World of Warcraft: How Talent Trees Work in Dragonflight Pre-Patch

I enjoy messing around with off-meta builds on normal reclear nights, lower mythic+, and other casual activities. Being able to say, “Hey. I’m tired of spamming incinerate in my 15+s, let’s try a stupid psychic link build in a +10”

Dragonflight’s talent trees might be just what Blizzard has been trying to fix to make WoW feel more like an RPG

WoW has long been criticized for a long time now for everything feeling like cookie-cutter “This is the best way to play, no questions asked” culture when it comes to builds.

These new talent trees might finally actually finally solve this. I’m not saying there won’t be cookie-cutter builds – Icyveins and other content sites need to make a living.

What I’m saying is that despite there being issues with some trees, they look fun. I’ve heard this as an almost echoing praise from most of the trees revealed, and there’s already been acknowledgment of feedback for those that have been looked upon less favorably.

If nothing else, I can say that I will happily spend evenings poring over my tree to find unique builds just to try them for fun even if they aren’t optimal. I hope others feel the same, and for the miracle that Blizzard can actually balance them well enough that it might even be optimal to do so.

Edit: Because people seem to not understand what I’m saying, I will clarify.

I have no stupid idea about eliminating cookie-cutter builds. My joke about ICYVEIN is just that – a joke. People will optimize because doing more damage is necessary to progress, but that’s not what this post is about.

I enjoy messing around with off-meta builds on normal reclear nights, lower mythic+, and other casual activities. Being able to say, “Hey. I’m tired of spamming incinerate in my 15+s, let’s try a stupid psychic link build in a +10”

World of Warcraft: How Talent Trees Work in Dragonflight Pre-Patch

Now that the pre-patch is here, you can test it out for yourself.

(Image credit: Blizzard)

The Dragonflight Pre-Patch has arrived and class talent trees have returned to World of Warcraft. This gives us the opportunity to be able to understand class changes before the full release of Dragonflight on November 28 – so we have a little over a month to play with the new system. Of course, if you want to try the new Dracthyr Evoker, you’ll have to wait for the second phase of the pre-patch arriving on November 15.

The fundamentals of each class will remain the same but the talent trees offer more choice in terms of how you want to play the specialization you choose. In this guide, I’ll explain how the new Dragonflight talent trees work to help make your transition to the new system a little easier.

WoW Dragonflight Talent Trees: What Changed

Talent trees aren’t new in World of Warcraft, although they haven’t been in the game since the end of the Cataclysm expansion in 2012. Talents still exist, though in a much more limited form and tied to the specialization you choose.

Initially, the specialization you played was determined by the talents you chose – you could pick talents from all specific trees, as long as you had the points to purchase them. However, since Mists of Pandaria, your talents have been restricted by the specialization you choose, and the number of available talents was drastically reduced.

The Dragonflight talent trees are more similar to the pre-Mists of Pandaria version, although this time, you will be restricted by your specialization.

Each class has a “base” talent tree, then an additional tree for your chosen specialization. Talent points are also split between both, so you can’t ignore the class tree and put all your points into your specialization, or vice versa. Look at the screenshot below to see a comparison between the original talent tree, the somewhat limited current version, and the one arriving in Dragonflight.

How to save different talent builds

There’s a good chance you’ll want different talents for different types of content, and you can save different profiles for whichever one strikes your fancy.

To save your current talents, select New Loadout from the dropdown menu in the bottom left corner of the Talent Tree window then name it whatever you like. You can now select that profile – providing you’re in a rested area – whenever you want to switch.

You can share your builds too. Selecting Share from the dropdown menu allows you to copy/paste your talent data to something like notepad so you can back up loadouts or share them with friends. If you want to copy someone else’s talents, the Import option allows you to paste the data and nab the set-up too.

Finally, the search option is useful if you’re having trouble finding a particular talent. Just start typing the name in the search box then select from the list. Press enter and a blue magnifying glass will locate it.

Dragonflight Talent Calculator

If you want to experiment with different builds but don’t want to mess up your character’s talents, Wowhead has a dedicated talent calculator page.

Choose your class by clicking its icon, then select your specialization to see that talent tree. This works in the same way it does in-game so it’s a great way to see which combinations work with the available talent points.