08-25-2003, 08:15 AM
Hi! MongoJerry here of Grizabella and Gunter fame. I have mixed feelings about cross-class skills. As a devil's advocate, I'd like to say that what I like about them is that they open up new possibilities to create entirely new classes of characters. Back in the old days, before LoD allowed people to buy items with skill charges on them, you were restricted to using only the skills of your chosen class. That may sound good, noble and pure to many people, but in reality it made for a stagnant game where 95% percent of people played the exact same cookie-cutter builds. The new 1.10s items offer ways to create entirely new classes of characters that not only use the base skills of one's chosen character type but also the skills one gets from one's items. The fighting styles of these characters may end up being very different from the usual cookie-cutter builds and that should create a lot more diversity of Diablo II play. One's character type will no longer be determined only by one's skill point allocation. It'll also be determined by one's equipment and style of play. I think that's a good thing.
Grizabella is a good example. She's not a sorceress simply because she casts Teleport, Enchant, and Chilling Armor; she's not a paladin simply because she Zeals; she's not a necromancer because she casts Confuse; and she's not a barbarian because she casts Battle Orders and uses Berserk. She's a combination of all of those classes and uses a fighting style that is entirely unlike any of them. In effect, she's become an entirely new character class. I think that's great and think that this ability to create new combination character classes will be a great addition to Diablo II.
However, I definitely agree with Wapptor that Blizzard shouldn't allow classes to use the best skills of other classes -- or at least they should be limited to low power versions of the skill. I think the +1 to Zeal on Passion is good, for example, because there's no way that another class could power that up to the same strength as a maxed out Zealing Paladin. However, as I noted in my Grizabella writeup, 'Delirium' and 'Call to Arms' are too powerful. Since necromancers and sorceresses tend to wear a lot more +skills items than barbarians, I'll bet that after a while, they will tend to have more powerful Battle Orders and Battle Commands than barbarians do. The skill levels on the 'Call to Arms' should be lowered significantly -- like to say +5 Battle Orders or even only +1. That would still be useful, but it wouldn't be as devastatingly powerful as it now. And the confuse on 'Delirium' is just way too powerful. One wild idea I had would be to switch the Mind Blast and Confuse parts of 'Delirium'. Make it so that there's a 10% chance on being struck to cast Confuse and 33% chance (or lower) of casting Mind Blast on striking. Or maybe make it a low level decrepify instead of Confuse.
One cross-class item I wish they would make is a low level exceptional unique bow -- say one that does an average of 40 physical damage like Skystrike does -- and gives +1 multishot to all classes. Then, there could be a whole new class of bow Enchantresses running around casting Enchant on party members and minions and dealing a decent amount of damage of her own. It would by no means be an uber class, but at least it would be a viable build and would be a great character in a party.
Grizabella is a good example. She's not a sorceress simply because she casts Teleport, Enchant, and Chilling Armor; she's not a paladin simply because she Zeals; she's not a necromancer because she casts Confuse; and she's not a barbarian because she casts Battle Orders and uses Berserk. She's a combination of all of those classes and uses a fighting style that is entirely unlike any of them. In effect, she's become an entirely new character class. I think that's great and think that this ability to create new combination character classes will be a great addition to Diablo II.
However, I definitely agree with Wapptor that Blizzard shouldn't allow classes to use the best skills of other classes -- or at least they should be limited to low power versions of the skill. I think the +1 to Zeal on Passion is good, for example, because there's no way that another class could power that up to the same strength as a maxed out Zealing Paladin. However, as I noted in my Grizabella writeup, 'Delirium' and 'Call to Arms' are too powerful. Since necromancers and sorceresses tend to wear a lot more +skills items than barbarians, I'll bet that after a while, they will tend to have more powerful Battle Orders and Battle Commands than barbarians do. The skill levels on the 'Call to Arms' should be lowered significantly -- like to say +5 Battle Orders or even only +1. That would still be useful, but it wouldn't be as devastatingly powerful as it now. And the confuse on 'Delirium' is just way too powerful. One wild idea I had would be to switch the Mind Blast and Confuse parts of 'Delirium'. Make it so that there's a 10% chance on being struck to cast Confuse and 33% chance (or lower) of casting Mind Blast on striking. Or maybe make it a low level decrepify instead of Confuse.
One cross-class item I wish they would make is a low level exceptional unique bow -- say one that does an average of 40 physical damage like Skystrike does -- and gives +1 multishot to all classes. Then, there could be a whole new class of bow Enchantresses running around casting Enchant on party members and minions and dealing a decent amount of damage of her own. It would by no means be an uber class, but at least it would be a viable build and would be a great character in a party.