Anyway, i found my old files for d2 mod i was creating 10 years ago and i think i had few interesting changed skills which sucks in original. I will post it when i will be home and i am curious what you think of it and if game would be better with changes like that.
One of the geniuses of D2 is the options they have made with gear and skills. Enchant on a sorc was an interested thing at first to help low level players or to help out the party. But then they gave Passion and now you can make a whole zealing enchant sorc, add a rouge with Faith and you get even more fun.
If you just looked at the numbers on what is used and assume the lower used skills are needing tweaking, you can lose some of these really interesting things. As just about all of the people who came up with these things are gone I would be worried that the new people don’t understand the intricacies of what they are messing with. Asking the active players what crazy things you can do is needed.
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I play MTG relatively competitively, though less so recently, and they have entire TEAMS playtesting new sets, their interactions, how they play with currently released cards, etc.
Nearly every damn set they have to ban something because they screwed up. It’s happened for over a decade.
I do not trust this team to tinker with skills and items without wrecking things that are absolutely BEAUTIFUL in d2 currently. D2 has things that no other Arpg does well.
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Actually, the PVP - especially GM duels, are pretty well balanced even if that happened somewhat organically. Of course, that presumes a functioning economy to reach that point where people have the gear roughly necessary to participate it in. If you’re going to duel people in tarnhelm and smoke at level 40 - sort of like how jay wilson did - you shouldn’t really be surprised if its not remotely balanced. That’s part of why people don’t want to carelessly ruin it - but its more than that. If they start balancing/nerfing left right and center then they could start balancing items(this isn’t necessarily bad - because just like arctic blast, some of these items will never ever be made - so great care needs to be taken as to which ones could potentially be reworked) or making crafting easier for example which has huge impacts for the game. Just for personal reference - i am someone who hasn’t built an actual dueler in years since i play hardcore ladder where ‘duels’ don’t really exist due to the possibility of hacks. You instead build a character ‘in case you need to duel’ - sort of. Comparing PVP in diablo 2 to the streetfighter story line just reveals you don’t know much about PVP in this game. Your comparison would be far more valid for Diablo 3 - which again is hilarious because Diablo 3’s pvp was exactly what Jay Wilson accused Diablo 2’s pvp system of being - a 1 shot fest. Dark Souls definitely has a PVM element - that is ‘the game’ , but the PVP side is very much like diablo and plays a big role in how the game works in multiplayer.
09 removed ridiculous life leech that made PVP and PVM what it was in that patch. its harder, other than the iron maiden nerf and that was intended by the 1.10 because people rightly complained the game was too easy. ‘Balancing’ around an incredibly easy environment as it is doesn’t make much sense because there are no real races, not really any consequences to death in softcore, and for the most part you’re spamming a single skill against monsters with… very dated AI. Creating a new meta doesn’t make a huge amount of sense just for the sake of making one. There is room to make some of the skills useful but there aren’t that many that applies to. You’d see me advocate for changes that i know could be made if i trusted VV to do it. Outside of arctic blast/inferno/blaze the martial arts tree which is ‘viable’ is just… not very good or useful. Nobody makes martial arts assassins outside of low lvl pk. The runeword chaos is just better than an entire skill tree. The whole thing is clunky because you have to use charge skills and release charges - and its just terrible for pvp, and very mediocre in pve. It definitely got left behind in 09. But do i trust the current team to buff it? Not yet.
Yes to balances change from me, they gotta find some way to keep the game fresh and for it not to become bot-rmt . net, balance changes and meta shifts are a good way to do that imo.
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Blizzard has a long history of not balancing their games. They just continually nerf and buff things to change where an imbalance occurs.
So I agree. I don’t trust them to mess with balance issues. If they fix everyone wanting to level sorcs and pallies, they’ll just replace it with some other go to class to maximize efficiency.
Fist Of Heavens is literally one of the best PvP skills in the game…
You clearly have no idea what you’re talking about, please stop suggesting balance changes if you don’t know anything about the game.
Beserk is also amazing in PvP.
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They should make everything viable on hell difficulty.
They don’t have to be equal, but they should be viable.
