Diablo 3 Beta Update

[Grooveriding]

World of Diablocraft.

'nuff said.

Agreed.

While I'm sure the game will be good and I will be picking it up, this skill tree removal just reeks of the same dumb-it-down for the masses ($$$) that has pervaded WoW in the past few years.

Skill trees were awesome and you had multiple choices and paths you could take. Different specs - nova sorc, fire sorc, FO sorc and so on. I guess everyone will use the 'same big three choices' and that will be that. Hopefully there is some complexity in there somewhere to be found.

I wouldn't be surprised if this simplification is also in part due to the plans to port this game to consoles.

Simplified, console port and micro-transactions. Kotick has Blizzard's reins firmly in hand at this point.

 

[Rifter]

the lack of skill tree is retarded.

As mentioned its going to kill the replay value of building differnt types of classes.

Sounds like they are dumming it down which isnt good.

 

[Dumac]

No, there were hundreds of viable builds for D2. For me at least, character building is what made the game last so long. If you twinked your character enough, you could be effective endgame with any skill. With auto skills and stats, there's no reason to make more than one of any class, and there are no consequential decisions to be made about your character.

I disagree. Your builds were just less viable. There is no reason to do any other stat distribution.

You must have not been that deep into the Diablo scene, as this argument has been debunked in Diablo circles for a while...

Let me guess, you were the type that put points into Energy as a Sorceress

 

[Anubis]

Not really. There was only one viable build anyway if you wanted to play to the endgame. It applied to all classes as well.

umm no. just off the top of my head there were 4 sorc builds 2 pally builds 3 or more war builds 2 or 3 necro builds 2 druid builds 2 zon builds assassin sucked but it prob had at least 2

 

[Chiropteran]

umm no. just off the top of my head there were 4 sorc builds 2 pally builds 3 or more war builds 2 or 3 necro builds 2 druid builds 2 zon builds assassin sucked but it prob had at least 2

And 1 build for each of those classes was most viable. If you played the wrong build you artificially gimped yourself.

 

[PowerYoga]

umm no. just off the top of my head there were 4 sorc builds 2 pally builds 3 or more war builds 2 or 3 necro builds 2 druid builds 2 zon builds assassin sucked but it prob had at least 2

Nope. Though if you were playing for fun and not max efficiency then you can do whatever you want. Hell, slap a zod in that beast.

 

[stlcardinals]

From Bashiok on the official forums:

So how many skill combinations are there now?

Well taking into account 6 active skills, all the rune combinations, and 3 passives we currently expect each class to have roughly 2,285,814,795,264 different build combinations. That’s not taking into account skill types for ‘ideal’ builds, but that’s always been a big part of the fun of experimenting (and longevity for Diablo II) - finding a build that shouldn’t work, and making it.

 

[CottonRabbit]

I disagree. Your builds were just less viable. There is no reason to do any other stat distribution.

You must have not been that deep into the Diablo scene, as this argument has been debunked in Diablo circles for a while...

Let me guess, you were the type that put points into Energy as a Sorceress

Um, what wrong with an ES sorc? Anyways, I'm not talking about stats, I'm talking about skills. The removal of stat points wasn't a huge deal because it's true that there were only a couple optimal stat distributions. The removal of skills is a big deal because different skills, not items, is what differentiated everyone.

I'm guessing you were not that in to D2 if you only think only 1 build (in terms of skills) was viable on any class during any single patch. You can beat the game with pretty much any skill and have FUN doing it, which is the point of a game. Will you be a bit slower than a hammerdin or some other patch FOTM? Probably, but it's not like PvM was ever difficult in the first place.

In terms of PvP viability, there are even more choices. Using 1.10 as an example, I could regularly beat desyncing hammerdins and auto-aiming windy druids with my poison zon or my mindblast sin (mindblast with at the last FCR breakpoint is hilarious). The no skill points system reduces ability to make specialized builds like these.

 

[CottonRabbit]

From Bashiok on the official forums:

Yes, there are a lot of combinations, but your character will never be more specialized at any single combination than anyone around you. There are also no meaningful choices to be made during the course of building your character. According to Bash, you can swap out skills in the middle of battle if you wanted to. Whats the point of limiting it to 6 skills at any one time then?

