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Each of the character [[class]]es in [[Diablo III]] have a set of class '''skills'''. There are a lot of skills for each character; more than 50 were shown for the Wizard and Barbarian at Blizzcon in October, 2008. Skills are roughly grouped by type and are slotted into three skill trees... though this arrangement is subject to change during ongoing development.  
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'''Skills''' refers to the Active Skills, the class-specific character abilities in Diablo III. There are around 25 skills per class, (down from 30+ in earlier versions<ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/jay-wilson-exclusive-full-transcript/ Jay Wilson Interview @ Diii.net] - IncGamers, October 2009</ref> of the game) and they are wildly-varied, ranging from physical strikes to [[spell]] attacks to buffs, debuffs, mind control abilities, and many more.
  
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.
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Diablo III divides skills into [[Active]] and [[Passive]]. The skills selected to use are all Active, and these are attacks, debuffs, auras and other such abilities that only have an effect while they are being actively used. Passive skills (initially called [[traits]]) are limited to 3 per character, and they remain in effect indefinitely once they are enabled. (Though it may take special circumstances to trigger their effect, such as using a ranged attack.) There are dozens of passive skills per class, they vary widely between the classes, and add bonuses such as +damage to ranged attacks, faster movement speed, increased chance of critical strike, faster resource regeneration, improved healing, and many more.
  
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In Diablo III, skills are seldom used in their basic form, since the five types of [[runestones]] greatly modify every skill, always in beneficial fashion. There is thus no good reason to ever use the base skill once a runestone is available.  (Some players dislike this design, but the developers have said that at least one runestone in each skill will not modify the basic function, and will only add damage or some other improvement that doesn't change the basic function.)
  
==Known Skills==
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==Essential Skill Links==
We know a fair number of skills from seeing them in demonstrations, and from taking notes of them at Blizzcon in October 2008. More than 50 skills are known for the Barbarian and Wizard, while fewer of the Witch Doctor's skills have yet been revealed. Click to the appropriate pages to learn the names and functions of all known skills.
 
  
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* [[Rune|Skill rune]]s
 
* [[Barbarian skills]]
 
* [[Barbarian skills]]
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* [[Demon Hunter skills]].
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* [[Monk skills]].
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* [[Wizard skills]].
 
* [[Witch Doctor skills]]
 
* [[Witch Doctor skills]]
* [[Wizard skills]]
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* [[Signature skill]]s - Skills that define characters.
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* [[Active skill]]s - Skills where effects are activated by the player.
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* [[Passive skill]]s - Skills where effects are activated automatically, by the computer or by special events.
  
  
==Active and Passive Skills==
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==Active 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.  
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This skill system has changed as often as any game feature during development, but seems at least semi-finalized as of January 2012. (See the archived skills page for details about the numerous earlier skill systems, many of which varied wildly from the final form.)
  
Active skills are used by clicking their icon, and are generally direct attacks; things like [[Spirit_Skill_Tree#Soul_Harvest|Soul Harvest]], [[Battlemaster_Skill_Tree#Hammer_of_the_Ancients|Hammer of the Ancients]], or [[Arcane_Skill_Tree#Magic_Missile|Magic Missile]]. Active skills attack, cast a protective armor, stun monsters, etc.  
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Characters now have six [[active skill slots]], which are unlocked at Clvl 1, 2, 6, 12, 18, and 24. Active skills become available to assign to these slots regularly, one every level or every other level, until the highest level skills are unlocked at around Clvl 29 (the number of skills and max level varies slightly from class to class). There are no skill points in Diablo III; skills are either selected or not; on or off.
  
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.
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With the current system, a new character starts off wit one skill that they can not change or switch out, since only one skill is available at that level. Very quickly, as soon as the character reaches Clvl 2, another two skills are enabled, and a second active skill slot is unlocked. This gives the player a choice of three skills, two of which can be usable at a time. For example, a Wizard starts off with [[Magic Missile]], and no other skills available. At level 2, a second active skill slot comes online, and the skills [[Frost Nova]] and [[Ice Armor]] are enabled. Either of those can then be assigned to the second slot, or both can be used if one is swapped in for Magic Missiles.  
  
