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View Full Version : Full Skill trees for 5+2 characters - for fun


RawBanana
01-08-2008, 15:20
Diablo 3 Character Skills
- Should have same 3 trees 10 skills per tree with builds based on max of 20skill points per skill and ~80 skill points total
- Skill are listed from low level to high level with the last skills not available until higher levels
- Many previous and WOW abilities have been added to increase flexibility of characters
- Synergies are not specified but should be included
- Focus on variation of builds while maximizing flexibility vs pigeonholing builds to do 1 thing
- Skill progression are all exponential to maximize usability of skills in Hell which is ~2x harder than Nightmare which is ~2x harder than Normal
- All previous builds should remain but add new dynamics for new selection of builds/skills
Constraints: No cooldowns to slow play (used lots of % of base mana spells to limit use in game)

Key:
% = chance for something to happen
+% = chance for something to happen with increasing chance as skill level increases
+X% = 1% initial chance for a skill to happen with a 20% chance to happen at skill level 20
+50+10X% = mathematical equation, 60% initial chance for a skill to happen with a 450% chance to happen at skill level 20



1. Paladin – Paladin + Paladin (WOW)
- Playing style retains all of old Paladin’s builds with more flexibility (21 builds)
- New paladin much harder to kill at high levels due to holy tree
o Makes Hardcore much easier
- More AOE damage/abilities from Auras
- Shield throw adds new dynamic
- Builds:
o Aura
- Prayer
- Vigor
- Might
- Thorns
- Fire
- Lighting
- Cold
- Conviction
- Aura Nova
o Holy –
- Holy boly healing build
- Divine Shield
- Blessing of Reincarnation
- Martyr who wants to get killed and expects to outlife/outrevive enemies
o Combat
- Charge
- Smite
- Zeal
- Sacrifice
- Vengeance
- Avenger shield
- Blessed Hammer
- Fist of Heavens
- Best direct and aura healing ability
- Lots of anti-wipe spells
- Great character with a party, has best resistances and access to most forms of damage
- Limitation – limited ranged firepower, no pets, limited AOE, no pet, Holy builds are very defense oriented

Auras – condensed them and added my own idea
1. Prayer / Meditation – enhanced healing and mana regen, uses mana when party is injured
a. Increases regen efficiency
2. Vigor aura – speed, stamina, attack speed
3. Might/Blessed Aim – Adds damage and AR
4. Thorns -
5. Fire – fire damage + fire resist + firestorm + buff allies with fire attack
6. Lighting – lighting damage + lightning resist + thunderstorm (mage) + buff allies with lightning attack
7. Cold - cold damage + cold resist + hurricane like cold wind + buff allies with cold attack
8. Conviction – lower resist/defense of enemies
9. Salvation/Defiance – adds defense, resist all, synergy for resist in fire/lighting/cold
10. Aura Nova – spell that causes active aura to have extra effects 25% of base mana (prayer – holybolt all, might – stun all, vigor – frost nova, thorns – damage/knockback all, fire – meteor/immolate, lightning – nova/FoH, cold – frost nova/blizzard, conviction – nova/frost nova/meteor, Salvation – damage/knockback/stun )

Holy – only 1 blessing per person, can only be cast on party members
1. Holy bolt – heal + holy damage
2. Cleanse – X duration, remove curses/poison/fire, + duration increase
3. Blessing of Divine Shield– 1+.X seconds invulnerability to enemy, must be at full health and mana to cast, 4 second cast, 20% mana, activates on first enemy hit
4. Blessing of the Crusader – 5min duration, +AR, +% for critical, + critical damage, holy damage
5. Lay on Hands – restore 50+X% life (based on Paladin’s max life/mana), usable after auto-self buff when at full health and mana for 5 seconds
a. This is such a cool skill. But its hard to implement without a cooldown
6. Guardian Angel – absorbs 1+.5X enemy spell every (like Grounding Totem) every 20 seconds
a. Animation of heavens opening up with a beam of sunshine on paladin, actively has sunshine shining on him
7. Blessing of Sacrifice (WOW)– 5min duration, 50% of damage shared (good for hireling/pet preservation), +X% efficiency, + duration
8. Blessing of Safety – +defense, +resist all, 5min duration
9. Blessing of Reincarnation – upon death, resurrect with 10+X% life and heal party members 10X% life/mana, 50% base mana to cast
10. Martyrs Resurrection (Shaman) – upon dieing will revive with X% of life, upon death frost nova/nova/meteor + fist of heavens on each enemy, no duration, casting costs 90% of total mana/life, slow cast

