Are weapons just part of your appearance now?

[CoQui]

I'm in the beta. Just to get that out of the way.

Now anyone else kind of annoyed of the lack of weapon use in Diablo 3? You don't need to use your weapons from the minute the game starts. Now it's just spells, spells, and more spells to let you use spells. What ever happened to enjoy hacking and slashing away at something and then unleashing your spells to great effect? The actual powerful feeling of unleashing a spell at the right moment? When out of mana, all you had was your trusty weapon in hand. In Diablo 3, you get bored of spamming the same spells over and over with no need to use your weapons anymore... You have practically unlimited mana, fury, spirit, or whatever your class is using, so there is never a need to use your weapons anymore. Anyone bothered by this or is it just me? I mean, now you see a guy holding a huge axe and really it's just for cosmetic purposes...

[fnaxqtr]

i am with you !

GOGOOGOG HAWKS

[Abomb]

The only character I found this to be the case with was the monk. For example, most if not all of his punch techniques leave his weapons at his side or on his back. I felt the barbarian had his fair share of special skills that made use of his weapon graphics.

But, Yes I also think that weapons should play more of a part in spell animations.

[Soval]

More empty nitpicking.

How are weapons any different in D3 than they were in D2?

Why should spellcasters fight using their weapons and not be using their magic?

What is more spammable and less powerful about skills in D3?

And what exactly is stopping you from using your weapon and skills to make you feel whatever vague feeling you are trying to achieve?

[Risingred]

On a WD, I sometimes keep a button clear for just the normal attack (but why the hell can't normal attack be bound to a number key?). I do this because of bows with a freezing mod on them to use as a quick, free snare. But other than that, dunno.

[CoQui]

More empty nitpicking.

How are weapons any different in D3 than they were in D2?
In Diablo 2 you actually fought with your weapons in hand with each class. At least until you got to a stronger level to unleash most of your spells without a regard to mana. Even for the sorceress. I mean cmon, even your Barbarian doesn't practically use his weapon anymore...

Why should spellcasters fight using their weapons and not be using their magic?
Ok the wizard, I'll give that class a pass and perhaps the Witch Doctor. The other classes shouldn't be so spell dominant(especially right off the bat).

What is more spammable and less powerful about skills in D3?
EVERY SPELL is spammable in D3. Let's use the Monk for example. His building fury spells are required to use his fury spells, thus you have no need to use your normal weapon attack at all. The barbarian's starting Bash spell is the minimalistic attack he has and even that seems over dramatic to start with.

And what exactly is stopping you from using your weapon and skills to make you feel whatever vague feeling you are trying to achieve?

Because there is ZERO need to use your weapon with the standard attack anymore. Blizzard even knows this as they have put the basic starting spell as the default LEFT click on almost every class, am I wrong? Thus, the most common melee smasher, the barbarian, even he has a spell to use right off the bat meaning you will only see that attack unless you choose to go back to the normal weapon attack. I don't know, I kind of miss hacking away at an enemy with a purpose... That purpose being, I don't have practically unlimited mana to keep spamming every spell I have nonstop and I need to put to use that fancy weapon I found with the badass attributes.

Just my two cents.

[galzohar]

Eventually, they want any damage you do to come from one of the skills you have chosen. That's why they have 6 skill slots. If they would make normal attack worthwhile, it might replace some skills (signature spells for Wizard, generators for barb/DH, and the monk would become even more messed up). I really can't come up with how they might make normal attack useful only in certain situations while making you also want to use your generators and spenders.

Keep in mind they already have normal attack as an alternative generator for the DH and wizard, costing a passive skill slot instead of an active one. But yeah, that's probably not enough to make it feel like the weapons are actually useful for more than just being a number to calculate your skill damage.

At least the barbarian actually uses his weapon directly for his moves, and the DH sort of does as well (except some moves that still use weapon damage but have nothing to do with the weapon). For wizard/wd it makes sense that they won't use their weapon much, but it would be nice if their weapon would have some kind of a use (currently it only does for very specific specs which don't seem all that great anyway), and the monk is completely messed up, sheathing his weapon in order to throw some punches.

[Karpalo]

I still wonder how they are planning to prevent wizards and WD to not just pick up a big *** 2 hander for max weapon damage. There has to be some pretty heavy class specific modifiers on their own items to not just swing something like Grandfather around.

[Doctor Clock]

Because there is ZERO need to use your weapon with the standard attack anymore. Blizzard even knows this as they have put the basic starting spell as the default LEFT click on almost every class, am I wrong? Thus, the most common melee smasher, the barbarian, even he has a spell to use right off the bat meaning you will only see that attack unless you choose to go back to the normal weapon attack. I don't know, I kind of miss hacking away at an enemy with a purpose... That purpose being, I don't have practically unlimited mana to keep spamming every spell I have nonstop and I need to put to use that fancy weapon I found with the badass attributes.

Just my two cents.

I never used my normal attacks in Diablo 2 past Act 2 Normal difficulty. At that point, you could easily get an Insight, some mana leech, or just chug potions and constantly use your spells. And once you have Insight and/or mana leech in Diablo 2, you effectively have unlimited mana. That isn't a particularly fun or interesting resource mechanic (read; get item X, cast unlimited spells) Whereas in Diablo 3, I am frequently confronted with the decision of whether or not I save up my "mana" and dump it later on, or spend my energy it as it comes.

[Bowzer]

I never used my normal attacks in Diablo 2 past Act 2 Normal difficulty. At that point, you could easily get an Insight, some mana leech, or just chug potions and constantly use your spells. And once you have Insight and/or mana leech in Diablo 2, you effectively have unlimited mana. That isn't a particularly fun or interesting resource mechanic (read; get item X, cast unlimited spells) Whereas in Diablo 3, I am frequently confronted with the decision of whether or not I save up my "mana" and dump it later on, or spend my energy it as it comes.

That seems like a very fair system in diablo 3 then.

As much as I liked casting infinite orbs around the map it did become rather mindless at a point.