Bashiok on Diablo 3 Skills

Hey all, I'm still in mid exams (finish on Monday) so that's why there's been a lack of news posting on the D3 front.

Here is a quick post, as I thought many would find the discussion of skills very interesting. After Blizzcon many were led to believe that Active skills would be one point wonders (as they max at one point) with the main differences in skills coming from the passive upgrades. Diii.net conducted a short Q&A session with D3 community manager Bashiok just about this topic.

Flux: A question about the skill points in D3. Active skills only took one point at Blizzcon, after the gameplay movie from WWI showed multiple ranks in active skills. Will they allow more points in the final game?

Bashiok: It was the BlizzCon build. Jay said a few times in interviews and I think even on stage that people like the feeling of pumping points in to their main skills so that’s likely to be something we’ll do. Overall the skill trees seen in the demo were just giving a glimpse of the kind of direction we’re looking to go. The “ranks” from the WWI were part of an older system. The skill trees and UI in general are changing on an almost weekly basis. Not like total rewrites, but they’re not final is what I’m getting at.

Bashiok then talks about the interface which a number of people have complained about as well as the lack of unveiling of many Witch Doctor skills.

Bashiok: Oh yeah, it’s expected. Unless you’re involved VERY heavily in games, or actually work close to or in design, it’s sort of hard to wrap your head around development processes. Especially when it’s an iterative process we invite people to see. It doesn’t happen a lot even with similar types of entertainment, or even quite a few titles. If you’ve been around you know how this stuff works and I think there’s enough people out there that “get it” where we’re not uncomfortable showing completely unfinished ideas.

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Bashiok: Haha. To answer specifically, no I don’t know. The WD though is kind of a tough cookie to design for I think, conceptually it can be so many things and so locking that down is important. It’s much easier to say “magic caster go” or “physical guy go.” The WD is a bit more… open. Which probably makes it the most interesting to come up with stuff for. Of the announced classes that is.

Enjoy