07-02-2003, 04:27 AM
I think that skill "synergies" implemented that way are a wrong idea.
At first glance, it seems a great idea: it allows more diversity, by making skills having more than 20 effective skill levels.
But on second thought, it doesn't seem so good, for at least two reasons:
1- It actually doesn't promote diversity.
Really promoting diversity would mean striving to make each skill appealing as a main skill.
Instead of that, it encourages people into pouring points into those skills, but not actually using them.
Having Resist Lightning for instance increase Holy Shock damage may make people invest in it, which they never do nowadays, but still won't make people USE the skill.
2- It makes balancing the game even harder. A lot harder.
Considering Blizzard's utter failure on that score in all the previous versions of the game, making the job even harder isn't at all a good idea.
Synergies aren't necessarily bad. But not that way.
A example of a good synergy is Fist of Heavens / Holy Bolt.
I don't know how it works, but let's assume that the holy bolts fired by FoH use your Holy Bolt skill level. There you have a skill synergy of the right kind.
At first glance, it seems a great idea: it allows more diversity, by making skills having more than 20 effective skill levels.
But on second thought, it doesn't seem so good, for at least two reasons:
1- It actually doesn't promote diversity.
Really promoting diversity would mean striving to make each skill appealing as a main skill.
Instead of that, it encourages people into pouring points into those skills, but not actually using them.
Having Resist Lightning for instance increase Holy Shock damage may make people invest in it, which they never do nowadays, but still won't make people USE the skill.
2- It makes balancing the game even harder. A lot harder.
Considering Blizzard's utter failure on that score in all the previous versions of the game, making the job even harder isn't at all a good idea.
Synergies aren't necessarily bad. But not that way.
A example of a good synergy is Fist of Heavens / Holy Bolt.
I don't know how it works, but let's assume that the holy bolts fired by FoH use your Holy Bolt skill level. There you have a skill synergy of the right kind.