pieatorium
Member
They eventually patched to change it but fast crossbow (forgot the name of it) used to be the best Diablo 2 weapon for chain lightning sorcs.
Diablo 3 Beta [Beta withdrawal underway!]
- Thread starter maniac-kun
- Start date
- Status
They eventually patched to change it but fast crossbow (forgot the name of it) used to be the best Diablo 2 weapon for chain lightning sorcs.
Synth_floyd
Banned
I love the changes in Diablo 3. Choosing skill points and stat points were only phantom choices anyway. If you did them wrong then you screwed up your character so what you would do is just go to gamefaqs.com, find what the optimal builds are and then just choose the stats/skills that fit those exactly.
What they're going for is that you still have choices of builds but you're not "locked in" to your choice like with skill and stat points.
What they're going for is that you still have choices of builds but you're not "locked in" to your choice like with skill and stat points.
throwawayname
Member
Are there any chances Blizzard will do some european mass invite stuff anytime soon?
throwawayname
Member
:S *shakes fist*
PapaJustify
Member
I had theg chance to get hands on a key as well. But I said no to it because at this point I don't want to play this game, when it is so close to release. I wanna rather enjoy it in its finalized, complete form with all chapters available.
I expect the game coming out May/June-ish, so it is not so much of a wait with all the great coming from March to May.
I expect the game coming out May/June-ish, so it is not so much of a wait with all the great coming from March to May.
Duckroll, alright.
The matter is very simple for me. It is this: yes, I believe that Blizzard has the ability and the talent to provide us a customization system that is meaningful, that is an added layer on top of everything that is already awesome in their game. The main difference between us whether the inclusion of that imaginary system or the non-inclusion makes a difference at the end of the day.
I have been reading some posts in Diablo.Incgamers (I know, I know, my fault for going there
), where people expressed that with speccing into something, they knew that they "achieved something that is not possible for others". That by getting a very specialized build working, they were unique to the others. Ultimately, I do not share this and was quite literally shocked by this: I mean, if our fun factor solely depends on "how many others are able to enjoy it simultaneously to me?", then we are doing something WRONG, imho. Where were these people and what were they doing before video games? o_o
But before I dwell in that for too long and you call on a "strawmen" again (which is nonsense, anyway), let me just say that the main difference between you and me is this: I recognize that ultimately, we both will play with the skills that we enjoy the most. We will both play the builds that we like, we will both build our gear so that we will ignore +1-2-x damage modifiers on skills that deal ONE huge damage instead of a lot of tiny chunks, and will gather +x damage modifiers on skills that do a lot of different small damage chunks on a lot of enemies in fast succession. The difference then is simple: Whether we call the things that lead to the point where we enjoy our preferred builds "dumb", "streamlined" or simply "simplified" or even "restricted".
In my few D3 beta playthroughs yesterday, I have on all the classes encountered skills that I did not even get to try, as I was trying to work on my current "skill combination", I levelled up, and a new skill came, and suddenly, I could not cram 4 skill into 3 possible slots, or 5 to 4 slots. There will be things to experiment on at every level, and even at lv60, when we get to access the more unique affixes on items, I believe.
So, to summarize: there are TONS of ways that our imaginary Diablo 3 could definitely feel more interactive and more customizable than the one that is going to ship sometimes in Q2. And I agree with that. All I am arguing about whether that additional layer really is a necessity for a good, enjoyable, timeless classic. I think it is not. And I also think that we do not know how they are planning to expand this. If their main goal is to provide a new stepping stone for all the millions of players out there who grew up without and Diablo gameplay experience, than this is a good start - one that can easily be expanded with new, additional and really meaningful customization options in the future expansions and content patches, if Blizzard feels like that is what they need to do.
After all, after WOTLK's heroic (which was tank and spank, basically), everyone believed that they will NEVER go back to a harder system. And yet they easily switched back to the more challenging, more serious heroics like in Cata, even if thanks to the new items, the difficulty has decreased. But that is not in direct response to your post in any way, just my two cents to the matter.
The matter is very simple for me. It is this: yes, I believe that Blizzard has the ability and the talent to provide us a customization system that is meaningful, that is an added layer on top of everything that is already awesome in their game. The main difference between us whether the inclusion of that imaginary system or the non-inclusion makes a difference at the end of the day.
