Arrows, Bolts, and other ammunitions.

[Retro]

I'd always wanted to make a ranged character in D2 but I haven't, until today. I just hate the thought of having to buy arrows and then re-buy arrows and have my inventory full of arrows that I can't pick anything. The bottom line is it's tedious. I played TQ and I made a bow character straight up, no ugly considerations, because you don't need to buy any arrows.

So how's it gonna be with D3? I just hope they remove all the tedious elements. Fun is the essence.

[Apocalypse]

here's hoping for no arrows in D3 lol, like you said it was boring and imo a waste of my time. seeing as bliz wants to limit trips to town i will guess they will not be in the game

[Gigashadow]

Arrows were dumb. Hope not to see them in DIII. >>

[Edairu]

The first thing that came to mind was to just remove arrows completely. But then what if Blizzard wanted to make Unique/Rare/Magic Arrows/Bolts to increase ranged characters damage versus a sword/shield combo. Well then they could just make all arrows have unlimited "ammo". Problem solved and allows arrows to be a feasible addition to a character build.

[Retro]

Nice idea. The same goes with throwing weapons, they should have unlimited quantities.

[yalthar]

Perhaps we should also have unlimited health too, and oh yeah, unlimited backpack space - that would definitely reduce trips to town.

[Farmrush]

Perhaps we should also have unlimited health too, and oh yeah, unlimited backpack space - that would definitely reduce trips to town.

I hope this was a joke. Having unlimited arrows doesn't break gameplay, whereas unlimited health definitely would and unlimited backpack space would be pretty ridiculous imo. Having limited arrows just forces players who are playing any sort of missile class to run back and forth loading up on arrows, bolts, javelines, without actually adding anything to gameplay.

I would like to see unlimited bolts/arrows. I would also like to see them replace the offhand slots for bow/xbow characters by having magic, rare, and maybe unique arrows.

[stillman]

But the reason arrows are there in the first place may be to provide that very annoyance for ranged attackers. There needs to be a downfall for bow users or else they have it made. On d2, all I play is zons pretty much. Here are the things you don't need to worry about if you are using a bow user properly:

LIFE!!!
defense
shield block
strength
damage reduced by
life leech
potions
repairs
other mods: flee, slows, etc

And all I have to do in return is sacrifice 0 or 3 spaces in my inventory (you can still carry 350 arrows in your hand, plus the game drops many quivers so you don't need to go to town).

If they take away this requirement, they would HAVE to replace ammo with something else or bow users would be way too advantaged. I mean, look at that list....repairs, life, defense, no worries.

[Farmrush]

But the reason arrows are there in the first place may be to provide that very annoyance for ranged attackers. There needs to be a downfall for bow users or else they have it made. On d2, all I play is zons pretty much. Here are the things you don't need to worry about if you are using a bow user properly:

LIFE!!!
defense
shield block
strength
damage reduced by
life leech
potions
repairs
other mods: flee, slows, etc

And all I have to do in return is sacrifice 0 or 3 spaces in my inventory (you can still carry 350 arrows in your hand, plus the game drops many quivers so you don't need to go to town).

If they take away this requirement, they would HAVE to replace ammo with something else or bow users would be way too advantaged. I mean, look at that list....repairs, life, defense, no worries.

Purposefully annoying users into either selecting a different class or playing as a bow class at a loss of fun seems like a pretty poor method of game design. Although the problem is valid, because something needs to be done to accommodate players who want to use a bow/missile weapon. First I want to address what you said in the context of Diablo 3, though.

1. Ranged attacker can still be hurt, and if they are suited to a more 'glass cannon' style of gameplay I would welcome that change. Of course, I'm not suggesting anyone using a bow be a 1-hit kill, but they are going to be hit less and need to be punished equally for it.

2. Defense still comes into play, because YOU ARE GOING TO GET HIT. This is pretty unavoidable, although this plays a minor role compared to melee characters.

3. Players with two handed weapons also don't need to worry about shields, but that comes at a cost of decreased defense, which is fair. I know you specified bows, but I'm looking at it from a purely missile perspective and javelin using players can worry about a shield.

4. Stats play a different role in Diablo 3 than 2, so this is no longer in effect.

5. Same as defense

6. Although I found leech important in D2 when using a missile weapons because even a bit ended up healing you a lot, there is no leech in D3. So no character needs to worry about this.

7. There are no potions in D3 either. Well, at least not in the same manner they were in D2.

8 & 9. No real comments.

