DiabloFans

If everybody gets his/her mother to 'Like' Diablo, we might get to 1 million.

Everything seems to be or soon to be at final stage. A beta in a few months doesn't seem too far fetched.

And this

Quote from "Dimebog" »

Kenzai, you have bleached my brain with 500 posts repeating the exact same invalid argument based on your taste, and comparing D3 with D2 and WoW, further based on ONE pair of pauldrons displayed in the trailer. If it is really that bothersome then please, avoid using that piece of armour if it ever happens to drop for you, and then both you will be happy and we can have a rest.

Since you seem to always be ready and eager to smite everyone with your infallible wisdom which proves that only your opinion matters and everyone else is wrong, can you please answer this: why exactly does D3 need to have realistic armour, or comfortable armour or whatever your argument was actually since it doesn't seem to make any sense. But whatever it is, why exactly does it have to be like that? Just don't bring up D2 or WoW since that's completely beside the point.

Then I'd like you to ask yourself this: why are you continuing to go on? What drives you?

a) Satisfaction from proving to everyone that they are wrong and you are right
Trying to make a difference (which you already know you can't)
c) It helps you loose tension by expressing your dissatisfaction on everyday basis to no end

I am really fascinated and would like to know.

I note this and I will shout some insult at you when they show more screenshot of shoulderpads and more pieces of armor with huge shoulderpads.

Quote from "Luckmann" »

Jumpy, much? It was more of a sarcastic remark than an insult, but sure, if you want to feel insulted, feel free to take your victimology and shove it where the sun doesn't shine.

I stopped reading there, enjoy writing your post for nothing. I am now adding you to my ignore list too, good stuff.

The bad news is that everything "news" about the beta was covered during the Friends and Family testing period, before we were even allowed in. The good news is that I finally had the time to sit down and write about my experiences playing with the Wizard, the casting archetype of Diablo III. Along the way, we'll explore some interesting aspects of this decade's iteration of the series, up to the epic battle with the Skeleton King and including skills ranging from the powerful to the mundane.

Disclaimer: If you decide to read further than this line, you accept that I may divulge certain bits of information that some may view as spoilers. Beyond this line, I will make no effort, whatsoever, to hide this information, since that is counterproductive to the intent of an informative article.

The beginning has always carried a certain sentimental value to me as a Diablo player. Your character wanders onto the screen, wearing naught but minimum grade armor, a crappy weapon, and a single skill. It's only up from here!

Not much has changed in that regard except, perhaps, that our characters now have motives. Yes, my friends, our heroes have reasons to be where they are! Hoping to find the Fallen Star that landed in the ruins of Old Tristram, my male Wizard strode boldly down the path towards New Tristram, with nothing but Magic Missile and Frost Nova (Diablo III) at his disposal, ready to take on the hordes of the Undead and the legions of the Burning Hells. How very bold of him.

One of the cooler changes from Diablo III's predecessors is that it's not long before you're in the heat of battle. My Wizard took not ten steps before a Risen appeared, feasting on a festering pile of human carrion (take that you Diablo-III-isn't-gory-enough crazies!). Body parts flew in majestic arcs through the night air as I slammed the unwitting zombie with Magic Missile, trailing the purple light indicative of arcane-elemental spells. Before I had entered the village proper, a veritable pile of the Undead was mounded before the gate. Diablo magic, I'd say.

Here I would like to note something of ghastly interest: Frequently enough, the Risen, as their name implies, rise again after they are slaughtered. Crawling forward with bloodthirsty intent, they drag their abdomens through the earth as their severed spines leak out vital fluids, nearing the unaware adventurer handhold by handhold. Moral of the story: When you kill a zombie, make sure it's dead.

News of the dead rising from their graves has not made every denizen of Sanctuary hop out of bed in the middle of the night and sprint out the door with an axe at the ready. Entering the village of Old Tristram, another neat new feature of Diablo III comes to light: Brother Malachi the Healer, a pious, fire-and-brimstone preaching ex-zealot of the Zakarum faith, is already screaming damnation for the world before I even had the presence of mind to click on him.

Gossip in the game manifests itself in two primary mediums: the player opting for various discussion topics when interfacing an NPC, much like in the older games, and when passing NPC's. Some even have discussions with each other. While not necessarily a breakthrough in storytelling (games have had this kind of thing for years), it is new to the series and adds a certain level of authenticity to the social vibe.

