I originally posted this on the D3 forums. Trying to spread it around to as many places as possible.
So a friend of mine and I started thinking one of the big components that made Diablo II so successful was rune words. Nobody can deny the fact that most of your time was spent trying to find items good enough to barter for higher quality runes for that all mighty rune word gear. If Blizzard wants to salvage this game they are going to need to bring back rune words. So with the current system in place we've thought of a way on how to implement rune words to function fairly well with artisans. Below you'll find our thoughts on how this could be introduced. Keep in mind any thing we came up with is purely for example. Maybe our idea + the brainstorming of the players here in this thread can make a system they'd introduce that would bring back the feel of our beloved Diablo II.
__________________________________________________
Rune Scribe-
Would have 3 tabs:
1) Rune Synthesis: Combine low quality Runes to create higher quality Runes.
2) Rune Stone: Combine Gems and Runes to create Rune Stones.
3) Deconstruct: Break down a Rune Stone back to it's prime components.
You can find low quality runes in the field, mid quality runes are synthesized by your scribe and high quality runes are found in tomes you teach to your scribe (how the jeweler works now).
Your Rune Scribe will be able to combine low quality gems + various low quality runes to create low quality Rune Stones: (ilvl 30+)
i.e. Flawed Emerald + Eth + El + Eld = Putrid (a Rune Stone that offers poison dmg with a % chance to spread poison within a certain radius on weapons or poison resist with a % chance to proc Poison Nova when struck on armor).
Your Rune Scribe will be able to combine mid quality gems + various mid quality runes to create mid quality Rune Stones: (ilvl 45+)
i.e. Perfect Emerald + Shael + Pul + Um = Pestilence (a Rune Stone that offers a more potent poison dmg with a higher % chance to spread poison within a certain radius on weapons or poison resist with a higher % chance to proc Poison Nova when struck on armor).
Your Rune Scribe will be able to combine high quality gems + various high quality runes to create high quality Rune Stones found from tomes in inferno: (ilvl 60)
i.e. Radiant Emerald + Ber + Zod = Corruption (a Rune Stone that offers highly potent poison dmg with a high % chance to spread poison within a certain radius and cause their attacks to be slowed by 25% on weapons or poison resist with a high % chance to proc Poison Nova which heals you for a % of the dmg done whenstruck on armor).
Blacksmith-
Your blacksmith would be able to craft socketed weapons and armor from tomes found. (We were also spit balling an idea where your blacksmith could craft socketed weapons and armor from white items found in the game. The same principle, you find a superior shield and you can have the blacksmith + mats put a random number of sockets on it)
Low quality items with a random amount of sockets (proc based) from normal.
i.e. 2 Handed Broad Sword (1 to 3 sockets) at the cost of low qualtiy blacksmithing materials.
Mid quality items with a random amount of sockets (proc based) from nightmare and hell.
i.e. Jazeraint Mail (1 to 6 sockets) at the cost of mid quality blacksmithing materials.
High quality items with a random amount of sockets (proc based) from inferno.
i.e Dread Shield (1 to 6 sockets) at the cost of high qualtiy blacksmithing materials.
Rune Stones-
Can be tied into requiring a certain paragon level to use.
Rune Stones could be inserted into any socket applicable just like a gem and give it's stated benefit:
i.e. 2 Handed Broad Sword (3 sockets) could have a Putrid Rune Stone and 2 other Rune Stones of your choice (You wouldn't be able to stack multiple of the same Rune Stone on one item).
Rune Stones could be inserted into any socket applicable item in a certain order to create powerfull uniquely named weapons and armor (blue named weapons/armor or whatever color blizz chooses).
i.e. Dread Shield (3 sockets). Place Putrid + Pestilence + Corruption in that order in the sockets and a powerful new shield is made called The Green Tower (requires paragon level 50) with very powerful stats. Lots of poison resist, tons of vitality, strength or dex based on proc, bonus to block, bonus to armor, chance to poison attackers when struck, chance to proc poison nova with healing a % of the damage caused, on successful block a % chance to blind the attacker.
`
These powerful Rune Stone combinations wouldn't be known or learned. Just like in Diablo 2 you'd have to experiment to find them.
Please feel free to leave feedback on your thoughts on our rune word system.
I'm hoping they have some kind of item modifier like RW's, but I seriously doubt they will ever include actual RW's.
I would like to see some kind of Elite or Legendary rune that does something with whites. If they added socketed whites and implemented a rune that effectively "Charsi'ed" an item.......
Whatever it is, they need something dynamic and potentially OP for us to mess with.
As to your idea; It's sound and along the lines of what's needed. Just keep spreading the word about our desire to have something within the scope of RW's or an otherwise innovative item modifier.
(We were also spit balling an idea where your blacksmith could craft socketed weapons and armor from white items found in the game. The same principle, you find a superior shield and you can have the blacksmith + mats put a random number of sockets on it)
I like this. One thing I miss about D2 is that very specific white (for imbuing) or grey (for runewords) drops could be useful and valuable. Just gave you one more thing to keep an eye for in the loot lottery.
Superior ilvl 63 white gear would no doubt have some reasonable value under a system like this.
Rune Stones- Can be tied into requiring a certain paragon level to use.
I don't like this. I don't think Paragon levels should be tied to any sort of item requirements, it should maintain its place as a pure "beyond level cap" advancement, not become a mandatory part of gearing up.
I'm hoping they have some kind of item modifier like RW's, but I seriously doubt they will ever include actual RW's.
I would like to see some kind of Elite or Legendary rune that does something with whites. If they added socketed whites and implemented a rune that effectively "Charsi'ed" an item.......
Whatever it is, they need something dynamic and potentially OP for us to mess with.
As to your idea; It's sound and along the lines of what's needed. Just keep spreading the word about our desire to have something within the scope of RW's or an otherwise innovative item modifier.
Well our thoughts behind our idea is to make a sytem that is kind of in-depth. Something that would make someone spend plenty of time with albeit farming runes, finding/crating socketed items or trying to figure out rune stone combinations.
(We were also spit balling an idea where your blacksmith could craft socketed weapons and armor from white items found in the game. The same principle, you find a superior shield and you can have the blacksmith + mats put a random number of sockets on it)
I like this. One thing I miss about D2 is that very specific white (for imbuing) or grey (for runewords) drops could be useful and valuable. Just gave you one more thing to keep an eye for in the loot lottery.
Superior ilvl 63 white gear would no doubt have some reasonable value under a system like this.
Rune Stones- Can be tied into requiring a certain paragon level to use.
I don't like this. I don't think Paragon levels should be tied to any sort of item requirements, it should maintain its place as a pure "beyond level cap" advancement, not become a mandatory part of gearing up.
I understand completely. Like I said we were just trying to think of ways to keep it interesting. I doubt they'd want to tie anything else to the paragon system either.
The major problem I see with your idea is that runes are already in the game. It would be too confusing to have another system of runes. Maybe if they called them Power Stones, or introduced them as Jewels, that might work.
I do like the idea of being able to socket a weapon or even enchant it. Maybe bring back the Mystic for this function.
Another problem, is that you are trying to make white items worth something when they aren't supposed to be.
My advice, stop trying to make D3 into D2. I think one of the systems missing from D2 that D3 could still use is Charms. If you want something to think about, think about how to make the Talisman system work. Again, I think the Mystic would be a great asset to use for charms as well.
Edit: Whatever they do, it'll never be the same as the system in D2. You should watch the Diablo 3 Q&A from Blizzcon 2010 (I think).
My advice, stop trying to make D3 into D2. I think one of the systems missing from D2 that D3 could still use is Charms.
Please, no. Having to choose between character power and inventory space is one of the least fun game mechanics I have ever encountered. I don't miss that at all from D2.
My advice, stop trying to make D3 into D2. I think one of the systems missing from D2 that D3 could still use is Charms.
Please, no. Having to choose between character power and inventory space is one of the least fun game mechanics I have ever encountered. I don't miss that at all from D2.
Please read the whole paragraph. They had a way to fix that called the Talisman. The only problem was that the charms were weak. It's the only system left I can think of that D3 would be able to take from D2.
It's a better idea than using the D2 rune words. D2 runes will never work in D3. Period.
Edit: I understand your concern and hatred for that system. I hated that system to. The Talisman would have allowed you to carry the charms in a secondary inventory thing not in your main.
Blizz might have considered something like that in the future. At least that space to the right of the hidden camp waypoint begs to house another artisan.
Blizz might have considered something like that in the future. At least that space to the right of the hidden camp waypoint begs to house another artisan.
There is a spot at all the starting waypoints. They removed the Mystic but not the spot where she goes. I believe the Mystic was suppose to be the Blacksmith's wife, but I can't remember where I heard that.
Fuck runewords, and fuck charms. The last this this game needs is more required items to min/max shit. Especially one that requires collecting more shit to craft with.
Fuck runewords, and fuck charms. The last this this game needs is more required items to min/max shit. Especially one that requires collecting more shit to craft with.
Hate those as well, did a lot more harm than good for D2 in the long run.
It was such a crappy and lazy solution to class imbalance: to give "everyone" (who had a shitload of time to waste, or didn't mind duping) access to some of the most OP skills, instead of actually individually balancing them.
Obviously it felt awesome to be able to use teleport as a Paladin and throw Hammers everywhere, but overall I feel like it completely butchered one of the original game's staple features (great rares and uniques, since some runewords made them obsolete, as well as uniquely flavoured classes that actually played differently).
I'm quite happy to see Jay and the rest of the team have played the previous games and were fans enough to realize how much runewords and charms screwed the game's balance (in both PvE and PvP).
hmmmm, i'm pretty sure someone from blizzard declared that there will be no runes and runewords... but then again, why not? what i'm interested in is whether (for the sake of discussion) you consider runeword items as:
1) a "fixed rares" - namely, items with predefined characteristics that you could rolled otherwise with enough luck
2) a "crafted legendary" (except put on item of choice)
both of these exist already exists - and, truthfully i COMPLETELY disagree with blizzard idea of legendary items being crafted and being so random that they look like rares + 5% uniqueness (good thing they change name, since nothing mass produced can't be really called unique)
i'm not saying that having runes and runewords again is a bad thing, but i'm interesting where exactly your idea is leading - what is the purpose of runewords? we had specific niche in diablo2, but here it is filled already with "crafted legendary/set" nonsense
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
a reluctant follower of Clavdivs, The God balancing ideas. you can find more about it by visiting the following topic: http://www.diablofan...-future-patchs/
Fuck runewords, and fuck charms. The last this this game needs is more required items to min/max shit. Especially one that requires collecting more shit to craft with.
Hate those as well, did a lot more harm than good for D2 in the long run.
It was such a crappy and lazy solution to class imbalance: to give "everyone" (who had a shitload of time to waste, or didn't mind duping) access to some of the most OP skills, instead of actually individually balancing them.
Obviously it felt awesome to be able to use teleport as a Paladin and throw Hammers everywhere, but overall I feel like it completely butchered one of the original game's staple features (great rares and uniques, since some runewords made them obsolete, as well as uniquely flavoured classes that actually played differently).
I'm quite happy to see Jay and the rest of the team have played the previous games and were fans enough to realize how much runewords and charms screwed the game's balance (in both PvE and PvP).
Such a shame I can't give more than +1 to this post.
Such a shame I can't give more than +1 to this post.
I did it for you
That said, I do agree. Runewords were the devil, and the bane of many an honest player. What I wouldn't mind, though, would be Rune-equivalent "Power Stones" or some such. They wouldn't be massive, strictly equal to Tier 6 or weaker affixes (you know, the same one +58 to a stat falls into) and be unique within each item (so no stacking three on a chest piece), but it would just be more interesting than seeing sockets and thinking of them as just base stats. Heck, you could even restrict each of these power stones to slots which could normally hold the affix, and it would still be a wonderful thing.
Take for example, right now a Radiant Star Emerald is the only real choice for a weapon (unless you REALLY need LOH for some reason)... but what would happen if a socketed wand could add a couple points of APoC? Resource abilities, lifesteal, CC affixes, Crit rate, Indestructable, Resists, technique affixes, and quite a few others might just prove to be interesting alternatives. Always on the lower end of the spectrum, of course, you'll never be able to make a 70 Resist-All Stone (though you might just get 15, or 25 to a specific resist)
Let me reiterate: these WILL NOT be able to combine into runewords (not that the 2-3 character ones were very much good anyway), and will never grant an otherwise-unusable ability to anyone. With all of that, though, all the mats needed for them are already in-game (just use the existing crafting mats, and you're golden). It can work.
That said, I do agree. Runewords were the devil, and the bane of many an honest player. What I wouldn't mind, though, would be Rune-equivalent "Power Stones" or some such. They wouldn't be massive, strictly equal to Tier 6 or weaker affixes (you know, the same one +58 to a stat falls into) and be unique within each item (so no stacking three on a chest piece), but it would just be more interesting than seeing sockets and thinking of them as just base stats. Heck, you could even restrict each of these power stones to slots which could normally hold the affix, and it would still be a wonderful thing.
Take for example, right now a Radiant Star Emerald is the only real choice for a weapon (unless you REALLY need LOH for some reason)... but what would happen if a socketed wand could add a couple points of APoC? Resource abilities, lifesteal, CC affixes, Crit rate, Indestructable, Resists, technique affixes, and quite a few others might just prove to be interesting alternatives. Always on the lower end of the spectrum, of course, you'll never be able to make a 70 Resist-All Stone (though you might just get 15, or 25 to a specific resist)
Let me reiterate: these WILL NOT be able to combine into runewords (not that the 2-3 character ones were very much good anyway), and will never grant an otherwise-unusable ability to anyone. With all of that, though, all the mats needed for them are already in-game (just use the existing crafting mats, and you're golden). It can work.
See, this is something I can possibly get interested in. I don't know that it's something I would be thrilled about seeing relatively soon, but as an expansion pack idea or something to that effect, it could be a cool addition.
At the end of the day, though, even "cool" customization like this is going to be subjected to the mathematicians of the world, and someone will squeeze the min/max out of it and determine which is best. I'm always down with additional options for folks, but I'm unfortunately also from a hardcore gaming background, and pretty much always lean towards a min/max approach. Like I said, this could definitely be a cool idea, but it's (and all of the other ideas similar to this) is going to need some extra effort to prevent it from being another Emerald in weapons fiasco.
Fuck runewords, and fuck charms. The last this this game needs is more required items to min/max shit. Especially one that requires collecting more shit to craft with.
Hate those as well, did a lot more harm than good for D2 in the long run.
It was such a crappy and lazy solution to class imbalance: to give "everyone" (who had a shitload of time to waste, or didn't mind duping) access to some of the most OP skills, instead of actually individually balancing them.
Obviously it felt awesome to be able to use teleport as a Paladin and throw Hammers everywhere, but overall I feel like it completely butchered one of the original game's staple features (great rares and uniques, since some runewords made them obsolete, as well as uniquely flavoured classes that actually played differently).
I'm quite happy to see Jay and the rest of the team have played the previous games and were fans enough to realize how much runewords and charms screwed the game's balance (in both PvE and PvP).
You are obviously completely blind. What do you think the new legendary weapons on the game do now? A lot of them grant a "new ability" as it were. Summon a demon with a firely link that follows you around, summon an angel to follow you around.
They've already added what you so despise it's just in a different form. Reguardless of how bad you say it screwed up D2. I guarantee it was the main goal of most of its player base and a lot of the reason for replayabilty.
Fuck runewords, and fuck charms. The last this this game needs is more required items to min/max shit. Especially one that requires collecting more shit to craft with.
Hate those as well, did a lot more harm than good for D2 in the long run.
It was such a crappy and lazy solution to class imbalance: to give "everyone" (who had a shitload of time to waste, or didn't mind duping) access to some of the most OP skills, instead of actually individually balancing them.
Obviously it felt awesome to be able to use teleport as a Paladin and throw Hammers everywhere, but overall I feel like it completely butchered one of the original game's staple features (great rares and uniques, since some runewords made them obsolete, as well as uniquely flavoured classes that actually played differently).
I'm quite happy to see Jay and the rest of the team have played the previous games and were fans enough to realize how much runewords and charms screwed the game's balance (in both PvE and PvP).
You are obviously completely blind. What do you think the new legendary weapons on the game do now? A lot of them grant a "new ability" as it were. Summon a demon with a firely link that follows you around, summon an angel to follow you around.
They've already added what you so despise it's just in a different form. Reguardless of how bad you say it screwed up D2. I guarantee it was the main goal of most of its player base and a lot of the reason for replayabilty.
There's a pretty massive difference between spawning a demon and granting a character fucking teleport. But I guess that was too big of a leap in logic for you, eh? Easier to say other people are "blind" (a mod no less, herp derp).
No, see, the point was that it granted abilities that were obviously retarded in strength (teleport cost next to nothing in mana and could be cast indefinitely, as opposed to the new version that's pretty much limited to 4, and can't clear walls), and made many builds completely broken (hammerdin, cyclone druids, multiple assassin specs, just to name a few). How about Call To Arms - yay battle shouts for the ridiculously rich!
The other point, which you conveniently ignored, was that the best runewords were simply the best items in game for their respective slot/weapon type. Nothing even came close to shit like Ethereal Breath of the Dying. Certainly some of the new Legendary items in D3 will compete for best in slot, but some rares will still beat them out, or be valuable to specific specs/builds. That's the difference, and it's a pretty damn important one.
^ took the words out of my mouth. Glad to see some people here are real fans.
And even with stuff like Homunculus hugely reducing WD cooldowns, an item that reduces Teleport's cooldown by up to 4 seconds, stuff like Goldskin granting 100% bonus gold find, and a specific Throw Barb weapon, you still don't see people using only those builds, nor those items as being the absolute best in slot. Join 100 public games and let me know how many have people with a Maximus or a Skycutter (or even the more powerful Schaeffer's Hammer or a Burning Axe of Sankis, despite this last one giving you Ignore Pain - one of the most powerful Barbarian abilities).
It's clear to me after seeing so many flawed arguments/suggestions in the forums that a lot of people have no idea what game-design means, they just want the game to be what they want. Their limited tunnel vision only allows them to see so far. I'll say it again: I'm glad Jay Wilson and the team do not suffer from this, like a massive part of the fanbase and the old Diablo developers did.
The problem with the amount of advertisement and hype that has gone into D3 is the sheer amount of people who like to jump on the "I was a fan" bandwagon and probably never really played the game as much as they like to pretend they did.
well, having teleport on runeword was imba, mainly because teleport itself was kinda imba, only bit less so on fragile sorceress than on paladin, for example (still saying it was imba, don't jump on me). teleport in diablo3 is so overnerfed that it's ridiculous.
i'm sorry for not reading OP carefully enough - though i've read whole thing - but title was so suggestive
anyway, from game lore i suspect shen will be at least a side-story in one of two expansions (i believe i saw two on a roadmap), and having that in mind, lots of changes/additions regarding gems will be made, possibly similar to your runewords. but they are saving it for expansion
and current gem system is flawed beyond measure, true
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
a reluctant follower of Clavdivs, The God balancing ideas. you can find more about it by visiting the following topic: http://www.diablofan...-future-patchs/
So a friend of mine and I started thinking one of the big components that made Diablo II so successful was rune words. Nobody can deny the fact that most of your time was spent trying to find items good enough to barter for higher quality runes for that all mighty rune word gear. If Blizzard wants to salvage this game they are going to need to bring back rune words. So with the current system in place we've thought of a way on how to implement rune words to function fairly well with artisans. Below you'll find our thoughts on how this could be introduced. Keep in mind any thing we came up with is purely for example. Maybe our idea + the brainstorming of the players here in this thread can make a system they'd introduce that would bring back the feel of our beloved Diablo II.
__________________________________________________
Rune Scribe-
Would have 3 tabs:
1) Rune Synthesis: Combine low quality Runes to create higher quality Runes.
2) Rune Stone: Combine Gems and Runes to create Rune Stones.
3) Deconstruct: Break down a Rune Stone back to it's prime components.
You can find low quality runes in the field, mid quality runes are synthesized by your scribe and high quality runes are found in tomes you teach to your scribe (how the jeweler works now).
Your Rune Scribe will be able to combine low quality gems + various low quality runes to create low quality Rune Stones: (ilvl 30+)
i.e. Flawed Emerald + Eth + El + Eld = Putrid (a Rune Stone that offers poison dmg with a % chance to spread poison within a certain radius on weapons or poison resist with a % chance to proc Poison Nova when struck on armor).
Your Rune Scribe will be able to combine mid quality gems + various mid quality runes to create mid quality Rune Stones: (ilvl 45+)
i.e. Perfect Emerald + Shael + Pul + Um = Pestilence (a Rune Stone that offers a more potent poison dmg with a higher % chance to spread poison within a certain radius on weapons or poison resist with a higher % chance to proc Poison Nova when struck on armor).
Your Rune Scribe will be able to combine high quality gems + various high quality runes to create high quality Rune Stones found from tomes in inferno: (ilvl 60)
i.e. Radiant Emerald + Ber + Zod = Corruption (a Rune Stone that offers highly potent poison dmg with a high % chance to spread poison within a certain radius and cause their attacks to be slowed by 25% on weapons or poison resist with a high % chance to proc Poison Nova which heals you for a % of the dmg done whenstruck on armor).
Blacksmith-
Your blacksmith would be able to craft socketed weapons and armor from tomes found. (We were also spit balling an idea where your blacksmith could craft socketed weapons and armor from white items found in the game. The same principle, you find a superior shield and you can have the blacksmith + mats put a random number of sockets on it)
Low quality items with a random amount of sockets (proc based) from normal.
i.e. 2 Handed Broad Sword (1 to 3 sockets) at the cost of low qualtiy blacksmithing materials.
Mid quality items with a random amount of sockets (proc based) from nightmare and hell.
i.e. Jazeraint Mail (1 to 6 sockets) at the cost of mid quality blacksmithing materials.
High quality items with a random amount of sockets (proc based) from inferno.
i.e Dread Shield (1 to 6 sockets) at the cost of high qualtiy blacksmithing materials.
Rune Stones-
Can be tied into requiring a certain paragon level to use.
Rune Stones could be inserted into any socket applicable just like a gem and give it's stated benefit:
i.e. 2 Handed Broad Sword (3 sockets) could have a Putrid Rune Stone and 2 other Rune Stones of your choice (You wouldn't be able to stack multiple of the same Rune Stone on one item).
Rune Stones could be inserted into any socket applicable item in a certain order to create powerfull uniquely named weapons and armor (blue named weapons/armor or whatever color blizz chooses).
i.e. Dread Shield (3 sockets). Place Putrid + Pestilence + Corruption in that order in the sockets and a powerful new shield is made called The Green Tower (requires paragon level 50) with very powerful stats. Lots of poison resist, tons of vitality, strength or dex based on proc, bonus to block, bonus to armor, chance to poison attackers when struck, chance to proc poison nova with healing a % of the damage caused, on successful block a % chance to blind the attacker.
`
These powerful Rune Stone combinations wouldn't be known or learned. Just like in Diablo 2 you'd have to experiment to find them.
Please feel free to leave feedback on your thoughts on our rune word system.
I would like to see some kind of Elite or Legendary rune that does something with whites. If they added socketed whites and implemented a rune that effectively "Charsi'ed" an item.......
Whatever it is, they need something dynamic and potentially OP for us to mess with.
As to your idea; It's sound and along the lines of what's needed. Just keep spreading the word about our desire to have something within the scope of RW's or an otherwise innovative item modifier.
BurningRope#1322 (US~HC) Request an invite to the official (NA) <dfans> Clan
I like this. One thing I miss about D2 is that very specific white (for imbuing) or grey (for runewords) drops could be useful and valuable. Just gave you one more thing to keep an eye for in the loot lottery.
Superior ilvl 63 white gear would no doubt have some reasonable value under a system like this.
I don't like this. I don't think Paragon levels should be tied to any sort of item requirements, it should maintain its place as a pure "beyond level cap" advancement, not become a mandatory part of gearing up.
Well our thoughts behind our idea is to make a sytem that is kind of in-depth. Something that would make someone spend plenty of time with albeit farming runes, finding/crating socketed items or trying to figure out rune stone combinations.
I understand completely. Like I said we were just trying to think of ways to keep it interesting. I doubt they'd want to tie anything else to the paragon system either.
I do like the idea of being able to socket a weapon or even enchant it. Maybe bring back the Mystic for this function.
Another problem, is that you are trying to make white items worth something when they aren't supposed to be.
My advice, stop trying to make D3 into D2. I think one of the systems missing from D2 that D3 could still use is Charms. If you want something to think about, think about how to make the Talisman system work. Again, I think the Mystic would be a great asset to use for charms as well.
Edit: Whatever they do, it'll never be the same as the system in D2. You should watch the Diablo 3 Q&A from Blizzcon 2010 (I think).
Please, no. Having to choose between character power and inventory space is one of the least fun game mechanics I have ever encountered. I don't miss that at all from D2.
Please read the whole paragraph. They had a way to fix that called the Talisman. The only problem was that the charms were weak. It's the only system left I can think of that D3 would be able to take from D2.
It's a better idea than using the D2 rune words. D2 runes will never work in D3. Period.
Edit: I understand your concern and hatred for that system. I hated that system to. The Talisman would have allowed you to carry the charms in a secondary inventory thing not in your main.
There is a spot at all the starting waypoints. They removed the Mystic but not the spot where she goes. I believe the Mystic was suppose to be the Blacksmith's wife, but I can't remember where I heard that.
It was such a crappy and lazy solution to class imbalance: to give "everyone" (who had a shitload of time to waste, or didn't mind duping) access to some of the most OP skills, instead of actually individually balancing them.
Obviously it felt awesome to be able to use teleport as a Paladin and throw Hammers everywhere, but overall I feel like it completely butchered one of the original game's staple features (great rares and uniques, since some runewords made them obsolete, as well as uniquely flavoured classes that actually played differently).
I'm quite happy to see Jay and the rest of the team have played the previous games and were fans enough to realize how much runewords and charms screwed the game's balance (in both PvE and PvP).
1) a "fixed rares" - namely, items with predefined characteristics that you could rolled otherwise with enough luck
2) a "crafted legendary" (except put on item of choice)
both of these exist already exists - and, truthfully i COMPLETELY disagree with blizzard idea of legendary items being crafted and being so random that they look like rares + 5% uniqueness (good thing they change name, since nothing mass produced can't be really called unique)
i'm not saying that having runes and runewords again is a bad thing, but i'm interesting where exactly your idea is leading - what is the purpose of runewords? we had specific niche in diablo2, but here it is filled already with "crafted legendary/set" nonsense
http://www.diablofan...-future-patchs/
the website of Clavdivs:
http://savediablo3.wix.com/diablo3#!home/mainPage
Such a shame I can't give more than +1 to this post.
I did it for you
That said, I do agree. Runewords were the devil, and the bane of many an honest player. What I wouldn't mind, though, would be Rune-equivalent "Power Stones" or some such. They wouldn't be massive, strictly equal to Tier 6 or weaker affixes (you know, the same one +58 to a stat falls into) and be unique within each item (so no stacking three on a chest piece), but it would just be more interesting than seeing sockets and thinking of them as just base stats. Heck, you could even restrict each of these power stones to slots which could normally hold the affix, and it would still be a wonderful thing.
Take for example, right now a Radiant Star Emerald is the only real choice for a weapon (unless you REALLY need LOH for some reason)... but what would happen if a socketed wand could add a couple points of APoC? Resource abilities, lifesteal, CC affixes, Crit rate, Indestructable, Resists, technique affixes, and quite a few others might just prove to be interesting alternatives. Always on the lower end of the spectrum, of course, you'll never be able to make a 70 Resist-All Stone (though you might just get 15, or 25 to a specific resist)
Let me reiterate: these WILL NOT be able to combine into runewords (not that the 2-3 character ones were very much good anyway), and will never grant an otherwise-unusable ability to anyone. With all of that, though, all the mats needed for them are already in-game (just use the existing crafting mats, and you're golden). It can work.
See, this is something I can possibly get interested in. I don't know that it's something I would be thrilled about seeing relatively soon, but as an expansion pack idea or something to that effect, it could be a cool addition.
At the end of the day, though, even "cool" customization like this is going to be subjected to the mathematicians of the world, and someone will squeeze the min/max out of it and determine which is best. I'm always down with additional options for folks, but I'm unfortunately also from a hardcore gaming background, and pretty much always lean towards a min/max approach. Like I said, this could definitely be a cool idea, but it's (and all of the other ideas similar to this) is going to need some extra effort to prevent it from being another Emerald in weapons fiasco.
You are obviously completely blind. What do you think the new legendary weapons on the game do now? A lot of them grant a "new ability" as it were. Summon a demon with a firely link that follows you around, summon an angel to follow you around.
They've already added what you so despise it's just in a different form. Reguardless of how bad you say it screwed up D2. I guarantee it was the main goal of most of its player base and a lot of the reason for replayabilty.
There's a pretty massive difference between spawning a demon and granting a character fucking teleport. But I guess that was too big of a leap in logic for you, eh? Easier to say other people are "blind" (a mod no less, herp derp).
No, see, the point was that it granted abilities that were obviously retarded in strength (teleport cost next to nothing in mana and could be cast indefinitely, as opposed to the new version that's pretty much limited to 4, and can't clear walls), and made many builds completely broken (hammerdin, cyclone druids, multiple assassin specs, just to name a few). How about Call To Arms - yay battle shouts for the ridiculously rich!
The other point, which you conveniently ignored, was that the best runewords were simply the best items in game for their respective slot/weapon type. Nothing even came close to shit like Ethereal Breath of the Dying. Certainly some of the new Legendary items in D3 will compete for best in slot, but some rares will still beat them out, or be valuable to specific specs/builds. That's the difference, and it's a pretty damn important one.
But no, it's easier to be blind, amirite?
And even with stuff like Homunculus hugely reducing WD cooldowns, an item that reduces Teleport's cooldown by up to 4 seconds, stuff like Goldskin granting 100% bonus gold find, and a specific Throw Barb weapon, you still don't see people using only those builds, nor those items as being the absolute best in slot. Join 100 public games and let me know how many have people with a Maximus or a Skycutter (or even the more powerful Schaeffer's Hammer or a Burning Axe of Sankis, despite this last one giving you Ignore Pain - one of the most powerful Barbarian abilities).
It's clear to me after seeing so many flawed arguments/suggestions in the forums that a lot of people have no idea what game-design means, they just want the game to be what they want. Their limited tunnel vision only allows them to see so far. I'll say it again: I'm glad Jay Wilson and the team do not suffer from this, like a massive part of the fanbase and the old Diablo developers did.
The problem with the amount of advertisement and hype that has gone into D3 is the sheer amount of people who like to jump on the "I was a fan" bandwagon and probably never really played the game as much as they like to pretend they did.
i'm sorry for not reading OP carefully enough - though i've read whole thing - but title was so suggestive
anyway, from game lore i suspect shen will be at least a side-story in one of two expansions (i believe i saw two on a roadmap), and having that in mind, lots of changes/additions regarding gems will be made, possibly similar to your runewords. but they are saving it for expansion
and current gem system is flawed beyond measure, true
http://www.diablofan...-future-patchs/
the website of Clavdivs:
http://savediablo3.wix.com/diablo3#!home/mainPage