I think a points system into any talent might make for more interesting choices. Obviously needs to be balanced out. Bounty Hunter would get back Melee reset crit with no ammo used (for only 2 points).
Points cost of Talent
Level 5/10/15: 1
Level 20: 2
Level 25: 3
Total points to spend
Level 5+: 1
Level 10+: 2
Level 15+: 3
Level 20+: 5
Level 25+: 8
Or a stack system with 15 points to spend at level 30. Maximum of 3 per Talent.
CDR 10%/20%/30%, Move speed 5%/7.5%/10%, etc.
There are already Talents on every Career, on several tiers, that are less-than optimal picks or downright not worth it ever. This kind of system would also require balancing Talents against everything else (even if point cost could be used as a balancing method) instead of just per-tier. So there would be way more work in balancing them. In addition, some things would produce horrible results in combination (particularly several Talents picked from level 15 and 25 tiers). A Slayer with even more DR? Okay, he’s tough and agile enough already, but whatever, still not on par with IB. A BH with both reset-on-melee kill and free ammo? The first one was moved to a Talent for a reason. A Merc with all three lv25 options? Yeah, I’d take it.
For all these reasons, I have reason to suspect a point-buy system would both reduce effective builds (while giving an appearance of more choice) and break a lot of things. And those are reason enough to say “not a good idea”.
We do not need further inflation of DPS, dodge, invis, magic abilities etc.
The last beta making the game more predictable has also made the game even more of a cakewalk and there is still no mention of a higher tier than legend to balance this power creep nonsense.
Whoops, I was suppose to write:
HOWEVER, Bounty Hunter would get back Melee reset crit with no ammo used (for only 2 points).
I agree that as the talents are now it wouldn’t work and would have to be balanced. I do think it would create more choice if properly balanced though.
I’m pretty angry that they have ruined parry. Solo with great axe ( with parry trait) in my hand vs 3CW in dark tunnels of Hunger in…was damn fun - getting the timing right, killing everything and rescuing the team. Now I just run swift slaying on everything and choose weapons with good dodge count and dodge range and just dodge-dance all day long. It doesn’t help that dodge-dancing is also the only viable melee tactic against bosses thanks to 180-slams and slams in general (you won’t get block up fast enough if you’re mid-swing of 2h weapon.