Does every skill in MXL really has to be completely new?

[Celestialray]

This might be a controversial topic, but my question is why every single skill in the skill tree needs to be one that is completely new? Because there are certainly some really amazing, fun and iconic skills from D2 that in my opinion could be placed in the skill tree of MXL without hurting the mod at all and even improve it if that would be done.

A few examples:
[i]* Corpse Explosion
* Bone Spear
* Bone Spirit
* Strafe

Immediately stopped reading after that last awful skill recommendation.

What's wrong with strafe?

[Hrishi]

Would love to see Blizzard in some form, somewhere. Hailstorm isn't quite that.

[Jampula]

I mean there are already some classic skills that have found their way back into the skill trees of MXL in one way or another, like Whirlwind on the Barbarian, as well as Hydra on the Paladin, Iron Golm on the Necro, Multishot in the from of the Fire Arrows in one of the last patches, the Druid Shapeshifitng Forms and Revive on the Paladin, so why not some more old skills?

What makes you think they are not planning to add more clod skills?

Sigma is still taking its shape and they propably have their hands full on more important things atm. There are many skills that would need some love or replacing, like Freezing Gale you mentioned (btw love the suggestion to replace it with some kind of Blizzard variation). Or the whole Necro Malice tree, Funeral Pyre is fugly and impractical, Boneyard is meh and could be replaced with multi Bone Spear (although that has been seen in so many mods...), Poison Explosion replaced with Corpse Explosion (maybe not dmg based on monster HP, pure Fire/Phys dmg), Pestilence is only cool skill in the tree and used to be strong, I don't know if it's been nerfed to the ground nowadays?

[Johnny Impak]

As everyone says, Sigma is getting worked on constantly at every patch release. Give the staff some time.

On the other hand, graphics from most skills have already been taken. ie: Bone Spear Nova from Quov Tsin, Splitfire is a Fireball remake etc. Point is many of these skills need a complete remake to be viable. Just look at the vanilla sorceress elemental trees. There are 3 ice balls having similar functions, choosing between 2-3 mainstream auras when there are 20+ available and the list goes on. I could simply say they are underwhelming for the challenges we face.

I admit I miss BO’ing with a Barbarian, having a Shadow Clone on my sin and whacking faces with a shield on a paladin. So far the team has done a great job adapting old skills. I’m not worried.

[clueso]

Would love to see Blizzard in some form, somewhere. Hailstorm isn't quite that.

I feel that way as well.
Blizzard > Hailstorm > Freezing Gale

like Freezing Gale you mentioned (btw love the suggestion to replace it with some kind of Blizzard variation)

Yeah, Blizzard just looks 10 times better and is much more satisfying to use than Freezing Gale.
I was fairly disappointed when Hailstorm got replaced with FG...

Or the whole Necro Malice tree, Funeral Pyre is fugly and impractical, Boneyard is meh and could be replaced with multi Bone Spear (although that has been seen in so many mods...), Poison Explosion replaced with Corpse Explosion (maybe not dmg based on monster HP, pure Fire/Phys dmg), Pestilence is only cool skill in the tree and used to be strong, I don't know if it's been nerfed to the ground nowadays?

Bone Spirit (maybe even with an AoE explosion), Bone Spear, Corpse Explosion, Poison Nova, some passive skill... that would be the Malice tree I would like to see but that is just my personal preference

On the other hand, graphics from most skills have already been taken. ie: Bone Spear Nova from Quov Tsin, Splitfire is a Fireball remake etc.

I don't see this as a reason for not implementing these skill, especially since the same graphics get used several times in the mod already:

* the animation of Earthquake gets also used for Devouring Cloud
* Fireball gets used for Splitfire but also for Cataclysm (the Fireball Nova)
^^ just to mention the ones that spontaneously come to my mind...

... so that isn't a good reason for not doing it.

Just look at the vanilla sorceress elemental trees. There are 3 ice balls having similar functions, choosing between 2-3 mainstream auras when there are 20+ available and the list goes on. I could simply say they are underwhelming for the challenges we face.

As I said, I do not suggest to bring back all skills from classic LoD, just some of them.

So far the team has done a great job adapting old skills. I’m not worried.

