The There is no weapon switch hotkey in Diablo 3. Though that control was added to a popular feature in Diablo 2 in the expansion pack, and was a highly popular button to enable quick weapon and much-used/abused feature of or gear switches is found in most modern ARPGs, the game. This hotkey, Diablo 3 developers felt it was not a standard necessary feature in virtually every RPG Diablo 3. Much of Diablo 3's [[UI]] is based around a minimum of buttons and making things very easy for new players to control, sometimes at this point (many games allow the expense of allowing the full outfit swapscontrol options that expert players desire. The official reasons for not including the WSH in D3 were that the switch was mostly used for exploits in Diablo 2, and/or cycling through multiple weapon sets), allows characters was confusing to exchange new players who switched by accident and didn't realize where their currently equipped item (usually just their weapons) for another weapon or weapons had gone. These excuses were met with the single click of a button.hostile skepticism by many experienced Diablo 2 players, but
There are no current plans to include a weapon switch hotkey in Diablo 3, a fact that most experienced Diablo 2 players greeted with shocked horror.
==Blizzard Comments==
The planned exclusion of this feature was most recently confirmed by Jay Wilson in an October 2009 interview. [http://www.diii.net/blog/comments/jay-wilson-exclusive-part-vi-lightning-round/]
::'''''Diii.net: '''Weapon switch hotkey?
It's apparent from Many Diablo 2 experts were angered by these and other past comments , as they made clear that neither Jay or Bashiok (or anyone else on the D3 Team?) had played a great deal of advanced much high level Diablo 2. This aggravated existing tensions in the Diablo community, and expert D2 players have been known to despair at as it seemed another sign of the inexperienced comments coming from the team making the sequel -- an unfortunate side effect general Diablo or ARPG inexperience of the almost complete Diablo 3 team churn caused by delays, disagreements, and the closure of [[Blizzard North]] and ultimate restart of the project at Blizzard Irvine in 2005.
==Pros and Cons==
The weapon switch hotkey is just a convenience; after all, players can simply carry extra swords, shields, suits of armor, etc, in their inventory, and change into them as the situation demands. The whole point in having a special hotkey for this is to allow players to do it very quickly, as is required in a fast-paced action game like Diablo 2 or Diablo 3. Since the feature is optional to use, and simply adds more control options, many players found it's odd that the D3 team developers would want to remove this one, since they're adding so many other features in Diablo 3 to make the game easier to play. The D3 team's stated opinion that it's an exploit came as a shock to experienced Diablo 2 players, most of whom had used rather than including it constantly in that game, and considered for those who wanted it an integral aspect of the play experience.
===Exploitative Uses===
With some uses of the switch, the accusation of "exploit" is hard to argue against. None of these are "exploits" in terms of being cheats; they're just smart uses of a game feature. The most common trick with the weapon switch hotkey in Diablo 2 was to change to a [[Magic Find]] boosting weapon/shield an instant before killing a boss monster. This was a very useful technique, a fun technique to master, and added to the item game, putting a much higher value on +MF gear for all charactersweapons (that weren't useful in other situations). That said, it was physically unrealistic, as well as favoring of some characters over others. (A spell-caster could easily finish off a monster with any type of equipment in his/her hands, while combat characters could not finish off an Act Boss with had much more trouble doing that last sliver of damage to a big enemy while using a low damage dagger or wand and shield at purely for the ready+MF.)
Other arguably exploitative uses of the weapon switch were to cast spells enabled by unique/runeword weapons, or to boost your character's skill levels before casting a buff.
Other Diablo 2 characters or play styles quite required the weapon switch to function at all, or at least without the frustration of constantly opening the inventory window and clicking and dragging weapons around. Including that feature enabled numerous builds that would otherwise have been almost unheard of.