==Signature Skills==
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Additional active skill slots come in at level 6, 12, 18, and 24, with new skills available every level or two until about Clvl 29. At that point each class has about 24 active skills, of which six can be active at once.
  
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.
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View the images below to see a character at level 1, level 2 with the second active skill slot unlocked, and level 13, with 4 active skills slots, to see this progression.  
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* The icons of skills that are available but not currently active are bright and colorful.
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* The icons of skills that are not yet available (due to a character not being high enough level) are dimmed out.
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* The icons of skills that are currently selected have a small silver border around them, for ease of identification.  
  
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."
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<gallery>
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File:Skills-beta-lvl1.jpg
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File:Skills-beta-lvl2.jpg
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File:Skills-beta-lvl13.jpg
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</gallery>
  
==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].
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==Passive Skills==
  
::'''1UP: In creating this game, would you say that the character classes and their powers drive the rest of the game, or are their powers created as a result -- or solution -- to problems presented by the game?'''
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[[File:Skills-passive-beta1.jpg|thumb|300px|Passive skills for a Witch Doctor, Jan 2012.]]
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The [[Passive Skill]] system has undergone numerous changes as well, but it also seems mostly finalized as of January 2012, during the beta test.
  
::'''JW:''' Probably the best way to describe it is that initially, when we're doing skills for a class, we're not thinking anything except "what makes this class awesome? Why do I care about this guy?" Then you say, "Because he can hit the ground and create a small localized earthquake that destroys everything in front of him." That sounds pretty awesome; that sounds like a guy that I'd want to play. So early on, that's really our fixation: What is going to make this class sing? But that only really drives the first half-dozen skills. After that, we start getting into what mechanics have we put in the game that we want this class to take advantage of. For example, with the Wizard, we gave her a passive skill that causes enemies to drop mana orbs -- just like health orbs. So that's a mana-recovery mechanic for her; it plays into her resource and plays into the health-orb system.  
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In the current system, players can choose from 3 passive skills, with their [[passive skill slots]] becoming available at level 10, 20, and 30. Switching these in and out works much as it does with active skills, except that passive skills are first available at Clvl 10, when 2 of them are enabled. Additional passive skills come online every level or two thereafter, until each class has around 15 passive skills to choose by level 30.  
  
::So there, we just said, "We need a recovery mechanism for her -- what would work? Well, we can give her something similar that we already give for health." But then that doesn't mean anything for the Barbarian since he uses a completely different resource. For him, we tend to focus on skills that make him play in a way that's interesting. His "fury resource" is designed to drive the player forward, like a Barbarian, because he's very tough and is a close-quarters combatant. He wants to move forward, because the mechanic is "I have a lot of fury, which helps me deliver a lot of damage, but I'm going to lose it just sitting around." It makes him very aggressive, which is what we wanted out of the character. So that was driven by [the concept of] how do we want this guy to play. Very aggressively, and hence we built this mechanic.
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You can see full lists of all passive skills on the appropriate class skill pages.
  
::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.
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* [[Barbarian_skills#Passive_Skills|Barbarian Passive Skills]]
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* [[Demon_Hunter_skills#Passive_Skills|Demon Hunter Passive Skills]]
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* [[Monk_skills#Passive_Skills|Monk Passive Skills]]
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* [[Witch_Doctor_skills#Passive_Skills|Witch Doctor Passive Skills]]
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* [[Wizard_skills#Passive_Skills|Wizard Passive Skills]]
  
