Diablo 3

    All allocating stats let you do was choose between a cookie cutter character and a shit one. It only served to trip-up newbies.

    There was no customisation to be had outside of making some people say "I'm going to make a poisonmancer!" then realise 2 days later they've made a terrible mistake. If you're just going to pump Magic on your Wizard (caster archetype, Blizzard you've fucked us!) you might as well let the game do it for you.

    Quote from Taylor

    All allocating stats let you do was choose between a cookie cutter character and a shit one. It only served to trip-up newbies.

    I've never heard so much drivel! It was surprising what you could do with investing stats into characters. Especially having a sorc kitted out with a unique shield for added bonuses or a necro, too. You won't be able to do that now. Boo.

    Unless they borrow from WoW more with different attributes for different classes (mana for some, rage for others) this won't go well.

    There is virtually no reason I would ever want to put a single point into energy when I'm building a Whirlwind Barb.

    Quote from Taylor

    There was no customisation to be had outside of making some people say "I'm going to make a poisonmancer!".

    But isn't part of the fun in that you're creating something unique, regardless of whether it's a statistically 'good' path? It's cool to be able to play into that fantasy of 'you're creating your own unique character' even if the players perception of what's going on under the hood is a little off...

    Quote from Taylor

    All allocating stats let you do was choose between a cookie cutter character and a shit one. It only served to trip-up newbies.

    I dont think I could've explained it better myself. Yes it was a nice feature when you had played the game for a couple of thousand hours and really knew what you were doing, but for those who start a new character for the first-> third time without really knowing much about the character type is in for some scary moments when they don't want to fuck it up.

    I know I had that feeling when making my first character in TQ.. I ended up saving all the points until I got an item that needed X of this and Y of that and made sure I had specifically that (saving the rest) and I kept doing that... Which ain't optimal. I'd much rather have the game mechanics do it for me.

    edit; on another note I also believe that they will introduce a large number of deviated genres to these attributes that items can reward (like expertise, hit rating etc in WoW).

    I actually made a Necromancer with the best gear, stats and skills he could have for poison. He was ineffective and boring to play, simply because Necromancers aren’t supposed to do that. I’m exactly the type of person who sees stat distribution and neglected character skills and tries to put them to use, and after every attempt has resulted in either abysmal failure, boredom or both, I can’t say I’m disappointed this is gone.

    What do you actually gain from the player disturbing stats?


    • [*:1qki5y2e]Con: You get newbie’s who don’t know what to pick, potentially ruining their characters.
      [*:1qki5y2e]Con: You get most of the player-base using the exact same stat distributions anyway.
      [*:1qki5y2e]Pro?: You get some hardcore player on his 10th play-through of the game making a gimp gimmick build on a character that is geared entirely by hand-outs from his main.

    This is the same reason we don’t roll base-stats for our characters anymore. It’s a relic.

    Quote from Erratic

    But isn't part of the fun in that you're creating something unique, regardless of whether it's a statistically 'good' path? It's cool to be able to play into that fantasy of 'you're creating your own unique character' even if the players perception of what's going on under the hood is a little off...

    I don’t disagree, but I would strongly argue there are much better ways to do it and that Diablo already contains a better method that dwarfs the minuscule advantages of stat distribution. Skill trees, talent trees and hero skills... these mechanics give so much more and don't need support doing it.


    • [*:1qki5y2e]Gaining a skill or passive effect is much more noticeable than number tweaks.
      [*:1qki5y2e]Trees are much easier for Blizzard to track and can undergo constant balancing as the game goes on.
      [*:1qki5y2e]Trees and skills are much easier for players to understand, especially for the long term.
      [*:1qki5y2e]Ultimately they are also more fun and involving.

    Mistakes can still be made, but at the same time these mistakes are more apparent and lessons can more easily be learnt. The game already contains enough room for customisation without stat distribution aimed at a tiny amount of hardcore players or people with precognition.

    I think one of the big issues with assigning stats and such is that really they played no part in the original games. Sure you could argue that you had more life or hit harder but you could really put all the points in one area and still beat the game. I think what Blizzard is trying to do is get away from the part of the game that really has not real bearing on the outcome of the game.. I mean in many case in Diablo 2 it really did not matter what you put the points in all that mattered was the tree and the items you had and I think they are pushing that really hard in Diablo 3. This being true with everyone getting there own loot drops on the bosses and the skill tree's being pretty customizable compared to the previous game. I mean the barbarian just in one tree along has almost double the amount of skills you can chose from and based on how you combine the trees you get different outcomes in your spells. So I really think this change does not really hurt anything because it really was not being utilized to its full potential in the previous titles.

    Quote from wacko

    I think one of the big issues with assigning stats and such is that really they played no part in the original games. Sure you could argue that you had more life or hit harder but you could really put all the points in one area and still beat the game. I think what Blizzard is trying to do is get away from the part of the game that really has not real bearing on the outcome of the game.. I mean in many case in Diablo 2 it really did not matter what you put the points in all that mattered was the tree and the items you had and I think they are pushing that really hard in Diablo 3. This being true with everyone getting there own loot drops on the bosses and the skill tree's being pretty customizable compared to the previous game. I mean the barbarian just in one tree along has almost double the amount of skills you can chose from and based on how you combine the trees you get different outcomes in your spells. So I really think this change does not really hurt anything because it really was not being utilized to its full potential in the previous titles.

    I’m glad to hear you say this.

    I do worry slightly about the skill trees though because, well, Blizzard hasn’t got a great track record here. In Diablo II most characters were rather homogenous with a selection of skills for each class that you basically had to use. In Warcraft most heroes have a useless skill nobody puts points into until level 8, and everyone goes for the same sequence (and heroes). In World of Warcraft I can’t speak for all the classes, but the Warlock trees were a complete mess for over a year after launch (though Master Demonologist was similar to something I suggested...), and were still far from ideal when I stopped playing during TBC.

    I’ve also never understood why they slip in some random melee ability to a caster class. I mean, it's a good idea but only if you follow it through. They’re never viable and, outside of generating a lot of threads on the forum, they don't really achieve anything.

    Eh, Blizzard Time.

    World of Warcraft, announced late 2001, released late 2004.

    Starcraft 2 announced in 2007, coming 2010.

    Diablo 3 announced in 2008...

    The 12-minute monk montage looks pretty fantastic, but then again so do all of the class demos if you ask me. Looks like a crazy satisfying game to play.

    Amazing blend between the Hellfire Monk and the LoD Assassin. And this new environment is totally sick.

    Come on Blizzard, release the game already.

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