Indeed, but that is the way it is when you get and have something you like: you want to have more of it

[Pub]

This might be a controversial topic, but my question is why every single skill in the skill tree needs to be one that is completely new? Because there are certainly some really amazing, fun and iconic skills from D2 that in my opinion could be placed in the skill tree of MXL without hurting the mod at all and even improve it if that would be done.

A few examples:
[i]* Corpse Explosion
* Bone Spear
* Bone Spirit
* Strafe

Immediately stopped reading after that last awful skill recommendation.

What's wrong with strafe?

Whats wrong with a default attack with a little more WDM modifier and faster attacks? Its very boring and doesnt fit into mxls flashyness and explosiveness, despite theyve toned it down in the recent patches.

I personally would prefer my skill pools be seperate that way my experience with playing clod and sigma are much better when i keep changing between the two.

[clueso]

This might be a controversial topic, but my question is why every single skill in the skill tree needs to be one that is completely new? Because there are certainly some really amazing, fun and iconic skills from D2 that in my opinion could be placed in the skill tree of MXL without hurting the mod at all and even improve it if that would be done.

A few examples:
[i]* Corpse Explosion
* Bone Spear
* Bone Spirit
* Strafe

Immediately stopped reading after that last awful skill recommendation.

What's wrong with strafe?

Whats wrong with a default attack with a little more WDM modifier and faster attacks? Its very boring and doesnt fit into mxls flashyness and explosiveness, despite theyve toned it down in the recent patches.

I personally would prefer my skill pools be seperate that way my experience with playing clod and sigma are much better when i keep changing between the two.

What if it also shoots exploding fire or frost arrows instead of normal arrows?
Would that be flashy enough?

[Crash]

Trinity Strike is cool enough. Median is a full conversion mod, it would be silly to just copy paste vanilla skills. they wouldn't fit in to the mod or the aesthetic of median.

[clueso]

Median is a full conversion mod, it would be silly to just copy paste vanilla skills.

Again, a lot of skills from classic LoD ARE ALREADY IN MXL in one form or another:

* Whirlwind is now Windform on the Barbarian
* Hydra is now Dragon Wyrms on the Paladin
* Revive is now Resurrect on the Paladin
* Iron Golem is still on the Necro
* Multishot was basically on the Amazon until last patch or so
* the Druid's Shapeshifting Forms are still there
* Blessed Hammer is now Hammer of Zerae on the Amazon
* ...

they wouldn't fit in to the mod or the aesthetic of median.

Out of all the skills that I suggested in my initial post, only Strafe and Multishot fit into the description of not fitting into the aesthetic of MXL, but again, Multishot already was in MXL until last patch ago with just a few visual changes and Strafe could shoot exploding fire or frost arrows or whatever...

To throw in some other ideas that would give the skills some mechanical and aesthetical updates:

* Bone Spirit could detonate on impact and/or get additional missiles per all x base skill level
* Valkyrie could get a Cain Lightning attack
* Thunderstorm lightnings could detonate into Charged Bolts
* Corpse Explosion could get a visual update
* Lightning Fury could always pierce by default and get +1 secondary missile on impact per all 1 or 2 base skill levels

[Celestialray]

This might be a controversial topic, but my question is why every single skill in the skill tree needs to be one that is completely new? Because there are certainly some really amazing, fun and iconic skills from D2 that in my opinion could be placed in the skill tree of MXL without hurting the mod at all and even improve it if that would be done.

A few examples:
[i]* Corpse Explosion
* Bone Spear
* Bone Spirit
* Strafe

Immediately stopped reading after that last awful skill recommendation.

What's wrong with strafe?

Whats wrong with a default attack with a little more WDM modifier and faster attacks? Its very boring and doesnt fit into mxls flashyness and explosiveness, despite theyve toned it down in the recent patches.

I personally would prefer my skill pools be seperate that way my experience with playing clod and sigma are much better when i keep changing between the two.

Yes, it doesn't fit. I thought you don't like strafe within the context of diablo 2 vanilla strictly. Strafe has other issues, like spending 2 more frames in strafe than needed if you want to move or the 'fend bug'. If strafe was to be added in mxl, it would need significantly more attack speed, but that's impossible due to how the game was built.