Its hard for me to determine this but, despite all the 'fluff" and such as people are describing it. Has the loss of the talents and even the early masterys seemed to take away from the game a little.

Just on a personal opionon i actually enjoyed leveling knowing i got a point to spend. to make the talnt tree grow, and even in this beta test, seeing my my masteries start to go up point by point.

Now it just seems so bland..okay i made level 10..now i get all these specializations. Which is cool and all because you get rewarded (perhaps even to much?) with passives, a main heavy hiter, and some things geared specifically towards your pick.

but now i wont really seem much of anything until i think 75...and then 78+ while getting mastery gear.
A talent here..a skill there. But i just dont feel the same flow as before, that epic feeling each time i leveled knowing i was moving one point at a time towards the finish.

Maybe its just me and the classic "afraid of change"

In the end perhaps after a couple more pushes it will feel more epic. In the meantime, perhaps ill try to level another low level toon to see if it does feel epic.

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Q u o t e:

There should be something in that level gap to provide the player with a bit more entertainment, something to look forward to while leveling.

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The thing that first came to my mind is that bloated talent trees are not the answer to this desire. When leveling in the past there were times when I wouldn't even spend my talent points for multiple levels because I was in one of those gaps I had to fill to get to something interesting.

You also mention just how long the leveling process is which seems like a separate issue from the change in the talent trees. I don't really have an answer offhand but leveling in Outland/Northrend has always been relatively easy going and it just depends on how much I want to get that character up in level.