@onarum: You may be right, and it isn't nearly as bad as it was back when the game launched, back when if you made a bad character the only way to fix it was to start from scratch again, but at least one reason I suggest it is that people are used to games, I think, where you pick an ability and then you have easy access to it. So if a game gave you, say, 10 abilities, you would have some relatively easy way to get to all of them and use them all somewhat equally. That's not the case in D2. Switching between abilities is often a pain in the ass, and while the experimenting thing is kind of fun (my first two characters I beat the game on I just put points into what looked good and useful) by the end I still looked at my ability sheet and sighed looking at the tons of wasted points.
If you'd rather not straight up follow a guide, there is something of a guideline - pick just a couple of abilities that you think look cool and try to focus on those and whatever might give them synergy bonuses. This still means you have to spend points to get down as far as those abilities are, but it doesn't tell you specifically "these are the best abilities in the game."
You can certainly beat the game not following any kind of build or anything, especially now with the one respec per difficulty, but it does make it considerably harder. For example, when Rorie said on the D3 Beta Quick Look that Duriel was one of the worst bosses in the game, I laughed a little bit as my Zeal focused Paladin wrecked Duriel like he was nothing; stood toe-to-toe with him and I don't even think I used more than 4 potions while fighting him. While I've certainly had other characters fight Duriel and it's a fucking mess of trying to do as much damage to him before I die or can make it back through a town portal back to safety before rinsing and repeating. Not that that wasn't fun in its own way though.
So, I certainly suppose there is some merit to just diving into the game and not bothering with trying to focus your character at all, but, I do think it at least warrants noting that doing so will certainly make the game considerably harder.
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