I've never really looked into the skill calculators with too much attention to detail before tonight. The game always seemed so far away from release that I always figured skills and their runes were subject to change. Now that there are rumors abound that the release date will be announced in about a week, I finally gave the calculator a chance. And once I did, I couldn't help but give it a very thorough investigation!
So I present a build for all five character classes. I won't go into too much detail on each to save your eyes.
Uh... let's be honest, though... no one's reading these. They're just making their own builds and ignoring everyone else's. Not me, though! I'm curious to see what everyone else thinks will be THE elite build.
Anyway, my results after a couple hours. All of these builds are intended for solo PvE play.
The Barbarian
Lots of AoE potential via Cleave, Seismic Slam, Overpower & Revenge. Furious Charge is my movement skill, and I'm going with Wrath of the Berserker for my buff. Lots of life leech, negate Fury loss through inactivity, and decrease my buff cooldown with the passives. The gear for him will want to focus on crits so I can spam Overpower as much as possible.
The Demon Hunter
As much as I want to love this character, the results of her skills make me a little fearful without any super hard hitting attacks. Still, I think she can still manage Inferno solo with some tactful play. Hungering Arrow for single targets & potential splash, Cluster Arrow for groups, and Grenades because... well, they seem weak from watching beta vids, but I want them to work well, darn it! Vault for movement, Caltrops to keep enemies at range, and a Familiar for Hatred regen. Passives are for increasing crit chance, as well as gaining more Hatred.
The Monk
Wow, this guy has lots of potential. Exploding Palm for AoE & Hundred Fists as the highest damaging Spirit generator to set off the explosions more reliably. Wave of Light is my distance attack while Lashing Tail Kick is both a good source for creating space & good damage. Tempest Rush is my movement skill, and Mantra of Healing because a) I'm afraid of Inferno, and b ) as a frontline fighter it may be difficult to grab health globes in the midst of battle. Passives give healing whenever I use Spirit, boosts armor by 100%, and will give incredibly high resists for very little cost on my gear.
The Witch Doctor
This was the hardest one to plot out. A lot of his skills seem passive a la D2's Necromancer, and I don't like sitting back and waiting for stuff to die.
No movement skill for this build, so I've got the Zombie Dogs out front to tank. Sacrifice is a no-brainer after that. Soul Harvest will buff my attacks, which include a hard hitting Poison Dart for single targets, then Plague of Toads and Locust Swarm for AoE. Passives give my dogs and toads more damage while giving me more mana regen.
The Wizard
A hodgepodge of elements and skills, and probably the one build I'm most willing to experiment with to find better results. My signature skill is Electrocute, mostly because everyone seems to love it in the beta. Energy Twister is my main attack skill since it hits mega hard and can be good AoE. Frost Nova and Slow Time are my safety skills, Wave of Force is my "uh oh, I'm getting surrounded" emergency skill, and Teleport will be used for escaping as well as repositioning myself for better attack angles. Passives are for mana regen and potential stuns while using Electrocute.
They're for people like me who will choose to make new characters instead of respec'ing them constantly. I'll keep to the "this is my build forever and ever, amen" mentality for every character, and I'll want to have twinking gear for a good number of them. I sometimes have more fun leveling characters than I do grinding constantly. To me, the ability to respec at a moment's notice is a possibility, not a requirement.
I think the word "important" is far too strong. People want to get into the beta, yes, and many people seem semi-desperate for a key. However, it's just a game, as are these competitions & giveaways. And sometimes mistakes are made. The mistake you describe isn't all that costly; no one loses their life or receives bodily harm, formal complaints aren't written to the government, revolutions and rebellious factions aren't springing up...
It's all being hosted in fun, and when you start taking it seriously then you're putting far too much "importance" on the results.
So, I am wondering if anyone has any thoughts on exactly how hard Inferno is supposed to be.
Answer: My thoughts are that Inferno will be hard. ...Supposedly.
I'd say that it's going to be "hard" just like Hell in D2 was "hard." However, the right combination of gear and skills will negate some of that difficulty. What foresight I have tells me that, since you can switch your skills to adapt to any area and the local mobs (if you so choose), the only real hurdle you'll need to get over is finding the gear that gives you good survivability.