Reaching town center, a welcome design change is present: no more wandering all over creation trying to find that accursed waypoint! ( Kurast Docks, anyone?) Located in scenic downtown New Tristram, the waypoint is surrounded by all the most useful features of the fledgling village: the Blacksmith, a merchant to the upper right (not pictured), the location to hire your hireling, the entrance to the tavern (whose proprietor peddles potions and other odds and ends), and, eventually, the man himself: Deckard Cain.

The waypoint interface is also more useful, if somewhat cluttered. Collapsible menus now offer categorized destinations, as well as recent destinations. And, if you for some reason can't read your location off your mini-map in the upper right-hand corner of your screen, it even tells you where you are! Nifty.

But not all the action is outside. Indeed, one of the great new aspects of Diablo III that, in my opinion, is a bit down-played is that you can actually go inside multiple structures in towns, with even more NPC's to interact with. While in Diablo II this was evidenced rather minimally, in Diablo III we see full-blown quest points and NPC interaction. The moment my Wizard walked into the inn, the injured gathered there immediately began to rise as the Undead. Leah and myself had to jump into the fray to smooth the situation over. These aren't simply buildings with their roofs fading away, as we saw in Diablo II, but entire new mini-dungeons stuffed with homeliness and NPC goodies. In New Tristram, enterable buildings include the Slaughtered Calf Inn and Deckard Cain's home.

Nearly all of the NPC's in New Tristram share one trait that makes them an improvement over the previous games: they don't just stand there all day waiting to give out a quest to whatever lucky adventurer wanders along the road. One can only wonder how much smithing Griswold actually did.

But enough of New Tristram. What about the rest of the game?

Despite all the cool things there are to take in when visiting the barely-hanging-on village of New Tristram, I was sent on my way nearly the instant I walked into the Slaughtered Calf Inn. Zombie syndrome seemed to spread like a disease, even among those in the village, and one impromptu battle later I was on my way from the inn and down the eerie Old Tristram Road. Murders of crows flapping dramatically off into the night? Check. Creaking wagon wheels moving all on their own? Check. Ruined homes with a murderous history? Check.

And some of them have nice little dungeons underneath. Oh, and Blizzard wasn't kidding when they said their random dungeons would be cool.


I must have been through ten random dungeons (sorry folks, I have other time commitments, too) in my various play-throughs of the beta, and each time they feel new and exciting. Entering one Musty Cellar below the ghostly ruins of an old farm home, I see a Quill Fiend poking around near the steps. Approaching it, and readying my Wizard to blast it to Hells with my l33t Adventuring Oak Wand of the Oracle, the little critters scuttled off into the darkness. I ran after him, spamming all kinds of flashy stuff, wondering where the rest of the monsters were, until the little guy scurried under a pile of debris in the center of a room down a hall.

The junk exploded and out poured the entire mob of the dungeon in one instant. Quill Fiends ran everywhere, doing that thing they do (shooting quills, if you haven't figured that part out yet.) One Frost Nova and a quick recovery later, I realized that the @#$%er had tricked me into following him to a whole nest of ravenous, twitchy little scoundrels.

Of course, there are other variations of the dungeon. Several times, my Wizard entered one such cellar, openly wondering where all the loot was. Rounding a corner, I saw that the Quill Fiends--those fiends!--had already broken open my chest and sacked the place. However, killing their leader dropped the loot that would have generated in the chest. And it gave me a sense of accomplishment. Two birds with one stone.

Further along the Old Tristram Road, zombie hordes were made even more annoying (but awesome, since zombies are awesome) with the addition of Wretched Mothers. These puketastic baddies seem to be stuck on a perpetual hangover, vomiting their guts out--maybe in a literal sense. Not only is it disgusting, but the vomitus propagates another zombie. Until the Wretched Mother is killed, the process continues. TLDR: Kill the Wretched Mother first and save yourself some time and effort.

A few dead (well, re-dead) Wretched Mothers later, I was heading out with Leah in pursuit of her mother's old hut. Yes, Diablo I's witch, Adria, returns. Or at least her house does. And she's got a nice little piece of real estate out in that forsaken sixteenth of an acre of no-man's land. But one of the coolest things about this encounter is that Leah follows you, chats with you, kills monsters with you, and interacts with game world objects. Some of the Wizard's characteristic scholarly mindset sparks up here and other places. It's amazing how fixated the guy is on the Fallen Star.

