no more attributes

[redrach]

So I'm guessing that the amazon should be able to use holy bolt, a sorceress should be able to use leap attack, the necromancer should be able to use martial arts move?

Actually, runeword oskills in D2 made for pretty interesting and fun-to-play characters such as palazons and weresins. It wouldn't be fun if all classes were mirror-images of each other, but it IS fun to see how a particular skill from another works with the rest of the skills of another.
Coming back to the topic, the removal of user-assigned stats means that they don't want certain equipment available to certain classes. I hope the benefits to balancing outweigh the considerable loss in player choice.

[ill logic]

Cosby: Who will start the petition indeed. I absolutely hate this change from what I've seen so far. We need a far better explanation for why making attributes auto. will be a good idea, rather than that it helps them accommodate items better.

Blizz has shown interest in changing things when the public can make a good case (corpses). We need to do that here.

And I've really just scanned over this thread. But someone said they're glad that builds won't be "max vit, no nrg, as much str/dex as needed" anymore. But this change is using a hatchet when a scalpel was called for.

[konfeta]

If you have a tree growing across your drive way, the last instrument you will want to be using is a scalpel.

Read the thread, I explained this position.

[Telzen]

So picture this: You are lvl 98 or 99 on your wizard. It wasn by no means easy to get there and it shouldnt be. You are mfing one day and find the best item in the game. but oh wait, you cant use it, you need a lvl 98 barb. no thank you.

I like my wizards strong, while having a hard time blocking, with a lot of life and little mana

Items are pretty much being made for individual classes now. If its a item that would require stats a barb has and others don't then its probably only going to be good for a barb. I didn't really expect this, but at least we have skill runes now. They seem like a really cool way to diversify characters.

[Q33]

Whoa, was not expecting this change. I can't say I like it very much, but I'm willing to wait and see. I have faith in Blizz's ability to make fun games, but this decision does make me nervous.

I do see a potential benefit of this system though. And maybe this was what they were trying to accomplish. By having the stats auto assign, it makes sure your character will be able to handle whatever level of the game you are in. So if you're lvl 40, theres a specific place in the game you should be (like in d2, this was around act 1/2 of NM), and all lvls 40s should be able to handle the area well. This helps place the focus back on actually playing through the game rather than just rushing.

In D2, the quickest way to get through the game was to get rushed, and then put in all pts into strength until you hit the specific strength your guy required, then dex, then rest vita. The result of this was that you had a bunch of lvl 30-70 guys who couldnt do jack: they might have had good gear on, but they couldnt take a hit and they didnt have enough mana to do much damage. I know it doesn't stop rushing, but it does appear it would give some meaning and fun to the mid-level game, which I feel was really lacking in D2.

If this in combination with the idea that all skills, even low level skills, will be useful, this makes sure that no one can really mess up their character. While some may say that this decreases variety, it another way it increases variety because no matter what you choose, you can be relatively sure the build will be viable, letting individual preference dictate skill choice, rather than whats viable.

But I do agree with people, that it does seem to discourage completely strange builds, like melee sorc/singer barb/etc. But hopefully as another poster pointed out, if there are other sources of extra stat points, you can still make them, you just need to get the right gear.

[Curik]

I find it sad that there are so many (obviously, kids or very impatient personalities in general.. I'm hoping the former) people bashing critical thought around here. What's so wrong with expressing your opinion about something you love? I wouldn't want to go trough life not voicing my opinion on things that I don't like, and it's quite pathetic to watch how you try to force that upon others. If you don't like negative threads, don't read them. Growing up would be useful, too.

As for the change, I'm neutral. I don't like it because I think it's too much similiar other games out there, and another unique feature they removed. On the other hand, I don't know what's left to show, so I'm willing to wait. I liked WoW, but not for the skill attributes system.

Edit: I *do* believe it limits customizability. A barbarian doesn't always have to be using strength, as could be seen by numerous warcry builds out there. Same with assasin, you could do quite well with a blade-build, and that wasn't the same attributes wise as a regular build.

[konfeta]

Critical thought implies people actually thinking out the change. In most of this thread I have saw mostly kneejerk bash. Sorry if I delved into that territory, but I feel rather opinionated and would prefer that people actually thought this one through instead of automatically deriding it.

[Sein Schatten]

It's the way attributes and +attribute items were implemented in D2 that made them somewhat broken, not the attributes themselves. They should be huge, they are what makes a character unique. In D2 they weren't huge when they should've been.

So Blizzard's solution is to just toss them out the window... Pretty elementary and lame of a solution, if you ask me.

QFT. Blizzard is just lazy with this. Balancing skills and stats is too much work for them. :(
Konfeta: Your argument can very well be made against skills, too.

[Bad Ash]

I actually take offense to that Kon. Considering I have explained every aspect I have said I am unhappy with, countered your arguements when you "delved" into your territory, and said that I trust blizzard and will wait to play before a final determination is decided upon. I wouldnt lump all of us together when you are bashing the people in this thread simply for DISAGREEING with you.

People by no means should all be forced to agree, life would be much less interesting. and Diablo would be much less interesting if instead of being able to put an extra 40 pts into strength so i can use that better gear, it was forced into useless mana.

[plpop]

i called it last week, this game would get dumbed down. Removing custom stat points is a great example.

Seems like they are making this game for the console market.