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'''Skills''' are what all abilities the character [[class]]es in [[Diablo III]] have are called. A skill includes regular physical abilities like [[Cleave]] or a magical [[spell]] like [[disintegrate]]. While '''skills''' is the official name, players often refer to them as '''spells''', '''talents''', '''abilities''', and similar terms. These are just synonyms, and are frequently interchangeable in use.  Worth noting is that [[monster]]s can also use skills, but often not a Character skill. Primarily [[caster]] monsters have skills/spells, but others as well. Monster skills include all their abilities besides their "auto attack".

==OverviewKnown Skills==While '''We know a fair number of skills''' is the official namefrom seeing them in demonstrations, players often refer to and from taking notes of them as '''spells''', '''talents''', '''abilities''', at BlizzCon in October [[BlizzCon 2008|2008]] and similar terms[[BlizzCon 2009|2009]]. These More than 30 skills each are just synonymsknown for the [[Barbarian]], [[Wizard]] and are frequently interchangeable in use.  Worth noting is that [[monsterWitch Doctor]]s can also use skills, but often not a Character skill. Primarily while fewer of the [[casterMonk]] monsters 's skills have skills/spells, but others as wellyet been revealed. Monster Click to the appropriate pages in the links above to learn the names and functions of all known skills include all their abilities besides their "auto attack".

At [[BlizzCon Image:Barb-berserker-tree.jpg|thumb|150px|Berserker Skill Tree. Oct 2008|Blizzcon .]]The first sighting of skill trees was in October, the [[BlizzCon 2008]] build where more than 50 skills were shown for the [[Wizard]] and [[Barbarian]], and placed in three individual trees, similar to how the system worked in [[Diablo II]] and [[World of WarCraft]]. Each 5 points spent in a tree opened a new tier to put skill points in. That game design favoured specializing in one tree, and did not have any prerequisites, instead totally based on points spent in each tree. At that point there were just 4 tiers of skills. Tier 1 was available at level 1, Tier 2 at level 5, then at 10 and 15. There was a fifth tier at level 20, but no skills were displayed in it. The image to the right is from that era.

In [[Image:Skill-tree-berserker.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Berserker Skill Tree]]. April 2009.]]This layout had changed a great deal by March 2009, when the next skill tree image was released. You see it to the right. The basic form remains, but the skills are staggered out over more tiers. Also note that the tiers are not labelled; they may no longer proceed at 5 point intervals. It's also possible that tiers will grow longer, with higher level skills being added as development proceeds. [[Bashiok]] elaborated on this in a forum post in May 2009 [http://www.diii.net/blog/comments/diablo-iii-skill-trees-innovative-overhaul/] an saying the trees had been unified to one single page that "allows you to spend wherever you like." This overhaul of the skill system was made, merging the skill trees to one skill page, but the group of skills kept their skill tree names.  The skill requirement still opened up in tiers, but opened up to all trees at the same time, enabling a player to pick low level skills in one tree, continuing with medium level skills in another and high level skills in the third. The general theory of skill trees is to encourage character specialization, but not force [[cookie cutter]] style character builds. The removal of individual skill trees means that every character can now pick from all the possible skills; this is great in theory, since players can all use whatever skills they want, Tier conflicts permitting. On the other hand, if the skills aren't very well balanced, every character will end up using the same few skills, since those are the best, and the cookie cutter-ism on [[Battle.net]] could be insane.  Bashiok defended the design saying it "diversifies the types and amounts of builds available to players," and explaining another advantage is that the [[D3 Team]] "don't have to throw in skills that are important, such as damage mitigation, all over the place." "Every barbarian is probably going to want [[whirlwind]]. And why not? What this tree style allows for, and one reason we’re pretty keen on it, is that we aren’t saying “You’re a ‘berserker’ barbarian, you can’t have whirlwind”. Instead, you’re a [[barbarian]]!, pick the key skills that define you and your character as you want them to be." Exactly how the D3 Team pulls this off without making every character use the same "best" skills is something worth monitoring as the game continues its development.

The overhaul did also saw see the removal of many relatively redundant skills, primarily removing [[passive skill]]s.