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==Respecs==
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[[Respecs]] are readily-available in Diablo III, and players are encouraged to experiment with a wide variety of skills, as well as swapping them around between situations. This system has undergone much change during development, and remains in flux, with the final system of skills and runestones not yet finalized.
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While the developers initially shrugged off player complaints that total [[freespecs]] were an exploit that would prevent players from getting any sense of "ownership" or "identity" to their characters, the skills system during the beta has gradually changed to limit respecs, first by the [[Nephalem Altar]], then with a 30 second cooldown on using or changing any skill slot after it's been swapped.
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==Skill Points==
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Skill points were removed from the game during development. The developers felt that skill points were a max skill cap by another definition, since most skills had to be maxed out to retain high utility. Skill points also proved difficult to balance, as additional points in some skills were of minimal importance, while they were essential in combat/damage skills.
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Without skill points players can experiment by regularly swapping skills ([[respec]]) in and out, low level skills can scale up to remain useful long term, and equipment becomes much more important, as skill damage comes largely from equipment bonuses such as +attributes.
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==Skill Requirements?==
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[[File:Patch10-skill-swap-cooldown-sml.jpg|thumb|350px|[[Cooldown]] on skill switching, Beta v10.]]
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Diablo III has no skill requirements or prerequisites, other than minimum Clvls. Skills are no longer arranged in trees or grouped by tiers, and a new skill becomes available nearly every level up until Clvl 29 or 30. (The numbers vary between the classes.)
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This system, along with respecs and several other changes, is designed to let players freely experiment with skills and different builds.
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There are requirements on how many skills can be used at once. Characters start out with one skill, and unlock additional [[Active Skill Slot]]s at Clvl 2, 6, 12, 18, and 24.  [[Passive Skill Slot]]s  are enabled at Clvl 10, 20, and 30.
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==Resource Costs and Cooldowns==
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Skills in Diablo III vary greatly in their resource costs. Some low level skills and [[signature skills]] have a low or even zero cost to cast, thus allowing players to [[spam]] them in all circumstances. More powerful skills have higher resource costs, to make using them more of a strategic choice. The highest level skills have very high resource costs, and/or cooldowns, forcing players to wait considerable times (up to 120 seconds for the highest level skills[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/blizzard-on-high-level-barbarian-skill-cooldowns]) between uses.
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The point in resource costs and cooldowns is to give Diablo III's skills greater variety in effect and usage.[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/blizzard-calms-the-masses-on-skill-cooldowns] In Diablo II there were very minimal cooldowns and resources costs became irrelevant to high level characters with lots of [[leech]], regeneration, or [[potions]]. As a result, every player could use their best skills constantly, without delay, and thus there was no reason to use lower level skills at all.
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Diablo III has been designed to encourage a wider mixture of skill types, with [[spammable]] skills mixed in with big damage/big delay skills, and others that fall inbetween. Lower level skills are meant to remain useful as their damage and effectiveness scales up with the character level.
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* See the [[cooldowns]] article for more detail, [[Blue]] quotes, and specific skill examples.
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<br>
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==How Many Skills At Once?==
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Only 6 skills can be active at once, with the number available increasing as a character levels up.  Characters start out with one skill and gain an additional [[active skill slot]]s at Clvl 2, 6, 12, 18, and 24.
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The maximum number of skills changed repeatedly during development. The first word that there would be any skill limit at all came in September, 2010. <ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-on-skills-party-help-and-beta-confirmation/ @Diablo] - IncGamers, September 2010</ref>
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::You can spend into seven skills at a time, total. These are active skills and don’t include passives. --Diablo
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This was at a time when skills were arranged in trees with tiers, which were arranged at Clvl 1, 2, 6, 10, 14, 20, and 26. Characters could activate multiple skills from any tier -- not just one from each tier -- and gained an additional skill point every level up.
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The final game system bears almost no resemblance to that early design.
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==Skill Tooltips==
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[[File:Skill-tooltip-simplified-beta.jpg|thumb|350px|Simplified [[tool tips]].]]
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Skill tooltips were changed to be short and lacking in details (such as numbers) during late game development. Players reacted poorly to this change, but the developers insisted it was for the best and would be more [[accessible]] to new players.  Slightly more detailed skill information (showing damage types, some functions, numbers, etc) can be viewed by hovering on a skill while holding down the Control key.
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An side-by-side example can be seen to the right.
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==References==
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<font size="-3">
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<references/>
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</font>
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{{Skill_navbox_Diablo_III|Barbarian}}
  