Personally, I'm going to stick to a single build with varying damage types so that I won't be forced to swap skills around. So my playstyle may make Inferno more difficult than it will be for others. I also don't plan on getting gear from the AH which may end up being another handicap.
Due to the above, I'd say that Inferno will be a massive challenge to some, a frustrating yet rewarding experience for others, and some will breeze through it and complain that it's too easy. It all depends on how prepared you'll be and what systems you plan to take advantage of.
I don't know how long it has been since you played LOD, but they changed the stat system so you could have 3 resets at akara one for each difficulty... so how does that effect your opinion on "permanence" of stats usage?
the only thing that I kind of see past this with is the items giving you stats, increasing want/need for specific items (driving certain items values up for the RMH) as well as allowing for search of items to yield stats you may find as ideal or want that doesn't necisarily have to be what every one will desire (EX: I want to make a speed barb, so any thing to help this I'm hunting for)
Thank you for pointing out respecs in D2. I'm well aware of them, however, and my opinion is exactly the same. Since we're discussing stat points, there's two topics I'd briefly discuss regarding D2 and respecs:
1) The majority of people didn't use respecs for the sole purpose of reallocating stat points. They did it to remake a character build and change their skills. Depending on the build, the necessary/suggested gear would change on that character and they'd change their stats to meet the gear requirements. In the approximately two dozen characters I made when respecs were available, only ONCE did I respec only for stats; I made a sorceress that dumped points into Energy initially for more mana, then once I was able to equip better +mana gear did I respec for more "traditional" stat placement. If respecs weren't available, either I wouldn't have chosen the Energy route to begin with, or I would have simply weakened my character somewhat since she would have less Vitality than other sorcs. Which leads into --
2) "Broken" characters were generally ones that had poorly allocated skills. Poorly placed stats could oftentimes be overcome with gear & charms. Even characters that skimped too much on Dexterity for block or Vitality for survivability could survive with tactical gameplay... or carried by seven other players on b.net. Sure, someone could drop unnecessary points into less useful stats, but it's rare when poor stat placement prevented a character from being able to complete Hell. Yes, people used to remake characters so their stats were better allocated, but usually it was for better survivability, not because their character was entirely unusable.
Onto D3:
Yes, stats on items will be extremely important. It's the only way to differentiate between character builds that are exactly the same. For two characters that use the same skills, the only difference between them will be the gear they use. Min/maxing is done entirely through their items.
What I was trying to elude to (and what you picked up on) is that the core stats of any character are pretty much meaningless. They change as you level, sure, and your power / damage reduction / dodge / resists increase as you progress. But without any physical manipulation of these stats, they're basically pointless to look at since there's nothing to do with them regardless of the build you want or skills you choose. These numbers change as you find better, more sought after gear for the specific stats you want. In terms of the stat systems from each of the games, however, the pre-allocated stats of D3 have nothing compelling about them whatsoever.
This ends up having an effect on certain builds. In D2, take, for example, a glass cannon Bowazon that put every point into Dex for maximum damage versus a standard "stats for gear, everything else into Vitality". Power levels differ, survivability differs, overall available gear differs. It's the same with a Titan build for a Barbarian; everything goes into Strength, so he's super strong but pretty squishy without any Dex for blocking or points put into Vitality.
This simply isn't possible in D3. With the Demon Hunter; the only way you can create anything resembling a glass cannon is to load up on the specific gear that has comparitively higher Dex and less Vitality. The overall difference between your glass cannon and a Demon Hunter with balanced stat gear is far less than what you'd see in D2 because their core stats are exactly the same. Titans are stronger than a balanced Barbarian build, yes, but they really aren't all that much stronger because he shares the same core stats as a standard Barbarian.
Perhaps this isn't a terrible thing, however. Having a basic set of allocated stats can maybe make what is a wacky build more viable due to its inherent core stat balance. A glass cannon in D2 might get OHKOed since they have far less base life, whereas a glass cannon in D3 inherits more life due to their natural stats in Vitality and might be able to take a couple/few hits before dying. A Barbarian with all Strength gear can potentially survive better since he has more natural points in Dex for a chance to dodge.