Combat – added WOW Paladin skills
1. Charge – knockback
2. Smite – knockback/stun with shield
3. Zeal - 5 attack
4. Sacrifice
5. Vengeance – multiple elemental damage
6. Holy shield - +defense, reflects blocked projectiles, +% can block spells
7. Avengers Shield (WOW skill) – throw shield to stun/attack enemies, bounces up to X times, can attack while shield is thrown
8. Shield Mastery – +% chance to block while attacking/running, will reflect blocked spells
9. Blessed hammer – some ppl really like this skill although I think it needs to look better like bouncing off walls in addition to flying in a circle
10. Fist of Heavens – has its uses and is a signature spell



2. Witch Doctor – Necromancer + Warlock (WOW)
- Improved necromancer with better ranged flexibility (13 builds)
- Better damage spells for supporting pets
- Pets more useful and varied
- Different pets totally change gameplay
o Succubi will be ranged style lots of conversions
o Mongrels have great burst dmg ability
o Wall of zombie has great tanking ability
o Infernal is aggressive
- Builds:
o Curse focus with summons
- Exploding Mongrels
- Stationary Zombie focus
- Golem specialty
- Ranged Succubi
- Revive
- Doomsguard focus
o Nature
- Locusts
- Poison build viable with Mosquito Swarm
- Ice bomb
- Electric Eel Bomb
- Mosquito
- Death Beetles
- Limitation: low hitpoints, no melee ability, dependent on pets (limited AOE), no teleport/jump ability

Curses – Classic great curses. Not much to be changed
1. Horrify
2. Amplify Damage
3. Thorns
4. Mass Confusion
5. Attract
6. Soul Tap (replaces Life Tap) – leech life/mana
7. Dim vision
8. Decrepify – replaces weaken
9. Lower Resist
10. Disease – poisons enemies

Summons – I think I have too many types of summons. All useful in their own way though…
1. Summon mongrel (max 8) – looks different at higher levels (eg. Turn into zombies?)
2. Wall of zombies
3. Blood golem
4. Summon Mastery - +AR, +damage, +hitpoints, +defense, +speed, +defense +Resist, +health, -cost
5. Golem – earth golem if cast on floor or iron golem if cast on object
6. Zombies Prison – as in Bone prison with zombies
7. Fire Golem – explodes bigger than mongrel
8. Summon Succubi (WOW skill) (max 4)– ranged pet casts fireballs, confusion
9. Revive
10. Summon Doomsguard (Summon Doomsguard WOW) – aggressive pet, inferno, melee, slow to summon, must sacrifice another pet

Nature – Have some classic Necro spells here, its not that innovative of a tree personally
1. Firebomb
2. Locust Swarm
3. Soul Harvest – consumes corpses to regenerate mana/health
4. Wind Armor - replaces Bone armor because it sounds more nature-like
5. Mosquito swarm – poison, drain health/mana, wandering pet that just looks like a cloud that just floats over enemies, should be resistant to physical damage
6. Poison bomb – like firebomb
7. Ice bomb – like firebomb with ice
8. Electric eel bomb – like firebomb with electric eels (I don’t play necro much and I’m uninspired by this tree ok?)
9. Tranquility (AOE buff) – channeled enhanced regeneration for all nearby allies/ pets, buffs party +defense as long as he can remain in trance
10. Death Beetles – spread from caster like locusts, hangs onto enemies and deals some damage, when enemy dies, they explode like corpse explosion, like Seed of Corruption (WOW-warlock)



3. Rogue – Amazon + Assassin
- Merged Zon/Sin with more flexibility (19 builds)
- Retains a simplified system of combo points
- Has great ranged and melee abilities
- Has all elemental abilities (fire, ice, lightning, poison, physical)
- Builds: - combines melee with ranged
o Ranged – Multishot
- Strafe
- Guided Magic Arrow
- Fire
- Lightning
- Lightning Fury
- Impale
o Shadows add tanking flexibility (double tank with shadow, double ranged with shadow, tank and have ranged shadow, ranged and have tanking shadow)
- Melee Shadow
- Ranged Shadow
- Master Shadow
o Shadowstep
o Venom builds are viable with strafe, multishot, and poison/plague
- Shadow Blast
o Melee single or dual wield
- Jab
- Dual wield jab
- Blade flurry + Venom?
- Elemental combos – ice
• Fire
• Lightning
- Blade Shield
- Limitations: medium armor, medium hitpoints, no shield, only 1 shadow with 1 decoy

