Arcade Mode Skill Points

[IHeartPie]

A separate topic from the streamlining process, this one is a suggestion for the expansion of build types in Arcade mode.

Right now, levels 1-5 give you silver points and level 6 gives you one gold point, then level 7 gives you a silver point again.

What this essentially means is that you have to level only one skill up until level 6 or you wont be able to spend the level 6 skill point at all.

This severely limits the builds possible since some talents, such as the multielement one or the magic into weapon skill one, require more than one skill to be useful.

Maybe instead of gold points in arcade mode, level 6 of a skill just require 2 skill points instead and have level 6 reward 2 skill points [allowing you to either level two skills up or continue maxing that one skill].

 

[Own]

If it were at all possible, I'd move away from Skill Points and try for a slightly revised system that works around this problem.

Maybe, I don't know, every time you level up you get 20 Skill Points/ Skill Dust / Skill Experience / whatever you want to call it. A level divisible by 5? 30-40.

Getting the first rank of a skill costs 20 points. Second charge costs 30-40 points.

Or maybe the first rank of a skill costs 10 points, the next 15, 20, 25, etc, making skills cost more and more to improve.

Maybe with a system like this you could make support / weaker skills cost fewer points too, like making Haste or Protect require only 10 Points per level if everything else is 20.

The current system seems a little awkward to me, I don't know, just generating a gold skill point at set levels which messes with people who branch out instead of specializing.

 

[Teddy]

It's a bit paradoxal, I agree, that the system is there to encourage branching out but discourages doing it before level 6! Maybe players could get both a silver and a gold skill point at those levels, to ensure you never reach level where you can't put one out.

I'm not convinced a Skill Dust system would work too well, due to a couple of factors. First off, I generally dislike systems where you can/should horde points and spend them all on one skill, which leads to the second problem (which is basically the flip side of the current issue): players who do wish to specialize are now punished, and must go through many level-ups without being able to level up a skill.

The kind of system I'd be most inclined to switch to, if people are confused by the current one, is that found in many Diablo-clones (like Torchlight), namely that a minimum character level requirement stops you from putting in all your skill points in a single skill. Of course, this change would eliminate the silver and gold point system and just use "skill points" instead!

 

[GarlicJelly]

The kind of system I'd be most inclined to switch to, if people are confused by the current one, is that found in many Diablo-clones (like Torchlight), namely that a minimum character level requirement stops you from putting in all your skill points in a single skill. Of course, this change would eliminate the silver and gold point system and just use "skill points" instead!

That would make everything so much easier. I'd love to see just one type of skill points in Arcade mode so that we can have more freedom with our Arcade builds as the level ups are more restricted and this sounds like it would solve all the trouble with the current restrictions for how you spend your skill points.