08-20-2003, 10:33 AM
Pren, your aversion to cross-class skills on items is something I've also advocated for a long time.
I don't understand why anyone would want to devalue the skills of the Sorceress, for example, by putting charges of teleport on amulets. Likewise, I highly dislike seeing things like Multishot on gloves or telekinesis (which is rather useless since like 1.04, I admit) on rings.
If people like these skills, I suggest they PLAY THE CLASS THAT HAS THEM. I personally love playing Sorceresses because gaming without teleport, or, to a lesser extent, very fast run speed, makes my mind implode with boredom.
However, everything I've mentioned above is in regards to charged items. Charged items were the precursor and first offense to the ugliness of v1.10, but the thankful balance is that charged items were rather useless in many situations. Low skill levels, severe quantitative limits on useage in terms of charges and money to actually recharge it, and the sheer cumbersome existence of charges curbed their use.
Now v1.10 slaps the face of the idea of UNIQUE CLASSES by virtually handing the soon-to-be-rich large population on bnet with a ridiculously cheap alternative to blowing millions of gold on charged items (the now infamous, in my mind, Ort rune) and Runewords that bestow appallingly uber skills to anyone with the persistence and luck required.
The aforementioned checks and balances to charged items prior to v1.10 was one thing, but giving people access to skills with a limiting factor being THEIR MANA SUPPLY (Battle Orders --- "Call to Arms", Teleport --- "Enigma", Whirlwind --- "Chaos", Clay Golem --- "Stone", Hydra on the Pally shield) or their veritable continued EXISTENCE (Holy Freeze --- "Doom", Fanatacism --- "Beast") is nauseating, to say the least.
If people want a scout, they should party with a Sorceress. If they want a commander, they should party with a Barbarian. If they want a Golem or a particular curse, they should PARTY WITH A NECROMANCER.
And, again, if they really, reeeeally want that skill, they should play that particular class.
Crowning achievement in nausea-inducing is the new runeword Delirium.
I like the "Delirium" aspect of the helm; it's something you can only get from that item, and makes it desireable for that interesting or potentially useful ability. More realistically, it grants decent mods like +2 to all and 10 to Vitality whilst retaining a signature-the Delirium casting. Just like the Earthshaker hammer, it has useful mods and then a quaint, attractive signature to it-in Earthshaker's instance, the chance to cast volcano is the signature.
What makes v1.10 ugly is the fact that, where Delirium could have been granted some other nice mods to keep it as a powerful helm, Bliz instead gave it the chance to cast level 18 Confuse.
How is that different from the chance to cast volcano in Earthshaker?
The difference is poignant and distasteful; whereas a small chance to cast a risibly weak volcano gives the classy signature effect of the Earthshaker hammer, and no real advantages save for the chance to kill a few extra Fallen while hunting for chipped gems, a 33% change to cast a VERY high skill level, character level 24 curse has the utility and ability to smack down the supposedly heralded difficulty imparted to the new patch.
By the same token, slapping on very high level auras on to weapons and armor not only changes the balance of the game, but noticeably devalues a class, and thus debases the "enforced party play" that was intended and veryone anticipates.
Worst of all, in my opinion, is the fact that three of the most powerful Pally auras have been handed out like candy to anyone willing, TWO of which can be delegated to a merc, for further insult.
Why train a Holy Freeze merc when you can train a Might merc, hand him "Doom", then purchase him some "Bramble" armor and thus receive the benefit of Might, Holy Freeze, and Thorns without having to make a SINGLE goddamn sacrifice in your own equipment? Oh, and he can also wear a "Delirium" helm people can abuse every single stolen skill ad nauseum. And wear some "Enigma" armor to teleport this ubermerc around like a dog on a veeery short leash. Perhaps Blizzard should have allowed characters to gain a Paladin Offensive Aura skill tree at level 80 and dropped the pretense of making unique and interesting items.
Uh, also ending my rant (/rant end, hehe Pren), I'd like to say that this isn't the biggest problem of the patch, despite what looks now to be an extended attack on it on my part. It's simply an annoying issue that will certainly never be resolved and remains a foolish mistake, in my honest opinion.
*Ahem, on the side, I'm starting senior year of high school in two weeks, and I have to do all of my summer reading before the dratted year starts. CURSE Tess of the Douerbervilles, or however you spell it. How am I supposed to play Diablo II when I have linguistically inept old English writers with penchants for overly contrived symbolism and vocabularies with words like "shoppe," "harbour," and "foreasmuch," and good-for-nothing California English teachers plaguing me? Gah, the American education system is a travesty, thank you very much Mr. Bush, who is currently swivelling beady eyes to gaze at other countries he can plunder for inefficient fossil fuels instead of the future of his own country's youth.
* Ahvae'el stalks off fuming.
Thanks to anyone who read that whole thing.