...What is my point? ...I don't know, I lost it a long time ago.
There's something to be said about both ways of doing stat points. Back in D2, there was a general formula of how to create all your characters and was rarely varied. In D3, auto stat points basically eliminates any chance of breaking your character.
The way things stand now, however, it appears that stat points seem virtually invisible. Without any need to get X more points into a category, you lose sight of how much you have. Yes, the inventory screen now lists all your stats, but there's no real point to look at it. What you have is what you've got, and there's no real way to change the outcome. Getting gear with more stat points helps, of course, but there's a difference between investing unreclaimable points and getting a chest piece with added strength. It just feels like stat points have become less tangible, if you understand my meaning.
Personally, I think that PvP in the beta would be kinda meh. Yeah, it gives people a continued reason to keep playing the beta and therefore stress test the servers. However, whatever minimal balance Blizzard decides to give to PvP won't really be applied in the first thirteen character levels. Skill power between the five classes isn't what you'd call "even" amongst them, so there'd be obvious better choices amongst classes than others. Then people would complain about how one class is OP against the others and blah blah blah. It'd be fun, but it'd also be rather broken.
Besides, with such limited gear in the beta, pretty much everyone would have the same exact gear. It might turn out to be the same once the game is released, everyone's got clvl60 characters, and every item will be available on the AH so it could be easier for everyone to find the "best" items for PvP.
But yeah. Too bad for the fans of PvP that they're not given a taste of what's to come in the beta. We're all in the same boat... waiting for the D3 launch date to appear over the horizon...
Edit: I don't see why they are trying to make the game playable for toddlers, when the game itself has a rating of M...for mature.
Not toddlers. They're catering to housewives and unemployed parents who see their kids play and would otherwise be playing casual flash games.
I see your point, though. Not many people who are 18+ are all that unfamiliar with video games. The thing is, not every gamer has spent a lot of time in the Diablo universe or aRPGs in general. I can see why Blizzard wants to simplify some of their systems so those who are unfamiliar can get used to how things work. Sometimes, however, I think they've gone a little too far and tried to take too much control away from the player. This "auto placement" of skills on the mouse buttons & taskbar is one of them.
One thing to keep in mind about the RMAH is that it won't be an effective stopgap for ALL of the 3rd party item sales.
1) A player wants item X. Item X needs to be available in the AH, otherwise it won't deter someone from going elsewhere to find it.
2) Since the RMAH prices are set by the players, we might get some greedy folks who over value certain items. 3rd party sites can undercut those prices at any time.
3) Hardcore mode doesn't have the RMAH, so if they wanna buy items then 3rd party sites are all they have.
It's an interesting choice Blizzard has made to cut down on poor game experiences, but we won't know how effective the RMAH will be until the game is launched.
And as others have said, it's a means for Blizzard to get more money by doing nothing at all. If, say, 2,500 transactions are completed per day worldwide, in less than a year Blizzard will have made more than a million dollars and won't have lifted a finger.
Wow. I'm surprised by how much I'm in the minority on the subject. Personally, I think it's far too low.
I understand that the freespecs mean that you can swap the skills of any character you'd like... but that's not how I'll be playing the majority of the time. I appcreciate and applaud build commitment. With the exception of trying out new skills as they become available, I'm going to stay away from respec'ing as much as I can.
I won't create a clvl60 character and then swap everything around on a whim to try a new build. No, I'm going to reroll a new character and retry my new build idea from the very start of the game.
There's something to be said (for me, at least) about looking at your old characters and seeing the builds you've tried. In D2, I had dozens of characters in my selection screen that were all reminders of my time in the game. Here's my first Barbarian that couldn't make it past Act III in Hell because he never found any weapons. Here's the next Barb I made, a Concentrate barb that beat Hell but was incredibly slow. There's the Frenzy barb that was pretty fragile but super fast. There's the next Frenzy barb that used Crescent Moons instead of Lightsabres. Here's the Singer that didn't have enough mana or +skills to do much of anything after a while, but I'll go back to it when I find more items & gear for him. There's my Whirler that I use for Travincial runs.
I like looking back to see what I have or have not accomplished. Now it's just... here's my Barbarian. ...*cough*... He does stuff.
