Changes

While "skills" is the official name, players often refer to "skills" as "spells," "talents," "abilities," and other such terms. These are just synonyms, and are frequently interchangeable in use.

This is, of course, subject to further change as the development process grinds on.

===Earlier Info===

Prior to the huge skill array change announced in May 2009:

==Skill Caps==

Bashiok spoke to this issue in a forum post in May 2009. [http://www.diii.net/blog/comments/diablo-iii-skill-trees-innovative-overhaul/]

Blizzard has not given any word on how these increased skill caps would be enabled, whether by Clvl requirements, quests/in-game achievements, item bonuses, or something else. Like the other features, it's under construction and will change between now and the game's release.

==Skill Display==

[[Image:Skill-threatening-shout.jpg|frame|Skill hover, May 2009.]]

The finer points of the skill hover have changed and evolved during the game's development, and will continue to do so. Expect further changes.

One prime difference from Diablo II is the slot for a [[skill rune]] that you see below the skill, in the skill tree. Only active skills (as far as is known) have slots for skill runes, and skill runes can be freely socketed and swapped in and out. (Subject to change during further development.) See the skill runes page for more details.

==Active and Passive Skills==

Diablo III skills are either "active" or "passive." There are many more passive skills than active skills. At Blizzcon in October 2008 (a very preliminary build of the game), each skill tree was set up in tiers, with 4 or 5 skills per tier. On each tier, one or two were active and the rest were passive.

Passive skills grant the character some sort of bonus that is always in effect. Passive skills do not need to be cast to activate them; they give a bonus all the time, as soon as points are placed into them. These are skills and spells like [[Arcane_Skill_Tree#Efficient_Magics|Efficient Magics]] or [[Battlemaster_Skill_Tree#Power_of_the_Battlemaster|Power of the Battlemaster]]. (No passive Witch Doctor skills have yet been named.) Passive skills boost the damage of other spells, lower the mana cost of casting them, increase their duration, etc. Passive skills were often called "masteries" in Diablo II, and that term is still applicable to many of them in Diablo III.

==Signature Skills==

Skills lie at the core of the characters and propel all combat in Diablo III. For the D3 Team, the skills literally define the character. The team sets out to create what they call "[[WWI_2008:_Denizens_of_Diablo_Panel#Signature_Skills|signature skills]]" -- click that link to read much more about this topic from a panel discussion from the WWI in Paris, when Diablo III was announced. Signature skills are active skills that are very distinctive and evocative of the character. For instance, the design goal of the Diablo III Barbarian is to make a huge, powerful, thundering brute of a melee fighter. So his signature skills are things that crush hordes of enemies in front of him, shake the entire screen, rip holes in the earth, etc. Wizards are deadly, reckless mages, so their signature skills are spells that wreak massive havoc upon monsters with fire, cold, and other elements.

Passive skills are never "signature skills." Even though passive skills can be essential and powerful, they're not visually impressive enough to be named a "signature skill."

==Skills Define Characters==

D3 Lead Designer Jay Wilson discussed how skills drive game development, and vice versa, in a December 2008 [http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=1&cId=3172030&p=1 interview with 1up.com].

::And lastly, [there's] the monster design. As we get further and further into the game, our goal is to make monsters that we can't figure out how the player can defeat [with the existing skills] and give the player the tools they need to defeat them. So the design of the monsters has a direct relationship to the design of the classes. That's kind of an ongoing thing; we [decide] "Let's create a monster that has really debilitating rooting attacks that just get you stuck when you encounter them." Then we see that this really screws with the Barbarian, so we give him a skill that lets him break out of roots so that he can counter that. Those things are interesting and allow for the player to have a broader, deeper character. On the other hand, we don't want to go too far -- a lot of mechanics of World of WarCraft are based heavily on control, and we want to make sure that Diablo 3 stays mostly a combat game based mostly on attacks.

[[Category:Skills]]

[[category:basics]]