"Based on your response so far, we think talent trees are by far what you’re the most eager to discuss, so we’ll make sure to queue that up for our very next blog."
What do you want them to cover in relation to the talent tree? 
I want them to cover everything about talent trees.
a modest proposal, to be sure.
I would like to know why they went with a Talent Tree, although there are better Passive Skill Systems like a Talent List where you do not need pre-required Passives and can simply put points into…
… and if they may switch to a Talent List later on.
That way there is no need for a Tree which would have the disadvantages of eventually having to waste Talent Points into pre-required Talents.
A few examples of Talent Lists for reference:
Talent trees are very reminiscent of Diablo 2. Honestly, as long as they are done well, I’m good with it. It’ll make the D2 fans happy, too.
From a thematic point of view, does it make sense you can get Frozen Orb without ever putting a point into Frostbolt?
I still think FFX had the worst skill system ever. God, that sucked. Didn't like PoE either. Over-complicated.It may or may not make a 100% sense, but it doesn’t has to.
At the end it is a question in regards to (RPG) Realism VS Convenience.
Imo you can go too far on both ends and I also think that in most cases the best approach is somewhere in the middle.
If you first have to spend points into pre-required skills, it is just wasting points and putting points into other skills just for the synergy takes away points that could have been used for other active skills that you actually would want to use actively, instead of just for buffing your main skill and then never using these other active skills again.
In regards to Passive Skills / Talents, imo it makes sense if there are maybe a few Talents that require points into other pre-required Talents, but certainly not all Talents should be like that.
I 100% agree.
I severely dislike both of them, although I really, really admire PoE’s Keystone Passives.
I simply would have compiled all of PoE Nodes that are the same into a single node (e.g. all +x Life Nodes into a single one, all x% increased melee damage nodes into a single one, etc) and let the Keystone Nodes maybe cost 10 Points at once to unlock.
And if it has to be, some nodes can even have an Attribute Requirement (e.g. if you wanna spend more than 15 Points into the Energy Shield node, you need to have at least 150 INT).
inb4: the numbers are also just for the purpose of illustrating the concept.
Yeah, next you will need to collect ice cubes so that you can cast Frostbolt. However, they don’t last forever, they melt. But if you put a point into Frozen Orb, the will no longer melt because the ice is… wait for it… it’s a goody… keep waiting… frozen. DUN DUN DUN. If you put more points into Frozen Orb, the more Ice Shards are summoned. The power of those Ice Shards depends on the power of your Frostbolt.
What if you use MAGIC ICE CUBES that were already FROZEN? All because it make sense thematically. What if you find the legendary item that produces Magic Ice Cubes? What if you empower that legendary item? HUH?
How much cold do you need to cold cold to make cold cold?
As long as the “Ice” tree stays in theme, I don’t see why it would be necessary to connect the dots between certain abilities.
That said, I don’t really mind if you need to put ONE point into something to unlock something else… it’s when you need to fully max out Frostbolt and/or other Ice abilities for Frozen Orb to be effective that it becomes a problem.
I hope they don’t emulate D2 by having “starter abilities.” If we get Frostbolt at level 1, I hope it’s possible to take Frostbolt to the endgame effectively.
I want it to be larger and meaningful with no respecs (your choice needs to matter) or at least make it difficult (grindy) to respec about 2 times only.
Respecs makes RPGs boring… even David Brevik (maker of d1 and d2) doesn’t like respecs… (and they also have some good points about respeccing)
(17:44)
Brevik’s vision of Diablo and what Diablo came to be were very, very different. There’s a video I can find for you.
The tree is not bad as is, but some of them look a little too simple and not enough choice or impactful. The Talent tree seems to be more of the permanent choice in Diablo 4, which is fine, but it should really make a big difference in the build.
I don’t think the tomes give points to the talent tree, do they? I thought they gave points to the active skills, allowing you to theoreticaly have all skills at max level if you play enough, but only use a handful at a time (like Diablo 3)
Respecing is only for the active skills as well, correct? I believe you could respec those, but not the talent tree. Personally I don’t mind respecing, if it is done right. I think Diablo 2 strikes a nice balance in it’s current form.
I would like for the tree to be complex enough that you cannot just max a single element with ease. It is fun to have to think about what kind of ice build you are and how you are best served by the talents.
My overview of what I want and expect in summary, is to have signifcant choice as you progress, and to never have every skill/talent maxed out. Diablo 3 makes the mistake of giving you the same skill/rune at the same level, ever time you play through the game with a certain class. You have no choice in how you progress, only in if you use those skills/runes or not. That is not fun. Additionally, if you max level, find tons of tomes, and such, you should never reach a point where you have all points maxed. This is a class building RPG where choice matters.
Sadly they made it sound like you can respec more or less freely. Hopefully not.
Easy respeccing would be terrible.
Yeah. Should be way more talents than available points, even with specialized builds.
