Talent Respec
Health GlobesBashiok: There will almost definitely be some sort of system to respec; however, it isn't likely to be as liberal as World of Warcraft. We don't want to lock a player into a system that punishes them for mistakes, experimenting, or lack of knowledge early on in the game. We also don't think a system that allows immediate, complete, and at-a-whim changes to a character spec matches the feel of Diablo. It's likely to be somewhere in between.
That said we still feel like the desire to play the same class again that you may have played before is still a part of the game, and with some ability to respec could potentially require other incentives.
No Tank and Healer Classes?Bashiok: The health globes are actually, in my opinion, really cool. Playing the game and actually seeing what types of strategy they encourage, you can start to see what they add and how they make the combat more interesting.
I'll set the scene. You're a barbarian, you're in the wilderness and after fighting wave after wave of ghouls, skeletons, demons, what have you, you're low on health. You're out of potions, and after using a strategic leap out of the fray you turn around and seismic slam the skeletons charging you. Two of them drop health globes, but the globes dropped behind the skeletons that are still advancing. If they reach you, you're not going to survive. Are you able to leap safely to snag the globes before they can tear into you? Can you throw out another slam and try to remove the remaining enemies? How can you survive? You have a fraction of a second to decide.
The health globes help to create situations just like this, where you're not just sitting there spamming potions, you're using your abilities and strategy to stay alive. Possibly most importantly, you're encouraged to keep fighting, and not just run away.
With random spawns, random drops, and of course the randomness of combat, the health globes add to creating situations that are just more... interesting, and in my opinion, fun.
On the side of potions, they still exist, but they're likely to be on a cooldown of some type. They'll also likely restore health based on a percentage that's relative to your character. They may heal an instant amount, they may be the old over time type system. They're probably going to be filling an emergency-heal role more than anything though. -- post
Random Loot MechanicFan said: They have literally said Diablo 3 will be "first and foremost a cooperative game". Which leads me to believe it's possible they add a talent tree for dedicated healers to one or several classes.
Bashiok: No. Not that classes won't benefit from each other in various ways, Barbarian shouts being good party buffs, etc. but every class is essentially a demon-killing DPS class. We have no intentions to create a tank, or healer, etc. Every class will play their own way, and while some may take direct hits easier than others, it certainly wouldn't define their role within a party. Everyone should be kicking in heads at the same time.
Diablo III having a strong emphasis on cooperative play is really building upon one of the best parts of Diablo II, and that's charging through dungeons with other people. Our focus is on removing the frustrations that existed with grouping, and adding new features that encourage everyone to stick together and fight as a party.
Currently - while in a party each player will see their own drops from each kill.
This could mean that after killing a zombie I see a sword drop, and you may see a shoulder slot item drop. Or I see nothing drop, while you got an axe.
Obviously while in a group you're killing faster, and this could translate to an exponentially increasing number of drops with each additional player in your party. However, it's balanced in such a way that the drop % is pulled back a bit with each additional player (I'm simplifying it, but that's what it boils down to). This keeps it from being almost detrimental to not play with a full party, while still giving a nice increase to the amount of drops if you do.
From this system it seems quite a few people got the impression that you'll never see items drop that you can't use. For instance, a Barbarian will never see a dagger that only a Witch Doctor can use. This isn't true. There is no effect, or at least no currently intended effect, to restrict which items which classes can or can't see for their respective drops. It's still intended that you could see an item that your class can't use. It's easy enough to drop the item, ask if anyone can use it, or just sell it off of course. -- post
but i don't think full respecing is really necessary. it can be fun to have two different characters of the same class that specialize in totally different things. i mean, you shouldn't be able to switch between an ice sorceress and a fire sorceress in an instant, because that would defeat the purpose of specs in the first place. so i'm glad there's going to be some limitations.
It would be great to have some ability to go back on abilities in the short-term though, as some people have suggested. This prevents accidental skill spending, which is definitely and issue.
Actually, it might be cool to have like a one-time-only respec that's obtainable through a quest or something. That way, if people want to try out new things without rerolling, they can, but only once on a given character. It also means that noobs who just kindof placed abilities whereever have a chance to give themselves a better setup without rerolling, if only once.
Not totally sure the one-time respec would work out, but I like the theory.
That's a good point. How about this, then- You get a set number of skill points you can re-spec each level, and you can save them up for later use if you don't want to re-spec anything at the moment. That is, each level you get one skill point, and one re-spec point. Leaves a lot of flexibility and a lot of replay value, I think.
I kinda like this idea, or atleast something like it. This would also leave room to goof around with a build as a lvl while not leaving too much room to completly switch builds.
It will allow to balance the respec system very accurately.
