Jay Wilson interview

[Zarathustra]

Hi,

What I heard: "We can't design and balance a game so that it plays well, so we'll take away all your options so that you have to play the game the way we want you to play it."

Hell, everybody knows that strength is the main requirement for warriors.

--Pete

I disagree, Pete.

As much as I enjoy variants and having the flexibily to do crazy, out-of-the-norm things with a character... strength was not the main requirement for any character in Diablo 2 in its latest/final incarnation. Gear was the deciding factor, and they're taking things further in this direction in D3.

Vitality was the main requirement for a Warrior in hell difficulty. Vitality was also the main requirement for Necromancers, Sorceresses, Assassins, Druids, and Paladins.

1.10 changed up Hell difficulty to make it much harder, and the step up meant needing a much higher hitpoint pool to survive some of the things the game would throw at you. Sure, you could try to be a glass cannon and would have quite a bit of success to a point... but to make it in Hell you'd need a heavy Vitality investment. This of course meant a limit on the points you could spend elsewhere.

Other stats were only useful for the minimum requirements. It was useless to put points into Energy other than for convenience's sake. Mana potions grew (grow?) on trees and even if you didn't pick up the piles of blue bottles laying on the ground, the vendors sold them in unlimited quantities. Dexterity was necessary to meet the requirements for whichever weapon you wanted to equip. Strength was necessary to meet the requirements for whichever armor and weapon you wanted to equip. After that? Pure vitality.

The contribution to one's damage from strength was a pittance. Gear was the true equalizer. You could stack on a ton of strength if you'd really like to... but a few hundred extra hitpoints were almost always the better option.

Our customization and stat decisions will come more from gear in D3, all the way down to the runes we place in our skills. There will still be plenty of variety, from all I've read, to sate the thirst of those of us crazy enough to play Paladin Rangers, Poison Dagger Necromancers, or Inferno-only Sorceresses. I like being able to do quirky things with characters and if someone wants to try and make a glass cannon, go nuts! The problem is that you simply could not be successful in Hell difficulty while doing so after the 1.10 patch.