Diablo 3 Official Discussion Thread

[Superfluous Crow]

I have yet to play it for more than an hour, but honestly, I like the new approach to skills, at least on the paper.
I remember being overly curious about everything in Diablo II so I kept putting a bit into everything, making my character mechanically horrible. And I rarely go back and replay, I simply don't have the time for it. So this type of system is good for casual gamers like me, since we get to mess around with everything. Then again, I do see the appeal of skill trees and the climbing of them. Maybe a low-cost you-have-to-be-in-town retraining mechanic would have been better?

[Steerpike]

I think there are definitely pros and cons to both approaches.  I like this one because it encourages experimentation and because, in conjunction with the rune system, there are an insane number of possible combinations (if you factor in different hotkey positions and use elective mode, it's literally millions of combinations).  The runes are wonderful - they don't just alter mechanics, they change the way the skill looks, feels, and functions.  For example, I have a Witch Doctor, one of whose skills is "Corpse Spiders," which consists of the character hurling a jar of spiders which act as temporary pets.  I just unlocked a rune that lets me summon a "Spider Queen" instead that births weaker spiderlings.  Another Witch Doctor skill, Mass Confusion, has a rune that means that those killed while confused rise from the dead.  There are five runes for each skill, each unique.  Because you can retrain whenever you want except (effectively) during combat (due to cooldown), you can try out a large number of skills and runes and really develop a unique playing style.  You can give your character a coherent theme, if you like - my Barbarian, for example, has all of the lifesteal runes equipped and specializes in blood-draining/bleeding attacks.  And you can't "screw up" - you're not forced to restart and begin a new character in order to correct skill "mistakes."

Story still absolutely terrible, however.

[Llum]

Story still absolutely terrible, however.

I felt the need to quote this for emphasis.