This is like arguing that character building in BFBC2 is just as deep and rewarding as it is in any RPG because you have access to a wide variety of gear load-outs.

 

[Beev]

From Bashiok on the official forums:

It sounds like runes are a much bigger deal than they were in D2? I haven't been keeping up with the news.

 

[gorcorps]

I disagree. Your builds were just less viable. There is no reason to do any other stat distribution.

You must have not been that deep into the Diablo scene, as this argument has been debunked in Diablo circles for a while...

Let me guess, you were the type that put points into Energy as a Sorceress

If people in the "Diablo scene" always tell others they're playing the game wrong, then the people in the diablo scene are a bunch of jabbering assholes. There were tons of ways to play and regardless of what you did you could get through PVE just fine. Who cares if they didn't max their DPS or whatever? It works for them. If you're just following somebody elses character guide then why even bother playing the game? You might as well pick up a color by numbers book if you just want to blindly follow what others have laid out before you.

 

[Aikouka]

It sounds like runes are a much bigger deal than they were in D2? I haven't been keeping up with the news.

If I remember correctly, runes typically add some sort of bonus effect to your ability.

 

[Snock514]

Let me save you 4 seconds. I'll link if ya'll can't access. Runes

 

[p0nd]

And 1 build for each of those classes was most viable. If you played the wrong build you artificially gimped yourself.

which only matters if you played D2 to look at your char screen for maximum dps and efficiency. for example a hammerdin was certainly viable (understatement, it was OP though they did nerf it a bit late), but i was bored to tears to play one. so i played other builds, perhaps less efficient, but more enjoyable.

Not only that, but artificially gimping yourself can be fun! That's why people play HC, iron man, no twink, etc. for the challenge.

Some people don't care about hitting every FCR, FHR, maxblock breakpoint, others do. D2 successfully catered to both crowds, and I hope D3 can do the same. Though the in game cash auction, imo, really caters to people who will be tweaking out maxed efficiency +%magic finding boss runners (if such is possible in D3).

 

[waggy]

I on the other hand have not made a Blizz beta ever... Maybe this will break the chain.

I got in on the SC2 beta a week before it ended. i was not a happy camper.

i hope to get into D3 beta though.

 

[Beev]

Let me save you 4 seconds. I'll link if ya'll can't access. Runes

Nope, I'm at work and thus can't see it. I would have looked myself first if I could have

 

[Anubis]

the runes were massivily powerful in D2. some of the harder to make runword items were flat out OP

enigma = teleporting hammerdin

LOL

 

[Dumac]

EverythingAnyways, I'm not talking about stats, I'm talking about skills.

Whoops, major blunder on my part. D3 removed skill points?!?!?! Where have I been? Why would they do that?

I heard they auto-allocated stats, which didn't bother me but there wasn't any real variety of stat distributions. But SKILLS?!?![/QUOTE]

 

[Dumac]

If people in the "Diablo scene" always tell others they're playing the game wrong, then the people in the diablo scene are a bunch of jabbering assholes. There were tons of ways to play and regardless of what you did you could get through PVE just fine. Who cares if they didn't max their DPS or whatever? It works for them. If you're just following somebody elses character guide then why even bother playing the game? You might as well pick up a color by numbers book if you just want to blindly follow what others have laid out before you.

Go ahead and play a barbarian and put all your stat points into energy for the sake of artificial variety

 

[Anubis]

yers there were really stupid ways to do points but a WW bard and a shout barb were equally viable, same with all specs of Sorc including Orb however orb was weaker. bow/javazons, hammer/smite pallies, bone and skelly necros,...

 

[Aikouka]

I think when I played my Necromancer, I didn't have... either Bone Spear or Bone Wall. I had a hell of a time with Diablo and simply found that while whichever ability it was never really seemed necessary outside of a boss fight, it became rather handy then. :\

I'm still hoping that Torchlight 2 comes out soon as well. It should be fun to play if I don't get into the D3 beta!

 

[gorcorps]

Went to log in to my battle.net account and it was locked out due to a security issue :\

Reset the password and updated my system specs. Now I may actually have a shot at getting in the beta... better than the zero I had before anyway.