Ranged – Amazon bow/javelin tree that works with all ranged weapons: throwing weapons, bows, crossbows, javelins
1. Guided Magic Shot – combined all magic arrows are guided, +X dmg, -X% mana cost, +X% shooting speed
2. Ice Shot – frost nova, ice nova, nova radias
3. Fire Shot – fire nova, immolation
4. Lightning Shot – lightning, lightning Fury
5. Multishot
6. Pierce and Penetrate- +X% pierce, +AR
7. Strafe
8. Plague shot – poison cloud, plague cloud
9. Ranged mastery – upgrades effects of previous shots, +AR, +ranged criticals
10. Impaling shot – 100% piercing, knockback with .5+.1Xsec stun, uses 20% of base mana

Shadow – I like this tree. But may need fewer shadows/clones if they make a better minion interface
1. Slow missiles
2. Shadow Decoy – just stands there
3. Fade – enhance resists, + defense
4. Venom – Poisons all weapon attacks, X damage over 10 seconds
5. Shadow Blast (+ mind blast) – throws a AOE cloud that stuns and poisons
6. Melee Shadow Warrior– aggressively only melees, high synergies with ranged/master shadow
7. Ranged Shadow Warrior - defensively only ranged attacks, high synergies with melee/master shadow
8. Shadowstep – teleport and attack from shadows as powerful backstab +200%+10X% damage
9. Shadow master – more powerful than other shadows

Melee – Combination of Amazon and Rogue trees
1. Burst of speed – +run speed, +attack speed
2. Blade shield – +defense and short aoe attack
3. Ice attack – frost nova, +X range increases slowly, blizzard
4. Fire attack – immolation, meteor
5. Lightning attack – nova, melee lightning fury
6. Jab – (works on everything except hammers, axes, polearms) speed not affected by normal weapon speed (favors slow heavy spears, 4/5/6th attacks will have very low AR/damage), +%AR, +%damage
7. Dual Wield mastery – double throw, +%damage, +%AR, weapon block, blocks while running
8. Evasion – dodges/evades attacks, Duration 30+X seconds
9. Blade Flurry – a dual wield double swing attack with cleave to hit extra enemies, increases attack speed +X%, +%AR
10. Elemental Mastery - each elemental attack builds generic combo points and every 3rd attack upgrades the attack (Ice=blizzard, fire=meteor, lightning=chain lightning), +AR, +damage



4. Sorceror – Sorceror + Mage (WOW)
- Has all of previous sorcerer builds with more flexibility (14 basic builds)
- Fire/Water elementals add extra dimension/pet
- Ice block adds survivability and strategize/wait and attack
- New block dynamic will be very useful to keep sorcerer alive vs ranged attackers
- Builds: - mix any 2 below
o Fire – Meteor
- Fireball
- Explosion
- Enchant
- Hydra
- Fire Elemental
- Firewall
- Dragons breath
o Lighting – Nova
- Charged Bolt
- Chain lightning
o Water – Frozen Orb
- Blizzard
- Water Elemental
- Limitations: low life, low armor, no melee, no defense, limited pets, no healing ability, weak resists

Fire – same great old tree, no need to chance
1. Fireball - +X% chance to knockback, casting time decreases by X%
2. Explosion – +% ignites ground for X seconds, ignites victims for 5 seconds dealing 50% extra damage over time, +X% chance to knockback
3. Warmth - +mana regen
4. Enchant – can cast on pet/hireling, +fire, +AR
5. Dragons Breath (WOW) (replaces inferno) – always goes maximum distance, ignites victims for 5 seconds dealing 50% extra damage over time
6. Firewall
7. Meteor – stun 0.5sec
8. Hydra (max 4) – triple fireball
9. Fire Elemental (max 1) – 1min duration, offensive, primarily melee, blaze, charge, double fireball, immolate on summon, immolate/meteor on death
10. Fire mastery – +X% chance of fire spells to ignite enemy for 50% DOT, reduce enemy fire resist, +% fire damage, + self fire resist

