Hello everyone, recently had an idea/post in which I thought/suggested a system of 6 primary attributes out of which classes would benefit from 4… Yes, that will have some “yeesh” effect on the overall loot but think a lot of folk will benefit from a system that is same/set-up-upfront for all the classes in general… ALSO, not being able to do something with a class (i.e. not having a primary stat X) may increase some creativity amongst players (and distinction in playstyle or impact) of classes in general… In addition classes will have a “primary stat” attribute which increases ability-damage % (in general) BUT at a lower rate/io
That being said: the “one system fits all” primary attributes are…
- Strength (Physical, primary damage multiplier for Barb and Druid)
- Offensive: ATK rate (only for physical) (+5 to ATK per point)
- Defensive: DEF rate (only for physical) (+5 to DEF per point )
- Ferocity (Mostly physical but perfect for some hybrid action, like the Druid for ex., but keep it simple (for now) and let the Druid have a primary stat of Str)
- Offensive: Hit-Effect power (+0.5% per Ferocity increase)
- Defensive: Hit-Effect damage mitigation (-0.5% per Ferocity increase)
- Willpower (Mostly intended for casters but some other semi/hybrid classes can benefit from it too)
- Ofensive: Cast Rate increase (+0.5% cast ratio increase per point of WP)
- Defensive: (If can be called defensive): Resource generation and return (resource generation is increased by 1% per point of WP)
- Adaptibility (or Adaptation, mostly intended for casters/hybrid classes in more defensive/tactical manner, mostly via empowering blessing & curse effects in general)
- Ofensive: Buffs & Debuffs power & Duration increase (0.5% per point of Adaptation)
- Defensive: Sustain (i.e. healing received increased ratio) (0.5% per point of Adaptation)
- Intelligence (intended for super-heavy casters but some hybrid classes can benefit too)
- Offensive: Spell damage increase (0.25% per point of Int)
- Defensive: Magic-Damage taken reduced by (i.e. magic-damage absorb) (0.25 per point of Int)
- Dexterity (intended for hybrid classes, with a little twist on the defensive side though)
- Offensive: Hit-effect chance % increase (0.15% per point of Dex)
- Defensive: (if can be said defensive): CD reduction (0.5% reduced CD per point of Dex)
Now the last one may have surprised you a bit but think it’s overall better idea than having Dodge % be a “primary stat”… More about it perhaps later, but for now the important thing the primary-stat Class-usage table (i.e. which class benefits from what, and sadly, can’t buff via usage of the primary stat attribute of their own)
Barbarian: *Str, Fer, WP, Dex
Druid: *Str, Fer, Adapt, Int
Sorceress/r: *Int, Dex, WP, Adapt
Rogue: *Dex, Str, Fer, Adapt“*” = primary attribute, i.e. % ability damage increase (small amounts)
That being said here’s the “breakdown” per class (and differences in playstyle, i.e. things to look-out for)
Barbarian: has Str, Fer, Dex, WP
- Strengths:
- Primary stat = Str, meaning good ATK/DEF ratio on primary attacks (and all physical attacks in general, say good damage mitigation by archer projectiles unless imbued by magical power/s)
- Can greatly benefit from almost “naturally built-in” Dex/Fer system of hit-effects (both in chance and in power)
- Barb with good rating on Fer. doesn’t have to fear losing anytime soon by dying from Bleeding, Critical, Armor pierce and such due to an “almost natural” system of high amount for Hit-effect damage-taken mitigation
- Has the ability (if by wish) to increase damage output (AND frequency) of skill attacks rather than primary/physical damage by investing into greater amounts of Willpower (which will in return also increase fury generation)
- Weaknesses:
- UNLESS having good resistances, should fear curses and (all sorts of magical DoTs in general) cause has no “primary” way to mitigate (or reduce damage taken by those)
- Has no “primary” way to make buffs “get out of control” and/or stack, due to the lack of Adaptation as a primary stat… This also results in the importance for the Barb. to get any sort of “secondary” life sustain as much as possible due to items or talents (i.e. “hunt” for pieces that give lifesteal) cause has no primary way to invest in this aspect of self/survival
Druid: has Str, Fer, Adapt, Int
- Strengths:
- Primary stat = Str, meaning good ATK/DEF ratio on primary attacks (and all physical attacks in general, but Druid can also invest into Int for magic damage mitigation as primary source, i.e. resistances not a “must have” in all situation/s)
- Being able to invest into Ferocity as primary stat the Druid becomes a true force to fear in his shapeshift forms (Werewolf especially, but sometimes also in Werebear form)
- Being able to increase points in Adaptibility/Adaptation also brings the benefit from a potential “endless cycle” of buffs/debuffs (and buff/debuff stacking in general) as well as high amounts of self-sustain on the defensive end of the battle/s
- Has the ability (if by wish) to do most of the damage in a human/caster form but this will (probably) never be a reliable source of damage outcome due to the lack of “inherent ways” of resource-generation
- Weaknesses:
- Lacking resource generation as a primary stat means Druid should really look out for affixes (or talents) that give him the necessary resource return (or even resource cost reduction), and in general makes him go “in face” for longer periods of time so that the resource naturally regens back on time until casting another “safe distance” AoE/utility spell
