Disgusted with Paladins 1.10

[Dagni]

Requiring players to spend more than 20 points in any skill to get the full main effect of that skill is wrong imo.

But imo that's exactly why Blizzard is adding synergies: so that it is possible to spend more than 20 in many main skills.

What kind of help is "Shout" to a Berserker ?
What kind of help is Leap to a Leap Attcker ?
What kind of help is Bash to a Stunner ?

And so on...

Look at the synergy that already exists in 1.09.

What kind of help is Spirit Wolves to a Grizzlymancer?
What kind of help is a Grizzly to a Wolf Pack Leader?

That's the point! Because without synergies a Grizzly specialist would NEVER waste points in one of the other summons. But as it is, in certain situations he might use dire wolves instead of a bear, since he put 20 points into it anyway. What are they called, Hunter Druids? In pure form, they wouldn't exist if the Summons couldn't be improved past 20 skill points.

I'm very disappointed that the Vines and Totems didn't get any synergies.

What synergies ARE is a slightly improved way of upping the 20 skill point cap for some skills. Improved because it gives the designer, and in some cases the player, more control over what exactly the later points do. Improved because it can add some tactical options to the player in situations when the main skill isn't as useful.

Given that the Berserker spent 40 points in Berserk, it's kinda nice that when he isn't using Berserk he can still get a benefit from some of those points. He isn't going to use Berserk against a Magic Immune (however rare, I'm sure they exist), so now Shout can be useful, how useful depends on just how good the DR of his equipment happens to be.

Leap is just about as much a help to a Leap Attacker as to any other barb. Any Barb can get Leap Attack at level one for the super range. Leap's advantage is the knockback.

Bash/Stun is an example of a good synergy, imo. Naturally someone that has maxed Stun isn't going to max Bash otherwise. But now that he has, against some monsters he might find Bash more useful. But the main point was to get 40 points into Stun. Since Stun is probably one of the Barb's weaker skills, it is probably good that it can be pumped past 20 points.

Mostly, synergies should be intentionally in non-complimentary skills. Because you shouldn't be able to put even more points in your primary skill while at the same time improving your other main skills. Instead, you get the extra benefit when your primary skill is of less use than normal.

Ideally, each skill you've maxed should have a situation where it is better than the other skill. So if the following sorc Fire skills gave synergies to each other, ideally it should be something like this: Firebolt/Hydra should be the best Sorc/fire skill against single, moving targets. Firewall against one or more stationary targets in a line. Meteor/Fireball against groups. Unfortunately, they left Firebolt completely worse than Fireball, instead.

Although this doesn't completely apply to the Barb, the reason that many skills NEED to have a higher skill cap than 20 is because otherwise the skill will max at clvl 20 - 50, depending on the skill. Therefore, with a direct damage skill, it is guaranteed to either suck in Hell, or be way too good in Normal - or both. It has always been this balancing problem, combined with the skill cap, that has caused almost all damage-dealing level one skills to suck. They aren't supposed to suck, but there was no way around it, without ruining balance in Normal difficulty.

Charged Bolt was able to overcome this because, among other reasons, Lightning Mastery allowed 40 points in the skill. So just right there, that put CB on equal footing with other classes level 18 or 24 direct damage skills. The triple multipling effect of +skills is, of course, what put it ahead.

In any case, even if I'm wrong and raising the skill cap through synergies is a bad thing, I think it's clear that that IS what Blizzard is doing. Given that, it only makes sense to have the synergistic skills not be ones that you would already want to pump together. That's why so many synergies are elemental damage synergies given to other elemental damage skills of the same element. Not because it is themed, though it is that as well.

- Dagni