1.10 skill synergy going to make a return?

[nSin]

Everyone who played d2 1.10+ knows that the entire system got overhauled. What I'm wondering mostly is, was this a move by a single person in the blizzard company or was this a design choice that most of the team stood behind? No need for definitive answers here, but it's interesting. Mostly because I felt like forced synergies changed the game for the better in D2. Being very powerful and specialized vs being a jack of all trades

[Merick]

It's my understanding that 1.10 was all done by one or two guys. I like them too, but I doubt we'll see them in D3.

[phool]

I'm confident synergies will make it into D3, synergies improved D2's replay value massively.

[Cdnexpat]

I'm not so sure I like synergies. I sort of like the idea that you can build a character that can handle all situations. IMHO D2 hybrids tended to be weak without really good gear and pure builds often ended up with large area's they couldn't do anything with. I guess I like the jack of all trades idea better.

Edit maybe the way to go would be no immunes (hard immunes) in single player but start allowing more and more in multiplayer.

[Nimbostratus]

I think that synergies should exist, but be massively toned down. I hate how very few skills can stand by themselves and be able to kill things in 1.10+. If they were changed to like 1% per point, that would be nice. Optional power boost, but not really that important.

[jamesisbest]

I don't like how synergies nerfed some builds and made other builds amazing. I definately felt the barbarian was the most nerfed because he got no useful synergies. I think if they implement it better be there from the beginning. I don't think synergies will really be necessary with their current design though. Besides Blizzard wanted this to be more than a 1 skill wonder so I'm sure they are going to try to force people into using a variety of skills this time around.

[Arakhine]

I really hate what synergies did to the game: they removed a lot of flexibility/character customizeability. Before, you had a lot of skills to choose from and could pick 4-5 to max. This obviously left you with a decent selection of choices. Nowadays, you pick at most 2 skills, and the synergies and mandatory 1-point-wonders eat all your skill points. Build variety consists merely of whether you have skill A's or skill B's synergies maxed.

That said, there's nothing wrong with synergies per se, if they are less skill-point-intensive. Of if several weak skills versus one strong skill is something you actually _decide_.

[5zigen]

Synergies were a double edged sword in D2.

They made more skills overall viable endgame, but you traded that viability for a decrease in character variability.

Let me explain.

In Pre-1.10 it took 20 points to max almost any skill, let's take for example frozen arrow. Post 1.10 it took 40 points to max frozen arrow from a damage point of view. There are skills that virtually could not be maxed, like any of the bone damage skills.

What this resulted in is characters that were much more focused, because going without synergies for many skills was difficult if not impossible, It really lead to characters that were literally 1 (or sometimes two) trick ponies.

While there were slightly more usable skills, almost every build saw it's usable skills decreased with the advent of synergies.

Thus, I think synergies aren't really a good thing and I sort of doubt we'll see them. Another reason I doubt we'll see synergies is because they arent going with the 20 points per skill model this time.

I know some people loved synergies, but in reality they killed off almost as many builds as they created, and good skill design could have eliminated the necessity for synergies entirely.

I know it's cool to hate on HGL right now (hell, I do it a lot), but one of the things I think would be excellent would be to borrow one aspect of their skill system. The low level skills gain in power as your character levels and gain in effect (and power, potentially) as you invest in the skill.

Something like this could easily solve the problem of synergies, and it would be fairly easy to balance.

Just make the higher level skills only nominally better than the low level skills, when both skills are maxed out for a given character level, and make the lower level skill take slightly more points to max, to make up for the (presumed) lack of prerequisite skills to get the low level skill.

Then just add in the normal D2 skills, focus on having lot's of skills that all play and feel different, give people enough points to max between 5 and 7 skills, and just go from there.

[Leohappy]

i think synergies are a useful addition, because it made low level skills actually useful this time around. pre-1.10, people were saving points only to boost their level 30 skills. which made 3/4s of the skill tree useless. nobody wants to invest into skills that are going to be obsolete as soon as they hit 30.

now you can have a lightning sorc which will use charged bolts, lightning, chain lightning and nova. now that's a lot of variety right there. skills from levels 1-30, which are all being useful.

[smartdot]

because of the fact that there's a hotbar in the game, im inclined to believe that there will not be synergies, or at none that eat 60+ skill points. I think blizzard is trying to get people to combine skills in interesting waysas opposed to just focusing on one. For instance using a barb you could charge, use the warcray stun, cleave abit, then ww, then leap out. or in the wd case, you could zombie wall, raise dog things on other side, firebomb/locust swarm, dog explosion.