[NEW] Poll: Saving and Loading Builds in Game?

[GetMerked]

This is a more effective Q n A for the poll found at: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...n-game-quickly (Apologies for the double-thread) - I feel as though this poll will generate more specific statistics.

Question:
Would you like to be able to save and load builds in game?


Answers:
Yes, it would save me time and be a convenience.
Yes, but only if there were restrictions such as location or cooldown.
No, I would rather change skills and runes one at a time.

Why?

[Andy2702]

Nah. It takes the purpose out of focusing on a specific build.

[Shucklezzz]

Yeah I am gonna have to say no, because then that is when people start running around with cookie cutter builds.. There would be a specific builds thats best for each boss.
For now, hopefully it'll only be "Yeah, this is a pretty powerful skill for this fight because of the way it reacts against X mechanic" and everyone will use it for that certain boss..

Hopefully NV will fix that.

[jokewood]

Anyone interested in this subject may be interested in David Sirlin's thoughts on the issue. I would recommend it in particular to those of you voting no, as he makes a well-reasoned argument to the contrary. http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2012/5/3/...ty-system.html

Part of the article is quoted below:

Years ago I saw several official Blizzard posts that defended a similar idea in World of Warcraft. Their claim was that the intentional difficulty (and originally, the complete inability) to respec talents was to create more diversity, and to make choices matter. This is really wrong-headed and actually the opposite of true. If you have a balanced system, you would not have any need to prevent everyone from switching their specs around. You're basically saying that you're happy that a lot of people are locked into bad specs they aren't happy with, because that means there are more different specs out there being played. What a terrible thing to inflict on your players. Again, you'll have varied specs out there if you actually have several viable ones and small or zero switching costs. Imagine if we made a fighting game and "balanced it" by saying you are stuck with whichever character you first pick! The big variety of characters played shows how great our balancing is right? (No.)

The no-respec mindset is actually counter-productive to the goal, too. When switching costs are really high (like creating your entire character over from scratch...) then no one really wants to experiment. It's too risky to do so, and it's better to go look up the cookie cutter build and go with that. So you get less variety, not more. The variety you do get is often from players who you pissed off by punishing them for mistakes or for exploring the system.

The good news is that Blizzard's thoughts on this have clearly changed over the years. WoW respecs got more permissive over time, and the next step in that progression is Diablo 3.

He's talking about d3's new talent system as it is currently implemented, but I believe the same line of reasoning applies to the current topic of allowing players to "bookmark" specs for later use as well.

[Darkmere]

Yeah I am gonna have to say no, because then that is when people start running around with cookie cutter builds.. There would be a specific builds thats best for each boss.

Just so we're clear, you are saying that 20+ extra mouse clicks will be the only factor in a player's decision to use cookie cutter builds or not?

[Scorch Hellfire]

I would say yes, but with restrictions... Maybe reintroduce the Nephalem Altars to save and switch between builds and give use of it a cooldown. Also, 3 saved builds per character max.

[BellaStrega]

Yes to saving builds. No to further restrictions beyond those that already exist for changing skills.

[AurelianZ]

Nah. It takes the purpose out of focusing on a specific build.

Which is exactly what the developers said they DON'T WANT.

[Andy2702]

Which is exactly what the developers said they DON'T WANT.

Nope. They wouldn't have implemented Nephalem Valor if they wanted us to change skills every other second. Jay himself said people who played the demo at Blizzcon would just leave the skill screen open while they fought, and that's something they don't want.

The key word is "focus". They want people to focus on a specific build, but at the same time allow for flexibility.

[Srikandi]

Much better worded than the previous poll, which I couldn't vote in because I didn't like any of the answers.

I voted for "with restrictions", but I don't feel too strongly about the restrictions, heh... since as others have pointed out, there are already restrictions on skill swapping. However I think it makes most sense to tie this function (if it existed) to the stash, so that you wouldn't have to keep your alt gear in your inventory... and in that case of course you have to be in town.

I agree that switching for zones/bosses is intended and part of the game design, so streamlining that can't be a bad thing.

We will never get it, though, considering they wouldn't even give us a weapon switch hotkey