7 skills - chose wisely

[:1]What skills would you place on your seven hotkeys? Here's the choices:

Spectral Blade___Magic Missile_____Charged Bolt

Mirror Image_____Wave of Force___Ice Armor

Stone Skin______Arcane Orb______Electrocute

Explosive Blast___Disintegrate_____Frost Nova

Hydra__________Slow Time_______Energy Twister

Magic Weapon___Arcane Torrent___Ray of Frost

_______________Teleport_________Blizzard

_______________________________Storm Armor

Remember, you can develop as many skills as you like, but you only get access to seven at a time via the hotkeys.

Also, does anyone know which skills will be usable on the left mouse button?|||I'm sure we will get more than 7 hotkeys.|||Why? This is how it is, and I've read that Blizzard wants it this way to allow compatibility with other game consoles. What makes you believe otherwise?|||I hope Blizzard does not use such a poorly designed system. If a player is allowed to put points in more than 7 active skills he should be able to use them conviently.|||Seriously. Limit the UI for consoles to the extent necessary, but don't hobble PC players as part of the bargain. It's not like they don't need to design the controls for consoles separately anyway. Besides, since hitting a hotkey triggers an ability, you don't even need to have the abilities linked to hotkeys visible for them to work. If I want to map Stoneskin to Q, and I'm reasonably intelligent enough to remember that, how is it a bad thing that I now have access to 8 of my abilities without great inconvenience?

The only argument I can see against "invisible abilities" is that it's not easily accessible to new players, who still suck at the game. Blizzard typically likes to Reward player skill, so I don't see that as too valid, they have access to 7 already besides. And it's not as though there aren't other (potentially even better) systems, that's just what I came up with in a jiffy which works with what I already know of the UI and requires minimal effort on their part at best.

That said:

Slow Time

Disintegrate

Teleport (w/ Hydra Rune, so it can sub in for Mirror Image as well)

Stoneskin

Frost Nova

Electrocute

Blizzard

Even assuming for some asinine reason we really are limited to 7, probably grossly subject to change as the game gets closer to release. Just what I'm feeling atm. Seems like a good mix of offense, defense, and utility.|||That's close to what I'd pick:

Disintegrate

Hydra

Blizzard

Storm Armor

Wave of Force

Slow Time

Teleport

I like these picks because of diversity of damage types and mechanics. Only trouble is I don't know what could go on the left mouse button. Disintegrate seems feasible but I'm not sure if it's been implemented that way.|||Quote:








I hope Blizzard does not use such a poorly designed system. If a player is allowed to put points in more than 7 active skills he should be able to use them conviently.




This is one of the things I do not like about WoW, you need more and more buttons for the skills (of course not talking about PvE, but in PvP). For some reason I need to have about 24 hotkeys for different skills to use. Have you ever tried to use 24 hotkeys with the same hand you need to walk around with? (The 24 hotkeys do not include walking, strafing, targeting, only skills). I'm very fond of a skill-system where you need only a limited amount of skills, not too few, but certainly not too many.7 would seem like a good number, enough to have a lot of variety and options, but not a number that great that you have a specific skill for each specific circumstance...

It is a moot point whether we need more than 7 skills or not, but we do not need an endless supply of skills to use...|||Quote:










Teleport (w/ Hydra Rune, so it can sub in for Mirror Image as well)





I wounder what they plain to do with Mirrior Image with multistrike rune. I would think that would be one step better then Teleport with one mirror image that doesn't deal damage. Infact now that I think about it, they might as well get rid or Mirror image or change how hydra rune works with Teleport if they are going to do the same thing.


Quote:








It is a moot point whether we need more than 7 skills or not, but we do not need an endless supply of skills to use...




Bliz has said that (as it stands now) an effective build will not consist of more then 7 skills. They also said that they will not stop ppl from taking more skills then that, its just that they will be gimpping themselves.|||Consoles driving PC designs is how poor PC games are made.

Oblivion was a nightmare unmodded.

If they make that mistake, I'll stick to D2.|||Ray of Frost

Frost Nova

Ice Armor (you forgot this on your list)

Blizzard

Slow Time

Hydra

Teleport

Don't even need all of these. If the trees stay this small seven active skills seem fine to me. But I am hoping there are going to be some more active skills added.