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There has been ALOT of discussion on the forums lately all started by a post about how the new skill system and being able to swap talents as you please:

"The new Diablo 3 skill tree is going to kill the replay value of Diablo 3. Right now when I go to play the beta all of my chars are max level and I have no reason to make a new char. In Diablo 2 I could make like 4 necromancers each using something different. In Diablo 3 my one character is every type of Wizard or Monk. Hopefully this skill tree is changed to something where the game will actually have replay value."

That is the origonal post and to date there is 26 pages of replys with the general concensis of the new degined skill system is alot better then diablo 2. The one and only Bashiok has posted a comment sayiong this was a deliberate design by blizzard and they are sticking to it


Bashiok - "Wow, people really don't like the OPs post. Well, if we're killing replay value by not making people have to level completely new characters just to try out a new build, we are ok with that.

Leveling characters is cool, and some people legitimately enjoy that process (me!), and we agree it can be fun and would still like to find ways to reward people who enjoy leveling additional characters, but being required to do it just to try out some different skills is no longer acceptable to us. That's a level of masochism we just don't care to revisit. We thank the 90's for their contributions to game design, and the 'crush the player's soul' dungeon master mentality, but we're moving on. We have this crazy notion that games shouldn't punish you for trying to enjoy them.

Fact of the matter is though that the longevity in Diablo II was not made by leveling characters. You can get a character to 80 in a matter of hours. The longevity was from experimentation, customization, and the randomized item drops needed to perfect them. And that's amazingly even considering that a huge portion of the item hunt was completely ruined due to the mass proliferation of what should be insanely rare items. Longevity in Diablo is from exploration, character customization, and more specifically, killing monsters to see what they drop - not leveling.

You can also add to this that in Diablo III killing monsters to see what they drop will not be made lucrative by explicitly predictable means, such as boss runs. Exploring entire areas, even playing from start to finish of each act, uncovering all the nooks and crannies is intended to be the way you'll be playing Inferno. You can pretend you're leveling a new character each time, if you'd like. :)" Original post

Being able to swap skills in and out allows the player to have access to all features of the game that may otherwise not be available due to time constraints that many players have. Sure leveling a new character from 1 to max level can be fun the first few times but to be forced to do it every time you want to try out a new set of skills is ridiculous considering the amount of time it takes to do. Blizzard have done well in designing the skill system the way that they have and i am looking forward to more updates from them in the future.