 
[[Category:Skills]]
 
[[Category:Skills]]
[[category:basics]]
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[[Category:Basics]]

Latest revision as of 23:24, 29 January 2012

Skills refers to the Active Skills, the class-specific character abilities in Diablo III. There are around 25 skills per class, (down from 30+ in earlier versions[1] of the game) and they are wildly-varied, ranging from physical strikes to spell attacks to buffs, debuffs, mind control abilities, and many more.

Diablo III divides skills into Active and Passive. The skills selected to use are all Active, and these are attacks, debuffs, auras and other such abilities that only have an effect while they are being actively used. Passive skills (initially called traits) are limited to 3 per character, and they remain in effect indefinitely once they are enabled. (Though it may take special circumstances to trigger their effect, such as using a ranged attack.) There are dozens of passive skills per class, they vary widely between the classes, and add bonuses such as +damage to ranged attacks, faster movement speed, increased chance of critical strike, faster resource regeneration, improved healing, and many more.

In Diablo III, skills are seldom used in their basic form, since the five types of runestones greatly modify every skill, always in beneficial fashion. There is thus no good reason to ever use the base skill once a runestone is available. (Some players dislike this design, but the developers have said that at least one runestone in each skill will not modify the basic function, and will only add damage or some other improvement that doesn't change the basic function.)

Essential Skill Links[edit | edit source]


Active Skills[edit | edit source]

This skill system has changed as often as any game feature during development, but seems at least semi-finalized as of January 2012. (See the archived skills page for details about the numerous earlier skill systems, many of which varied wildly from the final form.)

Characters now have six active skill slots, which are unlocked at Clvl 1, 2, 6, 12, 18, and 24. Active skills become available to assign to these slots regularly, one every level or every other level, until the highest level skills are unlocked at around Clvl 29 (the number of skills and max level varies slightly from class to class). There are no skill points in Diablo III; skills are either selected or not; on or off.

With the current system, a new character starts off wit one skill that they can not change or switch out, since only one skill is available at that level. Very quickly, as soon as the character reaches Clvl 2, another two skills are enabled, and a second active skill slot is unlocked. This gives the player a choice of three skills, two of which can be usable at a time. For example, a Wizard starts off with Magic Missile, and no other skills available. At level 2, a second active skill slot comes online, and the skills Frost Nova and Ice Armor are enabled. Either of those can then be assigned to the second slot, or both can be used if one is swapped in for Magic Missiles.

Additional active skill slots come in at level 6, 12, 18, and 24, with new skills available every level or two until about Clvl 29. At that point each class has about 24 active skills, of which six can be active at once.

View the images below to see a character at level 1, level 2 with the second active skill slot unlocked, and level 13, with 4 active skills slots, to see this progression.

  • The icons of skills that are available but not currently active are bright and colorful.
  • The icons of skills that are not yet available (due to a character not being high enough level) are dimmed out.
  • The icons of skills that are currently selected have a small silver border around them, for ease of identification.


Passive Skills[edit | edit source]

Passive skills for a Witch Doctor, Jan 2012.

The Passive Skill system has undergone numerous changes as well, but it also seems mostly finalized as of January 2012, during the beta test.

In the current system, players can choose from 3 passive skills, with their passive skill slots becoming available at level 10, 20, and 30. Switching these in and out works much as it does with active skills, except that passive skills are first available at Clvl 10, when 2 of them are enabled. Additional passive skills come online every level or two thereafter, until each class has around 15 passive skills to choose by level 30.

You can see full lists of all passive skills on the appropriate class skill pages.


