i agree with everything you said
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Runewords were fine, but they are basically just mats => item, aka. a crafting system. Which should certainly exist, but the rune combination system Blizzard is showing for D4 seems to have much more potential. But it is not either/or, both systems can exist perfectly fine together.
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I agree. I like making meaningful choices when creating a character. Having access to all skills destroys the replayability of the game. Itās too causal to be able to swap skills at will.
I saw one of the devs talking who said that not being able to swap skills didnāt feel like Diablo. I disagree. I played D2 for years and loved it. D3 had no replay value until greater rifts came along.
I would possibly be in favor of earning respect points but having to work to get them. Swapping skills at will goes against the fantasy of RPGs.
I would also really like to see is a more detailed skill tree system than what was presented. Not as complex as PoE but I think somewhere in between D2 and PoE.
I did really like the graphics and how they are approaching the gear seems better than D3 so far. But yeah the skill system should be considered more imho.
Also, bring back the Amazon and Assassin!
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There is a lot of talk about ācharacter buildingā for a toon whose sole function is to smash monsters. I sincerely doubt there will be a capacity for planning ambushes or trying to convince a lone demon to turn on his kin - outside of the odd scripted events. Our characters are murder hobos (to poach the D&D term) - plane and simple. We are literally only flavoring the way we kill monsters. This was the same in Diablo 1, Diablo 2, and Diablo 3.
Regarding customization - Diablo 2 & 3 criticisms of the customization basically come down to min/maxing. People did it in both games, fact of life. However, there are plenty of people that are saying āscrew it, Iām playing how I wantā - and this is common as well.
The bottom line of this whole regarding character building is build commitment versus the need to make a new character. I think ultimately, based on the nature of the game seen thus far that the argument is swinging in favor of the single character. Now, I personally find that commitment builds worked best in RPGs with a definitive ending - beat the final boss and thatās it, gameās over. It is a little more frustrating in games with Endgame content. The best compromise to me between the two crowds is this: It would take weeks of skill tome farming to unlock and max-out every skill in Diablo 4, is which case it will probably just be more time efficient to re-roll a Storm Druid rather than train the Werewolf Druid to use the power of the storm. Balancing the time efficiency of re-roll vs farming could be a viable means of satisfying both crowds.
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But thatās what YOU like. I donāt like that. I want to be able to respec on the spot. If I get bored of my current spell effects; I donāt want to have to repeat leveling and waste X hours of my life to just try out my other spell effects.
Yes this is what i think, I want the game to stay true to what Blizzard north did and expand and improve on it because it had some unfortunate flaws. But I will elaborate because i donāt think i was clear.
I do think respeccing is good. I donāt think you should have to remake a whole character just to try a whole new build, but i donāt think it should be so easily accessible as in Diablo 3 where you can switch build on the spot.
This ruins character identity. I want you to be locked into your build until you respec to another build. This gives you a sense of identity for your character. These things may seem insignificant for some but it is actually quite a big deal for players like me who fell in love with the systems from diablo 1,2. The moment i realized i could access any skill at any moment in Diablo 3 i instantly felt detached from my character. Potencially a respec system could satisfy Diablo 3 players too?
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To be honest, from a roleplaying point of view, the idea of having access to all skills after leveling them up makes more sense for me. Talents represent how you specialize your characters, but skills are your library of spells and tricks. Putting a limit on that is kinda like saying your character is literally too stupid to acquire more knowledge. A seasoned warrior should know and be proficient with them all, with a secondary system, like talents, dictating at which ones they actually excel.
Maybe thatās the decades of mmorpgs in me speaking though, but I never really liked the skill tree system of Diablo 2 as limiting what skills you can actually use.
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I wholeheartedly agree!
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Bro; itās already like this. Systems Designer said you can enable elective mode. So you donāt have to take skills you donāt want, and you donāt have to waste points in skills you donāt want.
They did say youāll get enough skill points to have all the skills; they didnāt say that youāll have enough skill points to max out all of the skills.
