just an idea from casual gamer for DIV
In short: Demonic powers are in-game demon ONLY powers which player can access by investing in sin points; Angelic powers are in-game angelic ONLY powers which player can access by investing in virtue points. Ancestral powers are overpowered Nephalem-only (probably class-specific) powers which demons and angels do not use in game at all.
Demonic powers are classified according to the seven deadly sins (derived from prime evils).
Angelic powers are classified according to the seven virtues (derived from angiris council members)
Ancestral Powers are unique powers unlocked with the right amount and balance of demonic and angelic power. The more you invest in these types of energy, the more devastating the skills.
An added mechanic could be that you have to kill an enemy with a certain skill in order to use it.
Four levels of skill modifiers and classifications that we can mix and match using experience points to make our own skill tree:
level one: base skill type (melee, physical projectile, magic projectile, spell, channeled, buff/debuff, etc)
Level two: add damage modifiers (chain, fork, cold/fire/poison/phys/arcane, aoe, on hit/block/fear/crit, aura, range, cool down, etc.)
level three: skill linking, combining, class specific skills or boons etc to create new and cooler playstyle elements
level four: sin/virtue modifiers combine to create top-tier mega-builds (formerly set skills)
see full explanation below:
Why not base demonic power on the seven deadly sins (greed, wrath, sloth, envy, pride, lust, and gluttony) and angelic power on the seven virtues (generosity, forgiveness, diligence, benevolence, humility, chastity, and discipline)? These types of energy should offer passive bonuses (greed increases gold/magic find and pickup radius, etc.) such that as “personality stats” they help define your character as well as influence your build with a permanent “energy/moral path” that will have repercussions on your build, what items you can use or not use, charms, rings, etc.
I like the idea that Nephalem can use either spectrum of vice/virtue powers to create or “unlock” Ancestral powers. I.e. a certain balance of envy and humility will enable a branch of a Passive skill tree or say affect all skills like a global rune at higher levels. “Mythic powers” could be unlocked this way either through a total score of counterbalanced vice/virtue or by maxing out solely angelic or demonic paths.
I would much rather that the skill tree is more specific and itemized rather than having “big skills” with a few modifications. There should be “elements” or base skills that are iterated upon in a much more refined tree that goes from,say, one lightning bolt to chain/ball/storm/shield etc. so that we can work to precisely customize our abilities. The next “dimension” of the skill tree should be the linking or triggering of multiple skills together or enhancing the damage/aoe/cooldown/etc of the skills which should be a separate but related system. So you could “chain lightning” or “chain aoe arcane” or “fireball rend” etc. The third dimensions should be class specific passives or other modifiers that change with experience. The fourth dimension should be the 4D vice/virtue tree which unlocks global modifiers and/or special 1D, 2D, and 3D skills.
So if you have 1D lightning bolt w/2 forks, 2D link cold nova with lightning damage, 3D Wizard-specific skill of spawn elemental turns frozen enemies into elemental minions that deal the damage types they were killed with, 4D demonic greed of x number unlocks a mythic skill that turns all minion deaths and/or enemies killed while frozen into gold statues that explode for aoe damage and drop 5000% gold. That would be awesome.
This way we have a lot of control over how our skills operate on the 1D level and can tune all damage/spell/skill types to fill the roles we choose. In the 2nd dimension we link, buff, and modify multiple 1D skills to amplify our power as experience grows, 3D Class skills limit options and guide build paths by class specific mechanics, and then 4D moral path unlocks angelic/demonic/ancestral powers as we change our seven vice/virtue levels, unlocking really cool and weird powers, ideally changing overall appearance to some degree. Or perhaps based on our damage type and moral alignment we could get titles like “Frozen Lord of Greed” or something like elite enemies have.
I would really love to see this implemented in D4.
Thoughts?