I actually think 7 is too many IF you don’t choose ult (and become a utility wiss army knife build) and if we make 7th the mandatory ult slot then we force all players to have an ult in all builds.
This is where it gets tricky. But based on the virtually enforced 2 auto-attack foundation of every build (builder + spender) 90% of builds are going to be left with 3 slots for every other form of utility and mobility which provides half of the fun factor for most builds, conceivably.
So we’re perpetually stuck in a situation where we can appreciate 6 slots for the hard choices it dictates and build identity it delineates, but these builds get boring fast. I found more frustration with not being able to access these on demand (especially as a melee-only class with limited mobility:
resource gen, resource buff, vulnerable, 25% DPS boost, barrier, fortify, crit chance boost, speed boost, unstoppable, atk spd boost, taunt, stuns, aoe nukes…
you have enough to choose from to still have unique builds within the constraints of 7 skill slots, depending on your passives and affixes.
It start becoming more and more the case that you leave out ult to get a “FUN” build, then you chunk your DPS by a lot.
Very unfortunate, but can be solved with a 7th slot.
You’re going to be running builds that you KNOW are lacking DPS and tankiness…just to have more fun.
I gave up on ult, Iron Skin, War Cry…just so that I can have mobility, CC mobs effectively, and have the highest attack speed achievable. If I had 1 more slot, I’d put ult on it, and still be missing out on more tankiness, warcry steroid, etc.
Sad state to be in, because if I had to get the most “EFFECTIVE” build, I would be immobile, annoyed, no flashy positional play, pulling mobs around to group them up onto the boss to take advantage of the Rend+Rallying Cry+ Passive resource gen tile.
Maybe some think “ah good, you’re trading DPS for utility, fair trade”. No, YOU’RE TRADING CONVENIENCE FOR META. And its unfun considering what COULD be- we don’t have to compare D4 to other ARPGS in this regard.
I really hope, that we at least actually get to use all 6 ability. and we dont end up in end game stacking multiplicative buffs for 1 ability, having 1 ability do damage in the trillions while the rest do damage in the thousands
In D2 and D3 every major build I ever played used 2 or 3 buttons spammed repeatedly. Maybe 1 or 2 other cooldowns for shields, shouts, or summons. That was it.
Blizzard is stuck between a rock and a hard place here. 7 Is almost too many and 6.5 (ult slot) then has all players pick an ult. However, like in Lost Ark, you could more easily justify that with ridiculously long cooldowns- in some cases ults feel like an afterthought in Lost Ark, we also probably don’t want that.
Where Lost Ark’s combat feels more dynamic is that you have 9 slots, and that gives you a lot of redundant abilities, but they have superficial modifiers like “counter” and “destruction”. I hope Blizzard adopts just “Counter” for charging bosses/elites, but the D4 formula is superior and only requires 7 total slots max IMO. It’s more comprehensive per slot. Once you get to the bottom of LAO combat it gets boring and the tripod/engraving system is too shallow.
Still, all things considered 3 non-ult, non-AA slots is such a claustrophobic platform for a build.
You can’t say its unsubstantiated, you might say unjustified if we received it, but then it’s exactly that- a general consensus. Break down combat into components, and go look at other adjacent ARPG genres and see what overlap in combat there is - try to define what’s fun with such subjective variables. Though it can’t be done with rigid conclusivity, you’re going to see trends.
Is LoL combat (more skill shot based) more fun than Dota (more point-click CC stacking)?
The numbers speak for themselves. Well there you have a metric to consider
This is Diablo. Not PoE. This game is built from a Diablo foundation. Those games copied Diablo and added their own spin to make a new games for themselves.
it has gone through testing before this demo. since they haven’t changed it before I think it’s safe to say that they’ve settled on 6 as the right number
I dont know if what we have seen on the first beta weekend is the final design of the game or just a polish version playable without major issues .
i enjoyed the first experience however there was for me some big issues that are not acceptable for an Arpg game in 2023.
First an probably the biggest issues of all is the ‘‘move only’’ option who is really bad designed. It was horrible on D3 and its not getting much better on D4…
Next is the absence of skill slot for ultimate ability. 4 skills slot is already very limiting but now it’s feels like you have only 3 slots available since one will always be taken by your ultimate.
At last skill specialization is really limited i hope the paragon system will help fix that.
I personally want more as well. I wanted at a minimum 1-6 left and right click. Minimum 8 is nice to play around with some new skills. Console can have the hold down zr and click a button to access other two spells
These layouts allow you to bind elixirs as well and other various things that you currently cannot bind.
Which layout do you think majority of players would choose to use? I bet you anything Layout C would be the most popular and widely regarded as the only real option. There would probably even be posts on the forum asking what’s the point of Layout A and B.