Currently the max level is 40, and you get 1 skill point per level, so thatās 40 skill points. They had skills at rank 18, so Iām assuming 20 is the max like DII. Remember DII had skill tomes too, they didnāt say they were random drops, they said they were rewards for completing certain quests.
You got one from the Den of Evil, you got another from the Sewers in Act 2. I think itās important to mention that there should be a finite amount of skill points you can earn, and currently there is, and hopefully it stays that way.
But no; you see the skills broken down by their category, but itās also their strength, and that by default lays out to one per hot key. With elective mode on, you can have 2 from one group if you want. In this regard, itās identical to Diablo 3 elective mode, but not identical in that they just give you skills upon leveling up.
You do have to spend a skill point to purchase the skill, you can wear an item that gives you the skill before you have it, and nowhere did they ever mention being able to max every single skill, they just insinuated there were other avenues for getting skill points in the fashion of quest rewards as well.
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I donāt know about that. I know many who werenāt happy about it from the beginning.
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Runewords as a concept are fine, but runeswords as they exist in D2 were only possible because of duping and bots. The whole of dupewords even being introduced to ladder was as a dupe-sink.
May very well be that i am misinformed, if it is indeed the way you say it is, Iāll be pretty happy with it!
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You get skill points from levelling and then they said āyou can find skill tomes in the game and max all of your skills.ā
Do you have a video of them clarifying that and saying they are only talking about 6 skills here and not the full tree?
Itās not at all.
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I am playing D2 more nowadays.
I am cautiously optimistic about how D4 will turn out given D3ās outcome.
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Not insignificant at all; just different opinions. Being able to change my set up us a HUGE deal for me. The moment I realized I could change my skills in D3 I loved my 1st character even more because it meant I didnāt need alts. I played my first Wizard for over a hundred hours before I even tried a new class.
I donāt want to have to make 3-4 of the same class. I just want my one character to be powerful enough to change to whatever game style Iām feeling like that day.
If I can learn to play with 24 different sets, then my character should be able to learn how to use at least 3 specs. Iām not saying Iām brilliant for understanding the mechanics of all the sets, but if my character can only ever understand the mechanics of one, then heās certainly stupid.
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This is why I enjoyed D3 and played it for over 1000 hours. But D3 style of gameplay is a different game altogether.
D3 is an excellent game, but it is not a Diablo game.
It is missing the core element.
Not talking about the dark and grittyā¦ a Diablo game isnāt just about dark and gritty vibes, it is about the Character Building described in the OP, and the development the player makes when he invests in a particular set of skills, and Sacrifices others.
The Sacrifice you make on your journey, defines Diablo games.
When you take Sacrifice out of Diablo, you ruin the game. It is that critical to this franchise.
Sacrifice is the core element of the series, and D3 has none of it.
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they need to listen to d2 players on why d2 worked so well and why itās alive today. they clearly arenāt understanding at all since theyāve put 90% of d3ās terrible itemization into the new game. itās amazing that weāre going through this again. itās d3 dejavu
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So far itās literally a luke warm mix of all the bad idea from diablo 3 and a sprinkle of d2 + mmo aspects.
WE NEED MORE THAN SIX ABILITIES
NONE OF THAT PASSIVE BULLCRAP
OFFLINE MODE FOR HARDCORE
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Why?
Imo, 6 Abilities with a D2 Skill Tree would create far more Build Diversity.
You mean Talent Trees?
In D2 skill system you have Active skills which you want to max, then you have Passives and then you have 1-Pointers which you increase with items.
I think it is a great idea to separate Active SKills from Passives and 1-Pointers.
The Talent tree takes the Passives and 1-Pointers and transforms them into something really cool.
I think D2 Skill Trees with D4 Talent Trees is the best way forward.
Offline mode PERIOD
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You should check out my rework of the Jade Harvester set.
define alive
Iād be surprised if 10% of the players online in D2 right now are human beings
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