Quick idea about +class skills items

Hi all.

This is going to sound silly but if Blizzard wants to easily open up the game to more builds and make items in general more valuable, they should change one single thing in my opinion;

items with +x to a certain class skill should instead give +x to any class skills. (not +x to all skills, because all skills grant levels to oskills).

my reasoning is, says Guardian Angel is a very nice armor if you aim at tanking elemental damages, but being +1 to paladin skills only makes it worth less for non paladins. Say i am a barbarian and i like the idea of higher resistance caps, i have no options other than this one, and to take it with no skill bonuses.

Which makes it kinda not appealing at all compare to almost anything else with at least 1 skill.

Many scepters have this issue too. It's a weapon anyone can use, but the unique ones grant paladin skills. It's a little silly.

Treachery is +2 to assassin skills. Why not any class? It would make it a much better pick.

There's a lot of items already that are class specifics like Leaf Runeword or Ormus' Robe are sorc oriented, or pally shield or pelts. Those can remain for their respective classes.

But items available to all, why are they available to all at all if they have specific classes in mind? Look at Heart of the Oak, say it had been only druid skills, nobody would are for it at all.

I would even allow certain items to grant skills as oskills like Heart Carvers could allow for any class to hork (lol) or Ormus' Robe with Warmth or Enchant as oskill could be godly on elemental druid.

I think removing this barrier would open up for a lot of itemization and make a lot of garbage uniques actually considerable for alternative builds for different playstyles.

Could it make some new OP builds? yes. But diablo 2 is already a completely solved game, by the moment you're level 70 with average equipment the game poses no challenges at all already.

I think only the Hellfire Torch should remain with class skills because it's the core of the roll but many uniques should just allow for any class to get the skill point else it's just silly.

I would like a mechanic that transforms +to class skills into oskills instead. For example when you reach specific Breakpoints on your Stats. As Barabarian with 170 Dex (?) every Amazonskill on gear is a Oskill. As a Amazon with 170 Mana every Sorceress Skill is a Oskill and so on.

If you're solely talking about the "+ to all for class x" ones (so not individual skills or specific trees), it largely wouldn't change much, outside of making some potential random drops along the way while lvling slightly more appealing for a short amount of time in very specific cases.

Most of the really interesting ones would still be class-limited anyways because they're on item types only usable by that class or stem from set boni that can only be completed (=fully worn) by that class.

Only potentially interesting ones overall that come to mind would be a +2-for-anyone Valkyrie Wing and Treachery for those who don't have a better armor yet.

Really the biggest difference it'd make would be in massively plummeting top-end torch pricing, seeing how the class roll wouldn't be a thing anymore, making it significantly easier to find a high-end/perfect one.

In case of Treachery, it's one of the 1.11 class armor RWs. If Treachery is to become a general armor RW, a replacement should be created for Assassin.

I'd rather be horking around than having to reapply Battle Orders every now and then with my off-hand Call To Arms. It's kind of annoying, but what can you do, right?

I think items that work best for one class vs another are part of what makes Diablo 2 itemization great.

It allows for more items that have value, but fewer items that have value to your character. This means more trading, more collecting, more being inspired to try out a different character.

As with most things, there is a balance between extremes that is needed.

ShadowHeart wrote: 9 hours ago

Yeah, all of the following were designed to be class-specific (each class got their own rune word in 1.11):
- Treachery (Assassin)
- Rain (Druid)
- Myth (Barbarian)
- Peace (Amazon)
- Enlightenment (Sorceress)
- Bone (Necromancer)
- Principle (Paladin)
(and Warlock also got one of their own in the same style, Authority)
But most people are only familiar with Treachery, I guess.

See, Enlightenment on fire druid or warlock would grant Warmth, that would be an excellent pick, add it with + all skills you get maybe level 5 or 6 for about 100% mana regen. Why should only sorc have access to Warmth?

Peace grants Critical Strike, it could be good for any physical fighter, also it summons Valkyrie for free. Going for a passive from another class could be a very smart choice to build around. Could also be good on Merc playing with Insight, for an even higher Critical Strike.

Treachery on Poison Dagger necro for Venom would make it into a viable melee fighter. Would work on Merc as well.

These are just small ideas. Would it be so imbalanced that it would break the game? Absolutely not.