I have not done one because I play the “traditional” way, but I am under the impression that a build with zero skills points put into active skills is still viable. Since the game features so many extra skills/abilities/effects thanks to the devotions and gears, it sounds to me that a build with zero core abilities (nothing but masteries and passives) can still make its way through the whole game thanks to the extra skills (items and devotions), which are available to all builds and therefore unrelated with any specific one of them.
That’s the problem. This means that at the end, what makes the build important, its efficiency, its resilience, is not within the build, but everything around, which would mean that the build by itself is not that relevant.
Helpful, yes. But not redefining the whole build.
In the old ARPG like Diablo II, Dungeon Siege, Warcraft III to some extend, Sacred etc, the gear was very helpful for the melee builds, because it supplied them with their basic means of attack and defense, but most casters only got bonuses and protection with their gear, not much more.
The developers have been creative with the devotion system, but the problem with this addition to the game coupled with the shared items means that at the end, the skill points put into the masteries, the first choice of the players and what should really define the builds, are no longer relevant enough. You just need to meet the items requirements with the attributes and that’s pretty much it. There are so much Skills granted by items and %chance on attack/critical/hit that ultimately the strategy of your build relies much more on your shared stash than on your choices throughout the game.
I play the traditional way, and my survivability is mainly based on the HP+defense+armor+resistances, and with nearly all my builds, I always find that in late game, if I have no %damage converted to health, massive health regeneration, %damage absorption, I am just too weak. And getting some instantly make my character more viable. Which is why I am under the impression that those features are actually more important. And since those features apply to everything (all builds in all situations), this looks like the proof to me that the damage type system does not work well enough by itself without those all-in-one bonuses.
And a good paper>rock>scissor system needs no all-in-one solution. The fact that all melee builds at the end do need massive health regeneration, health leech etc mean that their core stats (HP etc) cannot be enough just by themselves. To have most builds ultimately have to rely on the same feature is no sign to me that the multi-class system works that well.
And I also should get new options thanks to that choice.
And since one of the only option granted to the 2H builds is the overpowered Kraken, this looks again to me that the core system is broken there as well without the overpowered stuff around.