The journey from here on out is something of a trip down memory lane.


Ah, the Cathedral, how I've missed thee! Kael Rills is long gone, of course, and I do miss the blood-red light knifing through the dark. But maybe the deceptive serenity surrounding the Cathedral is what makes it most unsettling. Its depths are anything but serene.

The Fallen Star finally makes its reappearance. In its wake, it's left a tell-tale trail of otherwordly blue flames and a crater big enough to stuff over nine thousand McDonald's regulars. The journey down the old Horadrim bastion is crawling with the Undead. Ravenous Dead prowl the halls, often in groups. Carrion Bats stalk in clouds, swarming my Wizard with their annoying little zaps (reminiscent of Diablo II's Bat Demon (Diablo II)s.) And, of course, the Grotesque (Diablo III).

While not particularly the most dangerous of enemies, the Grotesque sported a few elements that might prove tricky, especially in later difficulties: a reasonably large amount of health, a corpse explosion guaranteed on death, and a mobile army inside its stomach. Okay, a handful of killer Lampreys (eels) wasn't really that dangerous, either, but it was just freakin' weird. Later in the game, the Grotesque was more likely to expel a number of Imps, though these, for the most part, ran off in random directions until I sniped them down with Electrocute.


Eventually--inevitably--Cain popped up. Uncle Deckard had decided to go dumpster diving in the Cathedral for some esoteric lore in his never-ending battle against the forces of the Burning Hells. What a harmless idea.

Cain's addition to the mix brings another cool feature with Diablo III's take on story-telling: NPC's that talk with each other. Back in town, Cain and Leah catch up on old times: doomsday prophecy, demonic lore, the usual. Their interaction occasionally mixed in the haughty attitude of the Wizard. Were any other character to be the hero in the discussion, he, too, would add his character's flavor to the discussion.

But Diablo III isn't all idle chatter and zombie pounding. The climax of the beta culminates in the battle with the Skeleton King, a point which Bashiok has specified as a third of the way through the first act.

While the battle was not really that difficult (this is, basically, "easy" mode for testing purposes), King Leoric's ghostly remains had a few tricks up its sleeves.


The battle is initiated by clicking on the King. I started every battle by popping a few Diablo III Potions to boost my resistances, attack, and defense. The buffs are minimal and last only several minutes, but every little bit helped.

Leoric has three primary modes: a whirlwind attack similar to the Barbarian crossed with a I-don't-know-how-to-swing-my-weapon frenzy mode, a teleportation spell, and a simple swing attack with his massive mace. Periodically, he disappears from the fray, leaving a rabble of Undead minions in his wake. Of particular use during the skeleton waves was the Wizard's Wave of Force.

Wave of Force works great in mobs due to its large area of effect and massive knockback. The damage isn't bad, either, often decimating low-level mobs in a single hit. For my purposes, the wave blew gathering swarms of Returned and Forgotten Soldiers away from me, the fragile caster, and off into my patient comrades. Oh, and did I mention the +50% speed impediment?

Defensively, the battle can be fought with two skills: either Ice Armor or Diamond Skin (we're not even going to talk about Storm Armor, since it lacks any defensive buffs.) While Diamond Skin is better for straight damage reduction, its relatively short duration (five seconds) makes it more of a cast-in-the-moment-of-need spell. Frozen Armor, while not a big damage absorber, does increase the Wizard's armor significantly (50%), lasts for two glorious minutes, and chills every enemy that attacks you--including the Skeleton King! This also works great in mobs, allowing the unwary Wizard to escape with his skin intact in certain sticky situations.


From a safe distance, I could then spam them with Electrocute, which works exactly like Diablo II's Chain Lightning, or Energy Twister. (Oh, clever hint: Energy Twister is perfect for kiting. Cast and run, baby!)

And that about wraps things up. If any of you were fortunate enough to have played the beta yet, we'd love to hear about your experiences playing with the Wizard--any crafty spell tips, survival scenarios, or witty lines the Wizard is so prone to imparting.

And, if you still can't get enough Wizard (*cough sign of addict cough*), we prescribe Force Gaming Strategy's excellent Wizard playthrough videos on YouTube. Here's one to get you started:

Hey Diablofans,

I've been keeping my self busy and entertained by periodically making Blog entries here on Diablofans with the Blog Tool.

The Blog started out as an excuse for me to look at stuff in really close detail, and try to experience every last bit of the beta to its fullest extent.

