Blizzard Unveils Diablo 3 Skill Calculator

[hooby]

Checked out a few skills, honestly not seeing the point in all of it. All it does is ruin the sense of novelty once one actually gets the game.

The point of this is purely psychological.

In fact the game does not need a skill calculator, since you do not have to plan a build. You can change your skills on the fly in any town of the game - removing points, re-adding points - everything can be freely done in the game, so actually your skill window ingame fulfills everything you'd ever need from a calculator.

Since your character can become ANY build within a few mouseclicks, you don't even have to plan a build at all.

Many people love to plan their builds, and love how spending skill points is an important choice that does have a consequence: once you spent a skill point, you have to live with that. Everyone knows that this kind of choice+consequence is a major source of motivation for games, plus it makes your character feel individual.

Now why would they release a skill calculator now?

Because now - since the game is not released yet - you can pre-plan your build, your character, like you would in a released game that has skill points. It feels exactly the same.

This is only done to quell the doubts and fears many people have about removing skill points entirely - by giving them the feeling, that they still can plan builds like they are used to.

It's a very, very clever move of Blizzard, from a psychological point of view.

 

[Atheist.]

Does this mean there will be no respec options in-game? That was D2's worst fault in the end.

You could respec once every playthrough in D2. I don't remember which quest gave you the option, though.

 

[PH3NOmenon]

To those who ask "But why???":

I assume it's to show off the vast variety of options available to each class. Having flipped through it a bit, not only will the skills of each class offer a wealth of choice by themselves, the runes aren't just for show. It looks like there's some real doozies in there and you'll get a boatload of options to fiddle around with.


My god, they're never going to be able to even remotely balance this game...

 

[Breywood]

This.

OT: It seems silly releasing this when the game isn't even out yet. The skills seen compared to the actual use of them in game are 2 different thing. Plus item bonuses this is basically a useless toy for now. I always played the games first and made a rough character while learning the items and skills. It's how I would do it if I were going to play this game.

You haven't been to the Hive called the Diablo 3 forums. When Blizz featured a "Radiant Star Gem" they drooled a creek. I expect this skill calculator to cause the Saliva River to overflow its banks and drown many.

Myself, I'll still likely be playing Diablo 2. There is still much fun for me to discover.

 

[Breywood]

Does this mean there will be no respec options in-game? That was D2's worst fault in the end.

You could respec once every playthrough in D2. I don't remember which quest gave you the option, though.

The Den of Evil Quest. The very first quest you're tasked with. Or you could collect Essences in Hell difficulty and transmute them into an item that invokes the respec feature.

Respec could be considered D2's ruin because instead of people restarting their characters all over again, they just respec into a new build. The botter/duellers get bored much more quickly since they can just reallocate their points into their ideal cookie cutter.

 

[Signa]

Does this mean there will be no respec options in-game? That was D2's worst fault in the end.

You could respec once every playthrough in D2. I don't remember which quest gave you the option, though.

They only added that feature after 1.13 or some ridiculously high version number. It was basically 7-9 years after the game was released, but I don't have an actual date right now. All I know is I got into it for about a year straight 5 years after the original release. The inclusion of that feature was an afterthought because of all the other games that had come out that allowed respecing.

 

[Turtleboy1017]

Checked out a few skills, honestly not seeing the point in all of it. All it does is ruin the sense of novelty once one actually gets the game.

The point of this is purely psychological.

In fact the game does not need a skill calculator, since you do not have to plan a build. You can change your skills on the fly in any town of the game - removing points, re-adding points - everything can be freely done in the game, so actually your skill window ingame fulfills everything you'd ever need from a calculator.

Since your character can become ANY build within a few mouseclicks, you don't even have to plan a build at all.

Many people love to plan their builds, and love how spending skill points is an important choice that does have a consequence: once you spent a skill point, you have to live with that. Everyone knows that this kind of choice+consequence is a major source of motivation for games, plus it makes your character feel individual.

Now why would they release a skill calculator now?

Because now - since the game is not released yet - you can pre-plan your build, your character, like you would in a released game that has skill points. It feels exactly the same.

This is only done to quell the doubts and fears many people have about removing skill points entirely - by giving them the feeling, that they still can plan builds like they are used to.

It's a very, very clever move of Blizzard, from a psychological point of view.

The first time I played Diablo 2, I made a summon necro. I played around with him, got to level 60, then realized that by putting a few points in summon, a couple in bone, and one or two in poison, I had screwed myself. He was absolutely useless. I felt like shit because I had put so much time and effort into him, thinking he was good, when I realized what I did was just flat out wrong.

Then after that I made an elemental druid. I went to a website and I followed every single instruction layed out for me so I could make the "best possible character"

In the end, I had a level 84 druid that could take on most PvP's, and could pretty much solo baal runs in hell. But it was boring. If I saw another druid in the high level PvP servers, he was almost always exactly the same as me. It was just a race for better gear at that point, since all our stats and skills were the same.

With this system, I feel like it will be more about planning a good build of synergistic skills and runes rather than just dumping points into what produces the most viable unit. Ironically, unlike your post states, the individuality aspect that was nonexistent in terms of skills and stats in Diablo 2, will be infinitely more prominent in Diablo 3.

I personally can't wait for this game. It may not have the same hardcore feel that high level Diablo 2 play had, but in all honesty, getting to that point was more of a drain then it was fun. I'm hoping this will play more like a game and less like a chore. Not to say that Diablo 2 wasn't fun, I'm just saying that when I wanted to try a new class, many times the time and effort required to get to it was so mind numbingly high I never even bothered to try,

 

[hooby]

I never said that D2's skill system was good. It actually wasn't. Not at all.

D2 sure left A LOT of potential for improvement when it comes to skills. The lower skills were completely worthless, the higher skills weren't all that perfectly balanced. A new game that comes out now surely has to better than this - no question.

With this system, I feel like it will be more about planning a good build of synergistic skills and runes rather than just dumping points into what produces the most viable unit.

Planning? What planning? Just make that fucked up Summoner - don't even care about whether it's good or not - hit max level, and change your skills then. And if that doesn't work either, go to the website, look what is currently is considered the best skill, and then change your skills to that. Since you don't even have to level your new char, that's just what everyone's going to do.

But why'd you "plan" anything ahead of time? What for? No need for planning. Just try around until something works. And then win a PvP match, watch your opponent go to town, and one minute later he comes back with exactly the same skills you have. Because he found your build was more efficient.

Ironically, unlike your post states, the individuality aspect that was nonexistent in terms of skills and stats in Diablo 2, will be infinitely more prominent in Diablo 3.

I had 4 different sorcerers in D2, and each was unique. Why would I ever make a second character of the same class in D3? Because I want to try another build?
Once I made one single character of each class, I'm done.