Last August we held a Diablo III press tour, and it was with a small group of fansites that I first revealed significant changes were still in store for the rune system. Since then, we’ve been hard at work on the rune and skill systems, and today we’d like to share details on the changes you’ll see in Beta patch 13. We’re confident that these changes will make Diablo III a better game, and to help illustrate why, I'll start with a high-level explanation of our goals for these systems as well as the feedback we were responding to in making these changes.
I'll start with the skill system. Our high-level goal with this system has always been to give players a great degree of power to customize their characters. We believe we accomplished that early on by abolishing skill trees and moving toward an open-ended system where skills, rune variants, and passives are chosen at-will by the player in a flexible customization system.
That goal and the system have been great successes, but the amount of customization we have available doesn’t mean anything if it’s not useful in combat situations. Combat depth is another one of our goals; Diablo III is designed to be a modern action game, built on the mantra of “easy to learn, difficult to master.” What that means for the player is picking a set of skills and abilities that work together, and then executing them in ways that lead to success: the wholesale slaughter of the demonic invasion. With that combat-depth goal in mind, we’ve been internally categorizing the skills since the inception of the system. Many of you could probably identify what these categories were if we asked, and some players have even mapped out what they are fairly accurately.
For every class we essentially created three common types of abilities, and then a handful of class-specific ability types. All classes have skills that fit into categories we call Primary Attack, Secondary Attack, and Defensive. Primary Attack skills are frequently used abilities that typically generate resources. Secondary Attacks are more powerful attacks that are limited in use through resource cost or cooldown. Defensive abilities are used to escape or control the flow of combat. Beyond that, classes have unique categories, like armor spells for the wizard or mantras for the monk. We used this methodology to help us design the classes and their skills, but we weren’t exposing this to the player despite the fact that these categories would give the player, like they did our own team, a better understanding of how the classes work.
One of our other goals is to ensure our game controls and interfaces are easy to use so that players spend their time trying to master game mechanics rather than fighting an interface. Giving players complete freedom to choose “anything” with no direction as to how our systems are intended to work was a failure in our design. There was also a detached relationship between the bottom-bar UI and the skill system. We have six skill slots, and six spots to put skills, but the two interfaces didn't really interact, and stocking abilities in your interface felt awkward.
To fix these issues, we focused on two core changes: (1) exposing the skill design intent by categorizing the skills and (2) linking skill selection directly to the bottom-bar UI to make assigning skills a clearer process. When viewing the skill screen, you’ll be presented with your six skill selection slots; each of these correspond directly to your bottom bar, and each will provide a specific list of skills from which to choose. By providing a clear-cut guide on how to best maximize your build potential, we hope to cover that “easy to learn” half of the mantra.
(A Nightmare-level monk choosing skills and runes from the specified categories)
You may already be fuming because you’re a “difficult to master” type of person, but before you run to the forums, we have you covered. In the Gameplay options, we’ve added an ‘Elective Mode’ for the skill system. With this checkbox ticked you’ll be able to place any skill in any skill slot, as freely as you could before. The Elective Mode option is available at any time with no requirements or need to unlock it. We hope the new, more guided interface will give you an in-game heads up as to the intent of each skill -- and maybe even be the way you play through the game in Normal -- but if you eventually have a build that simply can’t be accomplished the way we’ve laid things out, you’re free to pop on Elective Mode and take the skills you want.
(This screenshot depicts an 'Elective Mode' build made entirely of Primary and Secondary skills. Note that the skill slot names do not accurately reflect from which category a skill is selected in Elective Mode.)
While the skill system is largely unchanged save for some UI improvements and the helpful new (but optional) skill categories, we’ve been working to make some rather intense changes to the runestone system. Before we get too far, it’s probably best to clarify our terms: First, they’re now called skill runes, and they’re called skill runes because they’re no longer a physical item, but built directly into the skill system. Let’s back up, though, and go through some of the problems we were encountering and how this final design is intended to resolve those issues.
