Balancing in Diablo

[kandrathe]

The only point to balancing the characters is for PvP play.

I disagree.

Even then, it would be a lot more interesting to have a system where cunning and strategy would count more than balancing characters for toe-to-toe combat.

I agree.

Adequate balance is only important in DII, because almost all the skill is in choosing skill points, and equipment. If actual user skill was required, then skill and equipment balance becomes less important overall. So a Grandfather in the hands of an incompetent is as worthless as any sword you can buy from Charsi.

Compare the combat key choices in DII to say Tekkan Tag Tournament, or heck any FPS. Your choices are basically "Do I continue to swing/fire, or do I run away?" You can also switch equipment, with the 'W' key. Most of the time I use one index finger for clicking the right mouse button. Sometimes, if I use an Amazon I also use the shift key. Then, for some builds you may need to switch skills occasionally.

I would love it if the top ladder players were ones that bought all their equipment in the shops, but just really had great gaming skills.

Then, you must consider non-melee classes. I would remove or nerf most of the AOE spell you can spam from a distance, or cast then run away from, make them only effect the area near the caster and only while they concentrate on the spell. Make all missile weapons, and missile spells require real aiming.

I'm not advocating an interface that requires an ergonomic game controller, just maybe a few things. Say dodge, parry, thrust, aim high, or low, and block with shield.

Here is how I would theoretically adequately balance the game. First you need to consider each player class, and the variations on how they might be built. Consider the average likely and best equipment available for that variation.
Next, compare apples to apples. Have your play testers measure the time and difficulty it takes to accomplish an Act with a given build. If one seems out of balance, have more people attempt that same assignment to validate it wasn't just one person’s inability to out think the game. Do this from Act 1 normal thru Act 5 Hell difficulty. If a skill, or a monster, or a piece of equipment seems to be far too powerful, then nerf it. Now do the same thing for PvP. Now make sure you haven't broken PvM.

And, also just maybe it can be considered skill to decide not to go up against the PI SS ES MSLEB FECE enchanted boss. If everything were safe and easy, it would be boring. I dislike the 1 hit kill monsters as much as I dislike the silver bullet items that kill monsters in 1 blow. But, if everything were average it would also get boring. In order for the game to be interesting, there needs to be extremes. I would rather that the players skill trees, and equipment were excluded from them.