Originally Posted by
Kittyvicious
The differences are much more noticeable in TL2. Sure you can 'build a tank warrior' in D3, but it doesn't have any weight to it. It doesn't feel like a choice that distinguishses your character so much as something you just do simply because. And as you mention viability, it has taken them how long to even begin to scratch the surface to make all builds viable in D3? This was after sweeping nerfs to mobs to account for how broken the builds were, since you had to take every defensive talent under the sun.
TL2 has active input into what abilities you want, as far as providing 3 tiers of each ability with different effects. The class design makes the gameplay vastly different. Arguably even with the variety in D3, you don't really do anything differently. You can't become a tank mage, or a ranged monk. You don't move differently, attack with different strategies. At least, not to the level in TL2. Different weapons in TL2 have different attack modes. For example: certain weapons are AOE by default, others are mostly single target. Nothing in D3 works this way.
It's minute details like that, when added together, give a larger depth and diverse system. I just didn't want to go in detail about it, because I don't want to be taken for doing the whole game vs game thing. It's just another problem in a long list for Diablo. And this is coming from someone who enjoys playing the game. I can just recognize that it is very, very flawed.