Their explanation leans back on the "it's not Diablo II" argument which has been touted since the game's announcement back in 2008:
Official Blizzard Quote:
We've been playing the game, we know what skill points were causing, and it was not interesting and unique builds. It was not meaningful customization. It was maxing out a couple skills, and that's it. It was Diablo II. What we have now actually forces people to make interesting choices, to craft interesting builds based on very strict limitations.
But the Diablo III team wants the latest game in the series to go beyond, as they see it, another shortcoming they saw in Diablo II's skill system. Bashiok says that "one common mistake people are making is thinking all the class skills are straight damaging attack skills... There's no variety because you just pick the most powerful six, and you're done."
Their latest iteration of the skill system essentially splits what would have been called passive and active skills in Diablo II into two exactly that: passive and active skills. Where passive skills are invested in separately and contribute to your character's brawn in secret, regular skills are the ones you will use to blast your enemies into gooey bits, as well as zip around the screen at lightning speeds and issue combo attacks. Not all of these skills are straight damage dealers. Some of them allow resource regeneration or life steal, which adds another level of tactical flare to your combat experience.
Whereas in the past you would have used skill points (awarded at each level-up) to augment the power of your favorite skills (or the potency of synergies), the new skill system in Diablo III scales your skills based on your level. In addition, runestones, including their numerous tiers, affect the look, feel, and effects of your skills. Beyond them, gear directly affects your battle potency. Bashiok laid out a Diablo II scenario for demonstration:
Official Blizzard Quote:
The base problem with skill points is that we found they simply put too much incentive toward pumping up one or two skills. If we wanted to balance the game it means we'd have to let someone be able to essentially beat the game with that build since it's the most obvious. You're not going to put a few points here, a few there, you're going to go the D2 route, horde points, and dump them all into a core skill or two. It really limited builds since points always went toward specific types of attacks that scaled well with additional points, and we're not going to keep systems that are stifling (viable) build potential and (meaningful) character customization.
So, removing functionality encourages customization? While many would argue the case of stat point removal for Diablo III, this might not be exactly the same thing. Regardless, this solution does directly address the "one or two skills" scenario (Diablo II cookie-cutter builds, anyone?), so maybe it is a big step in the right direction.
Interestingly enough, the removal of skill point allotment indirectly addresses yet another controversial topic: respeccing. Many have argued that allowing for respeccing caters to a "softer" gaming audience and drains the game of an element of challenge (just take a look through a 2008 article's responses). Without skill points, there's no longer any need for respeccing. Whether or not this appeases more hardcore players is another question entirely.
Force had some excellent one-on-one time with Jay Wilson to get the full story straight from the Diablo man, himself. Wilson talked about everything leading up to the latest decision, including observations from alpha testing and conclusions drawn from prior strategy scenarios in the older games.
But does all this wishy-washy skill softness mean something more than encouraging more diverse builds? As a user on the Battle.net board asked, "Do you come upon a particularly nasty group that this other skill would just be perfect for, so you hang back, grab that skill, then destroy the group?"
Bashiok did not shoot the idea down entirely:
Official Blizzard Quote:
You're far more likely to see a player sticking with a build and working to become better at it than constantly swapping around. That's not a rule, it's player psychology so there's going to be a wide range of variables, but it's what we have found to be true not only for Diablo III, but a lot of the games out there with similar free-swapping of builds.
The removal of skill points seems like a step away from the spirit of the franchise, instilled in us with Diablo II. It will restrict cookie-cutter and low-skill-count builds to an extent, and it indirectly removes the need for a controversial respeccing system. But it is a far cry different from the original games and many "Diablo clones," possibly alienating parts of an otherwise eager audience.
