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Quote from Simpy7

Look at this video with an interview with Jay Wilson, he explains it very well I think. He start at 5:00
http://diablo3.gamona.de/2011/08/18/gamescom-interview-mit-jay-wilson/

Cool interview, thanks for sharing.

I'm still waiting for someone to ask him what I'm asking though. I like what they're keeping with skill choices and rune choices, but I still don't see why they couldn't have improved the stat point system to overcome it's short-comings rather than scrapping it. I guess I'll just have to wait and hope that someone puts that question to them at some point.

I've watched Force's video covering the details of why the stat point customization was removed. From what I recall Jay saying, it was basically a problem of there really being only one "right" way to configure your stat points if you're trying to make your character as effective as possible. This was how it worked in D2, and this is what they were seeing in testing for D3. So they scrapped it because it wasn't really providing much in the way of customization. Have I got this right so far?

What I don't understand is why they didn't just redesign the base stats to a more sophisticated system? Not crazy complicated that required tons of research to figure out, but something that allowed players to make different choices that could still be viable builds. For example, choosing between stats that might increase damage, or crit, or hit, or block, or avoidance, or resist etc. If those were more spread out across more base stats, wouldn't that allow for more varied builds? Those various stat builds would then synergise well/poorly with various abilities on your character. Matching up a good type of stat build with the abilities you want to use for your playstyle would be fun wouldn't it?

I was really hoping they would do something like that with a simple respec mechanic. I know you can still do character building to your chosen playstyle using skill choices and rune choices, but wouldn't keeping that extra layer of player choice give you a feeling like you were more "specialized"?

Even if in the first week of release people have figured out the best min/max builds and posted them online, who cares? If that's what people want to do, good for them, let them. If others would rather try something different, let them too. I really just don't like this approach of scrapping the system instead of taking the opportunity to fix it.

Not trying to QQ here btw. I'm really just curious if others have been thinking the same thing and if anyone has any thoughts as to why they didn't take this kind of approach?