Addiction Starts Early, As Blizzard Launches Diablo III Skill Calculator

@Forum_User said:

@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.)

I think there were a whole lot of viable builds in D2, in addition to many that sucked if you didn't know what you were doing, which means you needed to actually think a little. And if you wanted a really good build, you had to read up, crunch some numbers, do some math and combine some tables, which was the fun part for me (as the gameplay itself wasn't that deep).

Seems like they got rid of all that. Which might be a smart thing to do in today's market, but might also mean that this game won't be for me. So far it reads like the WoW skill system, but without talent trees, 6 quickbar slots instead of up to 120, and you only get skills up to lvl 30. Which would be completely ridiculous, in a bad way.

But those runes being the only way of individualising your character and also coming in multiple quality levels will sure be a nice bump for their RL money item shop where they get a cut on every transaction.

I'm a wizard!

@Xehalus said:

I recognize some of these abilities from another Blizzard game.

Yeah, Diablo II.

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 recognize some of these abilities from another Blizzard game.

I'm going to wear out so many mice playing this game.

Guys, you completely forget the origin of WoW. While set in the Warcraft universe, it was definitely inspired by Diablo for its gameplay. So it's only natural that D3 shares a lot with WoW.

@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.)

It sure is cold in here.

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.

Where is The Archivist?

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

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.

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

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

Wow, I..I..must click

Just one more level, just one more

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

Is there WASD control in D3?

@Enigma777 said:

Come on, Patrick! This is not news ffs!

It's news if you like to click.

Click. Click. Click.

seems like a nice feature

Weirdly I forgot this existed! I am in!

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?

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

@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.

@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!

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

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

@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.

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.

It'd be nice to have connections.

@Enigma777 said:

Come on, Patrick! This is not news ffs!

It's news if you like to click.

Click. Click. Click.

Witch Doctor all the way

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

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!

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

I am excite!

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

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.

*deleted*

Come on, Patrick! This is not news ffs!

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.

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.

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.

@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.

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.

Can't wait to click my finger off.

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

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)

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.