I have been reading some posts in Diablo.Incgamers (I know, I know, my fault for going there
), where people expressed that with speccing into something, they knew that they "achieved something that is not possible for others". That by getting a very specialized build working, they were unique to the others. Ultimately, I do not share this and was quite literally shocked by this: I mean, if our fun factor solely depends on "how many others are able to enjoy it simultaneously to me?", then we are doing something WRONG, imho. Where were these people and what were they doing before video games? o_oBut before I dwell in that for too long and you call on a "strawmen" again (which is nonsense, anyway), let me just say that the main difference between you and me is this: I recognize that ultimately, we both will play with the skills that we enjoy the most. We will both play the builds that we like, we will both build our gear so that we will ignore +1-2-x damage modifiers on skills that deal ONE huge damage instead of a lot of tiny chunks, and will gather +x damage modifiers on skills that do a lot of different small damage chunks on a lot of enemies in fast succession. The difference then is simple: Whether we call the things that lead to the point where we enjoy our preferred builds "dumb", "streamlined" or simply "simplified" or even "restricted".
In my few D3 beta playthroughs yesterday, I have on all the classes encountered skills that I did not even get to try, as I was trying to work on my current "skill combination", I levelled up, and a new skill came, and suddenly, I could not cram 4 skill into 3 possible slots, or 5 to 4 slots. There will be things to experiment on at every level, and even at lv60, when we get to access the more unique affixes on items, I believe.
So, to summarize: there are TONS of ways that our imaginary Diablo 3 could definitely feel more interactive and more customizable than the one that is going to ship sometimes in Q2. And I agree with that. All I am arguing about whether that additional layer really is a necessity for a good, enjoyable, timeless classic. I think it is not. And I also think that we do not know how they are planning to expand this. If their main goal is to provide a new stepping stone for all the millions of players out there who grew up without and Diablo gameplay experience, than this is a good start - one that can easily be expanded with new, additional and really meaningful customization options in the future expansions and content patches, if Blizzard feels like that is what they need to do.
After all, after WOTLK's heroic (which was tank and spank, basically), everyone believed that they will NEVER go back to a harder system. And yet they easily switched back to the more challenging, more serious heroics like in Cata, even if thanks to the new items, the difficulty has decreased. But that is not in direct response to your post in any way, just my two cents to the matter.
CarbonatedFalcon
Member
Too much conversation has been going on in here to directly reply to, but I just wanted to say that I'm pretty much right there with duckroll in my opinion of how I would prefer things to be. At least gated choices for runes/skills, if not complete choice. As opposed to on-rails.
I think I've been particularly perturbed because the current, utterly linear progression for character advancement discards the most powerful gaming emotion for me: discovery.
The other thing that's at stake here is the desire to want something other than gear to define you/your character. Gear is superficial and changeable. Having something more intrinsic and rigid creates a bond between the player and the character. The currents system eschews that (despite the benefits it can bring) because there is also the risk of "failing".
To that I say: There is nothing that is ultimately meaningful or rewarding without a failure state to accompany it.
Making everything a winning solution means that there are no consequences. It is empty. Taking away choice and consequence is antithetical to gaming, the interactive medium.
My hope at this point is that if Blizzard does go forward to release relatively unchanged from now, that they make changes in post-release patches, or expansion(s) at the latest.
On a more humorous note, I'd say that this statement pretty much sums up development:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd8hy032uLc#t=00m16s
I think I've been particularly perturbed because the current, utterly linear progression for character advancement discards the most powerful gaming emotion for me: discovery.
The other thing that's at stake here is the desire to want something other than gear to define you/your character. Gear is superficial and changeable. Having something more intrinsic and rigid creates a bond between the player and the character. The currents system eschews that (despite the benefits it can bring) because there is also the risk of "failing".
To that I say: There is nothing that is ultimately meaningful or rewarding without a failure state to accompany it.
Making everything a winning solution means that there are no consequences. It is empty. Taking away choice and consequence is antithetical to gaming, the interactive medium.
My hope at this point is that if Blizzard does go forward to release relatively unchanged from now, that they make changes in post-release patches, or expansion(s) at the latest.
On a more humorous note, I'd say that this statement pretty much sums up development:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd8hy032uLc#t=00m16s
I am sorry, but I cannot disagree more.