Our goal with the rune system has always been to provide additional character customization by allowing players to augment or completely alter their skills in new and significant ways. Originally, we tied this in to the itemization system because it felt like a good fit, as Diablo is all about the item drops. But with around 120 base skills, that meant there were around 600 rune variants; on top of that, each variant had five quality levels each, meaning ultimately there would be something like 3,000 different runes in the game… and we knew we were heading toward a problem.
Diablo is certainly about the items, but later in the game, having to juggle all of those various runes was not only un-fun, it was a serious and tedious inventory problem. We went through a number of different iterations, some of which we fully implemented and tested, to try to solve these fundamental issues while still keeping the customization intact. Ultimately we developed, implemented, and have been playing and testing a new system which we’re confident hits all of the desired mechanics and solves all of the related issues – and that’s what I’m going to talk about today and what you’ll see in Beta patch 13.
(A mid-20's demon hunter choosing a skill and its rune variant)
With the new skill rune system, you’ll be unlocking new skills as you level up just like you always have… but in addition you’ll also be unlocking skill runes. Now, when you open the skill window, you’ll choose which skills you want in which slots, the skill rune variants you’d like, and your passives. All of this is done directly through the UI, and all of the options from the skill, skill rune, and passive systems are unlocked through character leveling progression, leading to a cleaner overall integration of these systems. Just as we set different skills to unlock at specific levels, skill rune choices unlock at different levels as well.
Another thing we strive for in our games is “concentrated coolness,” and while rune quality levels made sense when we were attempting to itemize them throughout the game, they make far less sense as runes are unlocked through the UI. We didn’t want to get back into a situation where you’re clicking a button to pump points into skills. It’s far more concentrated (and cool) when your rune choices have a single and powerful benefit to your skill choice. The new skill rune system does not have ranks, and we’ve instead made each around the equivalent to what the rank 4 or 5 rune was previously. One click, you make your rune choice, and you get an explosive benefit to that skill. That feels a lot cooler.
Runes have been by far the biggest design hurdle we’ve had in the game, and as you know we’ve been continually iterating on them. We fully expect that some of you will be disappointed that runes won’t be part of the itemization system. Internally, it took us a long time to let go of that notion too and stop trying to force them into being items, and instead embrace the intent of the system. Integrating runes with the skill system directly gave us a bunch of great benefits, and even without runes we’re launching with more item types than Diablo II had. We knew we were making the right choice by letting go of runes as items and focusing on the core objective of the system: to customize your skills in awesome ways.
Before I wrap up, I did want to cover that one of the added benefits of the new system is that you’ll be unlocking something every level all the way up to the level cap (60). Now, with each level you’ll unlock at least one new skill or rune, and in most cases you’ll be unlocking three or four. The most immediately exciting part of that system is that skill runes begin unlocking at level 6, which means that players in the beta test will finally be able to play around with some rune variants.
(The above image depicts a potential level 13 witch doctor build in beta with skill rune choices)
Phew. Well, there you have it -- the new skill and rune systems! We strongly believe that these changes are going to make for a better Diablo III, and we’re looking forward to you trying it out in patch 13, which should be live any minute now (if it isn’t already). As always, we’d love to hear your feedback on your experiences with these changes. To help center the conversation on these changes to a single location, we’re going to lock comments on this blog and encourage you to post in a thread we’re specifically making to discuss this: Skill and Rune Changes Discussion.
Thanks for reading.
Jay Wilson is Game Director for Diablo III and won first place in the team’s chili cook-off competition. Recipe available upon request.
I was really worried when the rumors about "assigned" skill slots were going to be a big change. Elective mode is great news on that front. I'm glad I won't be forced to choose certain skills in certain slots.
As for the runestones. Part of me really loved the idea of the rare hunt for the perfect runestone. I will miss that part but Jay brings up some logical points with inventory management. It's sad to see a really cool part of the game cut, but the changes make sense. Can't wait to give it a shot in the beta!
