Customization just about numbers?

[Noomz]

I've been watching the game for a long time by now and I've seen customization options like the runes get scratched.
All I see in ways of customization now that the game is about to launch, is a bunch of "do this to get X number more dmaage or X effect". It feels like there is very little -fun- customization to do. And anything else just seems like more numbers. As good as maths are, I don't find all this numbercrunching to be fun customization, it just feels like WoW-light.

Am I wrong? Am I missing something?

[Ninjam0ves]

I think you are right actually. I can understand why they changed the runesystem though. I just feel like they jumped 2 steps instead of the necessary 1 step.

So they had 7 runestone levels, and now they have 1. The reason behind it was inventory space. There would be soo many combinations with 7 levels of every runestone to every spell, so I can definitely understand their rework of the system, but - only 1? For me it's too similar to enchantments in WoW now.

I was super excited about the Nephalem Cube and the Cauldron of Jordan too, and they're are gone too. I would be fine if they never announced these things in the first place, cause then I wouldn't have thought of them, but to hand me a piece of chocolate just to take it back when I reach for it? That sucks . Anyway - I'm getting pretty much off-topic here, so I'll stop... it just bothers me (I'm sure Blizzard has their reasons for these changes btw, I'm not in any way insinuating that they do it just to annoy us )

Don't get me wrong, I'm still super hyped about the game and I can't wait for the release. It just bothers me - some of the major changes that has been happening to the game this late in the process.

[Beskar]

And the ranked runes weren't all about numbers?

The only thing that changed was eliminating the need to grind out runes in order to have the abilities you want. There are an absolutely absurd number of choices still... what is it, something like C(~15,3) for passives plus C(~22,6)*5 for actives? It's possible that calculation is off, but regardless, you're getting an absurdly high number of options, in the millions.

Gear is still about numbers, at least short of what stats you choose to focus on, but that's how it was in D2 as well in that regard. This system has a massive amount fewer "numbers" customizations and more real choices than D2 or any other such game has had.

[Deleted]

Well, I wouldn't say it's *all* about numbers but considering this is a hack and slash that's all about pure killing then I guess it's not really a shock that increasing numbers is the majority of what the game is about - so what the skills are about.

There's quite a few ways to do that though, I mean

Some of the wizard runes include
+ damage which can be done by pure damage, by duplicating spells, by increasing weapon damage, aoe, adding a bleed, increasing critical chance, tracking ability
+ arcane power back or reduced cost
+ knockback, slows, reduce enemy attack speed
+ healing
+ range on a spell
+ reduce damage taken, reduce cooldown or increase duration


So you can see, whilst you have a large number of damage abilities and it can be all about the numbers, how you achieve your numbers can be done in quite a few different ways - but you do have a variety of other things to worry about such as resource management, defensive runes and kiting/slowing techniques.

But by and large, the point of the game is to kill the target, so numbers do have to be a high factor

[Difuid]

I still do not get why people say runes were removed. They are no longer an inventory item that is true but they are still there integrated into the skill system.

On a side note, there were no customization value between the different ranks of the same rune/skill combination as the higher ranks only made the effects granted by the rune stronger.

[Synche]

Runes are the biggest part of customization in the game. Sure there might be certain "specs" that are used, but I can guarantee you that they won't be able to be used in all situations.

Even with that said, people will always play the game differently. Perhaps you like to have an AoE spec with lots of damages, whereas I like to be a glass cannon that can do an insane amount of burst, almost all play styles will be viable but you will still need to adapt to the current challenge.

[Selenti]

The rune change didn't really remove customization, but it did remove a huge part of the item-game and end-game progression. Not a fan of the change at all, but I'm in the minority.

[Wildmoon]

Customization in RPG game is all about number so what do you expect?

[Deleted]

If we compare the two damage increasing runes for Witch Doctor spell 'Grasp of the Dead', we see one of them straight up increases damage by 52%. The other one reduces cooldown from 8 to 6 seconds. If we calculate how much dps you gain by being able to cast the spell more often - lo and behold - we gain a 53.33% increase. With many rune effects the numbers are just an illusion like that, and the 'real' difference comes from whether you're dropping green goo or shooting red lasers.

I concur though that maybe it would have been better that there were more game changing runes spread over all of the skills, not just to the must-have utilities like teleport and vault.

[mtawney1313]

The customization is that you get six slots for 30 something abilities, so you're limited in the number of moves available to you in an encounter. Yes, you can change them, but you have a 30 second cooldown before you are able to use the new ability. On top of the limited use of abilities, each of those abilities can be augmented by a rune, which modifies or can completely change the ability itself.

There is a lot more customization in this game than wow. the rune system is still a customization of abilities that it was before. It was just that you had to build up how strong they were. They got rid of that altogether. You also had to find or buy the runs before. Now you are just given them at a certain level.