Lightning – same old tree, best old sorc tree. No need for WOW Mages Arcane tree
1. Charged bolts
2. Telekinesis - knockback
3. Static field
4. Lightning – mostly straight arc of lightning immediate/flashes and looks like real lightning
5. Chain lightning / lightning fury – chain lightning sucked and lightly fury looked great
6. nova
7. teleport
8. thunderstorm,
9. Energy shield (Blazing speed) - absorb damage to mana, gives X% chance on hit by melee/ranged to increase movement speed 50%
10. Lightning mastery - +X% chance for lightning to critical, reduce enemy lightning resist, +% lightning damage, + self lightning resist

Water – Same great old tree with some new WOW spells
1. Frost Bolt – synergies with cold spells to +X% cold slowness on enemies, casting time decreases by X%
2. Ice Blast – freezes target, casting time decreases by X%
3. Frozen armor – +defense, chills attacker, can cast on pets/hirelings
4. Frost nova
5. Ice block (WOW)– enchase self in indestructible ice for up to 5+X secs, removes all negative effects, can exit Ice Block at any time, 1min cooldown
6. Chilling armor (Ice Barrier) – adds buffer of ice that absorbs damage and prevent interruption while active, stacks with frozen armor
7. Blizzard,
8. Frozen Orb
9. Water elemental (WOW) (max 1) – 1min duration, defensive, protects caster, primarily ranged attack, double frost bolt, frost nova, frost nova on summon, frost nova/blizzard on death
10. Ice mastery – +% chance for cold to freeze targets, elongates slow effect +.1Xsec, reduce enemy ice resist, +% ice damage, + self ice resist



5. Barbarian – Barbarian + Warrior (WOW)
- Same builds much more flexibility (10 builds)
o Barbarian always played great without a lot of different builds
- Seismc slam gives the barb a ranged attack
- Last stand gives better tanking ability
- Furious charge makes slow builds like berserk/concentrate/hammer builds more efficient and may be a new build
- Builds
o WW
o Frenzy
o Warcry stun
o Furious Charge
o Beserk
o Last Stand – health monster
o Double Throw
o Cleave
o Double Cleave
o Remorseless attacks
- Limitations – few elemental abilities, few ranged abilities, short range AOE, no pets, limited healing ability

Warcrys – still a great tree that is classic barbarian
1. Taunt
2. Howl – fear all
3. Grim ward
4. Shout - +defense
5. Battle cry – Lowers defense of enemies, reduce damage received
6. Battle Orders – Increase all stats
7. Ground Stomp / War Cry – Stun all
8. Battle Command - +1 level
9. Last stand (WOW) – (personal buff) +50+2X% hitpoints for 5+X seconds, must have health below 50% to cast, mana cost 20% of base mana
10. Death Wish (WOW) - (personal buff) +20+10X%damage, cannot be interrupted/feared, +20% damage taken, 5+Xsec duration

Combat skills
1. Leap – knockback on landing
2. Hammer of the ancients – cannot be interrupted (replaces concentrate), cannot miss, physical damage
3. Cleave – hits 2 targets, hits more at higher levels
4. Furious Charge
5. Seismic Slam
6. Leap Attack – leap and cleave with weapons upon landing
7. Double Cleave (new)– cleave with each weapon, second weapon does 50% damage
8. Frenzy – increasing speed double weapon attack, faster run
9. Whirlwind
10. Berserk – for X seconds, deal a lot of magic damage, no defense, 5+Xsec duration

Combat Masteries – it’s a boring tree but very classic, weapon specialization just seems to pigeon holing barbarians in a way that doesn’t help gameplay though…
1. Iron Skin - +defense
2. Increase speed/stamina - +speed/stamina
3. Mace mastery - +.X% to stun
4. Sword mastery - +.X % critical, +%AR, +%DMG
5. Axe mastery - +X% critical damage, +%AR, +%DMG
6. Polearm mastery +X% critical damage, +%AR, +%DMG
7. Throwing mastery – Double Throw, +.X% critical, +%AR, +%DMG
8. Spear mastery - +.X% critical, +%AR, +%DMG
9. Remorseless attacks (WOW) – next attack deals +50+10X% damage after killing an enemy
10. Natural resistance - resist all