Also, I am hoping it might help alleviate some of the "Lack of Beta" blues that people have and also hopefully re-spark that enthusiasm for Diablo 3 if it has been waning over the last couple weeks.

If you want to look at all of my entries and browse around the blog, here is the link to the main blog page:
Snowhammer's Blog

Below are the direct links to all of the entries:
Monk
Monk Combo Skills (Visual Entry)
Monk Spirit Spenders (Visual Entry)

Wizard
Academic Wizard Spells (Visual Entry)
The rest of the Wizard Spells (Visual Entry)
Mele Wizard (Visual Diary)

Witch Doctor
Witch Doctor Physical Realm Skills (Visual Entry)
Witch Doctor Spirit and Support Skills (Visual Entry)

Demon Hunter
Demon Hunter Skills (Visual Entry)(NEW)

Barbarian
Barbarian Skills - Part 1 (Visual Entry)(NEW)
PART 2 Comming soon

Misc Entries
A look at all the Beta Item Affixes
Random Event - That Looks Familiar (Visual Diary)
The first 2 armor tiers (Visual Entry)
The Quest Artwork (Visual Entry)

EDIT**
I overhauled this post to make it look a little better (10/15/2011)

Hey everyone, I took some of the leaked datamined item pictures posted on a Diablo fansite, and organized them to take a peek at how our characters will look like as the progress through the game. I think it came out pretty nicely, so much in fact, that I created an account (finally) to share it with you guys.
Sadly, I couldn't find any files with the Wizard helms, and I did not include itens with shared appearence such as rings, bracers and so forth. Also there appear to be class specific armor such as belts and helms which I couldn't find for all 5 classes so I excluded them as well.
On a side note, all the itens listed below are in their male version ATM.

You can check them out on the following links:

Barbarian:
1-9
10-17
Demon Hunter:
1-9
10-17
Monk:
1-9
10-17
Witch Doctor:
1-9
10-17
Wizard:
1-9
10-17
What do you think? Which tier &/or class did you like the most?

EDIT: Wizard helms are now shown!

I'll keep this short and sweet. It looks like we will not be seeing beta anytime in the month of August.

So, as of now, the best we can hope for is before September 30.

Over the past few days the Diablo Twitter Page has had a consistent amount of Tweets. These small tidbits of information can give us some insight on how the development team feels on certain subjects, and what they're working on currently.

Starting off, there has been short mentions on how many characters will be allowed per account. This topic has often went hand and hand with mention of the large capacity of the shared stash. Responding to a Tweet asking if ten would be the final number of characters allowed per account, Blizzard responded uncertainly. This Tweet also notes how the team is still unsure of how they will handle death in the HC Arena.

Since the announcement of an internet connection being required to play D3, there has been many issues voiced by fans. Some of there concerns were based around single player mode. It seems some fans have misinterpreted this required connection, as a single player killer. You'll never be forced to play with others, in fact the Follower System was created to allowed you to play alone, but still have an ally. Single player will even be the default setting when first installing the game.

On the topic of game settings, besides a confirmed private game option, and game search feature, there will also be a match-making system that will pair you with players who are on the same quest as you. This is a very useful feature, for in Diablo 2 it was very difficult to find players who were on the same quest as you; unless you count rushing..


A lengthy Tweet chain on the Diablo 3 Economy revealed some of Blizzard's feelings regarding the matter. Comparing the economy of D3 with D2 is kind of like comparing an electric car to a gas car. Same function, same general mechanisms, yet very different at heart. Blizzard knows the problems with Diablo 2's economy, and have taken grand action to correct them for Diablo 3. A huge problem with the old economy was duplicating, be it actual items for use, or item currencies such as Sojs, 290s, etc. Blizzard is confident this issue won't exist in D3. A huge part in this claim is the required connection to play the game. Any suspicious activity can be instantly saved on record, and acted on accordingly.

Even without duping, a valid concern for the longevity of the economy in a game such as Diablo is reasonable. Seeing as Blizzard is very against soulbinding items, even the rarest of items will inevitably build up in the economy. There are widly varying opinions on soulbinding, both for and against. It seems Blizzard is still settled on not implementing such a binding system.