I dont think PoE got a great passive web, but it sure is far above what has been shown in D4 so far.
Hopefing for something more like the size of Wolcens talent web I guess (and the ability to alter the layout was quite smart)
If I’m remembering correctly from the blizzcon video; while you’ll have a limited number of points to put in the Talent tree, you can freely respec it. Skills on the other hand can’t be respec, however as a trade off, there will be tomes that you can find that will grant you additional skill points in which you could eventually learn and max every available skill.
That said, I am honestly hoping that they greatly expand the skill and talent trees.
Now regarding respecs and the skill tomes. I think players should be able to respec both the talent and skill tree; but only at a cost. To help players ease into it, the game can offer every character 1-3 free respecs, any further after that must be earned via gameplay perhaps in the form of an item. The item in question could be something that can either be crafted with ingredients or found killing monsters; they could even put a limit to how many of these items you could hold on your character at a time (around let’s say 3). This would prevent players from hoarding said items and to use their respecs sparingly.
Now regarding skill tomes; firstly, I don’t think a player should be able to max out every skill using them. Instead I think skill tomes, if used, should provide about 5-10 additional skill points that can be freely distributed and respec. The only limitation I would impose on the skill tomes (besides the number of skill points you could gain from them) would be that they can’t be placed into skills that you haven’t yet learned; in other words, you can’t use them to learn new skills.
Yeah, you are right, I was mistaken on what was permanent and what was respec-able. You can (in the demo anyway) respec the talent tree, but not the skills.
I agree with most of what you said. I get where they are coming from with making skill choices permanent, and I assume you can probably get tomes with enough play to max out all your skills. On one hand, this is a turn-off to me, as Diablo is about building your character a certain way. On the other hand, If you allow respecs at all, and you can only have so many skills equipped at a time anyway, I guess I don’t see too much wrong with that. As long as you can level skills and have choice as you progress, that is the biggest thing for me.
More importantly is the Talent Tree, which must be complex enough to require some thought and tough but rewarding decisions. I am not asking for it to be Path of Exile level complex. I don’t even want that. That result sin hundreds of minute choices that add up to something bigger. Not bad, but I prefer each point making a difference that is substantial. The talent tree in my mind, should be like the DNA of your character. So while you and I may both have Sorceresses, and we are both max level with all the tomes, meaning we both have all the ice skills, you chose to go with a talent tree that supports fire over ice, and I chose ice, so I will always be better at ice than you are, and you at fire than I am. That is of course an oversimplification of what I hope to see, but you get the idea. It could even be that we are both ice, but my talent tree not only buffs ice, but also buffs the area of effect or something, since I am doing frost nova as my main skill.
Anyway, those are just examples. In the end, the skills/talents need to accomplish the following things.
The main thing I’m hoping to see from the talent tree is for there to be some commitment.
The one thing I feel D3 is really missing is commitment, with the armoury system basically being the antithesis of what I think an RPG should involve.
I really hope that there is an element of commitment to respec the talents. There is still flexibility with ability selection and items but I don’t want the optimal gameplay to be that you just respec before every dungeon and target your build for the individual bits of content.
I would really like for the characters to have differences that are not just cosmetic and gear, so it’s important that the talents give us some good customisation.
If I recall David Kim said that you can respec the tree. 
I would rather have difficult choices to make, with killer options to pick from.
What’s preventing you as a player from making that commitment?
Meta!
People in parties always want the best possible player/build so they can go through content faster and more efficiently, because they don’t know what RolePlayingGame means. It means you should be free to choose whatever your character is. But when others tell you to change what you are, you are not playing your role anymore; you’re just becoming a sidekick in someone else’s story.
Talent trees are good, when they focus on expanding a character’s talent/skills.
For instance, PoE has such a convoluted and boring talent tree because it has a lot of useless nodes like +10 stat, 20% dmg, 25% crit chance, etc.
Stats like those are boring and they don’t contribute to further developing a character’s talent in his specific art. If they actually got rid of all that useless nonsense, the tree would be much more interesting to look at and easy to understand, because you’d instantly figure out all the major and meaningful choices there are and which way you want to go.
It’s the reason they changed the talents in WOW from CATA style to MoP version. They only made a mistake of making it too small and insignificant by focusing on the worst aspect there is – allowing to change them for each boss battle. Again, not focusing on mmoRPG aspect of the game, but going the route of MOBA style, where you pick counters to certain situations.
Speed is king in D3, I hope the 4 “man” meta is dead in D4. I would also like to see build diversity. No more sites to tell us what the best build is, so everyone just uses the same cookie cutter build.
Point of clarification; you can respec Talents, but skills as I understand are permanent. HOWEVER, last I heard there were “Tomes of Skill” that could drop that added 1 skill point, and it was theoretically possible to max every skill with enough time invested.
Personally, that sounds like a good compromise. There is investment in characters, but you can try new talents.