Buena Suerte.
I don't understand why anyone would want to devalue the skills of the Sorceress, for example, by putting charges of teleport on amulets. Likewise, I highly dislike seeing things like Multishot on gloves or telekinesis (which is rather useless since like 1.04, I admit) on rings.
If people like these skills, I suggest they PLAY THE CLASS THAT HAS THEM. I personally love playing Sorceresses because gaming without teleport, or, to a lesser extent, very fast run speed, makes my mind implode with boredom.
However, everything I've mentioned above is in regards to charged items. Charged items were the precursor and first offense to the ugliness of v1.10, but the thankful balance is that charged items were rather useless in many situations. Low skill levels, severe quantitative limits on useage in terms of charges and money to actually recharge it, and the sheer cumbersome existence of charges curbed their use.
Now v1.10 slaps the face of the idea of UNIQUE CLASSES by virtually handing the soon-to-be-rich large population on bnet with a ridiculously cheap alternative to blowing millions of gold on charged items (the now infamous, in my mind, Ort rune) and Runewords that bestow appallingly uber skills to anyone with the persistence and luck required.
The aforementioned checks and balances to charged items prior to v1.10 was one thing, but giving people access to skills with a limiting factor being THEIR MANA SUPPLY (Battle Orders --- "Call to Arms", Teleport --- "Enigma", Whirlwind --- "Chaos", Clay Golem --- "Stone", Hydra on the Pally shield) or their veritable continued EXISTENCE (Holy Freeze --- "Doom", Fanatacism --- "Beast") is nauseating, to say the least.
If people want a scout, they should party with a Sorceress. If they want a commander, they should party with a Barbarian. If they want a Golem or a particular curse, they should PARTY WITH A NECROMANCER.
And, again, if they really, reeeeally want that skill, they should play that particular class.
Crowning achievement in nausea-inducing is the new runeword Delirium.
I like the "Delirium" aspect of the helm; it's something you can only get from that item, and makes it desireable for that interesting or potentially useful ability. More realistically, it grants decent mods like +2 to all and 10 to Vitality whilst retaining a signature-the Delirium casting. Just like the Earthshaker hammer, it has useful mods and then a quaint, attractive signature to it-in Earthshaker's instance, the chance to cast volcano is the signature.
What makes v1.10 ugly is the fact that, where Delirium could have been granted some other nice mods to keep it as a powerful helm, Bliz instead gave it the chance to cast level 18 Confuse.
How is that different from the chance to cast volcano in Earthshaker?
The difference is poignant and distasteful; whereas a small chance to cast a risibly weak volcano gives the classy signature effect of the Earthshaker hammer, and no real advantages save for the chance to kill a few extra Fallen while hunting for chipped gems, a 33% change to cast a VERY high skill level, character level 24 curse has the utility and ability to smack down the supposedly heralded difficulty imparted to the new patch.
By the same token, slapping on very high level auras on to weapons and armor not only changes the balance of the game, but noticeably devalues a class, and thus debases the "enforced party play" that was intended and veryone anticipates.
Worst of all, in my opinion, is the fact that three of the most powerful Pally auras have been handed out like candy to anyone willing, TWO of which can be delegated to a merc, for further insult.
Why train a Holy Freeze merc when you can train a Might merc, hand him "Doom", then purchase him some "Bramble" armor and thus receive the benefit of Might, Holy Freeze, and Thorns without having to make a SINGLE goddamn sacrifice in your own equipment? Oh, and he can also wear a "Delirium" helm people can abuse every single stolen skill ad nauseum. And wear some "Enigma" armor to teleport this ubermerc around like a dog on a veeery short leash. Perhaps Blizzard should have allowed characters to gain a Paladin Offensive Aura skill tree at level 80 and dropped the pretense of making unique and interesting items.
Uh, also ending my rant (/rant end, hehe Pren), I'd like to say that this isn't the biggest problem of the patch, despite what looks now to be an extended attack on it on my part. It's simply an annoying issue that will certainly never be resolved and remains a foolish mistake, in my honest opinion.
*Ahem, on the side, I'm starting senior year of high school in two weeks, and I have to do all of my summer reading before the dratted year starts. CURSE Tess of the Douerbervilles, or however you spell it. How am I supposed to play Diablo II when I have linguistically inept old English writers with penchants for overly contrived symbolism and vocabularies with words like "shoppe," "harbour," and "foreasmuch," and good-for-nothing California English teachers plaguing me? Gah, the American education system is a travesty, thank you very much Mr. Bush, who is currently swivelling beady eyes to gaze at other countries he can plunder for inefficient fossil fuels instead of the future of his own country's youth.
* Ahvae'el stalks off fuming.
Thanks to anyone who read that whole thing.
Buena Suerte.
In war, intelligence is the single greatest commodity.