Attributes in Diablo 3 consist of Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Willpower. Each attribute affects multiple values in Diablo III; making points in each attribute valuable to all characters. See the respective character class page for Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Wizard and the Upcoming Classes for more specific details.
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No Customizable Attributes
The biggest change about attributes in Diablo III is that they are not player-customized. Unlike D1 and D2, attributes are automatically designated when a character levels up. As a result all level 50 (for instance) Wizards will have the same strength, dexterity, willpower, and vitality as each other. That said, no two characters will ever have identical stats or use their stats in the same way, since equipment and skill runes and other not-yet-revealed features will add bonuses and otherwise modify attributes and character play styles.
Though Blizzard has made several public statements defending this change, it remains one of the more controversial topics during game development. See below for more coverage of this issue.
Attribute Bonuses
Each attribute affects more character properties in Diablo III than in D1 or D2. This is part of the D3 Team's design goal; to make all of the attributes useful to all of the classes.
Strength
Strength governs how much damage you do and how high your armor rating is. Whether the effect of each point in Strength on the secondary attributes is the same for every character class is unclear as of yet.
1 point of Strength gives:
Dexterity
Dexterity governs your chance to critically strike a target, and so doing more damage. Dexterity influences your chance to dodge an attack and lowers the chance that your character will be interrupted by getting hit.
1 point of Dexterity gives:
- +x% Critical Strike Chance
- +x% Dodge Chance
- Higher Dexterity lowers chance you will be interrupted by getting hit.
Vitality
Vitality governs the amount of life your character has and how fast its mana regenerates.
1 point of Vitality gives:
- +x Life
- Mana Regeneration of +x per second
Willpower
Willpower governs the amount of spell damage bonus and extra health the consumption that a health globe will grant your character.
1 point of Willpower gives:
- +x% Spell Damage Bonus
- +x% Health Globe Bonus
Pre-Set Attribute Argument
Much digital ink has been spilled on this issue, since it was revealed at Blizzcon, in October 2008. (The first word came from an interview by Diii.net, and immediately resulted in a 30-page forum thread.) Some portion of that hew and cry was spurred by an initial misunderstanding; reporters assumed items would still have strength, dexterity, and other attribute requirements (they do not), but even with that issue clarified shortly after, the topic of pre-set attributes has remained a contentious one.
There are a variety of arguments on each side of the issue. The debate was nicely encapsulated in an On the Drawing Board column about pre-set attributes, from which the following bullet points are taken: [1]
Pros
- It's beginner friendly. New players won't ruin their characters with poor stat allocation.
- Attributes were largely irrelevant in D2, since all characters with the same build used identical equipment and stat allocation. Typical D2 guide advice, "Enough strength for your heaviest item, then all the rest into vitality."
- Enables easier/better game balancing for the developers, since they can know about how powerful characters will be.
- Prevents twinking and other exploits by low level characters.
- World of Warcraft uses auto-attributes, and it's the most popular RPG ever.
- No need for attribute respecs, which would otherwise have to be incorporated since skill respecs will be.
- It boosts the importance of items, since those and skills are what differentiates characters.
- High level characters can use the items they find, since they won't, for example, be built with far too little strength for that cool new item they just found.
- It respects traditional RPG philosophy of archetype characters meaning how a physical and mental ability of a class is supposed to be depending on its role. A Barbarian with very high Willpower or a Wizard with too much Strenght really makes no sense from roleplaying perspective in a fantasy game.
- It completely eliminates those bad situations when people find a better item with more stats (or maybe the same item with just better rolled numbers) and realize that they have one or more unnecessary invested points right now in --insert a stat here-- just because of these new items and they don't need more stats right now. Maybe later on, but this problem will never end, until you find all items perfect and reroll your character.
Cons
- Reduced Character Variety. Unusual and non-cookie cutter builds need to allocate their attributes differently.
- We won’t be noobs forever. Why gimp a major aspect of game play individuality when it won't be necessary once gamers have some experience?
- No Attributes = No skill required. If players want to mainline strength and ignore vitality because they're good enough to survive with fewer hit points, or vice versa so they can play with a weaker, specialized build, why take away that option?
- Rerolling is fun. Making new characters is a hallmark of the Diablo series. This isn't WoW where one high level character takes months to build, and then lasts forever with respecs.
- What about hardcore? HC chars want/need to be built very differently than SC, since death is forever.
Blizzard's Response
The D3 Team has not issued a formal, multi-point rebuttal, but they have commented on this issue a few times.
- Jay Wilson: For the most part attribute spending in Diablo II was a great way, when you didn’t know how to play the game, to break your character. Most people didn’t know where to put them and when they found out the answer was always kind of weird like "Put 5 points in Energy and then all the rest of the points in Vitality." [2]
The longest comment came from D3 Community Manager Bashiok who offered a detailed argument in a forum post in December 2008. [3]
Loss of character customization:
- With the current skill system, runes, and item affixes, as well as other unmentionables, there’s not going to be any issue with not having enough customization. If there is, bottom line, we’ll add more. We’re not going to release a game we’re not happy with, and a lack of character customization options would make us unhappy. But, even right now we have a lot more variety and ability to customize a character than Diablo II had.
Odd character builds:
- Similarly is being able to create “off-spec” builds, or characters that aren’t just cookie cutter ideals of the class you’re playing. This is important to the game, and we will ensure that it doesn't get "tuned out" of the game. ...Manual attributes were not what made them possible in Diablo II. The ability to make these types of characters relies solely on the complexity and diversity of the the options available to steer your character, and not that they come in the form of a "+" button.
Less feeling of level up achievement:
- The loss of a feeling of a leveling achievement is actually something we recognize and intend to address.
We've always assigned our own points in Diablo games:
- The nostalgia of simply having points, and spending them on base stats is probably the most difficult. Liking something because it’s familiar is difficult to argue with, but it’s also probably the easiest to overcome. Since we can’t force your memories out of you, we just have to make the best game we can and hope you realize that manual attribute assignment isn’t the best, most engaging or entertaining form of character customization possible, and that we’re offering an even deeper and richer game without those buttons.