Diablo III is fun to play. It is the total opposite of everything that is non-interactive. The battle is incredibly fun and dynamic, even on poor Act 1 normal. There is no taking away of choice and consequence, it is simply present in the gameplay where it belongs, instead of being in the gameplay AND the character development part. Where there are still things to do, starting with gear, then setting up your skill "build", passives accordingly, proper mercenary for it (where you can choose his skills accordingly, yaay), dyeing your items to your preference, etc. Also, GEMS. Let us not forget about those either
"Making everything a winning solution means that there are no consequences. It is empty. "
What is winning in your book? Playing through normal? Why is it empty? Do you believe that you are not in control? Do you believe that if you take a character with a set of skills, the means of how you get to be able to use those skills make a difference in the outcome where you are actually using those skills in battle? No, there is no difference at all.
And people will still need to experiment, to adopt, and to focus on higher difficulties. Like with any other "proper" game, regardless of customization options.
Probably. They've made pretty major changes in the last 2 patches. It'll only take an hour to play through with a character anyway.
Lol, getting this error too. Welcome to the online-only future!
thetrin
Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
I think I would be more up in arms if there wasn't an Elective mode.
The changes to the rune system aren't all that different from the skill system that was in the beta before, and I was fine with it then.
I'm fine with taking runes out of the inventory and putting them directly in skills. The less shit clogging up my inventory, the better. 30-60 would be a big slog for me if there was no skill advancement whatsoever. Using runes to stretch skill advancement from 30 to 60 is a boon in my book.
I'm sure most of you guys have some problem with the lack of permanence in how you arrange your skills, but I like the idea that all the options are open to you, and rather than constantly respeccing to fine tune a build, you're using all available options in unique ways to create fun builds that you can toy with, even in the middle of a dungeon.
I do wish there was a talent tree on top of the skill stuff. I would like to see some character differentiation based on passives specced into on the talent tree. Although, that could just be my fetish for talent trees/skill trees.
The changes to the rune system aren't all that different from the skill system that was in the beta before, and I was fine with it then.
I'm fine with taking runes out of the inventory and putting them directly in skills. The less shit clogging up my inventory, the better. 30-60 would be a big slog for me if there was no skill advancement whatsoever. Using runes to stretch skill advancement from 30 to 60 is a boon in my book.
I'm sure most of you guys have some problem with the lack of permanence in how you arrange your skills, but I like the idea that all the options are open to you, and rather than constantly respeccing to fine tune a build, you're using all available options in unique ways to create fun builds that you can toy with, even in the middle of a dungeon.
I do wish there was a talent tree on top of the skill stuff. I would like to see some character differentiation based on passives specced into on the talent tree. Although, that could just be my fetish for talent trees/skill trees.
I don't understand why the customization slider has to have dead zones on it. The Diablo 3 skill system makes most builds viable to play, but that does not mean they will all work equally great in every encounter.
I'm getting bored of the pedantries, and in a year from now everyone will not be talking about Diablo 2, the runes or the skill system anymore, but rather why their favorit class is getting nerfed by Blizzard in the upcoming patch. And all will be great.
Uh, no?
It's pretty obvious that Sorceress weapons are going to add +skills and +intelligence. Like, you're getting mad over nothing.
Played a little bit with WD yesterday and my god this game is beautiful. I've never believed the naysayers, but now that I see it myself as silky smooth high resolution in front of me, I can safely say this game will age like a boss. The way everything is handpainted makes the backgrounds look almost 2D at times, it really is something I haven't seen before and would not be possible with camera rotation.
And then there's the incredible audio work with moody music and funny voive acting in both characters and especially on the enemies.
Can't say much about the runes yet, but something more open could be better indeed. Though I have zero interest in the model that was in D2. That shit was just stupid.
And then there's the incredible audio work with moody music and funny voive acting in both characters and especially on the enemies.
Can't say much about the runes yet, but something more open could be better indeed. Though I have zero interest in the model that was in D2. That shit was just stupid.
Fallout-NL
Member
Is it me, or is there no way to simply swing a sword with the Demon Hunter?
This is quite the overreaction. Firstly staves and wands/orbs have a far greater chance to have stats that specifically improve wizard damage thus making them better than alternatives much of the time. Using a two hander for spells isn't even going to be the best option in all situations; faster casting always feels more fun than the 'big bursts of damage' in the beta and I imagine that becomes even more prevalent as the difficulty increases. Much of that will depend on your playstyle, resource needs, and how many other improvements you have to your attack speed. I quite liked that my monk for example played better dual wielding daggers than fist weapons because I preferred the faster attack speeds.
