Blizzard is still cranking along the Diablo III beta and Patch 13 was recently released that included a character wipe. That's not all though as the developer detailed on Sunday the overhaul that the Skill and Rune system for the PC game received as well.
Diablo III now organizes your skills into three main categories (Primary Attack, Secondary Attack, Defensive) and class-specific skills such as armor spells for the wizard or mantras for the monk. The goal of the system is to offer players a high degree of customization along with the "easy to learn, difficult to master" combat.
"We hope the new, more guided interface will give you an in-game heads up as to the intent of each skill -- and maybe even be the way you play through the game in Normal -- but if you eventually have a build that simply can’t be accomplished the way we’ve laid things out, you’re free to pop on Elective Mode and take the skills you want," Diablo 3 director Jay Wilson said.
Runes get a significant as well with a name change to "Skill Runes" and are no longer physical items to find while playing through the game but are earned by leveling up. Ranks for the runes have also been nixed.
Players will be able to earn their first rune at level 6 and additional runes all the way through level 60.
"Our goal with the rune system has always been to provide additional character customization by allowing players to augment or completely alter their skills in new and significant ways," said Wilson. "Originally, we tied this in to the itemization system because it felt like a good fit, as Diablo is all about the item drops. But with around 120 base skills, that meant there were around 600 rune variants; on top of that, each variant had five quality levels each, meaning ultimately there would be something like 3,000 different runes in the game… and we knew we were heading toward a problem."
Diablo III is currently headed towards a release somewhere between April and June of this year.
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Via: Battle.net
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