how do skills level/scale?

[snifsnif]

I havnt been able to tell how the available skills level up or scale up as the character levels up. I was watching a lvl 13 wizard using disintegrate last night, and I wondered why that skill was so much more powerful than one that was available from the start or even level 3 (and therefore had 10-13 levels to scale up in power). blizz says that they want almost every skill to be viable through end game, but it doesnt appear to be coming true.

I have watched quite a few vids, but if someone has seen that i am obviously wrong; and that lower level skills that have scaled up are still powerful, please let me know.

[perplex]

I think Diablo 3 will be more balanced in a 'character level vs. monster level' way. So it may be the fact that the character outleveled the monsters by quite a few levels as well.
Early on the character would face monsters of equal level, hence the spells/abilities being less powerful than later on when the character had a clear level advantage.

Not sure if this answers what you were wondering about, though.

I'm pretty sure that each of that Wizards level 13 skills would be almost as, if not equally, powerful as the one shown.

[Hubie]

they scale with each level, with runes (in many ways), and perhaps (not quite sure about this) with some stats on items?

[Kastigar]

They only scale with levels for certain classes. Barbarian skills that do damage are based on weapon damage. Leveling up in of itself doesn't change the stats of the skill. So for them gear is everything.

Runes as was said will be a way to augment skills and make them stronger. Items...not sure, haven't seen any in beta, but beta is fairly limited.

And at lvl 13 you basically annihilate everything the beta can throw at you. It isn't the best way to judge the skills effectiveness.

[snifsnif]

You haven't been able to see the completely obvious way in which a level 13 skill completely evaporates monsters much faster than using the same skill at a much lower level?

Are you blind?

And you don't understand how in light of this skills will remain endgame viable so long as they keep scaling throughout?



no, im talking about using an actual lower level skill that has had time to scale in power, theoretically making it as powerful as a skill that has recently been unlocked by reaching a certain level. Blizz has more or less stated that some skills will scale as you level, making them viable for endgame. shouldnt a skill that is available at level 3 be much stronger at slvl 10 when char reaches clvl 13, than a skill that is slvl 1 at clvl 13???

dont flame if you dont understand the question

[Frantic]

No. I think slvl and clvl are essentially the same in this game. Basically they scale either with gear or with level. So a clvl 13 skill that you got at clvl 1 will be the same 'strength' of a clvl 13 skill that you got at clvl 13. Ideally they should be similar in strength but have different purposes (ie, single target damage should always do more damage to a single target than an aoe spell - unless it offers an additional effect or utility), which I think is what they're aiming for.

(I'm not totally sure I got what you're asking though.)

[Snowhammer]

So I asked a very similar question to this in this forum yesterday "Green Lettering" was the title.

The answer didn't seem to make much sense (not arguing it, as I havnt played).

The tester said that the green numbers didn't seem to change.

If I am so fortunate as to get into the beta, one of the main things I will be watching during my play through are those green numbers on the tool tips. Do they change with +attack? Do they stay the same? Do they grow when you level up because you have aquried more stats (the ones that auto allocate)?.

Lots of questions on this front that seem not to have yet been answered.

It makes me wonder if Blizzard hasn't full impletmented their entedned UI as far as watching your skill grow in power is concered. Cause that probably needs to be somthing that is straght forward. "Oh I got +5 attack! My Arcane Orb does 2 more dmg now!"

Also, notice the level 13 wizard has 93 attack which gives him +93% damage. To me thatmeans that a max level wziard will be like 500 attack and +500ish % damage. So maybe the way you think about skill power is a % increase from those base green numbers? Fun stuff to think about.

[Raesene]

It's possible that some of these green numbers might not be changing noticeably because of rounding. Perhaps when you get into the triple digits you'll start seeing the effects of swapping around gear and such better.

[snifsnif]

Its making more sense now. I guess i was thinking more in terms of d2 style where there is still technically a "skill level," but that it just scales or increases in level automatically. but it seems that each skill may augment a little as the game progresses, but most of their effective increases will come from from improved items, improved autostats (attack, etc) and passives that augment skill power. thats good, its a more natural system that doesnt seem so blatantly tiered. will it make it more difficult for the min/maxers tho?

[Frantic]

Blizz made the mechanics so that your early spells can be used right through to end game if you want to... so much so that they made the higher level spells that you get have some longer cooldowns so at the very top (the last spells you get) they'll have 2 min cd type of abilities. This was to stop players from just dumping old spells to pick up and respec into the new spells.

So yeah, the spells should scale. Whether they scale so that all the spells remained balanced with eachother is another matter though. Hopefully Blizz will stay on top of that and keep rebalancing it as we go.


Its making more sense now. I guess i was thinking more in terms of d2 style where there is still technically a "skill level," but that it just scales or increases in level automatically. but it seems that each skill may augment a little as the game progresses, but most of their effective increases will come from from improved items, improved autostats (attack, etc) and passives that augment skill power. thats good, its a more natural system that doesnt seem so blatantly tiered. will it make it more difficult for the min/maxers tho?Also remember runes and rune ranks. They'll have an effect on things too because apparently different ranks increase the effect the rune has rather than just give a flat damage increase (if you understand my drift).