No Skill Points? Please tell me your opinions

[Kizwik]

Ok so,
As I understand it, there are no longer points that you allocate upon leveling to your Attributes AND there are no points that you allocate to certain skills to make them stronger?
So, everyone of the same class has the same strength spells damage-wise?
So, the only thing that makes anyone of the same class different(barring one having much better gear)..are the skills that they have selected to use?
Am I right about this?
It almost seems...kinda blander imo, but i have NOT played beta. Those of you that have played beta, can you please elaborate on these topics?

[z00t]

You're more or less correct.

It SOUNDS 'blander' on paper, but I find that in practice, Blizzard was right in that the feeling of customisation through skill-trees and attribute points was kinda superficial. It didn't take me long at all to embrace the current system. It's only downside is the interface, but the system itself is fine.

I was so worried that my characters wouldn't have a sense of identity, but I still find myself more attached to them than I thought I would be, despite the fact that I can freely swap my builds.

[kavlor]

I just think about games like Castlevania that have lots of different attacks but they don't have levels and think how it's fun in that game.Then think Diablo 3 is doing this except with more aspects and combinations.Yes Castlevania is a different game but the fun of killing enemies in different ways is there.Also theres lot's of feedback when you actually attack an enemy,you don't just stand there attack and enemies disappear,they get thrown about and your character moves about in different ways.

[Ixnatifual]

As I understand it, there are no longer points that you allocate upon leveling to your Attributes AND there are no points that you allocate to certain skills to make them stronger?

Correct.

So, everyone of the same class has the same strength spells damage-wise?

Yes, if they pick the exact same skills and runes.

So, the only thing that makes anyone of the same class different(barring one having much better gear)..are the skills that they have selected to use?

Yes. The "only" difference is skills, level and gear.

[jamesL]

"So, everyone of the same class has the same strength spells damage-wise?"

Correct.

Yes, if they pick the exact same skills and runes.

Yes. The "only" difference is skills, level and gear.

I believe spell damage is based on the weapon you have, so even if you pick the exact same skills and runes you will not have the same strength skills damage wise

and not having skill trees or tiers is the best thing ever

skill trees just do not work without inexpensive respeccing, because you always end up saving your skill points for the later (better) skills

skills trees with skill points do not make for fun play

[Apocalypse]

the difference is runes and items. after playing with the skill calc for some time it looks like for the most part each skill has a few good runes that can be a viable part of a build.


no attribute points is not a big deal imo. it was never a fun feature nor did it make people different. i was against lack of skills points for ever but then realized i would have just put the skills points into the 6 skills i was using and if i respec i would just put them in those 6, really no different than what we have now. i guess they could have made it where you did not have enough points to maximize all 6 skills but then every build would include at least 1 point wonder to maximize the remaining skill points which would eliminate possible builds.

the D3 system reminds me a lot of the GW system and it works imo. also skills being based on weapon damage is nice. was another thing i was iffy on until i tried it

[yovargas]

also skills being based on weapon damage is nice. was another thing i was iffy on until i tried it

I feel the opposite. I was indifferent towards it till I saw it in action. Now it might be my least favorite idea in the whole damn game. More lazy, unimaginative solutions. Ugh.

[Kblavkalash]

You would max every useful skill anyways, so there is no need for skill points.

[Apocalypse]

this actually allows casters to gain something from socketing weapons though. so many useless mods to a sorc in d2, now all those "useless" damage or IAS mods are helpfull.

[RazeBarb]

Right now it looks like the items will make the only (yet huge) difference.

I think someone mentioned that a lvl 60 char without any gear would have around ~1000 HP, but the highest health potion heals for over 12k HP.
And that's cool! Diablo is all about the items.