6. Druid – Druid + Druid (WOW)
- Lots of flexibility (19 builds) for all situations like Druid (wow)
- Has access to most elemental abilities (fire, ice, poison, physical, no lightning)
- Many builds:
o Pure wereform
o Feral charge
o Fire claws
o Feral Mastery
o Pure treeform
o Primary wereform + summons
o Primary elemental + summons
o Primary Summons with wereform
o Leader of the pack
o Heart of the wild
o Primary Summons with elemental
o Insects, birds, vines support
o Poison/vine focused build
o Melee with Wolves/bear
o Treants
o AOE – twister
• Flashfire
• Tornado
• Fissure
• Amageddon
• Hurricane
o Omen of Clarity
o Enervate
o Melee Werewolf + Natural Caster/Elemental AOE
o Tanking werebear + Natural Caster/Elemental AOE
- Limitations: medium armor, medium hitpoints, slow ranged attacks, not the strongest at anything

Shape Shifting – shows armor, paws for weapons, great tree and added a lot of great WOW Druid skills
1. Werewolf form – enhanced speed, +AR, +hitpoints
2. Werebear form (polar bear) – enhanced defense, +AR, +hitpoints
3. Feral Charge (WOW) – charge (rabies for wolf, stun for bear)
4. Feral Bloodthirst (previously Feral Hunger) +5X% damage, +AR, +2+.X% life steal, attack/eat corpse to recover 20+X% life/mana, builds up to 3 levels of lifesteal
5. Fire Claws – flaming cleave attack that hits 1+.1X enemies, +X% chance to ignite for 50% DOT, +AR
6. Feral Mastery – fury, shockwave
7. Lycanthropy – Dire wolf/bear + health, +defense, +AR, +damage
8. Natural Shapeshifter (WOW) – can cast all spells in shifted form, cheaper shift cost, longer shift duration, 2-.1X slower casting time/cost
9. Survival of the Fittest (WOW) (Passive) -, -X% to be critically hit, +X% resist all,
10. Leader of the Pack (WOW) – (passive aura), +10+.5X% chance to physical critical, +10+X% AR

Elemental – old druid elemental tree played really bad with some very hard to use skills. WOW skills help add some color
1. Twister – multiple knockback cold twisters shot from caster
2. Cyclone armor - +defense, absorb damage, +resist all
3. Flash Fire (replaces Firestorm) – wave of fire rolls away from Druid (like Blastwave(WOW)), +X% chance to knockback
4. Barkskin (WOW) – uninterruptable casting, lowers damage taken, slow melee,
5. Omen of Clarity (WOW) – +% for free spell when attacking, works with throwing weapons
6. Call Fissure – AOE fire centered at target, looks like nicer Flamstrike (WOW)
7. Tornado – slow meandering cold/physical AOE, knockback, lasts longer than blizzard
a. Behaves like Ultima Online’s Energy Vortex spell
8. Armageddon – fire AOE
9. Hurricane – Cold AOE centered on player
10. Innervate (WOW) – +200+10X% mana regeneration, Duration 5+.5Xseconds, Must have full mana to cast, slow 4 second casting time

Summoning
1. Summon Birds – changes to ravens/eagles at higher levels, make way more powerful and give synergies
2. Summon wolves – no need for Dire Wolves, just make the wolves stronger at high levels with more synergies with Grizzly
3. Summon Insect Swarm – (spreads like Locusts), poison damage, sucks mana, lower AR, slow, resistant to physical damage, 10+Xsec duration, 10% base mana
4. Natures Grasp (WOW)– when hit roots slow and poison attacker for 3+Xseconds
5. Oak sage spirit
6. Summon Grizzly
7. Summon Heart of the Wild (WOW) - +Health, +X% all stats, +%dmg, floating spirit that replaces Oak Sage
8. Grow thorns – reflects 50+5X% damage and poisons enemies who are attacked or hit your party, 5+Xmin duration, I hate vines that wander around and get killed, this looks cooler
9. Summon Mastery – summons get +damage, +resist, + health, +AR, upgrades summons to Dire wolve/bear, lowers cost to summon
10. Force of Nature (WOW) – 10+Xseconds with 3 Treants, synergies with poisons/vines, 20% of base mana, Treants are friendly but uncontrollable, animation should throw 3 seeds somewhere that grow super fast



