Skill Stat resets

[phor]

I think it would be wonderful to allow a gold or time limited form of skill/stat resets so that you did not have to completely rebuild your character from scratch every time you find a really nice set of armor or weapon that you might not have allocated enough str or dex for, or that is for a different build.

Example: you find a titan's, but your amazon has been built for bows up until that point.

That was one thing I despised about D2...
In order to come out with a good character, you practically had to have your endgame gear before you started.

[AlexanderM]

I'm fairly certain that re-specialization (respec'ing) has been confirmed for D3, though the specifics have not been announced. With a item-for-item trade economy one would hope that the bowazon-with-titans situation wouldn't be an issue, but in practice Titans are decent for javazons up to endgame, but aren't worth anywhere near the better endgame bows in trade.

[stillman]

phore,

I would be "despised" if d3 allowed a bow expert to suddenly become a java expert at whim. I don't want to elaborate too much because this will just turn into the respec debate, but I will say this: If you can change your stats to accomidate any good item you find, then there may as well not even be str or dex requirements in the first place. I will also say:

-The game is too easy if we can instantly change to adapt to using the best gear we find.

-you don't necessarily have to rebuild your chr like you said to use a good item you find; there are str or dex bonuses on jewelry, ect. Your idea will eliminate the fun and challenge of saving points or investing future points to build towards using the good item your found. We also need to make sacrifices; we can't be allowed to wear whatever we want.

-You can also look up the gear you want prior to making your build, though Idk if this will be possible in the early days of d3. Certainly, there should be a built in arreat summit for d3 so we don't have to go online to find the info.

-Look what happens when Blizzard gives everyone what they want and makes the game too easy: Enigmas that allow everyone to skip 99% of the game, other overpowered runewords that wreck the economy, over-boosting of some skills, too many high mf items, and so on.

-The "good character" you mention can still be good even without having the end game gear. You're probably talking about a "perfect character".

IMO, the game needs more challenges, not challenges taken away.

[Kaeros]

phore,

I would be "despised" if d3 allowed a bow expert to suddenly become a java expert at whim. I don't want to elaborate too much because this will just turn into the respec debate, but I will say this: If you can change your stats to accomidate any good item you find, then there may as well not even be str or dex requirements in the first place. I will also say:

-The game is too easy if we can instantly change to adapt to using the best gear we find.

-you don't necessarily have to rebuild your chr like you said to use a good item you find; there are str or dex bonuses on jewelry, ect. Your idea will eliminate the fun and challenge of saving points or investing future points to build towards using the good item your found. We also need to make sacrifices; we can't be allowed to wear whatever we want.

-You can also look up the gear you want prior to making your build, though Idk if this will be possible in the early days of d3. Certainly, there should be a built in arreat summit for d3 so we don't have to go online to find the info.

-Look what happens when Blizzard gives everyone what they want and makes the game too easy: Enigmas that allow everyone to skip 99% of the game, other overpowered runewords that wreck the economy, over-boosting of some skills, too many high mf items, and so on.

-The "good character" you mention can still be good even without having the end game gear. You're probably talking about a "perfect character".

IMO, the game needs more challenges, not challenges taken away.

100% agree with you this time around, Stillman!

Here's my stance on things:

- Against any stat point respecs.
- Against any skill point respecs that would fundamentally change the direction of your character.
- For partial skill point respecs to fix mistakes.

In another thread last month, I suggested that an NPC grant you a "Full Respec" reward, once per difficulty. On deeper consideration, I think that's far too generous and open to abuse; players will soon learn the 'best' build for leveling, and then respec at their leisure to an MF build or a PvP build once they reach cap. That goes against the grain of everything that makes the Diablo franchise fun, IMO.

I think a good revision to my idea would be to have an NPC grant a "10 Skill Points Respec" per difficulty .. that limits how much you can fundamentally change your character, but also gives you a little wiggle room in your character's career.

[AlexanderM]

Stillman: I agree that instant rebuilds would make builds pointless (want to be a frenzy barb, but swap to something else for duels?). I was under the impression that the respecing would be limited (possibly only a few points at a time, and at some great cost) so it may fall to simply trading for weapons/items that your build can make good use of. I also agree that the high-end runewords did too much, +oskills and granting auras simply skew the game too much.

[Tai.]

I absolutely abhor the idea of full respecs. In our ladder run team this last reset we excelled because we planned it out and had a balanced group of characters that tore through normal while still remaining a powerhouse group in Hell Baals. If we'd been in a situation to be able to respec in say Normal Act 5 every group would have built the same way, sacrifice endgame for early game and then switch over for late game powerhouse skills at the end.

As an example:

Sorceress from Diablo 2, getting to respec 10 points per difficulty level...

For this example, she'll be a Blizzard build at the end of the game and we'll assume level 35 with a group at the time of Normal A5 quest, 55 in NM, 75 in Hell.

Early game extra points in energy to offset lack of gear, minimal strength. Extra skill points in Charged Bolt/Static for fast leveling combined with 1 pt Frost Nova and Glacial Spike.

Once you hit Normal Act5, you respec for teleporting to speed up your party. Points out of CB/Static and into TK for safety would be an option here, as would investing points in orb for its higher kill speed early on.

NM Act5, you are level 55 or so and get the respec of another 10 points. Points out of Orb and into Blizzard and its synergies (teleporting NM is a joke if you have Orb, once you're done with NM Blizz becomes just as viable for survivability because you won't be teleporting alone as much)

Hell Act5 you take the points out of TK and toss them into a remaining Blizzard synergy. By the end of the game you've gotten to take advantage of the early killing power of high level static and CB the midgame safety that TK brings to teleporting and the raw endgame power of a fully synergized Blizzard with no wasted points. Sounds incredibly difficult to me...

[AlexanderM]

I'm not a fan of re-specialization, though if it is in the game I'd like it to be kept minimal, or grossly expensive so you'd only really be able to pull it off at the extreme end game (i.e. shifting more than one or two skill points would be problematic as it would begin costing so much, or you could lose 5 levels in HP/Mana/stats in order to redistribute one skill point, move 20 points and your barb has only got hit 55 base hp from lv1, and no stat points to wear equipment). If it was hard enough to do, people below lv70 would probably not bother and simply rebuild (though in D2 it got to the point that you could get to lv70 in a couple of hours by simply getting rushed and leeching in cows, bah!).

I'd certainly like to see respecing abuse have long-term drawbacks for the character that would discourage it's use save for extreme circumstances.

I agree that it doesn't really fit with the way previous Diablo games played, and I'm hoping that Blizzard pulls it off in a non-game-breaking way.

[phor]

After searching a little more, I see this has been discussed at length already, so this thread can die in a fire...

[Yuri The Barbarian]

I hope respec'ing is in the game, it was a nice feature in WOW, but I don't think it should be just money linked. What I'd like to see is for it to cost increasing amounts of gold to do, and for it to be possible to fail a respec. I think you should be able to go to a certain character and pay him a fee. You'll then be transported into a spirit world where you have 0 skill points, and you either have to complete a level or kill a mini-boss (all of which get progressively harder, have no drops besides health orbs, and yield no experience) in order to earn each skill point back and re-assign it as you see fit, until you face the last boss for your last skill point, after which you return with your new skill set. If you die (and you can't TP here) you come back and your old skill set is retained.