I like that they're tied in now and the cleaning up of the deadzone... but yeah the fact we get them automatically seems too easymode? No reason to use the original ability almost lol.
Not sure what to say, they are right that with the old rune system there would be so many runestones to collect just to cover all effects of your abilities and the randomness of it all. So i guess this ain't a bad change after reading what he had to say about it.
What they should have done and keep these changes but instead of unlocking as you level, make "skill runes" books or scrolls, with ranks that once use are permanent to your characters skills.
This way you still have the hunting for runes factor, you have no inventory issues because the items are 1 time uses, you still keep ranks on runes etc.
Also can I change my "rune" selection or is it permanent?
Please please please god make it permanent.
It sure isn't, if it would then "trying" a new rune would be impossible since it would be permanent. Anyway they mentioned long time ago that customization would be possible as long as you wish to.
I hate to be this guy but I don't see any other way to take this other than further dumbing down of the game and it's systems. Yes it may be a shitfest to collect X amount of runes, but that's sort of just the way it is. I was fine with it collecting runes and gems in D2, and I was looking forward to it in D3. Maybe it's my IRL hoarding tendency but it adds more value to have a lot, and have to make choices about what to grab and carry when inventory space becomes an issue. I think a big thing they are missing is that though these things may seem overbearing and menial, even these incremental ups and and benefits will do wonders for your psyche. IE, going from a level 6 skill rune to a level 7 will FEEL like a big improvement even if it may not actually be one. The thing I feel blizzard neglects often is to take into account the psychology of their players. They keep catering to new and inexperienced players, but inevitably ALL new players will become experienced players, experienced players never revert to being new.
"Our goal with the rune system has always been to provide additional character customization by allowing players to augment or completely alter their skills in new and significant ways. Originally, we tied this in to the itemization system because it felt like a good fit, as Diablo is all about the item drops. But with around 120 base skills, that meant there were around 600 rune variants; on top of that, each variant had five quality levels each, meaning ultimately there would be something like 3,000 different runes in the game… and we knew we were heading toward a problem."
Great, so now there is really no point to a rune system at all -- why not just remove runes all together and put new skills that work the exact same with the same names as the rune abilities in their place? It would be the exact same thing. Seriously, playing Diablo 3 where your class gets 20-some skills to choose from, each with 5 different extensions to those skills (~100 choices for those who aren't fond of math) is NO DIFFERENT than playing a game with a class that has 100-some skills to choose from...NO DIFFERENT. Granted this still leaves room for a lot of customization on the players part, but this ultimately feeds into people saying "Oh this build is by far the most effective. Let me swap my skills runes so I can match it!" instead of them saying, "Man, I wish I had that rune so I could be that badass!". To me, this is another change that rewards casual gamers...another kick in the teeth for those hardcore or elite types.
Seems that every time blizzard encounters a problem they take the easy road as of late. Their motto is quickly becoming, "If it presents a problem, dumb it down!"
To me, the game will still be enjoyable...just less rewarding.
Edit: Also, this seems to pretty much eliminate the point of using a skill as it were, without any rune. Why not just take those skills out and just use the 80-90 remaining "skill runes" as the skills to choose from? Makes sense, right?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing a Wizard. Looking for Demon Hunters to play with.
Like I mentionned in the news comment, I'm very surprised that it took them so much time to come to this system. I mean, it was obvious that it would end up to be like this. Having to find around 3000 items to be able to try every possible skill would've been a dated mechanic. Maybe not if Diablo had not such a huge "potential" player base, but since Diablo is not for "hardcore" gamers only it was clear they were gonna make it that way.
Anyway, I'm happy that they confirmed it'll be the system I thought it should've been.
.... Snowhammer... about 8 months ago when they announced abolition of the skill point, I freaked. You then successfully calmed me down and explained how the requirement to find & select runes will be the backbone of new character customization....
