Stats + Levels

[Usha Starchild]

I was just thinking about how stats work in WoW.

I dont have exact numbers here but I seem to recall getting about 7 stat points when you level up. These stat points were automatically assigned to various stats when you leveled up. This caused everyones stats to me pretty much the same. (Races gave 1 or 2 point differences.)

Now think about this.

If a warrior leveled up and was given 7 stat points to assign as he felt you could have true defensive or true offensive warriors. A defensive war would put it in STA while an offensive war would concentrate on STR more. A defensive war would have a HUGE hp pool while the offensive war would do massive damage.

Paladins and Shamans could go for bigger mana pools if they liked or go for smaller mana pools and more melle.

I think it would be cool to have a difference between players of the same class.

[Serbitar]

The sad truth of this is that it would trivialize several classes. Casters would just dump all of their points int STA/INT/SPI, etc. The only reason these points are even around is to give the player a sense of advancement, not uniqueness.

[Ahnkosis]

But then your average bnet kiddie would cry when he couldn't reassign his points because he wants to be a carbon copy of the flavor of the week build.

It would be nice to have, but for a game like WoW, it'll never happen.

[Ahnkosis]

Originally Posted by Serbitar

The sad truth of this is that it would trivialize several classes. Casters would just dump all of their points int STA/INT/SPI, etc. The only reason these points are even around is to give the player a sense of advancement, not uniqueness.

But if you had both, then you would have unique advancement? So what if a mage would go with nothing but int/spi? While he has a huge mana pool, I'd be a mage with str/sta, so I could have enough mana to be slightly effective with spells, and then wreak havoc (unexpectedly) at close range. In the end, it would all balance out, because assigning points certain ways just wouldn't work.

[Soygen]

You could assign your own stats in early beta.

[Usha Starchild]

Originally Posted by Ahnkosis

But then your average bnet kiddie would cry when he couldn't reassign his points because he wants to be a carbon copy of the flavor of the week build.

It would be nice to have, but for a game like WoW, it'll never happen.

So they could allow stat respecs, but each time you respec you lose 1 or 2 stat points from your total pool. Paying gold is dumb.

[keflex]

Back in early beta (phase 2 and before), you used to be able to assign stats; they took it out during the later beta phases.

Reasons were probably:

A) Everyone would end up following the most common builds anyway (SPI/INT + STA for casters, STR + STA for Warrs, etc.) and

B) It would make little Timmy cry when he realized that his AGI based Priest was a pos.

[Ahnkosis]

Ahh this reminds of a friend in EQ who took his paladin from the start and put all his points into CHA, because he thought he was playing a d&d-esque paladin. He never did start over either. And Timmy with his loads of agi priest, would be hard to melee, because hopefully they could balance the stat to mean more to a priest than a rogue or hunter.

[Luthair]

Originally Posted by Ahnkosis

Ahh this reminds of a friend in EQ who took his paladin from the start and put all his points into CHA, because he thought he was playing a d&d-esque paladin. He never did start over either. And Timmy with his loads of agi priest, would be hard to melee, because hopefully they could balance the stat to mean more to a priest than a rogue or hunter.

It didn't help that CHA was green for paladins. I just brought all my stats up to 75 in EQ, because we get more later right?!

[Ben86]

That is one of my biggest gripes about this game. It would be so nice if you could have something unique about your characters.

[ilian]

this used to be in WoW in early beta, and it didnt really work very well. I think this is because mixing the class system with the stat system always seems to have conflicting interests.

But, that doesnt mean much, a system like you describe could work, it sounds very much like Ultima Online to me. Just wouldnt work in the confines of EQ or WoW imho.

[Pilsbane]

They could let you place stats and then later adjust them with time delays like in SWG. You'd go to a screen and move the stats where you want them and over a few days the stats would migrate. Then you could have custom stats without making Jimmy the agility-Priest permanently screwed.

But, you can already customize your stats by your gear selection. Jimmy the agility-Priest could wear 'of the agility' items for the same stupid result without any permanent problems. The WoW-developers felt this was good enough.

[Nakilos]

If a warrior leveled up and was given 7 stat points to assign as he felt you could have true defensive or true offensive warriors. A defensive war would put it in STA while an offensive war would concentrate on STR more. A defensive war would have a HUGE hp pool while the offensive war would do massive damage.

Not really. Classes are pretty pigeon-holed in their roles. The variety comes with talent selection. Sure people could assign stats to be "different", but lots of things are painfully obvious. You are a rogue, who gets the most atp/crit from agi, sta is nice, int, spr and str are garbage. *No one* would dump their points anywhere else but agi with maybe a bit in sta. About the only difference maybe is casters who wanted to spr whore over int whore, which you can do with equipment anyway.

I think it would be cool to have a difference between players of the same class.

Well they have that in the form of talents, and points spent on talents has much more to do with the characters efficacy than their base stats gains. Each tree is set up for specific builds with the class. Of course, some builds are just flat out better than others, so offering variety thats not really viable is dumb, and some talents are so good no one skips getting them anyway. You could see in EQ even stat assigning was pointless, since eventually you hit the cap regardless.

This system is probably for the best.

[Usha Starchild]

^ disagree with everything you say except the part about a rogue going mostly agility.

My example of the warrior...

if he went all defensive in talents and all in sta and maybe agi for dodge he would destroy all current tanks.

[FuckYou]

it would be unreasonable to assume they would let you put an infinite amount of points into a single stat. a naked warrior with 500 STA would be retarded.