If you haven’t heard already, Diablo 3 will be introducing a new rune system as well as a respec. Both are apparently aimed for player flexibility. It used to be that runes and gems cannot be recovered once socketed, and that stats and skill points are unrecoverable once used up.

While it was generally not a bad thing to do for casual gamers who just wants to finish the game for its story, it’s absolutely irritating and frustrating for the more hardcore Diablo players. You had to plan and know what your final build will be before even starting the game, or you might end up regretting it when you’ve finally reached Hell level.

Personally, I don’t mind playing other classes for fun or even starting a new char of the same class. It’s always fun to start from scratch when you’re playing in groups during LAN parties and not to mention fair for everyone.

However, there will always be that one main char that you really want to work on. There is never a single perfect build, and as you continue playing you might feel that you would prefer a different build than the one you’re working on. It’s not only true with Diablo, but many other games as well, especially in MMORPGs.

Blizzard came up with an answer in Diablo 3.

The new rune system and the ability to respec would make it a lot more fun, not to mention a hell lot easier (no pun intended). It will encourage players to experiment with new and different builds and most importantly, it allows players to go crazy with them.

The rune system in Diablo 3 is different from the previous games. Runes in Diablo 2 were items that could be slotted into equipments with sockets in order to give it additional bonuses. When combined with other runes in the proper order, it was possible to create runewords.

Runewords gives weapons and armors high boosts and bonuses, and can be used to create some of the most powerful equipments in the game.  These high level runes are hard to obtain and can only be used once. Once you’ve socketed the rune, you can no longer remove it to use in a different set of equipment.

The runes in Diablo 3 are nothing like that.

Rather than giving a boost in stats for items, it actually imbues special abilities or change the nature of a skill. Using a Multistrike rune in a single target skill turns it into an AoE. It becomes possible for a non-offensive spell to dish out damage with the Striking rune. This new rune system allows players to be creative and come up with all sorts of custom build.

The best part of this new rune system?

If you don’t like what you get, change it! You can simply remove the rune from the skill to revert it back to its original form, or you can swap the runes to create a different skill.

Diablo 3 will also give allows you to respec your character, allowing you to reset your stats and skills. Not much is known about this at the moment, but you can expect that it’s not something that you can easily come by, else it will be severely abused. Abuses will always occur one way or another, but I believe the freedom it gives far outweigh the cons.

These updates to the game will allow players to have more fun then frust with their chars and is something I look forward to. After all, it’s more fun to mess around with a single character to find the build that suits you most rather than play a few different chars of the same class only to find that you’re getting sick of doing this over and over, finally ending up sticking to a build that might not really fit your taste.

Or do you perhaps find your enjoyment in that?

Check out this video for a short demonstration on the new rune system in Diablo 3:

Share This | StumbleUpon It!

No related posts.