Big changes coming to Diablo III's skill and rune systems

It occurs to me that there are some final release games that have not garnered as much press, dev time, or gamer passion as the Diablo III beta. 

In fact, there's a new patch coming up for the beta that's going to introduce a raft of changes as the game edges ever closer to a final build. This patch focuses on deep changes to the skill and rune systems - there's a detailed blog post that everyone should read over at Battle.net, but here's a taste:

"That goal and the system have been great successes, but the amount of customization we have available doesn’t mean anything if it’s not useful in combat situations. Combat depth is another one of our goals; Diablo III is designed to be a modern action game, built on the mantra of “easy to learn, difficult to master.” What that means for the player is picking a set of skills and abilities that work together, and then executing them in ways that lead to success: the wholesale slaughter of the demonic invasion. With that combat-depth goal in mind, we’ve been internally categorizing the skills since the inception of the system. Many of you could probably identify what these categories were if we asked, and some players have even mapped out what they are fairly accurately."

Fun times ahead for DIII fans.