World of Warcraft: The War Within Hero Talents explained

World of Warcraft: The War Withinwas announced at Blizzcon as the first part of the three-expansion series The Worldsoul Saga. Since then, Blizzard has gone into further detail about some specific new features, the latest of which are the new Hero Talent trees.

The story is set to take players into the Heart of Azeroth, after the cinematic trailer revealed that Thrall had been hearing voices and seeing visions from the center of the world. He and Anduin agree to investigate the threat together, and it is from there that the story will begin.

An example Hero Talents tree from The War Within

As well as promising to correct the course ofWoW’spresently convoluted story, the expansion is set to introduce manynew features and experiencesfor players to participate in. One of those is Hero Talents, which are designed to complement the existing talent trees with new powers and buffs.

The War Within Hero Talents provides evergreen progression

Hero Talents are self-contained talent trees that operate independently from the existing talent systems from previous expansions. First unlocked at Level 71 as players start their journey through the new leveling zones, there are three paths within each class’ Hero Talent trees. Of those, each spec will have access to two different paths.

The example provided by Blizzard to demonstrate the point is Warriors, whose three Hero Talents options are Mountain Thane, Colossus and Slayer. Fury spec will be able to access Mountain Thane and Slayer, Arms can use Colossus and Slayer, while Protection has Mountain Thane and Colossus available.

The Warrior Hero Talents tree in The War Within

Within each of those three options is a node-based tree that players will recognize as similar to the versions already existing in the game. Each has 11 nodes in total, with a “Keystone” and “Capstone” ability at the beginning and end.

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These new abilities are set to provide further differentiation between classes and specs, with the developer referring to their use in a similar fashion to subclasses. Aside from the three above, Blizzard has also revealed tantalizing names, including San’Layn Death Knight, Chronowarden Evoker andLightsmith Paladin.

As part of an early look at the Hero Trees above, Blizzard explained the details in each tier of the new setup for Mountain Thane Warriors:

A statue of Trade Prince Gallywix in WoW Undermine(d)

Mountain Thane Row 1

Call of Thunder:TheStormstrikedamage or Nature damage your abilities deal is increased by 5%.Stormstrikedamage ignores Armor.Thunder Clapdamage increased by 50%. For Fury only,Thunder Clapgenerates 5 Rage andImproved WhirlwindandMeat Cleavernow improveThunder Clapas well asWhirlwind.

Ground Current:Lightning Strikesalso deal low amounts of Nature damage to enemies near their target. Damage reduced beyond 5 targets.

Strength of the Mountain:Shield Slamdamage increased by 20%.BloodthirstandRampagedamage increased by 10%.

Mountain Thane Row 2

Thunder Blast:Shield SlamandBloodthirsthave a 20% chance to grant youThunder Blast, stacking up to 2 charges.Thunder Blastcauses your nextThunder Clapto become aThunder Blastthat dealsStormstrikedamage.

Choice Node:Storm Bolts & Storm Shield

Choice Node:Flashing Skies & Valarjar Training

Mountain Thane Row 3

Choice Node:Steadfast as the Peaks & Keep Your Feet on the Ground

Choice Node:Gathering Clouds & Thorim’s Might

Burst of Power:Lightning Strikeshave a 20% chance to make your next 2Shield SlamsorBloodthirstshave no cooldown.

Mountain Thane Capstone Ability

Avatar of the Storm:CastingAvatargrants you 2 charges ofThunder Blastand resets the cooldown ofThunder Clap. WhileAvataris not active,Lightning Strikeshave a 10% chance to grant youAvatarfor 4 seconds.

Exact details on how these talents will function are yet to be announced, but it’s a fairly safe bet that respeccing and building into new paths will operate in a similar way to the existing talent setup.

With full details for each tree set to release over the next few months, check back into Dexerto for complete guides on each Hero Talent tree and their respective classes heading into the release of The War Within.

For more breakdowns of The War Within’s upcoming Hero Talent trees, check out our other guides below: