he problem with the removing skills is it takes away any sense of permanence from a character, thus taking out a feeling of customization, and taking out the RPG element of the game. There is a certain reward in leveling and putting a skill point into something. Even if you respec later, and it costs an increasing gold value as it does in WOW, it would make your character seem more customizable. And the following 2 arguments make all their reasons for removing them invalid.
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In conclusion, taking out skill points takes out real customization. I think people should stop crying about respec's and just be okay with paying for them, knowing it adds an RPG element to the game. If blizzard doesn't intend for you to repspec everytime you get a better skill, just make all of the skills good/useful in some way or another. Blizzard is my all time favorite game company, and I have to say they really let me down with this one. They turned D3 from a fast-paced action-RPG to a fast-paced action game instead. There is really no feeling of reward to leveling, and we might as well all start at lvl 60.
In WoW you gain spells when you level up, this will be similar. I see the runes as the "specc". The difference between them is as far as I've seen quite big. Which makes it "speccs". I replayed D2 a bit now and I think it's rather boring with the skill tree since you do put all skills in a single ability and use only that. Leveling fire sorc = Firebolt everything untill you get lvl 12 when you switch and fireball everything ... not very fun imo.
I'll try to compare WoW - D2 - D3 * = How you gain spells # = customize spells/"speccs", @ = effect on gameplay
Diablo II
* New spells avaliable in skill tree at levels 1 - 6 - 12 - 18 - 24 - 30
# For best performance (and leveling experience) you put most of the skillpoints in same spell (or it's synergy)
@ Means in most speccs you have one main skill, one or two buff spells and a secondary skill when main skill is not effective.
WoW
* New spells / stronger spells as you level up
# Talents boost certain spells, you must choose one specc - very little customization though
@ You can use the spells that fits your build but there's almost always a "rotation" or "priority list" that is the best way
Diablo III (with the info I've gathered)
* New spells / stronger spells as you level up
# Runes boost your spells and you can choose from 6 (5 runes + original effect) different effect for every skill = alot of different variations (how viable they are remains to be seen, hopefully less useless than some skills in D2)
@ You can choose to use whichever of the spells that is avaliable BUT you can only have 1 rune per skill. Which hopefully gives a varied gameplay and many different viable builds.
I'd say WoW has the least customization, Diablo II the most stoic gameplay and Diablo III seems to have the most options/variations in both gameplay and character building
You pick 1/6 rune effects per skill and 6/20 skills to use meaning you have to discard 5/6 rune effects and 14/20 skills.
As for leveling not being rewarding why would gaining a new skill every other level be less rewarding? You still get something for gaining a level. Imo they've only moved the customization from skill points to runes
I'm also pretty sure there's tons of RPGs out there without skillpoints. (Most Final Fantasy games or the first three Zelda games comes to mind)
It feels less rewarding because everyone gets the same stuff anyways, so there is really no choices to be made.
And I agree with you on your point with ruins being customization, but I would like to see more customization than that, considering in my mind that is still just gear customization, and not character customization. When you say you gain a skill/spell every other level you ll have to specify. I doubt you get a new spell/skill every other level, and even if you do, everyone gets the same thing anyways, which brings me back to the point that everyone is the same.
Now for runes adding 'specs' and builds... I do agree, but as I said before, that is still gear customization really. ANd why not still have customization in your gear and your build? IMO it boils down to people being afraid to commit to a build at all, even if it just takes gold to respec, and at the cost of making everyone feel the exact same (again, except gear, but then again, eventually everyone will have at least the 5 or 6 variations of each ruin (not including the random attribute part)), so this means I can go to town and pop in different ruins to cater to each little situation anytime I want, which doesn't sound fun to me. Sounds like everyone is the exact same.
Finally for your Zelda and FF rebuttle, your absolutely right, but these RPGs are outdated IMO. Even the new final fantasys have skill trees, and Zelda, again IMO, would be even better with some sort of character customization. If you could spec into bow more or sword more, it would just add replayability.
And I agree with you on your point with ruins being customization, but I would like to see more customization than that, considering in my mind that is still just gear customization, and not character customization. When you say you gain a skill/spell every other level you ll have to specify. I doubt you get a new spell/skill every other level, and even if you do, everyone gets the same thing anyways, which brings me back to the point that everyone is the same.