7. Deathknight/ Black Knight/ Blackguard
- Stays true to the Deathknight of WOW of a melee with pets
- Combination of Deathknight, Warlock(WOW), and some Rogue (WOW) skills
- Changes Frost tree to Demonology tree
- Gives mores summons and some Trapsin playstyle for more builds (24 builds)
- Many abilities cost health to cast and many new death/lifesteal abilities
- Potentially the strongest pets
- Builds focus on melee with pets:
o Melee only, with or without poison
o Decapitate
o Bloody Strikes
o Obliterate
o Bloody Howl
o Blood Frenzy
o Anti-magic shell
o Dancing Blood weapon
o Pestilence
o Hysteria
o Unholy
o Unholy Army
o Deathchill
o Unholy Crusade
o Domination
o Spectral Form
o Lichform – can combine with spectral form to melee
o Demonology
o Immolate
o Imps
o Hellfire
o Gargoyle
o Marked for Hell
o Demons Breath
o Demon
o Vortex
o Demonform
o Unholy only with pet focus
o Unholy with Blood/melee support or Unholy with Demon/casting support
o Demon only with a few strong pets and strong melee
o Demon only with gargoyle traps, summons, melee
- Limitations: limited ranged and AOE attacks, limited cold/lighting attacks, many abilities cost %health

Blood (WOW) – Fun tree with skills that are either very bloody or require health to use
1. Bloody Strikes (WOW)– Passive, all physical attacks draw blood to deal bleed damage +10X% damage over 5 seconds
2. Decapitate (new) – run and attack with long slashing cleave that hits up to 2+X opponents, +AR, +Damage
3. Remorseless attacks (WOW)– (passive) next attack deals +50+10X% damage after killing an enemy
4. Bloody Howl (WOW)– poison spray, chance to stun +X%, +X range
5. Obliterate (WOW) – smash enemy/ground physical AOE attack, knockback, +AR, high mana, high damage
6. Anti-magic shell (WOW) (castable aura)- absorbs 100X amount of damage from all magic spells, Magic damage reduced by 50%, +X range, negates 1 enemy spell per 20 seconds
7. Dancing Blood Sword (WOW)– summons 50% damage dancing swords (max 2, rank 10+) that attack for you, +X% they will block for you, sacrifice 10% of health to summon, duration 1+Xmin
8. Soul Sacrifice (WOW)– sacrifice 50% health and all minions (at least 1) for 5+.2Xsec of invulnerability, no healing until after invulnerability
9. Pestilence (WOW)– Surrounds self with insects, poisons, lowers attackers AR Poison and curse all opponents with decrepify if they hit you, +5X% to poison and curse Weaken enemies if you his them, self-buff, 5min+X duration
10. Hysteria (WOW)– cannot stop attacking, cannot block, +50+10X% damage, +10% damage taken, gains +speed/ +damage/+AR after getting hit with 3 levels, 10+Xsec duration, exhaustion for 1 sec if expires

Unholy – I like the possibilities of this tree. I added some of my own ideas to fill it out though.
1. Unholy Army(WOW) – Animates 1-4 nearby corpses into skeletons, type of corpse determines ranged/melee/caster skeleton
2. Unholy Chill (WOW)– chills weapon converting X% damage to cold damage, +1+.X% lifesteal, lasts 5+Xmin
3. Unholy Crusade (new)– summons 2+.5X ghosts to attack random targets, each disappears when its target dies, no overlap in castings of crusade, ghosts resistant to physical, duration 5+.5Xseconds
4. Death Coil (WOW)– fast flying bone spirit that jumps to next enemy if the first enemy dies
5. Death Pact (WOW)– Undead minions +AR, +damage, +defense, +resist, +health
6. Unholy Hunger (new)– instructs pets to eat corpses to upgrade and heal themselves, 3 upgrades to +health, +defense, +damage
7. Spectral Form (new)– +20+X% physical/magic immunity, +AR%, cannot cast Demon spells or drink potions, can use blood/unholy abilities, walks through enemies/doors, +1+.X% life/manasteal, Duration 1min+.1Xmin
a. Should have a white outline and look like a ghost, have ghostly mist emanating from him, great tank skill
8. Unholy Blight (WOW) – static 5+5(X^.5)% all and 5X cold damage all, costs 5% life, screenwide range
9. Unholy Presence (WOW) - steal souls of enemies killed to heal self/minions for X health, duration 5+X min, +Resist, +crit for undead
10. Lichform (WOW)– become lich, -1% health per second, +X resist all, +all stats, spells cost 20+X% less to cast, Mana regen +50+X%, +AR, +cold Dmg, +fly/speed, duration 10+Xseconds, 20% physical immunity, automatically assume Lichform at 10+X% minimum health
a. Should glow with a black aura with clothing whipping around like a ghost, periodically does a ghostly cackle/muahahhaa

