed radically with every "WoW" expansion pack and continues to be adjusted as new patches are released.

"WoW" Cataclysm Talent Trees
- Starting at character level 10, you will receive one talent point. As you continue to level, you gain one talent point at each odd level until level 81. You then receive one talent point each at 81, 82, 83, 84 and 85, to achieve the maximum possible of 41 talent points. When you gain a talent point, open up the talent tab to allocate it to one of three possible "trees." You need to place 31 points in your first selected tree before you can put any talents in a second tree.
Changing Talents
- If you are not happy with your talent allocations, you can go to a trainer and pay to unlearn and reallocate your talents, a process known as "respeccing." At level 40, you can buy "dual talent specialization," which enables you to have two separate allocations of talents and swap between them. Many players have one PvP (player-versus-player) and one PvE (player-versus-environment) specialization. Hybrid class characters often have two specializations in order to function in two different roles in the game, such as healer and damage dealer.
"WoW" Classes
- "WoW" characters are classified as either "pure" or "hybrid." A pure class can only fulfill one role in "WoW." In the "Cataclysm" expansion, the only pure classes are the damage dealing classes mage, warlock, hunter and rogue. Hybrid classes can function in multiple roles in the game. Talent specializations allow hybrid classes to choose the role in which they will function in the game.
Talents for Pure Classes
- Talent trees affect the play style but not role of pure classes. In the original World of Warcraft and the first few expansion packs, pure class talent trees had specialized functions, with one tree optimized for solo questing, one for PvP and one for raiding. In Cataclysm, pure class talent trees are somewhat more versatile, although within each tree there are normally some points only useful for PvP and some best for raiding.
Hybrid Classes
- For hybrid classes, talent tree determines function. Warriors can select the "protection" tree for tanking or "arms" or "fury" for dps. Death knights choose "blood" specialization for tanking and "frost" or "unholy" for dps. Priests can choose between two healing trees, "discipline" and "holy" and one dps tree, "shadow." Paladins and druids can take on all three roles in the game, tanking, dps, and healing, depending on talent tree choices.

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