I don't know.  Instead of rebuilding a Hammerdin 2+ times, I'd rather be trying other characters/skills/etc.

Also, I hope set items don't come back.  Their implementation in D2 was garbage.  By the time you found every piece of a low level set yourself, you'd be too high level to care about it so low level sets often ended up being worthless unless you're muling and swapping items between characters.  High level sets have a different problem.  They suck or they're too good.  Either you end up with a set that is so good that everyone wants to wear it or you end up with a set no one wants (because RWs/uniques are better).

Median XL fixed it... somewhat.  Set items only drop in level 121 areas.  You do not see sets at all during the normal game.  Low level characters survive with runewords, gemwords, rares, and uniques.  Median XL also geared the sets toward skill sets.  The Amazon has a bow set, a javelin set, a blood set, and spear set.  Of course, you still have the problem where certain runewords (from Great Runes) and Sacred Unique items can outclass some sets.

i remember my one point into salvation was the only useful thing coming from me in hell baal games. and dammit i was appreciated...(not like i could do much else when my planned weapon was an azurewrath...fuckin lvl 85 requirement >.>)

another point that came across my mind regarding the skill system though - it encourages early development of characters. I mean, in D2, points went solely to your endgame skill and its synergies, meaning that early game skills were skipped over unless they were a synergy. at least the newer method encourages you to spend your points early (instead of hoarding) and have more fun in the meantime (read: early levels), as opposed to having your fun at endgame, not that it took long to reach it (considering that lvl 70 could be achieved in under 16 hours even in the beggining of ladder). i think looking at it from that aspect its a nice change - certainly not D2-ish but thats why it isnt D2.

and so far, even with just single player expirience median XL is a godsend for those wanting to play more D2. thanks again to Words of Wisdom for the link. now if i could round up a few people to play it as well...

About a month ago, a friend and I ran through cLoD using a pair of characters.  He was an Assassin.  I was a summoner Necromancer.  Maxed out skeletons and ton of +skills.  I think I had around 35 skeleton mastery or so by the end of our run.  Even Hell was a cake walk.

Anyway, after playing D2 for bunches of time... I find you really don't need that much to kill all the enemies, beat the game, and farm.  Now that I'm playing Median XL where the difficulty curve is roughly 50 times harder than cLoD (250k defense on my Barbarian still gets me high rough 40% by some normal mobs in Uberlevels), I really appreciate how easy regular D2 was.  You don't need a perfect build for cLoD.  Heck, you don't even need a great build.  It's that easy by comparison.

The changes look awesome. I wouldn't pay for a game that hasn't changed at all since the last installment.

Well, that is a matter of perspective.  I would consider World of Warcraft the latest installment in the Diablo games.  I agree with the OP that they seem to be creating a top-down WoW.

Sequels and franchises are for cashing in on popularity of the IP.  Nothing more, nothing less.

This is why we have quite a few genre confused games like Castlevania Judgment. 

A fighting game with Castlevania characters would likely sell much better than a fighting game with a new IP.

"Right" is an opinion that is obviously not shared by several game developers.

As for game quality, that should be judged irrespective of the franchise the game belongs to IMO.  A baseball game should not automatically be judged good just because it has Mario in it.  Likewise a Mario game should not automatically be judged bad because it's a baseball game and not a platformer.

People should actually play the game before they say its crap. It could very well end up being a heck of a lot better. We simply don't know at this point.

huh I remember complaining how WoW was too much like Diablo 2. Go figure.