Builds based around items?

[tiny timmy]

In D2, we had certain player builds solely based around certain unique items. The Ribcracker Druid and Death's Web poison Necro come to mind.

What are the opinions on these kinds of builds and will we see them in D3.

On the same line of thought, do you think the "best" items in D3 will be proportionally better than the best items in D2?

[Putz]

Couldn't you have just made one post...

[Hrus]

Weredruid can be easily played without Ribcracker as well as Poison necro without Death's web. But try to build a Dreamadin or Riftadin/Riftsin, Wolfbarbs, Bearsin/zon/sorc, WWsin etc.
Those are all very funny builds and I would like to have something like those in D3. I don't need overpowered uniques. But if they are rare and not duped, why not make them really strong? Imagine having Enigma or Infinity in non-duped environment. They will be true prizes for a dedication needed to make them.

[Moonfrost]

I don't think the builds themselves are based around the items as much as the items give people reason to make those builds. As Hrus said, you can easily play a poison necro without Death's Web, but once you find one and realize it's a best-in-slot item, you'll likely find yourself tempted to make a necro and try it out.

It's probably also a matter of people being used to the high end items in general (perhaps through duping) and regarding anything other than the very best as not "viable" even though it is, or simply not enough a reason to make a new character.

I'd love some novelty items in D3 because they're necessary to create some distinction in a sea of what would otherwise be very similar items. If all items have some kind of +damage/defense/resistance or whatever then they end up redundant. You need some flavor items to spice things up a bit. The challenge is making those flavor items useful (like Ribcracker) rather than filler items that nobody uses.

[NASE]

But that's the problem Hrus. They appear to not want this.
The want to builds the game around rare items, where uniques are only there to fill up the space until you find that awesome rare to make your build shine (a bit like classic today). The problem is that you can't implement things like conviction or whirl wind on rare items. Making item based builds even harder then they are today.

[Moonfrost]

I don't think we know enough about the items to draw any conclusion about the developers' intentions at this point. They've said they want uniques to have certain affixes not normally found on rare items and oskills are an example of those.

[Doppel]

So, uniques will be there to fill up gaps until you found a truly amazing rare (or to put it more correctly, uniques are templates of very nice and effective items), or to be used in more off-beat builds (thanks to o-skills and such)? I like that, as long as they are aware to not create certain items which everyone will want to use (like enigma and many others).
(same goes for runewords or whatever will be the equivalent/variation of that in D3)

[Runestar]

I don't think we know enough about the items to draw any conclusion about the developers' intentions at this point. They've said they want uniques to have certain affixes not normally found on rare items and oskills are an example of those.

Rarely does a thread go by these days without one of this arguments popping up...

[SlechtWeerBeer]

But that's the problem Hrus. They appear to not want this.
The want to builds the game around rare items, where uniques are only there to fill up the space until you find that awesome rare to make your build shine (a bit like classic today). The problem is that you can't implement things like conviction or whirl wind on rare items. Making item based builds even harder then they are today.

You can make such modifiers spawn on Rares etc, actually. It'd just make it somewhat hard finding a good roll along with other useful mods (you don't really need that +2 light radius :P).

[lumpor]

Rarely does a thread go by these days without one of this arguments popping up...

Yeah I agree, I hate those kinds of posts.


"Blizzard has announced that diablo 3 will be made as a group game and that assasin players can steal items from other players"

Omg wait until the game is released before you judge!!!!!!


Anyway, although the op gave bad examples, there are builds based around items. No really popular ones almost, but they exist. There are many items where you can look at it and think, "hmm, which class would take best advantage of these?"

There was the brandmancer, the destruction bear, the auradin and lots of other kinds of builds. I really liked builds based around an item. However, D3 will most likey not be built in that way. It was fun, but it had disadvantages too