- CD reduction (on paper) sounds like it’s not too much to give up from but imagine, just imagine if you could say instead of Boulder on every 5-8 seconds do it on say 2-3 seconds or so… yeah, perhaps some of these may be found on the Talent tree (which would also mean points not invested into skill powers), but most of them probably won’t. Also not having Dex as a primary attr the Druid can’t benefit (at least not quite as much) from his hit-effects in shapeshift forms (unless talented or an affix explicitly does so), i.e. in the primary attribute system Druid has all the access to hit-effect power, but not hit-effect chance % procs
Sorcerer/ss: has Int, Dex, Adapt, WP
- Strengths:
- Primary stat = Int, meaning good ATK/DEF ratio on spell attacks (and all magical attacks in general), but has to REALLY watch out for things like getting hit by a ballista or some knight’s specials
- By being naturally-adaptible has an almost-natural “feel” for keeping the tides of battle/s in his/her advantage (while in a “buffed up” state the Sorc can also have increase survival ratio/s via heal procs)
- Being able to invest into Dexterity as a stat the Sorc can gain some surprising bursts of damage even from the less-intimidating spells (if talented in such a way), a thorn in the eye of the unsuspecting attacker/s that may not be ready for. Also, this kind of a Sorc can also invest into “repeated spam” of heavy-damage abilities at their disposal (i.e. have a CD of 3-4 seconds instead of 8-10 for say a Meteor for ex.), but in order to do so has to keep in mind the second “component” of destruction in his/her arsenal
- Willpower: has the ability (if by wish) to do most of the damage in a fast repeatable fashion via WP investments (and being able to seemingly endlessly do so), which gives an increased ratio for resource generation which in term may (or may not) give the ability back to cast a “heavy hitter”
- Weaknesses:
- Lacking physical defense and damage suffered by hit-effects can be a really serious headache to deal with, but luckily there should be items with Affixes of type (damage taken reduced by X, physical) or affixes of type (reduced damage/duration of impair effects), so make sure you can get as much as possible of those (or at least a fair amount)… Not having to worry much about things like DoTs/Curses will give you some “freedom” to search what you really need/lack more
- Ferocity (on paper) sounds like it’s not too much to give up from but keep in mind that “what you see in your talent system is what you get”, LITERALLY, if a “Freeze” effect does 10% more damage, that’s it, can’t make it be a 20%, 25% (or 30%), for the most part at least (unless an item stat says otherwise, but these would probably be super rare/legendary in general). Alternatively you could get some “buff” gear, but this kind of gear has some drawback in the form of “hamstring effect” i.e. “D3 style gameplay” where you’d have to continue forward destroying stuff faster to keep the buffs/survival-bonuses as stacked and as long as possible (whilest also having to keep in mind to not run out of resource)
Rogue: has Dex, Str, Fer, Adapt
- Strengths:
- Primary stat = Dex, meaning you’ll be (for the most part) a true “Swiss army knife” in combat (in general)… You can really impactfully reduce all those not long but still “pesky” CDs of all your “surprise attacks” (or even the most battle-control ones) to almost a near-spam ratio… However be aware that you can’t “spam” forever and keep the “resource meter” in mind as much as possible, you don’t want to end up “dry” in a bunch without much left in the “tank” lol
- Having the ability to invest into both Dex & Ferocity at the same time, the Rogue has the same “natural feel” for striking where it hurts the most (just as the Barb) via hit-effects in a dual-effect i.e. not just by chance increase but also in power
- In contrast to the Barb, the Rogue has to watch-out for “heavy hitters” from physical source/s of damage but investing and learning to use Adaptation the right way can “make up” for the lack of “natural toughness” (i.e. toughness while being “idle” something that a Barb could do) and, sadly, has to watch out for both magic and physical attacks to come… Luckily doesn’t have to worry about dying from any kind of special attack or spell proc
- Weaknesses:
- Lacking physical AND magic damage suffered can be an issue, however items with Affixes of type (damage taken reduced by X, physical, magical), Resistances, and such should buy you “enough time” to either get a chance or at least keep a survival-buff for long/er
- Not having WP reduces your “spam hard hitter” impact on the battlefield, but affixes of type Cost-reduction should take care of this problem (at least somewhat), sadly, things like resource-steal (or per-kill) is what you get, if it’s 2 per kill then that’s what you get, can’t make it 4, 5 or something more… Luckily some of the buffs you may get a hold onto (or talents) may reduce the impact of this problem
There you have it folks, took me quite a bit longer to explain everything in detail/s but think it was worth 
Also one final notion: the abscence of “Dodge” as a stat, and putting CD reduction instead: hope you’d (most of you) would agree it’s the better option and “lesser evil” of the two… I mean sure, one is defensive only, other can be both off and deff useful but thing is Dodge is RNG… Same problem with Critical… Having “chance for critical” as a sole-ofensive on a primary stat is “meh” IMO, also, the notion of Critical-hit as a separate hit-effect makes things bland/boring so combining both of them (chance and power increase) for not just critical but ALL hit effects, and putting in a separate primary stat (Ferocity) does a better job…
Hope you like that approach (also) overall, so whaddya think ?, I think there’s quite a bit of benefit/s to having such a system (one class system fits all) but classes themselves having a “limited” reach for them overall… It’s just that takes a tad bit too long (to initially explain) overall
in one go