I mean, not when you are in town, that is instantly changed, but when you are fighting out there. Why is the CD so damn long?, you already lost your NV, so, what is the reason?, it's just another way of Blizzard saysing to us: "oh, and you also have to wait a shit ton of time plus you lose your NV :trollface:" ?
There's no NV below 60 and they don't want people changing skills every other fight.
They don't give a shit about that, only a small minority of the players do. They just don't want people to play with the spellbook open, and rotate cooldown abilities.
Losing NV at 60 for the most part takes care of it, but not completely. Going to town isn't that big of a deal really.
There's no NV below 60 and they don't want people changing skills every other fight.
They don't give a shit about that, only a small minority of the players do. They just don't want people to play with the spellbook open, and rotate cooldown abilities.
Losing NV at 60 for the most part takes care of it, but not completely. Going to town isn't that big of a deal really.
Actually, I'd be extremely surprised if Blizzard didn't care about leveling. It's specifically the fans who don't bother leveling again that don't care. While that's probably the vast majority of softcore players, my guess is a lot of hardcore players actually care about that.
Also, the delay was there before NV (I think), so it was probably to prevent people from swapping skills to deal with specific monsters. They probably left it in because they DO care about the 1 to 59 game, even if some people don't.
There's no NV below 60 and they don't want people changing skills every other fight.
They don't give a shit about that, only a small minority of the players do. They just don't want people to play with the spellbook open, and rotate cooldown abilities.
Losing NV at 60 for the most part takes care of it, but not completely. Going to town isn't that big of a deal really.
Actually, I'd be extremely surprised if Blizzard didn't care about leveling. It's specifically the fans who don't bother leveling again that don't care. While that's probably the vast majority of softcore players, my guess is a lot of hardcore players actually care about that.
Also, the delay was there before NV (I think), so it was probably to prevent people from swapping skills to deal with specific monsters. They probably left it in because they DO care about the 1 to 59 game, even if some people don't.
I didn't say they didn't care about leveling. I said they didn't care about players changing skills every fight. That was merely a player concern amongst a small minority. Hell at low levels you can change skills outside of town with only a CD of a few seconds.
Also, the delay was there before NV (I think), so it was probably to prevent people from swapping skills to deal with specific monsters. They probably left it in because they DO care about the 1 to 59 game, even if some people don't.
Back in the beta, there was no cooldown at first, however people quickly realized you could just play with the skill menu open, making all spells available at all times. Then they added the cooldown, and shortly afterwards the NV system was announced. So, as stated before, the cooldown is mainly to prevent constant skill swapping for players below level 60 or players who do not care about NV. For some specific runs, it would even kind of make sense, for example Vault of the Assassins runs, where you don't keep your stacks for too long anyway and essences drop independently from NV. If there was no cooldown, I would probably switch between movement skills and damage skills all the time for these runs.
No CD means I make my keyboard macro to instantly switch my spender depending if I want AOE or single target, or if say I'm playing a wizard and I feel like hitting my instant macro to quickly switch a skill to frost nova then back.
It's actually a good system, enough so that I personally think the NV removing penalty could be taken out, because having to stop and teleport to town is enough that I'd rather keep my build.
The intent is that by the time you're 60 you have figured out what skills you want to use. They don't want people changing skills frequently during a farm run. Instead, the idea of being able to change your skills in town is meant to allow people to try multiple builds without having to completely relevel a character. They still intend you to use that build for the entire farm run.
Both mechanics enforce this idea and both are fine. The NV loss is so you keep your skills for the entire run. The CD when changing skills is because you shouldn't be changing skills "on the fly". If you need to change your skills, just teleport to town, because you shouldn't be changing skills in the middle of runs and the middle of zones anyway.
When it's portaling vs. a 15 second cooldown, it's fair and makes sense. But 2 minutes? You might as well lock players from changing out of town entirely so they don't inadvertently screw themselves.
The CD is there for a reason. Be glad it's not like D2 was for years (not that it was all bad!), you started a char, leveled it up, the skills and stats were locked, you couldn't change them - at all. You'd spend a lot of time leveling to say.. 95 and then you figure out you'd like your character to have some different skillset. What do you do? - You start a new character of course : -) those were the days.