Lastly, some of us like the idea that we have the option to make a wizard that is just as effective using a two handed axe as a plinky wand/orb. Why in the world would you want all wizards to be using the exact same weapons? Considering only one character out of the five actually uses their melee weapons to hit the enemy they're really just for show.
Ok, I am getting mixed messages here.
Can someone explain(without guessing) how your skills get more powerful as you gain level?
Is it only through damage enhanced items(rings, weapons, helm, etc)? Will it matter if you have an axe or a staff that has the same damage output?
I mean there are no +skill in Diablo 3. The skills are what they are, and you can only alter the skills with unlocking runes as you level up, right? (with the exception of damage that is increased based on what gear you have)
Can someone explain(without guessing) how your skills get more powerful as you gain level?
Is it only through damage enhanced items(rings, weapons, helm, etc)? Will it matter if you have an axe or a staff that has the same damage output?
I mean there are no +skill in Diablo 3. The skills are what they are, and you can only alter the skills with unlocking runes as you level up, right? (with the exception of damage that is increased based on what gear you have)
Fallout-NL
Member
Played through the beta with my brother last night and this morning. Rolled a Monk and on the second run I went with a Demon Hunter. And I gotta say, I don't like the new skill system one bit. Having to enable the 'elective mode' rubs me the wrong way, and all of it just feels very restrictive. Everything seems to discourage you from messing around with different builds. I can't find any way to incorporate the 'standard attack' for the Demon Hunter (can equip, but not actually use a sword?). And it's annoying to have an active skill under a number. Let me just hotkey that shit to a mouse button.
There's a good game in there somewhere, but goddamn they're trying their best to fucking ruin it.
There's a good game in there somewhere, but goddamn they're trying their best to fucking ruin it.
maabus1999
Member
Aye, D3 has become the D2 equivalent now of every single skill having "20 points" in it. Now you just have to figure out what to use due to the confines of the UI...
It really feels weird even as I played the beta. Almost like cheat mode compared to previous games. They could've done better here IMO and have no idea what they spent the last 6 years doing.
maabus1999
Member
Console development team says hi! This new UI just screams it.
Fallout-NL
Member
Yeah, the feeling of becoming more powerful, in a path of your choosing, is absent.
maabus1999
Member
It's not bad but for hand painted backgrounds, BG2 will always have a place in my heart. For its time and age, it still looks great.
Gunmonkey36
Member
Leveling now only costs gold. Materials can only be salvaged by the blacksmith from magic/rare/legendary items. Still get the same recipes as you level the blacksmith. Recipe material costs are tweaked due to overall less mats b/c whites no longer yield material.
Reasons:
1) They like (and it is understandable why) the "loot pinata" feeling with useless stuff getting out of killed mobs
2) Whites provide the framework that forms the loot system. With whites, you can see the different base types of weapons, armors, you can judge what item you should look for, etc. They are there so we can compare them against each other, amongst other things.
It is like in real world: There is grass everywhere if you live in the right place, or sand, yet you do not bring it home all the time. Unless... unless you really want it
It's a psychological effect thing (Lots of junk scattered with good items makes the good items appear better). I don't really like it myself; they could easily make whites dismantle into something useful or have high quality whites sell for more gold than blues. Then you decide if you want to carry items for dismantling or for selling; in a world with millions of magical items high quality blanks to enchant would be worth more money anyhow!
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
When the beta first came out I really didn't care much for the watercolor or washed out look the game had, but after the latest Nvidia driver update my tune has changed a lot. The watercolor effect is much reduced, the game looks less blurry, and everything now looks more sharp and detailed to me. The game looks much better to me now, all due to a graphics driver of all things.
Skills get more powerful by getting better weapons (all skill damage is tied directly to weapon damage now) or gear that boosts certain skills % modifiers. Or unlocking rune skills to change skills in various ways as you level. No more points into skills to make them more powerful like in D2.
It's the "path of your choosing" aspect that I find lacking. Bigtime. Sure you can choose which skills to use at any time, but you never get a choice of which skills to learn, or which rune skills to acquire. The game chooses the path for you. The only character building done at all is through gear, the rest is just choosing what skills your character will use from the pre-determined pool of choices that everyone else at your level also has. That's what bothers me the most, and it's where D2 had a huge one up on D3 at this point. They dumbed it down too much. Hell, for God's sake, even WoW has more character customization and building than D3!!!
