Nohisu wrote:As a new player, oskills are both the best and the worst part of the game. Having items granting you specific skills and trying to play around those is super flavorful and exciting. On the other hand, everything about how these skills work is so obscure. Some oskills are great at skill lvl 30, others are terrible at skill lvl 100. You can't find any info about the skill data anywhere, so you're always left guessing if an item with a cool-sounding oskill is good or completely garbage.
I'm sure it doesn't feel as bad for the players who have been playing for years and who know most of these skills, and maybe it's by design that players shouldn't be able to figure out skill power level too easily. But it really kills my motivation at trying fun builds, not having any idea how a late game skill will perform, given how hard the endgame content is. Throwing Power Keg on a Barb sounds awesome for instance, but there's also a decent chance it's an old oskill that haven't been relevant for 5 years, I have no idea and no way to know until I actually try it.
I agree - as someone who's played this game a lot more than you have.
When d2 classic/clod was out I knew everything about the game (not easy, since its mechanics are rather opaque). Since then I can't be bothered with that level of research in any game I play - I have too much to do in life and I play too many games, so I just follow a guide.
There are few guides for oskill builds so I don't bother. Also, you have to have the items - worse, to get the skill to a playable level, it often requires more than one item, sometimes more than two. And they can be expensive/rare so not easy to "buy and try" and not easy to find in SP.
I thought the respec ability brought in in 2.0 was great - I've been asking for it for years - but the level 50 cap means that trying new builds is a pain.
I have previously suggested design options whereby oskills can be done differently (such as being bought from vendors) - there are so many ways this niche part of the game could vastly improve the mainstream game - but it does need to be accessible in a way that doesn't feel as if we're gambling a whole season on a build that may not work.