Respecs[edit | edit source]

Respecs are readily-available in Diablo III, and players are encouraged to experiment with a wide variety of skills, as well as swapping them around between situations. This system has undergone much change during development, and remains in flux, with the final system of skills and runestones not yet finalized.

While the developers initially shrugged off player complaints that total freespecs were an exploit that would prevent players from getting any sense of "ownership" or "identity" to their characters, the skills system during the beta has gradually changed to limit respecs, first by the Nephalem Altar, then with a 30 second cooldown on using or changing any skill slot after it's been swapped.


Skill Points[edit | edit source]

Skill points were removed from the game during development. The developers felt that skill points were a max skill cap by another definition, since most skills had to be maxed out to retain high utility. Skill points also proved difficult to balance, as additional points in some skills were of minimal importance, while they were essential in combat/damage skills.

Without skill points players can experiment by regularly swapping skills (respec) in and out, low level skills can scale up to remain useful long term, and equipment becomes much more important, as skill damage comes largely from equipment bonuses such as +attributes.


Skill Requirements?[edit | edit source]

Cooldown on skill switching, Beta v10.

Diablo III has no skill requirements or prerequisites, other than minimum Clvls. Skills are no longer arranged in trees or grouped by tiers, and a new skill becomes available nearly every level up until Clvl 29 or 30. (The numbers vary between the classes.)

This system, along with respecs and several other changes, is designed to let players freely experiment with skills and different builds.

There are requirements on how many skills can be used at once. Characters start out with one skill, and unlock additional Active Skill Slots at Clvl 2, 6, 12, 18, and 24. Passive Skill Slots are enabled at Clvl 10, 20, and 30.


Resource Costs and Cooldowns[edit | edit source]

Skills in Diablo III vary greatly in their resource costs. Some low level skills and signature skills have a low or even zero cost to cast, thus allowing players to spam them in all circumstances. More powerful skills have higher resource costs, to make using them more of a strategic choice. The highest level skills have very high resource costs, and/or cooldowns, forcing players to wait considerable times (up to 120 seconds for the highest level skills[1]) between uses.

The point in resource costs and cooldowns is to give Diablo III's skills greater variety in effect and usage.[2] In Diablo II there were very minimal cooldowns and resources costs became irrelevant to high level characters with lots of leech, regeneration, or potions. As a result, every player could use their best skills constantly, without delay, and thus there was no reason to use lower level skills at all.

Diablo III has been designed to encourage a wider mixture of skill types, with spammable skills mixed in with big damage/big delay skills, and others that fall inbetween. Lower level skills are meant to remain useful as their damage and effectiveness scales up with the character level.

  • See the cooldowns article for more detail, Blue quotes, and specific skill examples.



How Many Skills At Once?[edit | edit source]

Only 6 skills can be active at once, with the number available increasing as a character levels up. Characters start out with one skill and gain an additional active skill slots at Clvl 2, 6, 12, 18, and 24.

The maximum number of skills changed repeatedly during development. The first word that there would be any skill limit at all came in September, 2010. [2]

You can spend into seven skills at a time, total. These are active skills and don’t include passives. --Diablo

This was at a time when skills were arranged in trees with tiers, which were arranged at Clvl 1, 2, 6, 10, 14, 20, and 26. Characters could activate multiple skills from any tier -- not just one from each tier -- and gained an additional skill point every level up.

The final game system bears almost no resemblance to that early design.


Skill Tooltips[edit | edit source]

Simplified tool tips.

Skill tooltips were changed to be short and lacking in details (such as numbers) during late game development. Players reacted poorly to this change, but the developers insisted it was for the best and would be more accessible to new players. Slightly more detailed skill information (showing damage types, some functions, numbers, etc) can be viewed by hovering on a skill while holding down the Control key.

An side-by-side example can be seen to the right.



References[edit | edit source]

  1. Jay Wilson Interview @ Diii.net - IncGamers, October 2009
  2. @Diablo - IncGamers, September 2010