Demonology – Primarily Warlock tree, works well with the unholy Deathknight theme, Blackguard makes more sense though, seems like it’d be fun to play with the Blood Tree
1. Demon Skin (WOW) - +defense, +regeneration
2. Immolate (WOW) - fire ignites target, +X% chance to spread, lasts 5+.5X seconds, can immolate minions to increase damage
3. Summon Imps (WOW) – Summon 1-3 imps (max 4) that shoot fireballs and teleport, +X fireball dmg, synergy with immolate/ hellfire/ demons breath/ gargoyle, demon
4. Hellfire (WOW) - create AOE fire nova to ignite ground centered on caster, costs 5% health
5. Marked for Hell (new) – Upgrades immolate to mark an enemy to explode into hellfire when it dies, seems like a cool idea
6. Summon Gargoyle (WOW) – stationary pet blows lightning/fire infernos at nearest enemies (max 4), shoots X times before disappearing, no-delay in casting
7. Demon’s Breath (WOW) – blow lightning/fire inferno that ignites enemies/ground
8. Chaos Vortex (UO spell) - wandering AOE whirlwind that curses, Fire/Lighting/Cold damage, and stuns opponents, may animate dead
9. Summon Demon (WOW) – summons 1 wild uncontrolled demon to fight, will attack you too. Can dismiss demon.
10. Demonform (new) – Invite a demon to morph with you, cast demon spells at -30% mana, new summoned demons do not need to be dominated (will attack you if you revert to normal form), cannot cast unholy spells, + a 100% strength, +all stats, +resistance, + health, +defense, fly, Demon minions become more powerful,
a. Looks like a red, bigger, glowing version of regular Deathknight, exhales fire when breathing



NOTES
- I wrote this because I had a slow week and I was having fun daydreaming about stuff
- This is pasted from Word so the formatting sucks...
- No damage numbers have been provided
- If there is sufficient interest, I can make a spreadsheet to determine maximum DPS of each character, adjust skills, and limitations to give damage/mana estimates for each skill
o Blizzard will do this anyways
- Mana Costs
o Will be based on expected mana at the level you get the skill
o Efficiency of killing will be adjusted so indiscriminant casting (of most spells) will not be possible
o Typically allows 10 nonstop castings before exhausting base mana
o Few spells should allow for non-stop casting or only 1-2 castings unless specified
- DPS factors
o Crowd control skills like Cold/stun/knockback have less DPS
o Poison has lower DPS due to duration of effects and relative mana efficiency
o DPS is lower for AOE spells
o Higher DPS can be created by sacrificing usability like Berserk/Sacrifice
- I believe fun PVP comes from not knowing what build you face and adapting
o PVP is a rock/paper/scissors game
o Given a huge variety of builds and lots of build flexibility (like Druid Werewolf/Werebear Shapeshifting tree) PVP will be about who can adapt/counter the fastest
o Personally I don’t play pvp but I think this would work
- Items: I hope blizzard stays away from skills that are useless unless u find a specific item/set
o It is very bad to have items that +1000% poison damage because it means poison is balanced to be useless without that item
o It is better for items/set/runewords to give new skills, (eg. Aura to non-paladins) which make the game fun to play
- New features?
o Blocking – players stationary with shields facing attacks should automatically block most/all attacks from that direction
- Stationary - Tower shields block all with no damage taken
- While moving – best tower shields block 50% while moving
- 0% blocked while running
- Need ability to strafe and run sideways
o Flanking – easier to hit enemies from sides (-25% defense) and behind (-50% defense)
o Rogue should have +X% damage attacking from behind

Special Levels
- There is no need to stress that a cow level is expected
- They should have a level/ battleground to take out a raid by both Horde/Alliance side (5 D3 characters vs 40 WOW players) all at level 70
- Would each Diablo character at level 70 be able to take out a balanced group of 5 level 70 on mounts
- Barbarian – death wish/concentrate, charge, stun all, whirlwind,
- Witchdoctor – pets, Thorns, zombie prison self, AOE
- Druid – pets, AOE, werebear stun all
- Paladin – thorns aura, divine shield, avengers shield, charge
- Sorc – teleport, aoe, pet, static, iceblock
Zeal/sacrifice/vengeance/ charge
- Rogue – pet, Shadowstep Assasination, Poison blast/multishot, melee/ranged-kite
- stunlock(rogue, warrior, shaman, paladin), sheep/Banish(mage/warlock), counterspell/silence, dispel buffs (priest), roots, dots
- kill priest, rogue/warrior/bears (for stuns)

jakotaco
03-08-2008, 19:38
:confused:

