06-20-2003, 10:59 AM
Hail WarBlade,
"Consider of a moment comparing Whirlwind with Freezing Arrow. They both have a similar area of effect so I think it's concievable these two skills could be made to balance. Now toss in Frozen Orb and Vengeance just for a laugh. One has a huge area and one is single hit."
Not a bad choice of comparisons, but do not forget that if the game were made perfectly balanced, you would not have the case of a massive area of effect attack and a single-hit attack both being classified as equal: the skills in those areas would have been selected by their balanced ideas. Of cause, that would make for a damned boring game too: who wants a game where every class plays the same? Trouble is, the only way to gain perfect balance is to make them play the same.
Imperfection: we bicker if there is too much, but we do have a certain tolerance to it. Perfect is a lovely word, but it is merely an idea that can never be reached; excellence is something that can be achieved though, and I believe Blizzard proved that with the original Diablo - WarCraft II as well, to really give them some credit :) Excellence is also potentially possible with Diablo II, but we shall have to wait to see how 1.10 develops. Diablo and WarCraft II both had their problems, but boy were they good! I still play Diablo on occation, and if I am going to play an RTS multiplayer, it will most likely be WarCraft II!
To answer Fragbait, my answer is no: there is no way a patch can perfectly balance the classes of Diablo II. Many of the flaws would likely go all the way back to the design stage, and without starting the planning of DII again, they could not correct them all. If Blizzard were to release a Diablo III, I would hope that lessons would have been learned, and they would be looking more closely right from the earliest stages. However Diablo II cannot be balanced. More balanced? Yes, but not totally balanced.
"Consider of a moment comparing Whirlwind with Freezing Arrow. They both have a similar area of effect so I think it's concievable these two skills could be made to balance. Now toss in Frozen Orb and Vengeance just for a laugh. One has a huge area and one is single hit."
Not a bad choice of comparisons, but do not forget that if the game were made perfectly balanced, you would not have the case of a massive area of effect attack and a single-hit attack both being classified as equal: the skills in those areas would have been selected by their balanced ideas. Of cause, that would make for a damned boring game too: who wants a game where every class plays the same? Trouble is, the only way to gain perfect balance is to make them play the same.
Imperfection: we bicker if there is too much, but we do have a certain tolerance to it. Perfect is a lovely word, but it is merely an idea that can never be reached; excellence is something that can be achieved though, and I believe Blizzard proved that with the original Diablo - WarCraft II as well, to really give them some credit :) Excellence is also potentially possible with Diablo II, but we shall have to wait to see how 1.10 develops. Diablo and WarCraft II both had their problems, but boy were they good! I still play Diablo on occation, and if I am going to play an RTS multiplayer, it will most likely be WarCraft II!
To answer Fragbait, my answer is no: there is no way a patch can perfectly balance the classes of Diablo II. Many of the flaws would likely go all the way back to the design stage, and without starting the planning of DII again, they could not correct them all. If Blizzard were to release a Diablo III, I would hope that lessons would have been learned, and they would be looking more closely right from the earliest stages. However Diablo II cannot be balanced. More balanced? Yes, but not totally balanced.
May the wind pick up your heels and your sword strike true.