Through this, other systems such as salvaging are necessary to delay this build up of rare items for as long as possible. Item sink systems are a great way to remove such rare items from the economy, though even more fundamental than that is how many of the items get introduced into the economy in the first place. At the heart of Diablo is randomness, be it environmental, monster mods, or items. Items in particular play a supporting role in what drives players to keep playing Diablo after they've maxed their character's stats through leveling. The rarity of high tier drops, and even the variable stats attributed to those drops all come down to luck. This luck factor plays into the economy in that the more rare the item, the longer it will be until it builds up in to economy. Well, it turns out some items are extremely rare.

As for our ever continuing wait for the Beta, as expected, they're getting there.

---

Be sure to vote in the latest poll, and listen to DiabloCast Episode XXI here!

Diablo 3 at Gamescom? Yup, check out what's expected!

Missed out on the past few weeks of heavy D3 news? Relive The Flood and quench that thirst for D3 info!

**DISCLAIMER** If reading a pretty longwinded explination of an idea is not somthing you enjoy, you better hit the back button. If you happen to have looked at any of my "For Fun" guides, you may know that I spend ALOT of time imagining Diablo 3 as though it were already out. Since the August 1st information, I have been "going back to the drawing board" as it were, and while doing imaginary play throughs of the game, one thing keeps getting me stuck; only needing to have 1 of each class.

Making a new character is (in my opinion) a big part of Diablo. However, while "imagining" playing the game, I KNOW that being able to switch between skills with the amount of freedom we will have now is going to be a great expirience as well. So, as I tend to do, I started "assuming" that a system exisited in the game that would allow for both. I thought it was a good enough (interesting enough) idea to make a thread and see what you guys thought.

RUNES - The Best of Both Worlds

What the Problem was:
When Diablo 3 entered Alpha, the Developers noticed that the players were not using the skill system the way they had hoped they would. Indeed, it felt just like Diablo 2: Max 1 or 2 skills and spamm them to victory. The system actually "encouraged" this behavior and caused the players to "mass dump" skill points into new skills when they became available. The Dev Team didn't like this, as the combat (Monster AI, dificulty, pacing) was designed around players using 4-6 skills efficiently.

What they did:
This lead to what in my opinion was a pretty drastic change (considering how late we are in development), they removed the skill point system entirely. Players would now unlock new skills and passive skills at each level and be able to freely switch between those skills to find a "build" that they liked.

The (assumed) Effect:
This should lead to players using thier selected 6 active skills through out the entire game and to great effect, as the developers can ballance them based on character level and will give players a never-before-seen (in an ARPG) amount of freedom when expirimenting with their skills.

The Side Effect:
In my opinion, more by cause and effect than by design, this change lead to players really only needing to create 1 of each class (10 if you count gender or hardcore). Some people love this idea, while others (of which I am one) feel that comitting to your build should be considered a "core Diablo" concept.

Runes may help:
There have been alot of ideas tossed about since Aug 1st regarding the Skill changes / Rune changes. The Man himself (Jay Wilson) said in the interview that Force posted that one of the reasons they liked the proposed Rune change was that it would add to the "investment" players would need to make to their chosen skill set. This is the main reason I am all for the Rune changes, however, this does not change the fact that to change your build (even at the latest point in the game) you would not need a new character, but instead only new runes (and Gear too).

R*U*N*E*S Two birds with one Stone
So, my idea. Runes will drop in two forms: Common and Magic. So each time a rune is Rolled up, it then performs a roll to determine weather it is Common or Magic.

Common Runes:
Common runes would act just like runes from the "old" system did. They would drop with the Type already defined. When a Common rune drops, it would look somthing like this:
____________________________________________________
Crimson Rune: Level 1
____________________________________________________


Common runes could only drop up to level 5. This way the most rare (Level 6-7) would always be rolled up as Magic. Common runes can be freely switched between any active, currently equipped, skill. The fact that Common runes drop with their "Type" already rolled up (Crimson, Indigo, Alabaster, Obsidian, Golden) would mean you could hold the rune over any of your skills and get a look at what the rune would do to that skill. The common runes would be the way to let players "freely" try out all of the Rune combinations, and they would be VERY "common" drops in Act 2. As the game progresses, Rune's become more rare (in general), but by the time you start hunting for Level 6 and 7 Runes, they will only drop as Magical.