I'm going to end up with all five classes at clvl 60, and the last five character slots will be my random project I'm working on. Eventually, I know I'm going to beat the game with various builds of the same class. And I also will have to succumb to being able to respec my 60s with those seperate builds to make space for new characters.
TL/DR? I dislike the ten slot maximum very much, but I'll deal with it in my own way.
And since someone brought up the stash... ugh. WAY too small. I'm a D2 hoarder that played offline single player and had outside programs that can stash away millions of items. I'm also a Grail Hunter (someone who seeks to find every set/unique item & every rune type by themselves). The way it looks, I'll have a miniscule percentage of the space I'm accustomed to. Sets, uniques, leveling gear, runes (maybe, if they still exist as items after this patch), crafting stuff, dyes... I'm adverse to using the auction house based on my self-found principles, but it'll end up being an unavoidable system due to stashing limitations.
Rune Tomes. "Right click to learn a level 1 Skill Rune effect on X skill."
Throughout the game, you will get them all.
35 rune effects for each skill.
Customize.
I like this. Implementing rune effects via books would be a serious throwback to D1.
There's something to be said about random drops in runes, but in a scenario where "you will get them all" it alleviates AH flooding and useless drops. I still find it hard to think about a world without random runes that you may or may not find... but I don't think I'd be angry if the quest line or side quests were to give you these Rune Tomes.
I had always thought of the attuned runestones to mean that when you place a runestone into a skill slot, it is then locked in, and can't be taken out and placed in another one. This would give people a reason to get more than one of each level... They'd flood the AH's after that, and eventually you would start just vendoring them becase no one is buying them and they keep dropping.
I had heard though that they would drop with affixes, possibly increasing their use further than the base effect... It would mean that we could be getting new stuff past level 30 as we level up, meaning that after lvl 30 when you have all your skills you then unlock different runestone versions of them until level sixty.
The issue attuned runes creates is how much potential inventory space it can eat up. And a lot of what you wrote, Damerflinn, illustrates that point.
As an example, let's say that a player decides they're going to play only Barbarians forever, but they're gonna take it seriously and play with intent. They'll get their Barb(s) up to clvl60 and use every single skill and it's variation at one point or another. Even if they use ONLY rank seven runes, that's 22 skills with five colors each for 110 individual runes. Realistically, as they're leveling their character(s) they'll be plonking in lower tiered runes as they become available and later, as you say, upgrading as they go along. So maybe that's an estimated 200 total used runes altogether.
...200 runes. For a single character class. Maybe later they decide they wanna get serious with a different class. Or two. Or all five. If the latter is the case, imagine the fact that a single person might have all five characters and want to have complete build diversity available at a moment's notice; even with only rank seven runes, that's ~500 runes or more that someone has to hold onto at all times. When Blizz reduced the stash size a couple weeks ago, he said that with the combined space of the stash & ten characters' inventory, they could hold some 400 swords. ...Or in other words, 800-ish runes.
THEN add to the fact that they're able to implement various randomized mods to the runes. Regardless of whether they attune runes or allow them to be swapped freely, as soon as you find a rank seven rune of something you already own, either your new rune or the old one becomes obsolete. Therefore, eventually for every rune you find, you're going to put it up for auction. Thing is, they said that rune drop odds would be balanced depending on what system they ended up with. So if attuned runes drop five times more often then unattuned runes, that's five times more runes going to the AH.
Again, 200 runes for a single class, but also for just one player. How many millions of people will be playing this game? I'm low-balling here, but if every player of a one million player base gets a total of 200 runes across ALL their characters... 200 million runes are in play. That's CRAZY high.
And if you're like me, I won't have just one of each class; being a fan of D2, I can't allow myself to respec a clvl60 character and create an entirely new build from it. I'm going to be constantly leveling new characters so I get the full experience of a build from normal up through... as far into the game as the build can take me. In an attuned rune system, if I wanted to be able to have every rune available, that's maybe 3,500 different runes that I'd have to keep. That's an impossibility.
Physically, runes are going to be a logistical clusterfu.... uh, mess. If you plan on saving any, plan on them eating up a good amount of your stash space. There will be thousands of runes available on the AH in a short period of time. Even if they're given random attributes, the majority of them will lose nearly all their potential value.
