Poll: Switching builds in-game quickly

[Karth]

Lol, why not? gives you time to go grab a drink or something and your character would literally be preparing. ...
Your comparison is ridiculous. My suggestion actually allowed an easy 1 button change, which resulted for a minute or two away from the keyboard, not active time spent doing an unnecessary task dating back to pre-GUI games.
...
And to be honest, being required to step away from the keyboard for a minute or two, should not be considered a consequence to begin with.

I have never and will never pay for a game that tells me to stop having fun and go make a sandwich. That is horrible, terrible, awful game design. Developers have been attempting to move away from this as long as I've been around. Reduced loading times, caching, seamless area transitions, more eye candy/random encounters/interesting things to do when traveling in game. Even having a mindless or repetitive task to do in a game is a better idea than telling someone to cease enjoying the experience and bugger off for a minute, and people gripe about make-work in games more than enough to prove how bad that is.

Blizzard's on the right track with the timers (preventing switching in the heat of combat, though acceptable between fights) and the buff to reward people who keep one build. Don't punish people who enjoy playing with game mechanics; punish people who try to abuse game mechanics. Then reward the folks who don't a bit to balance the scales.

[Namik]

I'd vote for "No, becasue it's not necessary. And NOT becuase it would make it WoW-like".

[nailertn]

so i am ok with the saved builds with gear and all if you need to be in town to do it. being able to switch gear out in the field would be bad imo., make it in town and i am good with it. like you said having builds for solo, group, whatever could be usefull. also having certain builds for different acts might be of use. i just dont want to see insta swaps in the field specially when gear is involved

i fully disagree with a timer for leaving town. thats just an aweful idea

What is it about going to town that makes all wrongs right? Gear swapping should not be restricted by your location but by the location of the gear you want to equip. If it is in your backpack, why wouldn't you be able to use it on the field? Concerning spells I understand where you are coming from but limiting skill changes to town is basically equivalent to a "skill reset" spell you have to channel for five seconds (or however long a portal takes to cast).

While I am still indifferent towards skill profiles, I really like the idea of saved gear loadouts. It is essentially a more elaborate weapon swap button, which is not just a convenience feature but something one would actively use mid-combat. But since Blizzard already decided against that...

[BellaStrega]

Okay:

Placing roadblocks against playing is really not good game design. If a game forces you to do nothing for a period of time, there's a problem. The devs want you to play the game.

There's no reason to place more obstacles into a hypothetical ability to switch your entire build in one go than there is to place them into the ability to change one skill at a time. The Nephalem Valor buff in Hell and the cooldown on skills you change will already complicate any attempt to use this in combat.

Forcing people to go to town to do it wouldn't even really qualify as an obstacle, just a nuisance (unless you add a suggested timer, in which case it becomes both an obstacle and a severe nuisance).

While it does not exist now, I would be unsurprised to see the team implement this at some point, as well as (possibly) gear loadouts. I really doubt, when/if it happens, that it will be made into a time-wasting minefield that some people seem to want.

[Qugon]

The simple task of switching around those 6 skills manually will actually make you rethink/change some variation of skills and that would sometimes be more fun or beneficial.
Have a pre-set build in one click eliminates that feat.

Also, with the Nephalem system you will change builds one time at the start of the game I suppose.
So no, definately NO to pre-sets.

[Kblavkalash]

Only, only if you would be able to change like 1 time per game and no more.

[HardRock]

The simple task of switching around those 6 skills manually will actually make you rethink/change some variation of skills and that would sometimes be more fun or beneficial.

This feature wouldn't reduce the thinking required to create new builds. It would simply allow you to save builds that work for you and switch to them quickly. Where's the harm in that?

Also, with the Nephalem system you will change builds one time at the start of the game I suppose.

And saved skill loadouts would make that procedure faster. Again, where's the problem?

Only, only if you would be able to change like 1 time per game and no more.

Why would it need to be limited? It's not like you can't do this by manually switching your skills one by one.

This would be strictly a convenience feature. It wouldn't change the flow or balance of the game in any way whatsoever.

[RazeBarb]

I actually would like the ability to save some of the builds I consider fun/important

[BellaStrega]

The simple task of switching around those 6 skills manually will actually make you rethink/change some variation of skills and that would sometimes be more fun or beneficial.
Have a pre-set build in one click eliminates that feat.

Nonsense. This feature didn't put a stop to theorycrafting in Guild Wars, why would it here? There's always something new to try. It's a matter of convenience to be able to save builds for later use.

Also, with the Nephalem system you will change builds one time at the start of the game I suppose.
So no, definately NO to pre-sets.

This isn't a logical argument. You assert that people can change builds at the start of the game, therefore no presets? How does the former lead into the latter at all?

[chriscowart]

I've only played during Open weekend, but I'll be changing skills a LOT. Even with how little I played, I had "farming" builds and Skeleton King builds. I also had some schmexy pot busting builds!

Anyway, I'm not yet sure how I feel about this idea, so I went with the "Indifferent" option. Asking this once the game has been released for a few weeks will probably garner different results.