Please help me see the positive in this change...
It seems to me that with this change, gear is the only way to progress you character after having hit the level cap.
Show me the light at the end of the tunnel, please!!
Wow.. I remeber that tekk.
I'll work on it.. but I'm a bit dumb founded at the moment
At least theres :
An option to permanently enable Advanced Tooltips has been added to the Gameplay Options
Funny is that now every lvl 60 class will be copy pasted since you can repick skills anytime (correct me if i`m mistaken), like now your a whirlwind barb after 2 min your a trowing axe build lol.
I don`t know hard choices made you think before you act, this way you don`t care at all its not like its permanent feels stupid and super casual.
This has been so for a while and this is seriously the wrong topic to be whining about this.
@leonx i think they have added things to balance the loss of all those things remember that they increased the number of item types the character can wear ie shoulder and arm guards. The addition of artisans and crafting i think makes up for runewords because you'll be able to craft unique stuff. For me I think its enough, jewels and runewords were cool but I'd rather have the crafting element. I always felt charms were cheap and hated the space in my inventory being taken up with them, I'd much rather have more armor parts to play with, stuff that changes the look of my character not just the stat boost. Im happy with it, now i just want to get lucky and snag a beta so i can take the edge off before the release...
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The skill and rune article we have been waiting for has just been posted!
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Last August we held a Diablo III press tour, and it was with a small group of fansites that I first revealed significant changes were still in store for the rune system. Since then, we’ve been hard at work on the rune and skill systems, and today we’d like to share details on the changes you’ll see in Beta patch 13. We’re confident that these changes will make Diablo III a better game, and to help illustrate why, I'll start with a high-level explanation of our goals for these systems as well as the feedback we were responding to in making these changes.
I'll start with the skill system. Our high-level goal with this system has always been to give players a great degree of power to customize their characters. We believe we accomplished that early on by abolishing skill trees and moving toward an open-ended system where skills, rune variants, and passives are chosen at-will by the player in a flexible customization system.
That goal and the system have been great successes, but the amount of customization we have available doesn’t mean anything if it’s not useful in combat situations. Combat depth is another one of our goals; Diablo III is designed to be a modern action game, built on the mantra of “easy to learn, difficult to master.” What that means for the player is picking a set of skills and abilities that work together, and then executing them in ways that lead to success: the wholesale slaughter of the demonic invasion. With that combat-depth goal in mind, we’ve been internally categorizing the skills since the inception of the system. Many of you could probably identify what these categories were if we asked, and some players have even mapped out what they are fairly accurately.
For every class we essentially created three common types of abilities, and then a handful of class-specific ability types. All classes have skills that fit into categories we call Primary Attack, Secondary Attack, and Defensive. Primary Attack skills are frequently used abilities that typically generate resources. Secondary Attacks are more powerful attacks that are limited in use through resource cost or cooldown. Defensive abilities are used to escape or control the flow of combat. Beyond that, classes have unique categories, like armor spells for the wizard or mantras for the monk. We used this methodology to help us design the classes and their skills, but we weren’t exposing this to the player despite the fact that these categories would give the player, like they did our own team, a better understanding of how the classes work.
One of our other goals is to ensure our game controls and interfaces are easy to use so that players spend their time trying to master game mechanics rather than fighting an interface. Giving players complete freedom to choose “anything” with no direction as to how our systems are intended to work was a failure in our design. There was also a detached relationship between the bottom-bar UI and the skill system. We have six skill slots, and six spots to put skills, but the two interfaces didn't really interact, and stocking abilities in your interface felt awkward.
To fix these issues, we focused on two core changes: (1) exposing the skill design intent by categorizing the skills and (2) linking skill selection directly to the bottom-bar UI to make assigning skills a clearer process. When viewing the skill screen, you’ll be presented with your six skill selection slots; each of these correspond directly to your bottom bar, and each will provide a specific list of skills from which to choose. By providing a clear-cut guide on how to best maximize your build potential, we hope to cover that “easy to learn” half of the mantra.