I really hope we all don't end up with identical level 60 characters like a min/maxed WoW raiding team...
Take 100 posters in this thread and have them all build a sorceress in Diablo 2 and a Wizard in Diablo 3. You could find a great deal of sorceress with points in the exact same skills, but you would have a hard time to find two Wizards that chose the 6 exact same skills/runes.
Why even bother to design 150 skills and 750 variations of these if your design goal is to punish people for wanting to use them. The greatest thing about the beta is how much you can play around with the skills. I might try this with that and see how it works - how is that not infinitely better than: stick with the shit you choose or start over.
Find your build through playing and not through google shouldn't be the thing people are bitching about.
Whatever. The fanbase is a poisonous well and Blizzard should do their game and not listen to these crazy people who can think up "better" systems in the head as they are posting. You will have your crow served in a short while.
depths20XX
Member
I just don't understand the point of locking certain spells to certain numbers or left/right click. Let me choose what key/click I want it on...and is there seriously no way to use a standard attack anymore?
Go into the options and change to elective mode.
This still doesn't change the fact that certain hotbar keys are locked and unavailable.
I really think they will be altering the UI a bit more before release. There is too much of a public outcry on the beta forums for some kind of alteration to its current form. I believe that the skill/rune system is done aside from minor tweaking and that the unlock something every level without any choice as to what it is, is here to stay.
You mean the hotbar keys that unlock as you level up and acquire new skills? Otherwise, I do not understand what exactly the issue you're indicating is. You can put any skill in any of the unlocked slots that you have in elective mode.
I do have to wonder at people's fascination with using a 'standard' attack though. Are people in such denial of the fact that 'basic attacks' are completely non viable in this game? Perhaps they should have just come out and said it but they likely didn't want the 'OMG I used standard attack all the time in D2 and now it's gone'
There is absolutely no class that ever wants to use the basic attack for anything. It's always worse than anything else you can do. It's subpar play and really it only exists to give you a second button at level 1.
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Maybe I should have been more clear. I love the current skill and rune skill setup, at endgame. The design of it is far and away better than what D2 had, and seeing how we are limited in how many characters we can have per account this time, it only makes sense to allow each max level character access to all skills and abilities. Rerolls will be at a premium this time, and we won't have the char slots to make 5 different wizards just to try new builds out, so they have to allow us to try all of those builds with one character in D3. In that vein, the current level 60 setup makes sense.
What I don't like, in fact what I hate, is the "progression on rails" design with zero skill choice along the way to endgame. It takes away the interactivity and decision making in the leveling process and makes it just a treadmill, a chore to go through on the way to endgame. D3 will hold the players hand as they level and do the work of building the character for them. At a minimum we should be able to choose which rune skills to unlock along the way, in the order we want. Better yet would be allowing us to make some skill choices along the way too.
Blizzard has in essence removed what was a HUGE part of Diablo II, one of the core aspects that made the game so appealing and enticing.
In short, I feel IMHO that they dumbed the leveling process too much, but did a good job with endgame.
Fallout-NL
Member
That still doesn't allow you to use the standard attack. At least, I couldn't figure out any way to do that. Not that it would be very useful. But there are circumstances where you'd want to do that for a short time.
That doesn't sound very promising, and even though I'm largely ignorant of the beta since I haven't played it (fucking Blizzard), duckroll's comments on the updated system give me pause. And I've tried to keep up via videos and such.
The whole point of permanence in these games is it makes player choices more meaningful - or really, meaningful at all. The possibility of "screwing up your build" can and should happen in good RPGs, regardless of sub-genre, because that means you basically have free reign over your character and are building him how you see fit.
The build is screwed up there because the player screwed it up, and that's vastly more preferable than a build that doesn't have major leaks because the game plugs those holes for you, or doesn't even allow it to leak in the first place. Don't see where the fun in that is. Anyone deeply concerned about min-maxing may like the new system, but for the vast amount of people who would play in a more organic fashion, having a meaningful character growth system would have been far preferable.
Yes, the hotbar keys that unlock as you level up. Why are they not all available from the very beginning to map as you see fit? I don't bind my keys from left to right, I bind them right to left. So the bar unlocking left to right is a real pain in the ass for me personally. It's not a necessity, just a nuisance that I can't wrap my head around. This is one UI restriction, I just can't get behind.
