The skill twig is definitely a bad joke. At least there also is the paragon boards however.
So the respec really wonât matter that much then. Since as long as you throw together a somewhat thought out build, you should be able to complete the content. Which should allow you to use what skills you want. If they balance as you say, then you shouldnât have to worry about the meta unless you wanna play efficient. Which is true even in a free respec system, if you wanna play efficient, you play the meta.
Really the only thing impacting your skill choices in terms of what they can do is just the items. 
That would be accurate if their reason for wanting free respec was to be able to fix a build that is failing.
The reasons given have not been that.
They have been things like:
- play variety ⌠simply changing the build youâre using in order to have fun instead of staying bored with the build and just playing something else ⌠similar to why we have different classes
- tinkering/experimenting ⌠some folks have fun simply testing things
- bad multiplayer build match-ups ⌠some builds suck when played with other builds due to a disparity in speed, skills that donât stack/overlap (shouts/curses/etc.), or just by their nature (thorns builds w/ minion builds)
To be fair it has been mentioned several times about being afraid of making âmistakesâ with regards to a build. Maybe not in this thread but certainly in the greater discussion.
In 2023 when every game has some QoL mechanism for you to switch spec and for Blizzard to not give us free respec, armory or load out, the only reason for it must be this:
No respec, armory or loadout â players have to make another character to play another spec â fill up the character slots â Blizzard sell character slots for money.
Bang! Cash shop on your face!
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You know I was thinking itâs also possible they didnât want players to be able to make mass adjustments to builds to compensate for whatever sigil is used on dungeons.
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This is done in M+ by exiting portals and swapping specs for bosses then getting summoend in. Raids also have people swap specs for bosses. You canât just stick with your spec that is optimized for AoE and expect to win at the high end. You must swap specs. Being more strict with respecs would allow Blizzard to balance the game more loosely. Maybe not all specs would be able to complete because some specs will just be crap or wrong, but a healthy medium could be found. Some specs will be OP and can be nerfed to be more in line with that medium.
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One thing people are hoping for is that this game provides a challenging experience. Thus the game will have to have more of a balance at the end game than other titles. No Diablo 2 isnât hard it is piss easy in fact. In Diablo 3 even some classes couldnât clear as hard of rifts as other classes and it was perfectly fine. There was a pretty wide variance on the builds that did well on trash vs did well on bosses also. That same variance will hold true here.
The very first rule when implementing anything should be, does this add positively anything to the game experience (is it fun). If the answer is no, it is either not necessary or more than likely fundamentally flawed idea. Farming Gold is not a âfunâ task by itself. As a byproduct of playing the game, it is a benefit.
Leveling your character is essentially a lengthy tutorial and allows you to experience new content. Subsequent characters, it starts to lose its novelty, especially when you level a character of the same class. We all know here that charcters will be power leveled. They will be twinked. They will bypass content and skip everything after the first play through just to get to end game. The idea that leveling a character of the same class to change your build is completely antiquated and does not pass the first rule of game design.
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People do it, but its not mandatory to complete content - I have friends in mythic guilds that do mythic content but donât enforce respecs.
And, in fact, in watching the recent mythic+ contests none of them had teams do that.(For clarity I mean specifically none of them had teams swap specs mid-dungeoen) So its not necessary at the top end of mythic+ competition, which means it isnât MANDATORY and thus content isnât BALANCED around it. Similarly, I have friends who have completed mythic dungeons around the same difficulty as those completed during those competitions(admittedly slower and with more preparation) who did so with their standard specs.
Again: There is a difference between âwhat the top 1% are willing to doâ and âwhat the game is balanced aroundâ. The devs donât balance assuming people will do that, instead allowing people who do that to feel clever at finding a way to take advantage of the gameâs mechanics to get a tiny bit of extra efficiency out of the game.
That is fair. I believe in another thread I did voice that that is beneficial to me when playing games with my wife and/or kids. When they can respec without cost, there is no âHubs/Dad, help, it costs something every time I mess up so I donât want to mess upâ.
While this is possible ⌠it is speculation and should be treated as no more than that.
I think we are all aware that if it did happen that it would likely be poorly received by the playerbase.
Maybe. I did have that thought when they showed what some of the nightmare dungeon sigil modifiers were.
I will be very curious to see how end-game is right after launch and the tweaks they make in response to how players hit end-game.
Wait, despite D3âs free respecs, youâre saying we had âa pretty wide variance on the builds that did well on trash vs did well on bosses also.â That seems to fly in the face of previous claims ⌠though maybe they werenât yours. Hard to track after ~4 weeks 
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This isnât a thing outside one specific boss which is largely due to wanting two dispels and the easiest way being to double heal since the tuning of that timer is so light. Itâs also only a thing because the dungeon entrance is only 10 feet from the final boss room.
Wait but you can free respec in D3 shouldnât that mean that blizzard super tightly tuned content so that the best specs can all clear similar amounts? Isnât that one of your claims itâs hard to keep track now.
Which M+ contest was it? The push or the one where they do like 18s to get the fastest times? The speedruns wouldnât respec. The push might have a rule of no respeccing either I donât watch them to know all of the rules. Just because you donât respec doesnât mean that the encounters arenât balanced for it. If you arenât pushing the top then respeccing isnât necessary, but it is at the top. Your friend that is Mythic raiding is doing it with higher level gear than the content is balanced for I 100% guarantee it. That would be the reason why they wouldnât need to respec.
Yes and until this current season only certain specs could clear the content at the highest level. Specs that geared for trash would hit walls where they couldnât kill the bosses. Specs that were geared towards bosses may not be able to make the timer to get to the boss.
I donât play DF since they cut a bunch of content out of the game leaving less to do overall. Wasnât going to pay the same for less content. It was more prevalent in SL, but maybe it isnât in DF. At the top end it is very beneficial though and only takes a second if you have a Warlock.
Itâs really not a thing thatâs done at all outside of one specific boss
Blizz balanced to the point that each spec could complete the seasonal achieves they donât care beyond that just like in wow where they only care about maintaining a minimum performance threshold and overperforming is general ignored unless itâs to a beyond broken level.
I donât buy that this happens or would but to each their own.
Not to mention after seasons is launched. âMeatierâ is not a very descriptive word in this instance.
Yes, it gives weight to skill choices. 
It also stikes a good balance between the harder to respec D2 and the too easy to respec D3