The extremely popular '''hybrid Amazons''' are the most obvious examples, with a bow on one switch, and a javelin/shield on the other. Other characters in various patches, notably '''Paladins''' and '''Fury Druids''', required a regular melee weapon, and a second one with high elemental damage on their switch, to deal with Physical Immune monsters. Furthermore, many low level characters, especially those without quality [[twink]]ed items, were wise to use the weapon switch to change between different weapons in the early going. A blunt weapon for fighting the undead, a sword for animals, a throwing weapon for fleeing enemies, etc. This sort of use will be just as necessary in Diablo 3, and numerous expert Diablo 2 players found themselves already missing this option even during their brief Diablo 3 playtime at Blizzcon in 2008 and 2009.
Furthermore, many low level characters, especially those without quality [[twink]]ed items, were wise to use the weapon switch to change between different weapons in the early going. A blunt weapon for fighting the undead, a sword for animals, a throwing weapon for fleeing enemies, etc. This sort of use will be just as necessary in Diablo 3, and numerous expert Diablo 2 players found themselves missing this option during playtime at the Blizzcon demos in 2008 and 2009.
==In or Out?==
At this point, there's no telling if the feature will remain out, or return. The game has a long way to go in development.==Aftermath==
One mitigating factor comes from As hinted at during development, the different types of mods on weapon switch hotkey was not included in Diablo 3 items. The D3 Team has said they do not want to include +skills items, and if there are no items that add +3 to warcries, or enable specific skills It might be added in an expansion, then a great many of but nothing the exploitative uses of the weapon switch hotkey vanish right there. There is also a design goal developers have said since release gives any reason to require spell casters to use weapons expect that boost their killing power, which removes another easy +MF exploit from Diablo 2, since mage characters could kill easily no matter what their weapon's stats.
One compromise solution could be Ironically, weapon and armor switching to include get a weapon switch hotkeybig [[Magic Find]] gain just before killing a boss or opening a chest, but putting some sort was hugely-prevalent in the early days of cool down timer on it. Switching could only be done so oftenDiablo 3, or would require a when few seconds players had the quality of gear to take effectboost MF and DPS/EHP at the same time. After allThis exploit was attacked by the team in several ways, a character would logically need a few seconds to sheath a sword and pull out a mace, or a halberd, ultimately largely minimized with the inherent MF/GF/EXP bonuses from his invisible, all-encompassing backpackhigher [[Paragon]] levels.
Discussion has also touched on skill-related weapon The main regret of players who miss the WSH is the lack of variety of play. Weapon switching; some characters are known to would have weaponbeen abused for the Magic Find bonus -- 41-specific skills;45% MF from the Sun Keeper {[http://diablodiablonut.incgamers.com/blog/commentsitem/jaysun-wilsonkeeper db]) and 20% MF from a shield would have provided an easy ~60% MF for last boss hits to every knowledgeable player -exclusive-full-transcript/] some Monk skills only work but players would have found many other uses for the bonus. Some possible options:* Using faster weapons with [[Fists]] lower damage for trash mobs and switching to bigger damage weapons, or weapons with [[Staves]], life steal and it's possible vitality bonuses for boss battles.** Weapons that provided a bonus to Elite damage would have been very useful in the D3 team will include some sort same situation.* More builds might have been enabled; imagine Demon Hunters using bows at a distance before switching to melee weapon + shield for close battles or in times of danger.* PvP would surely benefit from weapon switching ability, tied exclusively with players using items situationally to boost their defense, or movement speed, or resource regeneration, or to weapon-specific skills. There is no official word on this; it's purely fan speculationput [[CC]] effects onto enemies.
This is the sort That said, many of feature that gets evaluated in more detail in the later stages uses of game design, when the controls are fine tuneda WSH from Diablo 2 didn't translate into Diablo 3. Without +skill bonuses on gear there's no reason to switch to get a bigger buff before casting an aura or warcry, and beta testers get to put in their input, so it's quite likely that we've not yet heard the last lack of this issuethrowing weapons is another major factor.