The Illusion of Choice

[Shurrikhan]

Illusion of choice does not mean "Choice where one outcome is generally superior". It doesn't even mean "Choice where one outcome is optimal".

[Example of a talent set where a non-optimal choice is still a completely worthwhile choice because it requires less of the player, making it more easily maximizable/usable.]

That's a completely legitimate option that many players would likely choose to take.

With this I agree completely, and my earlier writing probably bordered on hyperbole for at least a few classes. I should have taken a moment more to think and specify actual examples.

My issue was more in regards to abilities like Barrage and early-gear Ravager, especially near release, where there were each optimal if meeting even a single condition: whether there are multiple enemies worth killing (though this would at least depend also on their positioning in the case of Barrage), and whether you'd be able to hit for at least half the duration of your lingering ground AoE (early Ravager). (Of course, by now these have been improved in balance.) Alternatively, there are plenty of other talents that provide very close-performing choices that allow for personal decisions. It just seems odd to me when people reference the Wrath to Mist/WoD talent shift as a being done as a solution to clear-cut specs when some of the new talent trees were just as absolute or directly niche/situational (again, especially on release), the only change being that one need not make compromises for varying situations as you can always change spec between fights. Though less obvious, the earlier talent sets did have plenty of 'easier' specs, many of which I ended up outperforming 'optimal' specs with just due to their increased leniency during movement-intensive fights, etc. WoW's been pretty good about creating a sort of range of not only true 'optimal' specs but also allowances for different 'optimal difficulties'. (Admitedly, more so with the WoD style talents.)

I guess it just seems to me that combating or submitting to or dealing with an alleged 'illusion of choice' was never the aim of these changes; on the player end it was best described as taking the fat out of the burger (for better or worse), and on the development end, reducing costs. Further, many of the new talents seem more interested in adding class flavor than actual spec choice. (Not a bad thing; just not consequent to the ideology that people seem to attribute them to.)