(A Nightmare-level monk choosing skills and runes from the specified categories)
You may already be fuming because you’re a “difficult to master” type of person, but before you run to the forums, we have you covered. In the Gameplay options, we’ve added an ‘Elective Mode’ for the skill system. With this checkbox ticked you’ll be able to place any skill in any skill slot, as freely as you could before. The Elective Mode option is available at any time with no requirements or need to unlock it. We hope the new, more guided interface will give you an in-game heads up as to the intent of each skill -- and maybe even be the way you play through the game in Normal -- but if you eventually have a build that simply can’t be accomplished the way we’ve laid things out, you’re free to pop on Elective Mode and take the skills you want.
(This screenshot depicts an 'Elective Mode' build made entirely of Primary and Secondary skills. Note that the skill slot names do not accurately reflect from which category a skill is selected in Elective Mode.)
While the skill system is largely unchanged save for some UI improvements and the helpful new (but optional) skill categories, we’ve been working to make some rather intense changes to the runestone system. Before we get too far, it’s probably best to clarify our terms: First, they’re now called skill runes, and they’re called skill runes because they’re no longer a physical item, but built directly into the skill system. Let’s back up, though, and go through some of the problems we were encountering and how this final design is intended to resolve those issues.
Our goal with the rune system has always been to provide additional character customization by allowing players to augment or completely alter their skills in new and significant ways. Originally, we tied this in to the itemization system because it felt like a good fit, as Diablo is all about the item drops. But with around 120 base skills, that meant there were around 600 rune variants; on top of that, each variant had five quality levels each, meaning ultimately there would be something like 3,000 different runes in the game… and we knew we were heading toward a problem.
Diablo is certainly about the items, but later in the game, having to juggle all of those various runes was not only un-fun, it was a serious and tedious inventory problem. We went through a number of different iterations, some of which we fully implemented and tested, to try to solve these fundamental issues while still keeping the customization intact. Ultimately we developed, implemented, and have been playing and testing a new system which we’re confident hits all of the desired mechanics and solves all of the related issues – and that’s what I’m going to talk about today and what you’ll see in Beta patch 13.
(A mid-20's demon hunter choosing a skill and its rune variant)
With the new skill rune system, you’ll be unlocking new skills as you level up just like you always have… but in addition you’ll also be unlocking skill runes. Now, when you open the skill window, you’ll choose which skills you want in which slots, the skill rune variants you’d like, and your passives. All of this is done directly through the UI, and all of the options from the skill, skill rune, and passive systems are unlocked through character leveling progression, leading to a cleaner overall integration of these systems. Just as we set different skills to unlock at specific levels, skill rune choices unlock at different levels as well.
Another thing we strive for in our games is “concentrated coolness,” and while rune quality levels made sense when we were attempting to itemize them throughout the game, they make far less sense as runes are unlocked through the UI. We didn’t want to get back into a situation where you’re clicking a button to pump points into skills. It’s far more concentrated (and cool) when your rune choices have a single and powerful benefit to your skill choice. The new skill rune system does not have ranks, and we’ve instead made each around the equivalent to what the rank 4 or 5 rune was previously. One click, you make your rune choice, and you get an explosive benefit to that skill. That feels a lot cooler.
Runes have been by far the biggest design hurdle we’ve had in the game, and as you know we’ve been continually iterating on them. We fully expect that some of you will be disappointed that runes won’t be part of the itemization system. Internally, it took us a long time to let go of that notion too and stop trying to force them into being items, and instead embrace the intent of the system. Integrating runes with the skill system directly gave us a bunch of great benefits, and even without runes we’re launching with more item types than Diablo II had. We knew we were making the right choice by letting go of runes as items and focusing on the core objective of the system: to customize your skills in awesome ways.
