Diablo 3

[Taylor]

I've probably mentioned this stupid shit before but the ability to tweak minor attributes for your character goes a long way. It's a large part of the fun I had with these games because otherwise they aren't really skill or knowledge based and they aren't really strategic or even reaction or timing based at all, not in any meaningful way anyhow.

But the vast majority of the player base will go for cookie cutter builds, and those that don’t are mainly going to be newbies who ruin their character for thinking their caster should invest in energy. Even oddball builds like Poisonmancer were pretty defined if you wanted to do any real business with them. And then Blizzard have the dilemma that, because everyone has locked themselves into a strong build, they have limited scope for actually changing what’s strong without pissing everyone off (something Blizzard seems to traditionally solve with insane exponential power increases).

The new system allows for a lot more creativity; much more than attributes and skill trees and I mean that sincerely. You can experiment without writing-off a character, all players are encouraged to play with all their characters skills even if they got some cookie-cutter guide, and it allows Blizzard to balance things without the risk of destroying characters. My only worry about this system is the ease of changing skills will mean there will be an ‘expected’ build in public games, where randoms demand you rock a FotM build because it’s so easy to switch into it, especially if it’s party-boosting.

The interface for the new skill system is undeniably very bad, though; I don’t need an almost full-screen panel for binding six abilities, which is easily evidenced by the vastly superior interface used for most of beta. And the fact you can’t even mix skills of the same type without unlocking it in a menu seems to rather... insulting? I don’t know if that’s the right word.

[Sentura]

I've probably mentioned this stupid shit before but the ability to tweak minor attributes for your character goes a long way. It's a large part of the fun I had with these games because otherwise they aren't really skill or knowledge based and they aren't really strategic or even reaction or timing based at all, not in any meaningful way anyhow.

But the vast majority of the player base will go for cookie cutter builds, and those that don’t are mainly going to be newbies who ruin their character for thinking their caster should invest in energy. Even oddball builds like Poisonmancer were pretty defined if you wanted to do any real business with them. And then Blizzard have the dilemma that, because everyone has locked themselves into a strong build, they have limited scope for actually changing what’s strong without pissing everyone off (something Blizzard seems to traditionally solve with insane exponential power increases).

The new system allows for a lot more creativity; much more than attributes and skill trees and I mean that sincerely. You can experiment without writing-off a character, all players are encouraged to play with all their characters skills even if they got some cookie-cutter guide, and it allows Blizzard to balance things without the risk of destroying characters. My only worry about this system is the ease of changing skills will mean there will be an ‘expected’ build in public games, where randoms demand you rock a FotM build because it’s so easy to switch into it, especially if it’s party-boosting.

The interface for the new skill system is undeniably very bad, though; I don’t need an almost full-screen panel for binding six abilities, which is easily evidenced by the vastly superior interface used for most of beta. And the fact you can’t even mix skills of the same type without unlocking it in a menu seems to rather... insulting? I don’t know if that’s the right word.

from what i've seen, i think arena net handled this better still having attributes that the users could modify, but they were also able to reset them throughout the game. cutting people off from experimenting definitely limits the amount of time people will spend on it. and not making people earn skills is just a let down. whoever said that we don't appreciate what is easily gained was right, and blizzard definitely made the game too user friendly in that regard. maybe it works in the same sense it worked for them for world of warcraft, but it does nothing for me in the way that i could experiment with skill builds in diablo 2 and guild wars. the final nail in the diablo coffin is definitely getting hammered in, albeit slowly.

[Jake Gilla]

Anyone try out Path of Exile over the weekend? It's not likely real competition for D3, but I loved the skill system.

[selmitto]

I just tried something to prevent the Error 3007 and it seemed to work.

-> Join the General Chat.

That's it.

[Taylor]

The final nail in Diablo's coffin is that people won't all be locked into the same build in a month?

Explain how making a new character each time you want to change something promotes experimentation.

[Skjalg]

Every time i level up I dont have to chose what I want to put points in, i can experiment with all the new abilities right off the bat. Its awesome

[skdr]

Every time i level up I dont have to chose what I want to put points in, i can experiment with all the new abilities right off the bat. Its awesome

I really like this too. So much better system than in D2.

[Zyn]

Ok phew , just beat Nightmare-mode, now trying Hell ... and the first elite I wander into push my shit in, hard : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3688889/dark_souls_3.jpg , not to mention that the NORMAL mobs hit for 5000 damage ...

[Sentura]

Every time i level up I dont have to chose what I want to put points in, i can experiment with all the new abilities right off the bat. Its awesome

I really like this too. So much better system than in D2.

i doubt you'd both have the same opinion if any other studio did this

[Skjalg]

Every time i level up I dont have to chose what I want to put points in, i can experiment with all the new abilities right off the bat. Its awesome

I really like this too. So much better system than in D2.

i doubt you'd both have the same opinion if any other studio did this

nope, its a very good change. No matter who did it.

[Taylor]

i doubt you'd both have the same opinion if any other studio did this

i doubt you'd both have the same opinion if any other studio did this

[Vilham]

Vilham#1855

[dux]

Every time i level up I dont have to chose what I want to put points in, i can experiment with all the new abilities right off the bat. Its awesome

I really like this too. So much better system than in D2.

I don't like this system. It sucks dicks.

Anyway, I'm 5 hours in and at times I swear I was playing top down WoW. I'm not even trying to troll or be a dick, I'm dead fucking serious. Why can't I invest my points? If I want a barbarian with 100+ intelligence points then let me! Fucking shit.

And I love the DRM. ol ol ol. Already cracked and people having a jolly good time. Where I get the magical words, server shutting down, I have to quickly end what I'm doing and quit. Or servers too busy, or just huge ass latency.

[Skacky]

I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive but you can manually invest your points with the Elective mode as far as I know.

[Zyn]

I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive but you can manually invest your points with the Elective mode as far as I know.

By default, all your abilities have set categories on your skillbar, and Elective Mode allows you to put any ability on any button. And skills and runes unlock automatically as you level, so there's no points to invest