However, eliminating runes will alleviate all of these issues. It saves player hassle, it saves AH flooding, it saves space on the servers... as unbelievable as it may seem, getting rid of runes would really be the best play. Again, I don't know what they could change to inject rune effects into the game without the physical runes, but I can imagine how desperate they may be to get it done.
What if they just leave the system as is, but make the runes bind on pickup per character?
Understandable. Agreed that this isn't our D2 of old, but I don't think BoE items are on the table. My judgment is based entirely upon how someone from Blizz stated flatly that they'd NEVER do BoE in this game (citation needed). That said, two years ago they also said there'd be an offline single player mode. Look how THAT turned out. ...No, I'm NOT still bitter about it...
Those of us who follow the news know that the rune & skill systems are being reworked. As a result, there's been a wild theory going around that runestones will be eliminated. ...Not the rune effects that alter your skills as you see fit, just the physical runes themselves.
Do you buy into the theory, or do you think it's absolutely crazy that it's even considered?
Personally, I can see it happening. The early iteration of runes pre-attunement could lead to "easily" acquiring every rune type you'd ever need thanks to trading via the auction houses. Attuning runes to skills, however, leads to massive inventory nightmares since there'd be thousands of individual runes of each rank & color devoted to each and every skill.
The negative aspects of both scenarios deal with the numbers of runes people need. So... if Blizzard was able to come up with a new iteration that kept runestone effects but eliminated the literal item from the game, the issues would be fixed... right?
Theorycraft away. ...Or troll. Your choice. But hurry up; speculation says that we might find out when the new patch is released in a day or three!
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So I present a build for all five character classes. I won't go into too much detail on each to save your eyes.
Uh... let's be honest, though... no one's reading these. They're just making their own builds and ignoring everyone else's. Not me, though! I'm curious to see what everyone else thinks will be THE elite build.
Anyway, my results after a couple hours. All of these builds are intended for solo PvE play.
The Barbarian
Lots of AoE potential via Cleave, Seismic Slam, Overpower & Revenge. Furious Charge is my movement skill, and I'm going with Wrath of the Berserker for my buff. Lots of life leech, negate Fury loss through inactivity, and decrease my buff cooldown with the passives. The gear for him will want to focus on crits so I can spam Overpower as much as possible.
The Demon Hunter
As much as I want to love this character, the results of her skills make me a little fearful without any super hard hitting attacks. Still, I think she can still manage Inferno solo with some tactful play. Hungering Arrow for single targets & potential splash, Cluster Arrow for groups, and Grenades because... well, they seem weak from watching beta vids, but I want them to work well, darn it! Vault for movement, Caltrops to keep enemies at range, and a Familiar for Hatred regen. Passives are for increasing crit chance, as well as gaining more Hatred.
The Monk
Wow, this guy has lots of potential. Exploding Palm for AoE & Hundred Fists as the highest damaging Spirit generator to set off the explosions more reliably. Wave of Light is my distance attack while Lashing Tail Kick is both a good source for creating space & good damage. Tempest Rush is my movement skill, and Mantra of Healing because a) I'm afraid of Inferno, and b ) as a frontline fighter it may be difficult to grab health globes in the midst of battle. Passives give healing whenever I use Spirit, boosts armor by 100%, and will give incredibly high resists for very little cost on my gear.
The Witch Doctor
This was the hardest one to plot out. A lot of his skills seem passive a la D2's Necromancer, and I don't like sitting back and waiting for stuff to die.
No movement skill for this build, so I've got the Zombie Dogs out front to tank. Sacrifice is a no-brainer after that. Soul Harvest will buff my attacks, which include a hard hitting Poison Dart for single targets, then Plague of Toads and Locust Swarm for AoE. Passives give my dogs and toads more damage while giving me more mana regen.
The Wizard
A hodgepodge of elements and skills, and probably the one build I'm most willing to experiment with to find better results. My signature skill is Electrocute, mostly because everyone seems to love it in the beta. Energy Twister is my main attack skill since it hits mega hard and can be good AoE. Frost Nova and Slow Time are my safety skills, Wave of Force is my "uh oh, I'm getting surrounded" emergency skill, and Teleport will be used for escaping as well as repositioning myself for better attack angles. Passives are for mana regen and potential stuns while using Electrocute.