Before I wrap up, I did want to cover that one of the added benefits of the new system is that you’ll be unlocking something every level all the way up to the level cap (60). Now, with each level you’ll unlock at least one new skill or rune, and in most cases you’ll be unlocking three or four. The most immediately exciting part of that system is that skill runes begin unlocking at level 6, which means that players in the beta test will finally be able to play around with some rune variants.
(The above image depicts a potential level 13 witch doctor build in beta with skill rune choices)
Phew. Well, there you have it -- the new skill and rune systems! We strongly believe that these changes are going to make for a better Diablo III, and we’re looking forward to you trying it out in patch 13, which should be live any minute now (if it isn’t already). As always, we’d love to hear your feedback on your experiences with these changes. To help center the conversation on these changes to a single location, we’re going to lock comments on this blog and encourage you to post in a thread we’re specifically making to discuss this: Skill and Rune Changes Discussion.
Thanks for reading.
Jay Wilson is Game Director for Diablo III and won first place in the team’s chili cook-off competition. Recipe available upon request.
Now bring those servers up so I can play a new DH until the wee hours of the morning trying out the skill runes!
Don't get me wrong I'm fine with the new "system" but I really really liked the idea of runes being physical items.
As for the runestones. Part of me really loved the idea of the rare hunt for the perfect runestone. I will miss that part but Jay brings up some logical points with inventory management. It's sad to see a really cool part of the game cut, but the changes make sense. Can't wait to give it a shot in the beta!
Please please please god make it permanent.
D3 Channel: OnetwoD3
This way you still have the hunting for runes factor, you have no inventory issues because the items are 1 time uses, you still keep ranks on runes etc.
It sure isn't, if it would then "trying" a new rune would be impossible since it would be permanent. Anyway they mentioned long time ago that customization would be possible as long as you wish to.
"Our goal with the rune system has always been to provide additional character customization by allowing players to augment or completely alter their skills in new and significant ways. Originally, we tied this in to the itemization system because it felt like a good fit, as Diablo is all about the item drops. But with around 120 base skills, that meant there were around 600 rune variants; on top of that, each variant had five quality levels each, meaning ultimately there would be something like 3,000 different runes in the game… and we knew we were heading toward a problem."
Great, so now there is really no point to a rune system at all -- why not just remove runes all together and put new skills that work the exact same with the same names as the rune abilities in their place? It would be the exact same thing. Seriously, playing Diablo 3 where your class gets 20-some skills to choose from, each with 5 different extensions to those skills (~100 choices for those who aren't fond of math) is NO DIFFERENT than playing a game with a class that has 100-some skills to choose from...NO DIFFERENT. Granted this still leaves room for a lot of customization on the players part, but this ultimately feeds into people saying "Oh this build is by far the most effective. Let me swap my skills runes so I can match it!" instead of them saying, "Man, I wish I had that rune so I could be that badass!". To me, this is another change that rewards casual gamers...another kick in the teeth for those hardcore or elite types.
Seems that every time blizzard encounters a problem they take the easy road as of late. Their motto is quickly becoming, "If it presents a problem, dumb it down!"
To me, the game will still be enjoyable...just less rewarding.
Edit: Also, this seems to pretty much eliminate the point of using a skill as it were, without any rune. Why not just take those skills out and just use the 80-90 remaining "skill runes" as the skills to choose from? Makes sense, right?
Anyway, I'm happy that they confirmed it'll be the system I thought it should've been.
Thats quite a bummer.
Wow.. I remeber that tekk.
I'll work on it.. but I'm a bit dumb founded at the moment
At least theres :
This has been so for a while and this is seriously the wrong topic to be whining about this.
Battle.net Profile / Diablo Progress Profile
Tbh, I pretty much hope they delay the game a year at this point to try something better.
It seems like they try to fix some relatively small issues by making some bigger issues instead.