I don’t agree with this. Everything is viable on normal, even nightmare. Hell is supposed to be about pushing the threshold of survival and damage. If the maximum difficulty is really difficult, players will always gravitate to whatever makes it easier. You can never balance all skills AND have a real challenge.
Berserk is also good in PvM, I have been doing it for years. OP has no clue what hes talking about clearly lol
Abilities are just options, you choose how you use them. When an ability becomes redundant, it’s no longer a valid option anymore, which makes that choice an illusion. An ability should have a quirk, which make them somewhat unique. When you invest 20 points into an ability, then you should be able to use it.
A real challenge would come from you using the ability, not having the choices made for you. It’s an illusion of choice to give you misleading options. That’s not difficult. It’s stupid.
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I’m pretty sure i already responded with the skills i would change… however…
WUT?
both fist of heavens and berserkers have hell viabale
berserk is actually extremely important for barbs to deal with physical immunes
and FOH is extremly common dueling pali build
bolt???
i have no idea what your trying to say
frozen bolt is going to be worthless its a lvl 1 skill
lightning bolt is already one of the best lightning skills in the game
bolts in crossbows? i have no idea what yoru talking about…
hydra could use some love yeah, but its not really necessary , it’s not like fire sorc is lacking
The real problem with fire, would be the countless immune enemies. When you enter hell difficulty, mostly every map on Act 1 has cold and fire immune monsters. They’re also common enemies, so you basically end up hating the sorceress.
No, it is not an illusion. If I want to use a “less than ideal” skill to build something unique, I can do that. What I cannot do is choose any random skill and succeed at the highest levels of difficulty.
The “illusion” you are looking for is the illusion of a well built hero when your skill choices no longer matter. That is what you are asking for. You are basically saying you want a game where you can put ZERO thought into your skill choices, and still succeed as well as everyone else.
Choosing a build that works is part of the experience. It is not Blizzards fault that the game has been around for so long, that you can just go online and pick a build that has been vetted, maximized, and packaged.
If you already played this game so much that you no longer try new things, maybe play a different game. This is a very old game that is being brought to current graphic, sound, and QoL standards. They are not reinventing the wheel here just because people are jaded and bored with the game.
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Example One :
Choose one option.
1 : Not Viable.
2 : Not Viable.
3 : Viable.
Example Two :
Hero, can I join your party?
Choose an Option.
- Yes. ( NPC joins Party. )
- No. ( NPC complains and asks again. Loop )
That’s an illusion of choice. Because there’s only ONE right answer.
Choose an option. Firebolt or Fireball?
The answer is obviously Fireball.
It’s an Illusion. Because the opposite is stupid.
There are no in-game ways to make firebolt cooler.
Why? Because the game lacks that type of variety.
I don’t know why you’re trying to get all philosophical on me but I’ll play.
Every video game can be boiled down to one simple process. You press a button, the game rewards you. You like the reward, you keep pressing the button. Some people like the button to swing a sword, or race a car etc.
From that point of view it is ALL an illusion. You cannot make every skill equally viable, and then still have skill selection as part of the game.
And this is besides the fact that some skills in this game are more viable at certain stages and in in certain situations. Leveling vs. end game. PVP vs. PVE. MFing vs. Survivability.
I think you just want things your way and don’t know how to express yourself.
This is the type of post I’m talking about. Someone who thinks firebolt is useless.
Firebolt is used in high-end PvP.
This is why no one who doesn’t understand the game should be making decisions.
Blizzard, just leave things alone or give the casual player base their own realm, please.
Example :
- Dagger : 50 Damage : 2 Speed
- Sword : 100 Damage : 1 Speed
That’s a choice that has comparable viability and both can be used in different ways. Because both damage and speed are taken into account for damage. One may have more chances to cause critical strikes, but the other has less resource management. They can be both viable options, but they don’t have to be the exact same.
That’s not a skill selection. You quoted me about skills, and then compared that to weapon choice. That is the definition of apples to oranges.
Weapons and Skills are similar when you look at mechanics. That’s an example to showcase viability when balancing things within games. You’re given choices with comparable value and the weight of that choice actually matters.