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It's all being hosted in fun, and when you start taking it seriously then you're putting far too much "importance" on the results.
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Answer: My thoughts are that Inferno will be hard. ...Supposedly.
I'd say that it's going to be "hard" just like Hell in D2 was "hard." However, the right combination of gear and skills will negate some of that difficulty. What foresight I have tells me that, since you can switch your skills to adapt to any area and the local mobs (if you so choose), the only real hurdle you'll need to get over is finding the gear that gives you good survivability.
Personally, I'm going to stick to a single build with varying damage types so that I won't be forced to swap skills around. So my playstyle may make Inferno more difficult than it will be for others. I also don't plan on getting gear from the AH which may end up being another handicap.
Due to the above, I'd say that Inferno will be a massive challenge to some, a frustrating yet rewarding experience for others, and some will breeze through it and complain that it's too easy. It all depends on how prepared you'll be and what systems you plan to take advantage of.
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Thank you for pointing out respecs in D2. I'm well aware of them, however, and my opinion is exactly the same. Since we're discussing stat points, there's two topics I'd briefly discuss regarding D2 and respecs:
1) The majority of people didn't use respecs for the sole purpose of reallocating stat points. They did it to remake a character build and change their skills. Depending on the build, the necessary/suggested gear would change on that character and they'd change their stats to meet the gear requirements. In the approximately two dozen characters I made when respecs were available, only ONCE did I respec only for stats; I made a sorceress that dumped points into Energy initially for more mana, then once I was able to equip better +mana gear did I respec for more "traditional" stat placement. If respecs weren't available, either I wouldn't have chosen the Energy route to begin with, or I would have simply weakened my character somewhat since she would have less Vitality than other sorcs. Which leads into --
2) "Broken" characters were generally ones that had poorly allocated skills. Poorly placed stats could oftentimes be overcome with gear & charms. Even characters that skimped too much on Dexterity for block or Vitality for survivability could survive with tactical gameplay... or carried by seven other players on b.net. Sure, someone could drop unnecessary points into less useful stats, but it's rare when poor stat placement prevented a character from being able to complete Hell. Yes, people used to remake characters so their stats were better allocated, but usually it was for better survivability, not because their character was entirely unusable.
Onto D3:
Yes, stats on items will be extremely important. It's the only way to differentiate between character builds that are exactly the same. For two characters that use the same skills, the only difference between them will be the gear they use. Min/maxing is done entirely through their items.
What I was trying to elude to (and what you picked up on) is that the core stats of any character are pretty much meaningless. They change as you level, sure, and your power / damage reduction / dodge / resists increase as you progress. But without any physical manipulation of these stats, they're basically pointless to look at since there's nothing to do with them regardless of the build you want or skills you choose. These numbers change as you find better, more sought after gear for the specific stats you want. In terms of the stat systems from each of the games, however, the pre-allocated stats of D3 have nothing compelling about them whatsoever.
This ends up having an effect on certain builds. In D2, take, for example, a glass cannon Bowazon that put every point into Dex for maximum damage versus a standard "stats for gear, everything else into Vitality". Power levels differ, survivability differs, overall available gear differs. It's the same with a Titan build for a Barbarian; everything goes into Strength, so he's super strong but pretty squishy without any Dex for blocking or points put into Vitality.
This simply isn't possible in D3. With the Demon Hunter; the only way you can create anything resembling a glass cannon is to load up on the specific gear that has comparitively higher Dex and less Vitality. The overall difference between your glass cannon and a Demon Hunter with balanced stat gear is far less than what you'd see in D2 because their core stats are exactly the same. Titans are stronger than a balanced Barbarian build, yes, but they really aren't all that much stronger because he shares the same core stats as a standard Barbarian.
Perhaps this isn't a terrible thing, however. Having a basic set of allocated stats can maybe make what is a wacky build more viable due to its inherent core stat balance. A glass cannon in D2 might get OHKOed since they have far less base life, whereas a glass cannon in D3 inherits more life due to their natural stats in Vitality and might be able to take a couple/few hits before dying. A Barbarian with all Strength gear can potentially survive better since he has more natural points in Dex for a chance to dodge.
