Problem:

Requiring Talents to be manually chosen upon leveling has four major drawbacks:

It can lead to accidental selections in the heat of the moment. Talents (and especially Heroics) are incredibly important and, while the vast majority of talents and abilities are hardly useless in all situations, many are more optimal in certain conditions than others. Picking the wrong Talent or Heroic can easily be the difference between a win and a loss. It can lead to missing out on critical opportunities. Almost every Talent provides additional Offense, Defense, or Utility, and the presence of those can be instrumental in many things - securing a Takedown, surviving an attack, or even just gathering information. Alternately, the Talent could be a Quest, and not having it chosen in time could lead to missing out on valuable progress. It can lead to misunderstandings between teammates. Some Talents and many Heroics are instrumental in deciding a Hero’s role in the match and, unfortunately, not everyone uses Allied Chat or Team Voice to communicate their intentions. This leaves the unfortunate potential for things like a team getting Putrid Bile when they expected Gorge or Twin Blades when they expected Taunt. There’s no way to ensure the A.I. that takes over for you when you Disconnect chooses Talents or Heroics that you want or that the team needs. HOTS’s A.I. players are notorious for destroying builds and disrupting plans in the event of a player disconnecting.

Solution:

Allow players to plan their Talent choices in advance by giving them the ability to Highlight their intended choices (via clicking them (Mouse 1, Alt + Mouse 1, Mouse 2) or using keyboard shortcuts) and instantly acquire them when they become available. For a visual example:

Step 1

Preview upcoming Talents. Step 2

Highlight the desired Talent before reaching the required level. Step 3

Obtain the Highlighted Talent upon meeting the requirements.

Additional Mechanical Details Only one Talent per Talent Tier may be Highlighted at a time. Highlighting another Talent at the same Talent Tier will un-Highlight the previous Talent.

Highlighting another Talent at the same Talent Tier will un-Highlight the previous Talent. A player can un-Highlight their choice to return to the current functionality of requiring a manual selection. Un-Highlighting a Talent would be achieved by performing the same action that the user took to Highlight a Talent on a currently Highlighted Talent (ex: if the user Highlighted a Talent by using Alt+Mouse 1, they can un-Highlight it by using Alt+Mouse 1 again).

Un-Highlighting a Talent would be achieved by performing the same action that the user took to Highlight a Talent on a currently Highlighted Talent (ex: if the user Highlighted a Talent by using Alt+Mouse 1, they can un-Highlight it by using Alt+Mouse 1 again). Any Talent Tier may have a Talent Highlighted at any time, but the acquisition of the Highlighted Talent still follows the standard rules. For example, a user may Highlight a Level 7 Talent, but until they have fulfilled the requirements of obtaining it (aka both “being Level 7” and “having obtained Level 1 and 4 talents”), the Highlighted Talent will not be chosen.

The request for the ability to pre-determine your Hero’s Talents is not a new one, but the majority of the requests in the past have been for “Talent Builds” that are chosen before a match even begins (not unlike the Rune Pages and Masteries from League of Legends). The problem with Talent Builds is that the majority of Talents are supposed to be reactionary: they’re intended to be chosen based on the Battleground and the opposing team, not be a vehicle for the player to use the same tactic in every situation.

Talent Planning, however, requires the player to be in-game before allowing them to make advance decisions, neatly circumventing the rigid thinking brought on by using a pre-determined build. Talent Planning also gives the player something to do during the 35 seconds before the gates open and the match proper begins, reducing the risk of players getting distracted during those early moments and also giving their teammates insight on what Talents they plan on choosing. Additionally, in the event of a disconnect, it would also give the A.I. that takes over a valid plan to follow instead of seemingly choosing Talents at random.

And y’know, it’d just be convenient. Not having to worry about popping open the Talent Menu every couple levels or picking the right thing in the heat of a teamfight would be pretty nice.