Anyways, I don't entirely disagree with your analysis, but in D3 things may be different. You cannot just stand back and chug potions / leech life. You're going to need to run in and out of battle, especially in boss battles, just to heal yourself. This is quite a disadvantage already if the character is not designed to take a lot of hits. You better be damn sure you can make it to that health orb before you take a run for it. The wizard is essentially the same only she has to worry about mana as well, provided she isn't speced as a melee wizard. In my mind the disclusion of potions and leech from the game completely changes the way these characters will be approached.

[Retro]

I'd take any bane (as long as it doesn't make the game tedious) in exchange for unlimited ammo as a boon.

[Lazarus II]

The first thing that came to mind was to just remove arrows completely. But then what if Blizzard wanted to make Unique/Rare/Magic Arrows/Bolts to increase ranged characters damage versus a sword/shield combo. Well then they could just make all arrows have unlimited "ammo". Problem solved and allows arrows to be a feasible addition to a character build.

That's an excellent idea! I'd love that.

[Rockhound]

I have to agree, ammo with special properties would be awesome. Unlimited ammo has worked in other games why not D3. Come on now who doesn't want to have arrows with different sets of graphics and effects.

[GoBigRed]

Would be nice if regular arrows were unlimited and special arrows ran out

[stillman]

Sure, I would like to not have to deal with ammunition either, but they would have to make some sort of downfall for almost never being in melee range. The only other downfalls I can think of atm is lowering the damage that bows do or making rangers more frail. I was hoping bows could do more damage than in d2. I guess making rangers easier to kill would be OK.

There has to be some annoying thing like ammunition or else way too many people will be playing ranged chrs.

[Arkardo]

Lowering the attack speed of ranged attackers could be a good idea. It would be more realistic, too.

That, and/or the idea of having magical/rare/unique arrows.

Either way, I'd love to have infinite ammunition.

[Retro]

Have you all read the thread about ammo in D3 General Discussion? I think it has been confirmed that... just go to that thread.

[Athanasios]

Going into town for a few seconds to buy some arrows for your bow cannot possibly ruin gameplay imo. Gimmy a break, the two whole seconds it takes you to walk to the merchant and buy some arrows is hardly a hassle...

If they make arrows and bolts unlimited then they might as well get rid of durability in general. Better yet, they can give bows durability just like every other weapon in the game.

Now i dont think there going to get rid of either durability or the limits on arrows. Maybe there will be more arrows in a bunch, like 500 or something.

[Nimbostratus]

Going into town for a few seconds to buy some arrows for your bow cannot possibly ruin gameplay imo. Gimmy a break, the two whole seconds it takes you to walk to the merchant and buy some arrows is hardly a hassle...
It's not so much that it's a huge annoyance than it is that it's a minor annoyance that doesn't really add anything to the game.

[Athanasios]

It's not so much that it's a huge annoyance than it is that it's a minor annoyance that doesn't really add anything to the game.

Repairing items in D2 was a way bigger annoyance(imo) then buying arrows or bolts yet i dont think they should totally get rid of durability...

Im not saying that running in to town isnt and annoyance, im just saying that its insignificant. Regardless of what i think, something will probably be done about it seeing as how blizz seems to want to limit players trips to town and what not. That and the hopes that gold in D3 will have more value; that could change the way you buying arrows, or repair arrows with a bow you dont need to repair is a blaring advantage

[skyjuice]

It's been revealed in the latest Blizzcast that with D3 arrows/bolts will not drop. Ever. Again.

Good riddance.

Which leads to my suspicion that Blizz will reveal the next class to be range.

[Akse]

They could have extra bag slot for quiver where you keep your arrows.

[skyjuice]

They could have extra bag slot for quiver where you keep your arrows.

Maybe, but that's out of the bag (all pun intended!).


Bornakk: Do you think they will be purchasable or will it mainly just be the drops?



Jay Wilson: My guess is that they will be drops only. We essentially added them into the system to put more items into the drop game. One of the things we found is that because we removed things like potions and changed the nature of some of our other drops, like for example – I’ll let this out – we don’t really have ammo anymore, if you use a kind of weapon that would normally use ammo we just let you use it, we don’t make you go collect more ammo, it just has infinite ammo. It’s kind of to support more action aspect of the game. Then if you go back to Diablo 2, a lot of bolts drop! That fills up a lot of the “trash” that drops and when we started pulling a lot of those things like potions got reduced way down and bolts got completely removed we that it really threw off the item drop like you never had anything drop that was less important. So we looked to a whole class of items and we don’t necessarily want to drop trash, we didn’t want to drop stuff that was just vendor trash like that was never our goal. We said maybe we can find things that the player is not necessarily like “Oh my god that’s the best item in the world!” but it’s like “Oh cool, I could use that, that gives me a little bit of a buff” and elixirs are kind of that class of item.