In anticipation of the 09/25/12 launch of the World of Warcraft The Mists of Pandaria, Pre-patches (V5.0.4 and above) have started to hit the servers.    There are many changes to the Talent, Glyph, and Specialization system that can be confusing if you haven’t played in a bit.  The new system looks to be a bit more complex but it’s not that confusing once we take a closer look at it.

To get an overview of the changes to your class Blizzard has put in a “What’s Changed” tab to the Spellbook.  This is the best place to learn the dirty basics about the changes made to your class.

Glyphs

The Glyphs System has undertaken a massive overhaul resulting in the removal of Prime Glyphs leaving Glyphs to be broken down into two Categories Major and Minor.  Major Glyphs tend to advance combat abilities and Minor Glyphs seem to be move vanity based or non-combat skills.  Some glyphs have been removed from the game and some have changed greatly so it might be a good idea to browse through your favorite glyphs for each class and see how the changes affect you.

Specialization Skills

Specialization Skills are primary skills given based off of your Group Role (Tank, DPS, or healer).  Some classes (like Druid) can have more than 3 roles.  With Patch 5.0.4 Blizzard has finally split up the Feral DPS and Tanking Specialization trees allowing for more character customization. Just open your Specialization tab and select your role to receive a set of basic  skills. Now you can open up your Core Abilities Tab in your Spellbook and view all of your newly gained skills.

Talents

The Talent System has taken a big hit with another reduction in Talents that are available each level.  This however is offset by the fact that the new talents are more robust.  We are getting less talents that each are “better” in the long run.  Many talents have been significantly reworked to give them more power.

The Spellbook hasn’t undergone many changes but it allows for you to filter out your unusable skills.  Core Abilities are available from either your Spellbook or the Core Abilities tab.  There isn’t a lot of changes here.

In all these changes may seem a bit chaotic but people should remember that we are no long “Max Level”.  Once we level our character to level 90 we will get a better picture of what things will look like in the long run.  The simplified talents and glyphs should make leveling quicker and easier.  The Mount Sharing system now makes it easier to get mounts for all of your characters instead of just one.

Check out our entire World of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria Article listing here: http://franksplace.org/2012/09/franksplace-org-world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria-article-listing/