I don't think anybody that leveled to 95 during those times was completely oblivious to the fact that you CANNOT change your skills at any point. I realized it in my 40s. Wasn't such a big deal.
Exactly, what I think is redundant is having both punishment at the same time. Keep one.
lol....the CD is not a punitive measure. It's a preventative measure. Very different intents.
It just feels "cheap" for a player to be able to switch to any skill-set on-demand without impediment. Where this could be most grossly abused is in single player, with the game paused, you can manipulate your skills leisurely to battle whatever affixes that come against you.
What happens if players aren't discouraged from doing this is; Players feel forced to switch skills on-the-fly, even though doing so is clumsy and irritating.
Much like MF switching before the Para lvls and MP, people are forced to play to the games exploits.
It's there because otherwise people will almost certainly find at least one build for one class that can abuse in-combat skill swapping so badly that it makes up for the loss of NV.
The main reason is it's an "old" mechainic left over from Beta that was the last of 3 or 4 iterations when they were trying to tackle abuse of swapping abilities on the fly. The long cool down was also there to force you back to town to "Break" from the action as Jay put it back then and sell stuf.
Out dated mechanic for NV is a much stronger force in not switching your skills now, also annoying that they still have not given a skill lock in thou of this too.
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Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
They don't give a shit about that, only a small minority of the players do. They just don't want people to play with the spellbook open, and rotate cooldown abilities.
Losing NV at 60 for the most part takes care of it, but not completely. Going to town isn't that big of a deal really.
Actually, I'd be extremely surprised if Blizzard didn't care about leveling. It's specifically the fans who don't bother leveling again that don't care. While that's probably the vast majority of softcore players, my guess is a lot of hardcore players actually care about that.
Also, the delay was there before NV (I think), so it was probably to prevent people from swapping skills to deal with specific monsters. They probably left it in because they DO care about the 1 to 59 game, even if some people don't.
I didn't say they didn't care about leveling. I said they didn't care about players changing skills every fight. That was merely a player concern amongst a small minority. Hell at low levels you can change skills outside of town with only a CD of a few seconds.
Yup this..
It's actually a good system, enough so that I personally think the NV removing penalty could be taken out, because having to stop and teleport to town is enough that I'd rather keep my build.
Both mechanics enforce this idea and both are fine. The NV loss is so you keep your skills for the entire run. The CD when changing skills is because you shouldn't be changing skills "on the fly". If you need to change your skills, just teleport to town, because you shouldn't be changing skills in the middle of runs and the middle of zones anyway.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
I'm not sure people really grasp this.
Cooldowns on swapping skills in combat:
Normal: 5 seconds
Nightmare: 10 seconds
Hell: 15 seconds
Inferno: 2 minutes
When it's portaling vs. a 15 second cooldown, it's fair and makes sense. But 2 minutes? You might as well lock players from changing out of town entirely so they don't inadvertently screw themselves.
I don't think anybody that leveled to 95 during those times was completely oblivious to the fact that you CANNOT change your skills at any point. I realized it in my 40s. Wasn't such a big deal.
There is no keep one, you have to have the CD outside of town to prevent exploiting like Bleu described, even if its just for leveling.
NV penalty cant be either, as you but don't want people to switch skills every time you come to an elite pack.
Full AoE build
Elite pack - port.
Get CDs and what not
Kill
Port back
....
Trust me this would happen. This was my build strategy from day one when they released the skills.
They are both there because they need to be.
lol....the CD is not a punitive measure. It's a preventative measure. Very different intents.
It just feels "cheap" for a player to be able to switch to any skill-set on-demand without impediment. Where this could be most grossly abused is in single player, with the game paused, you can manipulate your skills leisurely to battle whatever affixes that come against you.
What happens if players aren't discouraged from doing this is; Players feel forced to switch skills on-the-fly, even though doing so is clumsy and irritating.
Much like MF switching before the Para lvls and MP, people are forced to play to the games exploits.
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Second post in and still the most accurate and to the point response as to why there is a cool down for changing spells.
Out dated mechanic for NV is a much stronger force in not switching your skills now, also annoying that they still have not given a skill lock in thou of this too.