Source
r/diablo4•
splim

Interesting skills and perks that aren't just meaningless mathematical formulas...

I really am not a fan of skills or perks that look like:

Flames of Demonic Sacrifice: Gain +2.25% per second fire damage on bladed weapons for 9.7 seconds when a non-Demonic enemy is within 17 feet and is wearing red pants.

You get what I mean. These kinds of skills have some fancy lore evoking name but amounts to nothing more than just conditional number crunching that's so far abstracted from any actual lore it's meaningless.

I also hate it when they are so ridiculously specific as to when they proc that it's impossible to imagine any useful scenario. Or that it reads so narrow of purpose and marginal of effect that it's impossible to get excited about having it.

Touch of Ethereal Complication: On the third melee strike get a 5-17% chance to delay non-shield bearing opponent’s skill cooldown by +6.107%

To some extent these things are unavoidable. I get that, but they can definitely go too far with the abstraction. I have nothing against raw +% damage or anything like that. That's part of the genre. Still, better, and I'm sure much harder to balance, are skill effects that contain interesting mechanical effects that aren't just number values and mathematical operands.

Posted Nov 18, 2019, 11:01 PM UTC · edited

3410
Kizzoap•

I feel like you had a point here, but it got lost in exaggeration.

16
Pappy13•

Rather then give hypothetical completely ridiculous examples, why don't you give some actual D3 skills that you don't like for example and then state how you would make them better. That's some real pointed feedback rather then vague notions.

9
allein8•

Same.

I prefer a horizontal design over vertical.

I like stats, but I also like playing the game and not spending more time crunching numbers to get 0.05% more powerful.

More stats usually results in just stacking whatever is "best" for that situation. While adding more options (fireball shoots 3 instead of 1, now burns the floor, heat seeking, circles player, aoe explosion, etc) changes game play more IMO. Stats play a part of both, but one system opens up greater diversity that can be seen. Really don't care if I have 1 or 5% crit damage on my paper doll.

For some stats are THE appeal to ARPG and similar genres. They want to min/max and fine tune to try some crazy build.

A balance is hopefully found in D4 to make it accessible to get people in and allow creativity, but allow a high ceiling for those that want to go deep and push things as far as possible.

4
Beatljuz•

I also hate things like +0,5% crit/dmg 🤦🏻‍♂️

I'm like allergic against that stupid PoE skill system and hope that D4 will not look like you've described.

2†
r4m0np•

So i guess you don't like RPG

2†
allein8•

I like some complexity, but not just for the sake of it. POE's system for example is fun at a basic level, but just copy/pasting the same stats a million times isn't really that complex once you figure it out. Quality over quantity.

0
Rei_Miguel•

I actually like those. I like vertical progression. Some pure Stat passives really felt powerful with enough investment in D2.

2
mindfulmundu•

I think specific mods can be compelling when you can combine them with other mods to make them more useful. Like a puzzle.

For example:

With respect to touch of ethereal complication.

What if you were using a skill that attacked three times in very quick succession?

What if you had another item: Trial of the shattered peak: your blows shatter enemies Shields

Obviously wouldn't work in pvp... But just an example of how something seemingly worthless could become compelling in the context of a build

1
Kyech•

Flames of Demonic Sacrifice: Gain +2.25% per second fire damage on bladed weapons for 9.7 seconds when a non-Demonic enemy is within 17 feet and is wearing red pants.

Ok, now I need to see demons in red pants!

1
Drow1234•

But people will whine it's "dumbed down" if you take away their precious numbers.

-1