there is in fact. Of course not tangible at each level. So gaining a level is like putting +1 in every of youre skills in D2, although you dont do it, it still happen. Gaining some different level, 10 - 20 - 30 and i dont remember the one for the skills, youll have to take a new skill an play with it, youll be so pumped up to receive youre other skills that you will level up quick. Of course around 35+ i can understand that there is no more tangible reward but still, im pretty sure well have some damn fun haha
I think the number of responses to a topic only a few hours old can attest to the level of controversy behind this change
but at the last minute they change alot of stuff, heavy stuff, not just saying crimson will be called ruby, they removed the points, the traits etc. I think its for a better world and im happy. But alot of people felt like their dream just burned. Now they must raise their voice in hope to avoid a cataclysm (hehe nice double sense no?)because the game is about to be out... at least they are feeling like that. Many people also hear a news from a friends or just read a quick paragraph and jump into the war. When i first read the changeabout the rune system (if it change), i was all against. Why? because i was missing a key element. You were keeping youre old stone and could put it back, i tought it would destroy it and would be stuck with the new, having ton of chances to downgrade myself, i tought it was stupid.
So people miss read, some are fanboy , some are reluctant to change, it is the world but i think its for the better
gawd i cant wait to play :3
Secondly, with the ability to modify how your spells work, it drastically changes the dynamic in what spells you combine. True, some base spells might compliment others at face value, but once you start modifying it, what once worked might not be so great any more. Take this food analogy; we have our base item, cooked chicken. Cooked chicken works great with the item barbecue sauce. Barbecue sauce works best with cooked chicken if it has the cooking modifier "grilled" or "fried." If the cooking modifier is "boiled," barbecue sauce can still be used, but it just isn't as good. Perhaps it should be used with soup instead.
In essence, skill runes have replaced the need for talent trees. You tailor your play style by how you modify your spells and since powerful modifiers are rare, it will be a while before you modify all of your spells. To add to this, Blizzard wants to add affixes to these runes and make them stay specific to a spell apon use. This means that finding the absolute best rune for your spell will take heaps of time and effort. This allows for far more customization then simply dumping all of your skills in to one or two abilities. Flexibility and simplicity, with a good amount of depth. Seems like a great system to me.
Well stated, best explanation I've read all day.
You haven't played the game yet.
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A couple of points I would like to touch on... If you think you will ever even meet another player with the same setup as you in the skill department, I think you're underestimating how many combinations of 6 you can make out of 24 elements (especially when there are 7 versions of each of those 24 moves.) Yes, EVENTUALLY, people will adhere to something that works well that others are doing. But now, more than ever, people can viably deviate in huge ways, unlike in D2.
Second, let me just share a brief story. I played Diablo 2 for the first time many years ago. I started a necromancer, because I loved the idea. I looked at his skill tree and saw a path devoted to skeletons. I was more excited about a video game in that moment then I ever had been before. I'm here to tell you that I loved Diablo 2, but I never truly forgave it for the sin of promising me skeletons, but not allowing me to beat even normal difficulty with it. NO. I don't want to get Iron Maiden. NO. I don't want to max out resurrects. I want skeletons. And if you think I got over the idea of not being able to play the way I wanted to play when logic dictated by looking at the skill tree that I should have been able to, you're dead wrong. Now in Diablo 3, you'll see Witchdoctors with Mongrels in the lategame often (I assume, because who really knows?), because now skills scale properly. If you never had your initial game plan crushed by the horrors of the D2 skill trees, you will never understand why Blizzard did the right thing with this new update until you accept the reality that people deserve to play the way they want to play if a game is going to present them with options that it claims are all viable.
alot more opinions in there too . Pages 3 and 4 are most interesting in my opinion
Less choice is never better. We should have been given the option to use 4 or 7 skills (4, assuming that max skill cap was 15)
All the new skill system does is give us "infinite" re-spec at whim, without the real choice of choosing which skills to focus on. Instead it's like... here is your generic char, now go test whatever!
then again, i realize that by doing thing they probably would decrease server costs...it now makes sense that an account has max 10 chars! if we had a choice to make something like "an ice wizard" then "a melee wizard" etc etc... there would be more justification for having increase char per account, perhaps some "unreachable number"
Out of curiosity, are you going to respec on a whim since you can?