Now for runes adding 'specs' and builds... I do agree, but as I said before, that is still gear customization really. ANd why not still have customization in your gear and your build? IMO it boils down to people being afraid to commit to a build at all, even if it just takes gold to respec, and at the cost of making everyone feel the exact same (again, except gear, but then again, eventually everyone will have at least the 5 or 6 variations of each ruin (not including the random attribute part)), so this means I can go to town and pop in different ruins to cater to each little situation anytime I want, which doesn't sound fun to me. Sounds like everyone is the exact same.
I think you underestimate (or I overestimate ^^) how big effect a rune has on a spell. It can change it completely. I think we'll be getting new spells more often than we did in Diablo II (where you got like 6 new choices when you got to lvl 18) now they will most likely be spread evenly over the levels. Say there's 20 active spells and 10 passive and you've gained all spells at lvl 35 you'd almost get one new spell every level.
Also you won't be able to have 6 active skills until you are level 30 or something. You start out with only 2 slots and gain more over the levels and get your first passive slot at lvl 10. This too makes for harder choices and you are more likely to differ from other players in the same class (which I guess is the core part of customization)
I hope i do underestimate the runes on spells. And I hope you're right with the new spell every couple levels.
With this said, I'd still like to see skill points in addition to ruins, since ruins just seem like gear, and not really toon customization. As for not having 6 until level 30, sure that's cool, but still people can go switch stuff out whenever they want, so you're not really adding 'customization' just game variety. Everyone still has the same stuff, they just get to choose when to and when not to use it.
1. I would support an e-sports system for PvP and, after some long consideration, I feel like I would use it a lot as long as there was someone I knew who would play with me. I like team deathmatch and I like free-for-all game formats and I would find myself playing the latter a lot more. I just don't get why they have to botch an entire system that some people clearly want and, if the whole issue with e-sports is skill inequalities, then they can balance it with patches because, as we all know, patches will be delivered after release and that would be the optimal time to balance.
2. I hate the new rune system. This is actually the first thing that I can openly say that Blizzard has messed up on. They are taking something that was totally comfortable and ambiguous and making it random and almost scary. I mean, the time taken to find level 7 runes is going to be immense and, even after that, there's the possibility of it not being exactly what you wanted both in effects and rune classification. I just think they're going about it the wrong way.
3. I love the auction house.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
Because DIII will be a free game, spending a little money on it from time to time seems like a good option. That being said, this system gives an obvious advantage to people who have money to spend on video games which is similar to where Diablo 2 is right now (if item farming mf bots are taken out of the equation): your account can be as good as someone working for years in one day if you have enough money to spend. This is discouraging for competitive-at-heart gamers who want their time and efforts to actually mean something for their status in the game.
It feels less rewarding because everyone gets the same stuff anyways, so there is really no choices to be made.
And I agree with you on your point with ruins being customization, but I would like to see more customization than that, considering in my mind that is still just gear customization, and not character customization. When you say you gain a skill/spell every other level you ll have to specify. I doubt you get a new spell/skill every other level, and even if you do, everyone gets the same thing anyways, which brings me back to the point that everyone is the same.
Now for runes adding 'specs' and builds... I do agree, but as I said before, that is still gear customization really. ANd why not still have customization in your gear and your build? IMO it boils down to people being afraid to commit to a build at all, even if it just takes gold to respec, and at the cost of making everyone feel the exact same (again, except gear, but then again, eventually everyone will have at least the 5 or 6 variations of each ruin (not including the random attribute part)), so this means I can go to town and pop in different ruins to cater to each little situation anytime I want, which doesn't sound fun to me. Sounds like everyone is the exact same.
Finally for your Zelda and FF rebuttle, your absolutely right, but these RPGs are outdated IMO. Even the new final fantasys have skill trees, and Zelda, again IMO, would be even better with some sort of character customization. If you could spec into bow more or sword more, it would just add replayability.
With this said, I'd still like to see skill points in addition to ruins, since ruins just seem like gear, and not really toon customization. As for not having 6 until level 30, sure that's cool, but still people can go switch stuff out whenever they want, so you're not really adding 'customization' just game variety. Everyone still has the same stuff, they just get to choose when to and when not to use it.
2. I hate the new rune system. This is actually the first thing that I can openly say that Blizzard has messed up on. They are taking something that was totally comfortable and ambiguous and making it random and almost scary. I mean, the time taken to find level 7 runes is going to be immense and, even after that, there's the possibility of it not being exactly what you wanted both in effects and rune classification. I just think they're going about it the wrong way.
3. I love the auction house.
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
Real Money should be seperate from Diablo III