Magic Runes:
When a Magic Rune is rolled up, it can be any level of rarity. This would make Rare or even Legendary Runes possible. An example of how a Magic Rune would look when the player sees it on the Ground:
____________________________________________________

Magic Rune: Level 4
____________________________________________________

Both the Type (Crimson, Indigo, Alabaster, Obsidian, Golden) and the Modifiers would NOT be rolled when the item dropped. When the rune drops, the Roll up would determine the Level (1-7) and wether it was Common or Magic. When you mouse over a Magic rune that you find, a tooltip would pop up reading:
____________________________________________________

"Chose a Skill to Attune this Rune to. This will then Determine the Rune Type and Give an Extra Effect"
____________________________________________________

After you select a skill to "attune" the rune to, several Rolls happen. It rolls a type (Crimson, Indigo, Albaster, Obsidian, Golden), it rolls the Rarity (rare, legendary, ect..), and the Modifiers. The fact that the Rune doesn't make these rolls untill AFTER you attune it would make selling un-attuned runes pretty interesting. Could be AMAZING, could be just ok. An example of what a Level 4 Attuned runed might look like:
____________________________________________________

Sturdy Crimson Rune of Shadows: Ray of Frost - Level 4
Can be Insterted into Ray of Frost
"Beam increases in damage the longer it remains in use, to a cap"
+25 Defense
+11% to Dodge
____________________________________________________

But how does this address the need to only make 1 of each class..?

The Kicker:
Make the player limited to only Socketing 6 Skills at one time. Because Common runes are able to be "Freely" switched between skills, changing them out would be as easy as "click and drag". This would allow the player to play with the rune effects, while being a built in way to keep people from switching skills out literaly "on the fly" (as in during fights) as they would have to re-socket their skills when they change them out.

Magic Runes would not be free to change. Because of this, when players are about to socket a magic rune into a skill (remember, "attuning" a rune to a skill only Does the roll on the item, it doesn't lock it into "your" skill yet) you would see a warning screen reading:

"Removing a Magic Rune from you Skill can only be done at the Mystic and Costs Gold. Removing this Rune from the Mystic will cost X amount of Gold (based on the Rune Level and Quality). Are you sure you wan't to socket this Rune?"

In this fashion, switching out a High Level Magic Rune could cost ALOT of Gold. So much, that changing out ALL of your skills (if you already invested good quality runes in them) would cost enough that you would likely make a new character instead. You could, however, change out 1 or 2 Magic Runes, and just eat the gold cost. And this would make tweaking expensive, but possible.

Conculsion:
This sytem (and props to you if you read all this!) would allow players to have fun expirimenting with rune effect as they level (with Common runes), Give back that awesome point of comparison that mousing a "Crimson" rune over your skills brings (that people like Sixen in the Podcasts have been missing), allow players to "invest" in their skills with expensive, hard to find Magic Runes, and by limiting to player to 6 Runes at one time (meaning that you would have to remove a Rune to change out your skills) would result in builds being important in the late game in a "tangible" way again.


This post is by no means meant to be a "if only Blizzard would do THIS" thread. It is simply what I thought was an interesting idea, and worth sharing with the forum.

Blizzard is putting in the Real Money Auction House "because people want it"

However, I would bet that more people wanted/used Map Hacks and Auto-Tele than to bought stuff from item stores, so why aren't they putting those in to?

I'm really dissapointed by the changes, but mostly because of the laziness behind it. Their reasoning for making free skill movement at any time was that people would take arcane missle to start, then just switch it to arcane orb. Basically what they did was say the tier one abilities are not good, so instead we will just allow people to switch to high tier abilities for free. Why didn't they try to balance it instead of making arcane orb the clear cut better choice. Why not change arcane orb to be a powerful aoe ability, but keep arcane missle better at nuking down a single target? If anything why not give arcane orb a cooldown? This could even be considered an issue with respeccing if everyone needs to respect to have the best abilities.

As for making skills have a single point to them I cannot see how this in any way benefits the game, it simplifies builds and removes any depth from allocating your skills. You can blame min/maxing but that was apart of what set builds and individuality apart. With this set up if you and another whirlwind barb are the same. But before you could have the same skills, but one could put more emphasis on a buffing shout, where the other could want to have a stonger fear ability. And can anyone here say they would prefer being completely done with skills before lvl 30? Is it really more fun to see a little box pop up allowing you to make a choice every 6 levels for 4 times rather than almost every level?

Runes are the one thing that will keep variety in the builds, but with the changes that they talked about even that is begining to concern me. My once endless excitement for this game has turned to incredible doubt over night, and I really hope blizzard goes back on some of these new ideas.