I agree, I didn't like the way that the skill tree worked once you were on a higher level, but I don't think that they should add a WoW version of the skills either. And you have to consider that Blizzard is BIG on balancing classes with the diffictuly of the game. Just imagine if D2 skills were more like the WoW skill trees. It wouldn't even be a challenge when you got to the end of the game since you would be so powerful.
Well the enemy difficulty and stats can always be increased proportionally?
To mrdoom
Agreed with your take on skills. Some things in Diablo II are totally strange and unbalanced. There is so much stuff in the game that is never used...
Makes you wonder how much time, money, and effort was wasted coding and animating those useless skills.
If there is one thing that I hope Blizzard learned from WoW, it's that replacing old spells with whole new ones that are simply stronger versions of them (or that only have small differences) ruins the skill progression system, as it encourages players to not spend skills at low levels, so that they may max out higher level skills of the same type later. In fact, this can be said of the skill tree system in general, if one does not make all of the abilities useful at any point in the game.
Blizzard's answer was the synergy system, which gave bonuses to other spells if you had skill points in the previous ones. But this seems like a rough fix. And you still have some abilities that you wonder why they exist. You get Leap at level 6, and Leap Attack at level 18. Why would you continue to use leap after you get leap attack? It's not just a matter of putting points into ablities, it's about making them useful at all. The same goes for many of the sorceress spells.
Basically, I would like the d3 devs to try the WoW spell method. Actually, for a better analogy, let's think of Diablo abilities like units in Starcraft 2. They always stress that they are trying to make each unit a niche unit, so that none of them are worthless, and they aren't tiered so that some will become useless in the endgame. Can we not do this in Diablo? Can every skill not be a niche skill, with the potential to be used throughout the game?
For an example, let's say I'm playing a sorceress. I have chosen to focus mostly on the ice tree, and as such have three (four, if you count frozen orb) projectile ice attacks. However, they are, for the most part, the same. You should an ice projectile, and units take damage and are either frozen or slowed. Frozen orb is a little different, but still tends to fill the same role as the other 3.
Why not just have ONE projectile spell, and simply tune it so that if one invests skills in it, it will stay useful throughout the game?
If each skill is unique, and will remain useful to the player for as long as they choose to invest points in it (not saying every point goes to this skill, but one every few levels maybe), then suddenly you don't have to save skill points while lower level. You still make choices about what to invest in, but there are no duplicate skills, and every one can be used at high levels if you put enough points into it.
Also, the progression part, with certain skills required for certain others, would either require careful crafting or removal. It's a waste of skill points and no fun to have to invest a point in one ability just to get another. You can maybe require X number of points on the tree, or a point in x,y, or z, to be able to get this ability, but if you make it too specific you are likely to end up with people investing the minimum and ignoring the skill. If you don't want to use an ability, you should not have to put points in it.
I probably typed way too much detailing this issue and how I hope they change it in D3 (I noticed that the barb used leap, but it dealt damage like a leap attack, so I think--hope--that they are onto this) But I know that the most important thing to me in this newest sequel will be the classes' progression system, and it seems like it ruins the fun of playing a new character if you have to gimp early on just to be good later.
Yes, I would love more WoW in my Diablo 3, shutup and go with the the way it already is
Wtf are you insane? This was a widely accepted problem in D2. WoW has this particular feature down right. Who wouldn't want all of the skills to be useful in different situations throughout the whole game?
I say, if a skill will become useless after another skill just like it is available, then don't bother wasting your time coding and animating it so we can get diablo 3 sooner...
Cookie-cutter characters = lame
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Well the enemy difficulty and stats can always be increased proportionally?
Makes you wonder how much time, money, and effort was wasted coding and animating those useless skills.
+1 good post I agree with you 100%
Wtf are you insane? This was a widely accepted problem in D2. WoW has this particular feature down right. Who wouldn't want all of the skills to be useful in different situations throughout the whole game?
I say, if a skill will become useless after another skill just like it is available, then don't bother wasting your time coding and animating it so we can get diablo 3 sooner...
Cookie-cutter characters = lame