Deciding On Talents
stargrace 
I have to say, I really like how talent options are done in World of Warcraft. I like that you can change your talents on the go (unlike EQ2 where you’re required to travel to your home, and use your achievement mirror each time) and I like that each specialization is drastically different than the others. What I mean is: if my priest is specialized as a shadow priest (which she is more often than not) she actually does more than enough damage to be considered dps. In EQ2 if you use your healer to go down a dps line you’re not going to be competing with Tier 1 dps in groups. You’re still going to be a healer – who can do some damage.
In a lot of cases there are multiple dps lines as well which is great. For example my druid and shaman can both choose a healer talent line – or a melee dps talent line – or a caster talent line (or a combination). I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what sort of set up I’d like. Usually, I go caster talent for my OS (off spec). That way I don’t need to carry around two sets of gear (melee + healer). Since I’m so used to playing casters, I decided to take the melee rout on my shaman.
I’m bad at it. Very bad. BUT it’s a learning experience, and one that I’m sure I’ll get better at. Shaman are slightly different (enhancement) because a lot of their damage relies on random procs. There’s n0 specific cast order for max DPS, but instead there is a cast priority depending on what you have procing.
I’ve come to respect this game more then I have in previous years. Yes, anyone can play and it is quite easy – but if you want to be GOOD at it, it requires a little work and research.
How does everyone else decide which talents to select? Do you go the comfort rout, what you know? Or do you experiment with what you’ve never tried before? Let me know in comments!