You seem to have put quite some time into this, but to be honest I disagree about merging old d2 skills with old WoW skills. I'd much rather see much more new skills. Some merges also seems quite out of context, would an umbaru witch doctor really summon succubi to fight the forces of hell?

Many of the skills from WoW wouldn't blend well in an action RPG. Who'd waste points into Innervate (short burts of mana regen) when they could as easily have popped a potion?

And can you clarify what you just said about pvping against WoW players????

RawBanana
04-08-2008, 03:52
Yeah I have Websense which blocka a lot at work and since I can't check out what other
people are thinking, I thought I'd spend some time just writing out all my ideas out. I by no means expected it to all be perfectly logical.

I always felt that many of the classic D2 and WOW skills are the same. Like Whirlwind and the main difference is that D2 uses the skills in a much more heroic and outlandish way. WOW at the end of the day was designed to play like Everquest where u generally only fight 1 strong enemy/mini-boss at a time. Crowd control, buffs, and debuffs controlled
the game.

Diablo series is really more about finding different ways to deal damage in different ways. Short range AOE like Whirlwind, different long-ranged AOE like lighting/blizzard/FO, minion/pet damage, and melee attacks jab/zeal/berserk/frenzy.

Some skills that are key to WOW I thought would make an interesting appearance in Diablo. Divine Shield with a short invulnerability would be fun and not overpowered in Diablo.

As I understand D3 will reduce the focus on potions. Perhaps by only allowing 1 potion on the potion belt or putting in a short cooldown on potions. Without the potion-spamming, Enervate will be useful because it is one of the only way to avoid running out of mana when u need it. Cast it on a Sorceress with an Energy Shield up and she can walk into static
nonstop for 5-10 seconds and then unload some Lighting Novas to finish the boss off. Or the Druid can just spam tons of tornados from a corner. Spamming spells against mobs will be a lot harder without a potion belt.
My main concern about spells like this is over-usage. Keeping a player permanently enervated may be an interesting playstyle. Its like having a walking potion bottle and the mana equivalent of a Paladin with a Prayer
aura.

In any case, I think its more challenging and interesting to create full skill trees than just speculate on a skill without thinking about how it may be over/underpowered in conjunction with other trees.

As for the Succubi for Witchdoctor, I haven't read the D3 books nor do I have much background on a what a Witchdoctor can or can't do. I tend to associate "evil" powers with undead/zombies/mongrels so I don't think dipping into the demonic power pool is that far of a stretch. I created the Witchdoctor and Deathknight with the idea that both characters have the "Ends justifies the means" approach to wars. If they can win, they will sell their soul to the devil and to the undead to get additional
powers. Eventually they may become corrupted like the Goatmen.

Feel free to disagree and suggest ur own spells. What other summons would u associate with a Witchdoctor?

And the last part was not meant to be PVP. That would never work. More like a mini-boss like the 3 Barbarians trial in Act V (forgot the name). You must best a "balanced" team of 5 ancient enemies (computer controlled) that basically have the exact combos and skills of 5 lvl 70 characters from WOW (eg. A team of Warrior, Priest, Mage, Rogue, Paladin). It would be fun if nothing else since the Rogue would immediately stealth and the others would go do their thing. It would be
damn challenging and yet possible for some characters to do.

Admitantly, this is more of a mental exercise to see if I can theoretically build a D2X character that can wipe your 5 man team. D2X characters have so much AOE, curse, and other abilities that will easily kill any single WOW like character.

But I can also imagine a level in D3 can be in a place like "Outlands" where you have lots of organized factions warring with each other. They tend to attack on sight and if you aren't careful they will ambush you and unload a full 5 player arsenal of attacks onto you. Similarly, you can ambush them. Its just a different dynamic from killing lots of lower
end skeletons. Which is super fun anyways.

Any other comments? Skills you like? Skills you don't like? Things you don't understand?