I understand they will all eventually unlock and that the majority of the play time will be at that level, but it doesn't feel like the right decision regarding the UI to me personally. Something else that really needs addressing is the ability to swap two skills on their relative hotkeys. You have to unbind one skill to a new skill, one you dont want to use. Then bind the one you just unbound to the second hotkey and finally bind the last ability you just unbound back to the first hotkey you unbound. That in and of itself is broken in my opinion.
I think they know it needs some tweaking and I think we will see some more fine tuning regarding the UI, but I think the skill/rune system is done.
kyubajin
Member
I've been reading this thread along with the official Battle.net forums and have come across well executed arguments both against and for this new on-rails skill mechanics. Since I haven't been graced with a beta key I can't decide my stance just from words.
My only gripe is, now that runeskills are unlocked on a level basis and no luck or thought is involved whatsoever, why would anyone use un-runed skills anymore?
As a matter of fact, with so many "free" skills for all the characters, why would anyone hit with their weapon at all?
I can't wait to play this game and see if all the thought and rationale Blizzard has undoubtedly given to the core mechanics of the game are indeed the best thing for both old hardcore fans and the "fresh meat".
My only gripe is, now that runeskills are unlocked on a level basis and no luck or thought is involved whatsoever, why would anyone use un-runed skills anymore?
As a matter of fact, with so many "free" skills for all the characters, why would anyone hit with their weapon at all?
I can't wait to play this game and see if all the thought and rationale Blizzard has undoubtedly given to the core mechanics of the game are indeed the best thing for both old hardcore fans and the "fresh meat".
Fallout-NL
Member
At least I understand your issue now but I have to say it's ultimately so minor and such a small portion of the game it's probably not even on their radar as being meaningful. The swapping issue I completely agree with and found it really annoying to move skills around my hotbar because of the system they're using.
There is some tweaking needed (I really wish Elective mode just eliminated all of the 'guided skill' layout and made it similar to the previous beta setup) but all the signs out there are that this is the near final build for release right now. The only thing I could see them changing is adding a bit more detailed explanation on how to change to elective mode early in the game and shoring up some tooltips for the UI.
You won't ever hit with your weapon unless you're a barbarian and it's a weapon using skill. 3/5 classes actively generate resource with skills so it's always a completely irrational decision to ever use your basic attack. One class (Wizard) has free spells that do as much or more damage as your weapon does with far more versatility (Spectral Blade is basically a better melee attack anyway). The WD in theory might want to use a basic wand attack when low on mana very early in the game but will soon have enough mana regen that several of the low cost attacks are ultimately resource positive.
As for un-runed skills? You were NEVER going to use unruned skills because they were always intrinsically worse than runed skills. All skills have runes that add as direct improvements to the base skill even if a small number of runes do eliminate the base functionality completely. You would use un-runed skills over runed skills when the skill you like doesn't have a runed version yet.
Ultimately D3 is no less on rails than D2 you just can't make any mistakes in your build. If you wanted to build a character in D2 you had to know exactly when you could start spending points and exactly how to spend them. Often to do it perfectly well you had to spend 30/40 levels using singularly bad skills or only having one active skill to use. A vast majority of builds in D2 relied on one or two spammable skills and had no resource management at all due to broken resource regeneration mechanics.
The fact is all characters will have complicated resource management decisions to make that blow away every character customization decision anyone ever made in Diablo 2. Every skill you choose for your build has to fit your resource management profile which is balanced with the type of gear you have and what you're trying to accomplish from a gameplay/style methodology. Each class has a number of tools to both generate and spend resources in multiple fashions. This depth was readily apparent from the day they released the skill calculator on their site; there's really such a stupid number of interesting builds you can make that you'd have to be a real boring person to not come up with your own unique build.
Not entirely true. 4/5 Of the way towards the 5th Blacksmith level a new requirement appears: 5 pages. Supposedly they only appear in Nightmare, and I can only imagine it was added as a way to ramp up blacksmith leveling properly with your character. I assume there is another restriction added to preventing you from leveling him higher as you go into Hell.
I'm not sure what you are getting at here. The game is designed to make you feel awesome the whole time, and a regular weapon hit just isn't that enticing compared to say a Cleave, or a Magic Missile. Cleave and Magic Missile aren't so strong that they wipe out hoards of enemies instantly, but they provide you an interesting filler for in between your Whirlwinds and Arcane Orbs, etc.
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