Addiction Starts Early, As Blizzard Launches Diablo III Skill Calculator

Blizzard should be kicking off its Diablo III beta test any day now (it's currently in the "Friends & Family" phase, which is right before the floodgates open), but you're impatient, there's a solution.

The company has launched a "Skill Calculator" online, which basically allows you to start rolling a character ahead of actually having to spec one out in the game.

In essence, the addiction can start early. Way early. It's also incredibly mean, given the beta test hasn't started yet, though one could argue it will be even meaner for the players who never get into the beta.

If you haven't had a chance to look over the skill tree for Diablo III, now's a good time to brush up. If you haven't picked a class to jump into yet, here's an easy way to become familiar with the new ones.

Click.

Totally didn't anticipate that...

I think I might try to get into Diablo III. I like the look of some of those classes...

Argh, I made like 6 characters already with this.

I can't wait for this damn game.

Typo: but if you're impatient, there's a solution.

That's pretty old news, still ;)

I'm not prepared for this 0_o

Going to wait till I'm in the game and I have the shiny skill point to spend before allocating and reading.

I love Deiablo, but going through the trouble of building a template ahead of time is a bit overkill for a game I'm only going to play through once -- and most likely in a single sitting.

I did it but without context it feels kinda pointless.. Nerds might like this.

(I'm sorry if I judged you as being a nerd)

@emergency: no skill points....lol :P

Can't wait to click my finger off.

I think this skill system is 1,000,000 times better than D2's.

No offense to D2 fans, but having only 2-4 useful skills per character sucked.

@Levio: This sytem may have 6 skills you max out and use all the time.

This time a large chunk of leveling your skills is based on item drops.

The runestone system seems really cool in the way it completely changes up the skills. Also, on paper the Barbarian looks fun as hell to play. Melee AoE DPS machine. Murder everything everywhere all the time. Sign me up.

I am staying away from all diablo 3 skill trees and videos till the game releases, i want to go in straight D3 virgin so it will be a magical experience.

I basically know what I am going to build for all 5 of my characters now because of this, and I don't really feel spoiled at all.

Come on, Patrick! This is not news ffs!

*deleted*

The runestones bring an insane level of customization. Without playing the game it's hard to get a feel for how useful each of the skills are but its clear that we will have more than enough opportunity to tailor our characters to our play styles.

Ahh...Diablo 3, aka "the game i know i should be outraged about but can't bring myself to not nerdgasm over"

I have already theorycrafted a melee-zard and a ranged monk that enemies cannot attack at melee range.

I am excite!

Wow....

I can't believe looking over that skill calculator actually made me really really want this game, I really wasn't too excited about it until just now

I worked at Costco with this guy who would talk about playing Diablo and Diablo 2 in sickening detail over and over and over again he wouldn't stop he would explain every detail about every update everything he had done in the game before he went to work everything he had done in the game for the last two weeks the highlights of the last three months and he would not let me get a word in edgewise like STFU GOD DAMN IT WE ARE AT WORK STOP BABBLING ABOUT FUCKING DIABLO I would just walk away and he would still be talking about Diablo

true story and YES fascinating!

Wizards can turn into Archons, I'm a wizard.

Witch Doctor all the way

@Enigma777 said:

Come on, Patrick! This is not news ffs!

It's news if you like to click.

Click. Click. Click.

It'd be nice to have connections.

The chat gem at the bottom of the page (its the little blue gem near the bottom) will make the page pick a random skill setup, runes and all.

This is the first time in about 7 or 8 years since I was really stoked about a game release to the point where I can barely stand it.

@Enigma777 said:

Come on, Patrick! This is not news ffs!

I don't rely on Giantbomb for news, since they don't cover news in that way. Just like their 'coverage' of games and trailers and things, they just have what they enjoy/like and they try not to cover everything because there is no point. There are too many other sites that do the 'all news' 'all of the news' aggregation stuff and they are great for plugging into my rss reader so I stay 'up' on what's going on. Patrick felt this was worthy to share to the GB community, and I think the write up he did was fine enough to warrant it's existence eventhough I'd seen the headline from other sites earlier.

Hey, Blizzard? I'm not buying your game.

Don't forget to click the chat gem while you're there ;)

@DJJoeJoe said:

@Enigma777 said:

Come on, Patrick! This is not news ffs!

I don't rely on Giantbomb for news, since they don't cover news in that way. Just like their 'coverage' of games and trailers and things, they just have what they enjoy/like and they try not to cover everything because there is no point. There are too many other sites that do the 'all news' 'all of the news' aggregation stuff and they are great for plugging into my rss reader so I stay 'up' on what's going on. Patrick felt this was worthy to share to the GB community, and I think the write up he did was fine enough to warrant it's existence eventhough I'd seen the headline from other sites earlier.

Oh yeah? Well I had sex with your mother!

@nefarious_n said:

Don't forget to click the chat gem while you're there ;)

You really are the worst kind of perso-

Oh my god it actually does something.

I still can't believe they added Shaolin kung fu monks into this already awesome game. Super stoked!

I am curious - would it affect chances to be selected for the Diablo 3 Beta if you do not have an active World of Warcraft account?

Weirdly I forgot this existed! I am in!

seems like a nice feature

@Enigma777 said:

Come on, Patrick! This is not news ffs!

It's news if you like to click.

Click. Click. Click.

Is there WASD control in D3?

Interesting. I may have to get into this. It's been ages since I sat down with Diablo II

Wow, I..I..must click

Just one more level, just one more

I nearly died from joy when I happened upon this yesterday! CLICK CLICK~!

We need a big fat news article whenever the beta actually opens up beyond F&F.

That wasn't much of a skill calculator...

Seriously, this is shaping up to be WoW: Diablo addition. Blizzard doesn't know how to make a Diablo game and now they're just going to ruin it for the real fans of the series.

Poor Blizzard North, I miss them so much.

Inb4 someone who doesn't know the difference between Blizzard and Blizzard North tries to convince me that I don't know what I'm talking about.

Oh god, starting to get the shakes. This game needs to come out soon. SOON.

Where is The Archivist?

I don't know, it seemed a bit pointless.

I'm sure it's going to amazing, and I was going to get this day one, no question. But the constant online requirement and no mod support kind of dented my enthusiasm. Now I'm planning on waiting for it to turn up on sale somewhere.

It sure is cold in here.

@Kookro said:

That wasn't much of a skill calculator...

Seriously, this is shaping up to be WoW: Diablo addition. Blizzard doesn't know how to make a Diablo game and now they're just going to ruin it for the real fans of the series.

Poor Blizzard North, I miss them so much.

Inb4 someone who doesn't know the difference between Blizzard and Blizzard North tries to convince me that I don't know what I'm talking about.

Oh, you mean hoarding points that you get in early levels for later skills since they are generally way more useful? Yeah, that was a great system. (Yes, I know they added the passive bonuses way after launch to try to make it a little more interesting. I don't think it changed things that much in all practicality.)

As much as I love Diablo II, putting one more point in primary damage skill of choice was not a terribly interesting gameplay mechanic. Hard to say if I'll end up finding any glaring issues with the new skill system, but it certainly sounds better than what they had before. In particular, I like that every single skill can be useful at high levels, instead of them simply becoming worthless when you get new ones. There should be a much larger range of viable builds and playstyles. (Note I said viable, not optimal.)