...What is my point? ...I don't know, I lost it a long time ago.
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The way things stand now, however, it appears that stat points seem virtually invisible. Without any need to get X more points into a category, you lose sight of how much you have. Yes, the inventory screen now lists all your stats, but there's no real point to look at it. What you have is what you've got, and there's no real way to change the outcome. Getting gear with more stat points helps, of course, but there's a difference between investing unreclaimable points and getting a chest piece with added strength. It just feels like stat points have become less tangible, if you understand my meaning.
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Besides, with such limited gear in the beta, pretty much everyone would have the same exact gear. It might turn out to be the same once the game is released, everyone's got clvl60 characters, and every item will be available on the AH so it could be easier for everyone to find the "best" items for PvP.
But yeah. Too bad for the fans of PvP that they're not given a taste of what's to come in the beta. We're all in the same boat... waiting for the D3 launch date to appear over the horizon...
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Not toddlers. They're catering to housewives and unemployed parents who see their kids play and would otherwise be playing casual flash games.
I see your point, though. Not many people who are 18+ are all that unfamiliar with video games. The thing is, not every gamer has spent a lot of time in the Diablo universe or aRPGs in general. I can see why Blizzard wants to simplify some of their systems so those who are unfamiliar can get used to how things work. Sometimes, however, I think they've gone a little too far and tried to take too much control away from the player. This "auto placement" of skills on the mouse buttons & taskbar is one of them.
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1) A player wants item X. Item X needs to be available in the AH, otherwise it won't deter someone from going elsewhere to find it.
2) Since the RMAH prices are set by the players, we might get some greedy folks who over value certain items. 3rd party sites can undercut those prices at any time.
3) Hardcore mode doesn't have the RMAH, so if they wanna buy items then 3rd party sites are all they have.
It's an interesting choice Blizzard has made to cut down on poor game experiences, but we won't know how effective the RMAH will be until the game is launched.
And as others have said, it's a means for Blizzard to get more money by doing nothing at all. If, say, 2,500 transactions are completed per day worldwide, in less than a year Blizzard will have made more than a million dollars and won't have lifted a finger.
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I understand that the freespecs mean that you can swap the skills of any character you'd like... but that's not how I'll be playing the majority of the time. I appcreciate and applaud build commitment. With the exception of trying out new skills as they become available, I'm going to stay away from respec'ing as much as I can.
I won't create a clvl60 character and then swap everything around on a whim to try a new build. No, I'm going to reroll a new character and retry my new build idea from the very start of the game.
There's something to be said (for me, at least) about looking at your old characters and seeing the builds you've tried. In D2, I had dozens of characters in my selection screen that were all reminders of my time in the game. Here's my first Barbarian that couldn't make it past Act III in Hell because he never found any weapons. Here's the next Barb I made, a Concentrate barb that beat Hell but was incredibly slow. There's the Frenzy barb that was pretty fragile but super fast. There's the next Frenzy barb that used Crescent Moons instead of Lightsabres. Here's the Singer that didn't have enough mana or +skills to do much of anything after a while, but I'll go back to it when I find more items & gear for him. There's my Whirler that I use for Travincial runs.
I like looking back to see what I have or have not accomplished. Now it's just... here's my Barbarian. ...*cough*... He does stuff.
I'm going to end up with all five classes at clvl 60, and the last five character slots will be my random project I'm working on. Eventually, I know I'm going to beat the game with various builds of the same class. And I also will have to succumb to being able to respec my 60s with those seperate builds to make space for new characters.
TL/DR? I dislike the ten slot maximum very much, but I'll deal with it in my own way.
And since someone brought up the stash... ugh. WAY too small. I'm a D2 hoarder that played offline single player and had outside programs that can stash away millions of items. I'm also a Grail Hunter (someone who seeks to find every set/unique item & every rune type by themselves). The way it looks, I'll have a miniscule percentage of the space I'm accustomed to. Sets, uniques, leveling gear, runes (maybe, if they still exist as items after this patch), crafting stuff, dyes... I'm adverse to using the auction house based on my self-found principles, but it'll end up being an unavoidable system due to stashing limitations.