As an example:
There could be a certain NPC in each town, that would handle respecs. For each point going to pull from the skill tree one would have to pay certain amount of gold. More points to respec - more gold to pay. The amount of gold per point would increase with each character level.
And as a second rule - one respec a month (for example) only.
This would still encourage players to create new chars if they simply wanted to try another build, but, from the other hand, opened a rescue path to already long-played and beloved chars to change some of the build in case of an error in planning or new patch ruining their builds.
I think a good way to handle respecs for diablo would be an optional quest in the last act (in each difficulty as well) that when completed gives you the option to completely respec or just move some points around.. basically gives you control over your points to move each one once whereever you want it.
Kind of like the ancients for an extra exp boost.
That would result in a limit of 3 respecs per char... meaning you have some room to mess up, but you better know what you want by your final respec =)
I think a good way to handle Respecing in Diablo 3 would be to make a complete respec availible Via an optional quest in the final act of each difficulty.
The would mean you have 3 respecs per char. Thats a good amount of respecs to make sure you have you spec correct and havn't wasted any points. Or to even just completely change your spec.
Other then avoiding the occasional misplacement of a point or the limited ability to completely change your spec, i think its sort of trademark of diablo now to have your char locked to his spec. After all... if we think about this from a lore point of view.. these warriors learn their talents through countless years of practice and learning. Battles and bruises. You can't just unlearn your skills. Lets keep it as true to real life as we can in the areas which we can.
*edit*
another quick idea... i was also thinking as further incentive to use these 3 respecs an extra skill point can be awarded for completeing them. This would promote the idea of commiting to a spec because you will get those extra 3 points if you use them all and lock yourself. Sure your char will be locked down, but he will be a tiny bit mroe powerful then if he weren't.
3 levels
I've been a hardcore loyal Diablo gamer since the franchise started. My older brother picked it up when i was still of wee ages and i played it as my first real video game mindlessly hacking away at the masses of mobs that make the game. I have pre-ordered every Diablo and anticipated this sequel for a very long time now thinking blizzard gave up on the franchise completely. WoW is a fun game too, but i will be Disapointed on a whole new level if i buy Diablo 3 and find out that it's deeply influenced by WoW. I can handle a few new skills and some better party options, and other minor changes, but a healing and tanking class would be a shame to the genocide of massive numbers of monsters that is the Diablo title. Diablo is Diablo, and WoW is WoW i don't want to see them mixed. the fun yet hectic gameplay made the game what it was, an action packed gorey fast paced mob slicing adventure that required high levels of strategy and skill to pvp/pve instead of the same grinding of WoW over and over again. WoW has a very slow combat system compaired to Diablo, the word slow and Diablo should never be near eachother in blizzards minds. WoW and Diablo are 2 very different games, and different titles. I wish to keep it this way, so i hope i don't ever hear anything about a World of Diablo in the future.
That makes suitable to test 1 build on a char before making a final one, or make it able to recover from an acidental skill click. If u make the mistake 2 times u ´re fired and re-roll .
On diablo theres no need to respect more then once, if at all !
About health globes, if they keep the potions there and the belt hotkeyss ( thats part of diablo since d1 ), its ok for me, will look like Replenish Shrines of D2 or "Wells"
Yes cuse we will all know everything about the game and the spells and what is good or not when the game comes out right?
You should be able to completely respec. Just not any time and as often as you want.
I don't want to redo a character 10 times because of the learning curve in the game or because of balance patches.
Ever make a firewall sorc? or one based on... i think it was Static field? the whole build was based on getting items to lower your cast time. Blizzard nerfed it too hell and the entire build was worthless without you actually doing anything wrong. Your proposed solution would not fix the above mentioned situation at all.
People should not be forced to rebuild entire characters because of the unavoidable balance/nerf patches that will come after the game goes retail.
Having no respecs or forcing people to continually play the same class over and over is really old school and outdated.
Repecs all the way.
I like the possibility of being able to try out different specs and see how they work for me rather than being stuck releveling a class.
If there ends up being a bind system for items... respec is a must.
Wow is a different beast altogether because there are a lot of different types of classes and many are only functional on certain quests or areas. For instance, you might finish one set of quests and move on to the next area and find out that you are completely ill equipped to fight there and must respec to survive. The random nature of diablo should mute the need for a large variety of classes and constant respecing(? my spelling sucks!)
'sans-serif'>Replayability is good! Easy respec is BAD! I feel that you should not be able to respec at all. Its works fine in D2...why fix it?
Ok...maybe bilzz gives everyone, in that class, one respec if they find a flaw or have to balance something.
That is fair.
wow! nice text there phunky:thumbsup:
but it shouldnt be like WoW. respecs shouldnt be that easy. i think it should be like one side-quest you can only do once per difficulty that rewards you a respec. or maybe a rare item that doesnt drop often. something like that.