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I like this. Implementing rune effects via books would be a serious throwback to D1.
There's something to be said about random drops in runes, but in a scenario where "you will get them all" it alleviates AH flooding and useless drops. I still find it hard to think about a world without random runes that you may or may not find... but I don't think I'd be angry if the quest line or side quests were to give you these Rune Tomes.
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The issue attuned runes creates is how much potential inventory space it can eat up. And a lot of what you wrote, Damerflinn, illustrates that point.
As an example, let's say that a player decides they're going to play only Barbarians forever, but they're gonna take it seriously and play with intent. They'll get their Barb(s) up to clvl60 and use every single skill and it's variation at one point or another. Even if they use ONLY rank seven runes, that's 22 skills with five colors each for 110 individual runes. Realistically, as they're leveling their character(s) they'll be plonking in lower tiered runes as they become available and later, as you say, upgrading as they go along. So maybe that's an estimated 200 total used runes altogether.
...200 runes. For a single character class. Maybe later they decide they wanna get serious with a different class. Or two. Or all five. If the latter is the case, imagine the fact that a single person might have all five characters and want to have complete build diversity available at a moment's notice; even with only rank seven runes, that's ~500 runes or more that someone has to hold onto at all times. When Blizz reduced the stash size a couple weeks ago, he said that with the combined space of the stash & ten characters' inventory, they could hold some 400 swords. ...Or in other words, 800-ish runes.
THEN add to the fact that they're able to implement various randomized mods to the runes. Regardless of whether they attune runes or allow them to be swapped freely, as soon as you find a rank seven rune of something you already own, either your new rune or the old one becomes obsolete. Therefore, eventually for every rune you find, you're going to put it up for auction. Thing is, they said that rune drop odds would be balanced depending on what system they ended up with. So if attuned runes drop five times more often then unattuned runes, that's five times more runes going to the AH.
Again, 200 runes for a single class, but also for just one player. How many millions of people will be playing this game? I'm low-balling here, but if every player of a one million player base gets a total of 200 runes across ALL their characters... 200 million runes are in play. That's CRAZY high.
And if you're like me, I won't have just one of each class; being a fan of D2, I can't allow myself to respec a clvl60 character and create an entirely new build from it. I'm going to be constantly leveling new characters so I get the full experience of a build from normal up through... as far into the game as the build can take me. In an attuned rune system, if I wanted to be able to have every rune available, that's maybe 3,500 different runes that I'd have to keep. That's an impossibility.
Physically, runes are going to be a logistical clusterfu.... uh, mess. If you plan on saving any, plan on them eating up a good amount of your stash space. There will be thousands of runes available on the AH in a short period of time. Even if they're given random attributes, the majority of them will lose nearly all their potential value.
However, eliminating runes will alleviate all of these issues. It saves player hassle, it saves AH flooding, it saves space on the servers... as unbelievable as it may seem, getting rid of runes would really be the best play. Again, I don't know what they could change to inject rune effects into the game without the physical runes, but I can imagine how desperate they may be to get it done.
Understandable. Agreed that this isn't our D2 of old, but I don't think BoE items are on the table. My judgment is based entirely upon how someone from Blizz stated flatly that they'd NEVER do BoE in this game (citation needed). That said, two years ago they also said there'd be an offline single player mode. Look how THAT turned out. ...No, I'm NOT still bitter about it...
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Do you buy into the theory, or do you think it's absolutely crazy that it's even considered?
Personally, I can see it happening. The early iteration of runes pre-attunement could lead to "easily" acquiring every rune type you'd ever need thanks to trading via the auction houses. Attuning runes to skills, however, leads to massive inventory nightmares since there'd be thousands of individual runes of each rank & color devoted to each and every skill.
The negative aspects of both scenarios deal with the numbers of runes people need. So... if Blizzard was able to come up with a new iteration that kept runestone effects but eliminated the literal item from the game, the issues would be fixed... right?
Theorycraft away. ...Or troll. Your choice. But hurry up; speculation says that we might find out when the new patch is released in a day or three!
-TRM